Disclaimer: Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles or any of the characters depicted from the show do not belong to me. No infringement intended and no profit will be made from their use.

Synopsis: This is the story of two different families and how they become an integral part of the development of the Southwest starting in the 1830's and into the Twentieth Century. Rated M, because of history is not always pleasant and change is always violent. Oh, and the sex. Yes to Rizzles.

Two for Texas

Chapter 1: In the Beginning.

She was born on March 4, 1836 on a ranch outside of Wilson, Texas. Wilson was in Orange County in eastern Texas. Her father and mother were Italian emigrants from Milan, Italy. He was a cobbler and she was a cook. They had emigrated to American some five years earlier through the port of New Orleans. Francesco Rizzoli got a job working as a cobbler in the Texas Territory of Mexico in 1833 and moved to a Plantation near Austin, Texas. His wife Angela was hired as kitchen staff.

For three years, the couple saved every cent they could. Angela would make dresses and sew lace for extra money. Francesco would make shoes for sale and trade in town. Finally in 1834, they saved enough money to buy a small horse ranch. The ranch was 142 acres and had fourteen mares and a fine stallion.

By the start of 1835, the ranch had grown to thirty-seven mares, seven geldings and two stallions. Francesco still traded boots and shoes for stock and other items to improve his ranch. He had even started making enough money to hire an experienced horse wrangler named Vincent Korsak. Mustang Korsak was known for his ability to capture and break wild horse.

By the end of February, they were planning on going to the Rio Grande area to capture a herd of wild horses, which would surely double their herd. However, in April, came the news of the Texas Rebellion against Santa Ana.

Francesco had no quarrel with the Mexican Government. He believed in the word of law and refused participation. However, the new Texas Army needed horses. So, Sam Houston, himself, came to beg Francesco and Korsak to join the cause by training and breaking horses for the Army of the Republic of Texas. This personal touch move the new Texan. So Francesco and Korsak left with their horses to join Sam Houston in July of 1835.

Angela who was pregnant for the third time and had not told her husband. She had lost the two previous children before they were two days old. So as not to worry him, she kept it a secret. He was gone for almost a year.

With no money coming in, Angela was forced to live off her small vegetable garden and her couple dozen chickens. By January of 1836, Angela was forced to stay with neighbors. Her pregnancy was weighing on her and she could not stay alone any longer.

Those were hard days and when word came that Santa Ana had surrounded the Alamo, she fretted constantly over where her husband was. She just knew he was in the Alamo. However, nothing could be further from the truth.

Francesco and Korsak were in Western Texas rounding up wild horses. In four weeks of work they had captured over two horses and were breaking them for the trip home. They wouldn't find out about the Alamo and the pregnancy until they arrived back, four days after Santa Ana's surrender.

Her baby girl Jane Clementine Rizzoli was two days old when news of the fall of the Alamo came. She was forty-seven days old when Santa Ana surrendered and the War for Independence was over. Jane was eighty-eighty days old when her father saw her for the first time.

One good thing came from her father's absence; he and Korsak had gotten to keep the captured West Texas herd. When Papa Rizzoli got home, he was tortured by the sight of his ranch and his wife. Angela. Like most Italian women, she tended toward being heavy. When he got home, he found a slight thin woman, who had obviously struggled with putting food on the table. He would never forgive himself.

He took twenty horses and went to town. He came back with a wagon load of supplies, four pigs (one boar and three sows), ten cows, a bull and four bolts of dress cloth. Then he proceeded to build a pig pen and smoke house. His family would never go hungry again.

He had wanted a son to grow up to help with the ranch, but upon seeing his daughter's chubby face, he was hooked. She would be his favorite for the rest of his life.

Life was not easy in east Texas in those days. Indians still raided and rustlers were a constant problem. Francesco hired two cowboys to show him how to raise cattle. First thing he learned was that his ranch was too small. He needed more grazing land. He remembered the vast and wild lands of the West Texas, where he and Korsak had captured the herd. So he sent Korsak to scout the area around a new boom town called Dallas and find a place for a large cattle ranch.

Land titles in the 1830's were sketchy even in the settled areas. But in the wilds of Western Texas, they were non-existent. You took land and held it by force of will and your ability to tame it. There were Indians, wild animals and other men willing to kill to take what you had. Additionally, Western Texas was still disputed land and mostly controlled by Mexico. It was in West Texas, Francesco became Big Frank Rizzoli, cattleman.

