Blood Trail: Fannin County, Texas

Blood Trail is the first of three books in the Fannin County, Texas series. It is 1836, and the final days of the war with Mexico when Dylan Ryan decides to lose himself in the vastness of Texas, lured by the promise of free land now that Mexican soldiers no longer guard the border. On the road, Dylan befriends an older man with a dark past, wounded by outlaws who are hungry for gold and convinced Mort Lems knows the location of an old trail where a fortune in bullion is buried. To elude the outlaws, Dylan and Mort join a small wagon train to blend in with families headed up the Red River Trail. Young Abigail Waverly is among them, the wife of a much older man who has abandoned her to seek personal glory at the last battle of the war. Alone and afraid, Abigail tries to gain Dylan's sympathy and protection from rough men who would take advantage of her. It doesn't take long for Dylan to become smitten with the married woman. Faced with a difficult choice, Dylan must choose between searching for the elusive gold, or following his heart and pursuing the woman, who according to propriety, is out of his reach. The choice he makes will decide his future.
Blood Trail is a fictional representation of early settlement life along the Red River. It was a time when good people and those running from their past came together to settle land and fight against Indians who felt that same land belonged to them.