The Misjudged Romantic

The Misjudged Romantic is a spinoff story from The Secrets of Nine Irish Sons. Throughout the trilogy, mystery surrounds the strikingly good looking, black-eyed Gabriel O'Malley. No one knows he was born to an unwed mother who died in childbirth in Dublin. At 17, he sees the gorgeous and rich Madeline O'Meaera McStanish standing at a train depot, and he falls madly in love. When rejected by her, he joins the seminary, but fate sends him to her home where she seduces him. He leaves the priesthood to work for her organization that seeks out evil men who torture women in the name of religion. As he travels the globe freeing enslaved women, he morphs into a fierce taskmaster. Together they have a son, Patrick.

When Maureen Agnes O’Brien meets Gabriel, she is determined to marry him. Despite his obsession with Madeline, she is hell-bent on winning him over. She spends all her resources reinventing herself, believing that by becoming as sensual as possible, he will forget his first love.

Ironically, the bastard son Patrick resembles Agnes in looks and temperament. He adores his new mother and she adores the boy. She convinces him that he must follow in his father’s footsteps and save the world from villains. Patrick immediately begins to imitate his father’s fierce scholarly habits, his physical discipline, and his cold distant demeanor. He dismisses everyone except his mother and father.

Agnes loves Patrick’s independence and nurtures his voracious courage with praise and total loyalty even over her own children. She also believes that her husband’s insatiable love for one woman kept him from true greatness. Consequently, she rears Patrick to rise above his heroic father, and be the love of any and all unloved women he finds on his road to greatness.