Francesco Rizzoli became Big Frank Rizzoli in November of 1837. He had always been a big man, who could handle himself. But four days before Thanksgiving, Francesco Rizzoli was buying supplies for the holiday. He went to town with his wife and child.

Jane was 19 months old and a wild chubby toddler with long legs and chocolate eyes. She had learned to walk by 11 months and to run, though awkwardly, by 14 months. Angela was forever chasing after her daughter, many times with the youngster totally naked.

She turned her back for one moment in the store to examine some corn and Jane was out the door. Jane ran into a burly man, with filthy clothes, bad teeth and a worse attitude. He picked up the child and started tossing her in the air.

He tossed her higher and higher, while laughing at the sight. At first Jane loved the attention, but the height was starting to scare her. So she did the one thing she could do to defend herself, she urinated on the man.

Though she was wearing her underwear, the thin cotton cloth couldn't contain the flow. The brute got a face full. He howled in rage and started to throw the crying child. At which point her father appeared, with his Ballard rifle in hand and leveled at the man. He said quietly, "Put her down gently."

Though he said the words softly, there was no mistaking the implication. The man was violent, not stupid. With great care and while watching the rifle pointed at him, he put down the toddler. Once on the ground she bolted to her nearly hysterical mother.

Francesco was trembling with anger. Who would treat a baby with such malice? He leaned his rifle against the wall and walked up to the bully and backhanded him across the face. Hard work had made Francesco strong and hard. His blow caused the stranger's knees to buckle.

At this point his two brothers came out of the saloon two buildings down. They had had a few and saw a man strike their brother. They ran toward the two brawling men.

Francesco saw two men charging out of the corner of his eye. He didn't have any friends in town, so they could only be enemies. Francesco pushed his opponent over a hitching rail and turn to meet his two new opponents.

Reaching out his two arms, he dove at the two charging men and clothes lined them. His arms were board and muscled by years of work and the two brothers fell like two rotten oaks. One of the brothers was gasping for air and the other's head hit the harden ground, knocking him out cold.

The big rancher turned to his original foe, who was slowly getting up on wobbly legs. At that moment Big Frank was born. Francesco grabbed the woozy bully and lifted him over his head, like he had done with two hundred pound sacks his whole life. Then he hurled the flailing man twenty feet into the street.

The crowd that had formed cheered. The three brothers had been raising hell in town for three weeks and it was time someone had put them in their place. None of the brothers were getting up anytime soon, they had had enough.

Several of the townsmen were patting the embarrassed father, who was not used to attention. Thanking everyone, he struggled through the crowd to get to his family. Angela was beaming with pride and holding a damp towel for her husband to clean himself up. One of the townsmen asked, "What's your name, pard?"

He answered proudly, "Francesco Rizzoli."

And the man clapped him on the back and exclaimed, "Well, Frank, let me buy you a drink. Those brothers have been breaking up my saloon for weeks. You earned a drink. Hell, after that fight, the first drink is on me, everybody."

Everyone cheered. And Big Frank, as he would be known from this moment forward, couldn't buy a drink that night. After downing several shots of coarse rye whiskey, he had to excuse himself from the party. His family was waiting.

After the big fight and some hard liquor, Big Frank was in no shape to drive home. So, Angela decided that they would stay overnight in town. Besides, Frank needed two new hands, who could handle wild stock. He and Korsak planned to round up brush cattle. A lot of cattle escaped into the wild brush of West Texas and New Mexico from Mexico and drifted north. The escaped cattle would have calves and soon a major herd of cattle was available for those who wanted to do the work of rounding them up.

While at the saloon, he had put out the word, he needed two hands, who knew wild cattle. He announced the need to the hotel clerk, as well. While eating dinner in the hotel, the three men, who had been beaten by him, came to his table with their hats in their hands and said, "Mr. Rizzoli, sir, we heared from the hotel clerk, you're alookin' for some hands. Me and my brothers be huntin' work. Iffin you can forget our rowl, we could sure use the jobs."

Big Frank needed only two hands, but three was better. "Boys, our little disagreement is past. Hell, what's a little fighting between real men. I pay $8 dollars a month in silver and found. If you prove to be a top hand, I'll raise it to $10. Do we have a deal?"

The three men smiled and replied excitedly, "You got you three good hands, sir."

"Do you boys need any eating money," asked the big rancher.

The three hands shuffled their feet, too embarrassed to answer. Frank Rizzoli knew the feeling. So, he took out three silver dollars and put them on the table. The biggest one scooped up the money and said, "Mr. Rizzoli, my name is Adam Wakefield. These are my brothers Benjamin and Cane."

