Where the Horses Run

A hardened cowboy finds love across the Atlantic in Warner’s second Heroes of Heartbreak Creek novel (after Behind His Blue Eyes). In 1871 Texas, former Deputy U.S. Marshal Rafe Jessup agrees to accompany Angus “Ash” Wallace, Earl of Kirkwell, to Scotland to buy thoroughbred horses. En route, Rafe meets Miss Josephine Cathcart and her father, whose coal mines are in desperate need of funds. After arriving at the Cathcart estate to see their horses, Rafe helps train her stallion, Pembroke’s Pride, to overcome his fear of water. As Rafe becomes enamored of Josephine and her quiet beauty, he worries that he lacks the means to provide a stable future for her and her illegitimate young son, Jamie. But when Jamie’s father, Baron Adderly, finally offers to marry Josephine, Rafe realizes he can’t let her go. Warner’s transatlantic story is rich with character development, and emotion suffuses the tender romance between the privileged yet resilient Englishwoman and the tough American horse trainer. (July)