"Well, Adam, meet us at first light at the water tower. We'll be leaving for my place then."

Three men scanned the room and moved to an empty table to have dinner. Angela spooned her young daughter some stewed apples and softened vegetables.

The new ranch was not as ready as Big Frank had hoped. The house was in need of major repairs and the bunkhouse needed a new roof and some beds. Luckily Cain Whitfield was an excellent carpenter. He directed the repairs on the house and bunkhouse, while personally building new beds for the bunkhouse.

The beds were simple rope beds. The mattresses were made by stuffing feathers into large cloth sacks and then sewing them up. It was not the best mattresses, but they would serve for winter was coming fast.

Winter was a real fear. It was only a few weeks away and the house repairs were still unstarted. Late fall in this area of West Texas was harsh. The area was rich in grass and brush, but trees were a different matter. The area was nearly devoid of trees.

The grass, mainly alfalfa and oats, which had been allowed to grow wildly, was browning now and had to harvested and baled to feed the stock during the winter months, which could be anywhere from mild and pleasant to harsh with inches of snow. Though the days were pleasant, the nights were cold and bitter. The wind was most from the west and north in November and therefore very dry with little to no rainfall.

This ranch had been abandoned three years earlier. The Mexican family that owned it returned south, unable to deal with the isolation and the Indians. For three years, nothing had been done to curb nature. And nature does not like dead things just lying around. She will try to eat those dead things so they can be reborn as living breathing plants for her animals to eat.

So for two weeks, Angela and a young Spanish girl they had hired, named Maria Sanchez, cut and baled the grass that had tried to grow throughout the clearing of the house and outbuildings. The barn itself was filled with wild oats, which had to harvest and the roots dug up and destroyed.

The men finished the bunkhouse first. It was large enough for everyone to live and had two fireplaces, so it was easily heated. Angela and Maria cooked in one fireplace, but baked in an outdoor kiln. Angela and Maria spent hours just making the yeast and pearl ash needed to bake bread. Each day the pair would clean out the kiln and fireplaces and fill the ash bins, there were six, two by the house, two by the barn and two by the bunkhouse.

Ash was needed for many things, like making pearlash for rising cakes and bread. Nothing was really wasted in 1830, garbage was nearly non-existent. The fat from animals was scraped away and put in their intestines, which created long tubes of fat. The fat could be used to make lard or enrich soups. The bones were drained of marrow, which also was used to enrich soups. The bones themselves were saved to burn in winter; as the sparse trees could not be counted on to provide wood to burn in the cold winter months. The hides were dried and stretched. Some pelts would keep their fur to make heavy coats and others would be scraped to make leather.

When the brush was cleared, the large trunk of the brush was used for fire wood and the small branches used for kindling, while the leaves of many of these bushes were mixed in with slop for the pigs.

One of the men went hunting every day. Except for Cain, who was always busy with rebuilding all the out-buildings. The men took turns shooting game and bringing home the carcass to be processed by the women. This wasn't mere male pride, but practicality. The men had to finish the buildings, so it was up to the women to store the needed food for winter and make the fur coats. The most important job was to make the vital leather needed to keep everything going.

Clothing, saddles, harnesses, bridles, bits, lashing, boots, shoes, gloves were all made from leather. Nails were in short supply, so most of the fencing for the corral and pig pen was lashed together. Notches were cut in the fence posts and cross logs and fitted together and lashed. These lashes had to be checked and changed several times a year or the rotted lashes would break and the fence would collapse.

All and all, everyone worked from just before dawn to the early evening hours. Everyone was constantly working, except the guard on duty. There was a windmill used to pump water from the well. It was the first thing Cain repaired. Yet it served another purpose. From its height you could see all the surrounding area. A man was always stationed on the windmill with two rifles, a pistol, a bow and arrow and extra shot. His job was to warn everyone of an Indian attack and to keep the attackers at bay long enough for everyone, except himself and Maria, to get to the bunkhouse.

It was Maria's job to climb the windmill and get to the guard so she could reload his weapons as he used them. It was a dangerous job, but a necessary one. Angela would have to reload for the four men in the bunkhouse. Additionally, she was the doctor. During a battle, she would keep a fire going in the fireplace with the poking iron in the flames to get it red hot. If someone was injured, she would remove any foreign object, like an arrowhead or musket ball, and cauterize the wound with the hot iron. After the battle the wound would be cleaned with hot water, treated with lard and bandaged.

Toddler Jane's days were filled with loneliness. She was too young to do much to help. She didn't have the manual dexterity or strength to help. Her days were spent inside the bunkhouse playing with her homemade doll and an old shoe with which she liked to pound the floor. The fireplaces were bank and smoldering and provided little light.

Glass was rare in this country, so the windows were shuttered and barred against the elements. The only light in the room came from the cross slates in the shutters and from the glow of the banked embers of the fireplace.

Four of the beds were turned on their sides and squared together to make her play area. She could crawl out between the beds, but was punished by her mother when she did so. So, she learned to stay in the play area. Her mother would check on her daughter every hour or so. There was a pot for young Jane to use for her toilet, which her mother checked, emptied and cleaned with each visit.

Jane's world was dark and lonely. She would have loved to go with the others, but it was not safe for a toddler. So, she was settled in her prison with a pail of water and some slices of cake or plate of cookies.

It was the middle of December that toddler Jane had her first brush with death. The sealed room kept out the large animals, but did little to keep out rodents and reptiles. That was the job of the two large house cats that the Rizzoli's kept. The cats were named Romulus and Remus. They were two large five year old black and gray cats. The felines would roam the house looking for intruders and they didn't need to be fed much beyond what they caught.

One day, while Romulus was in the loft ferreting out a pesty squirrel and Remus was under a dresser finishing a mouse, a snake slithered into the house through a break in flooring. Cain was going to work on the spot, when he got the chance, but a loose floor board was a minor thing, when barns needed rebuilding and the main house was still leaking when it rained.

The four foot rattler slithered into the house looking for warmth and was startled by the appearance of Remus from under the dresser. The cat hissed and the rattler hissed back. Not really looking from a confrontation, the rattler snaked quickly away from the pursuing cat. In the rattler's path was Jane's play area. The snake was quickly through the opening between the beds and encountered the startled child.

The rattler coiled to strike and Remus would not be in time, but Little Jane was always one to take action. This trait would mark her entire life. Picking up her father's old shoe, she bashed the striking snake. The snake managed to avoid most of the attack, but the shoe did graze its head, dazing it for a moment. The snake readied to strike again, but Remus came crashing into the area and leapt into the fray. The cat had bit into the back of the snake, right below the head. The wound was not fatal and snake was coiling around the cat to crush him. But Jane was not finished. She knew she was in danger and her instinct told her to act. So the young child smashed the rattler's head. For good measure, she smashed the head four more times.

Minutes later Angela came in to check her child, when she found the dead snake being consumed by the two cats. Quickly, she grabbed her child, who said over and over, "I go boom and boom and boom."

Angela rushed out to get Frank. Frank came into the large room to find out what happened. From the smashed snake head and the bloody shoe, he came to a quick conclusion. His daughter had somehow killed the large rattler. Back trailing the snake's slime trail, he found the loose floor board. Using one of the precious nails, he hammered down the board. He would have Cain go over every inch of the bunkhouse to insure his daughter's safety.

The proud father took his daughter from her mother's hands and lifted her into the air and shouted, "Janie, you boomed the snake, huh?"

The child laughed and squealed, savoring the unusual attention. For several days after either Maria or Angela check the child every few minutes. But the attention only lasted five days and soon everyone was back to their normal routine. Except for one of the barn cats, who was brought into the bunkhouse. Her name was Marlene.

Patrick Michael Doyle owned a small inn in Ronce in Western France near the city of Rochefort, but that was not where Doyle made most of his fortune. Most of his fortune was made as a smuggler. In 1798, his father, a leading member of the Society United Irishmen, led a company of men at Carlow. He was wounded and forced to go into hiding. When the exile occurred in 1802, the newly name Robert Bruce Doyle sailed to France.

In 1803, Robert joined the Irish Legion to become part of Napoleon's invasion of Ireland. In 1805, the Irish Legion raised its own battle flag and was ready to fight for their homeland. However, the defeat of the French Fleet at Trafalgar forced an end to that invasion and Captain Doyle of the Irish legion spends the next 6 years on garrison duty near Bordeaux.

It was there he met Margarie Lateur, an inn keeper's daughter from Ronce a small fishing village south of Rochefort. The innkeeper needed the garrison to look the other way when his shipments enter the bay four miles from the Rochefort harbor. They were married on September 14, 1806. The father's first shipment arrived on September 15th. By October, Margarie was pregnant. On July 3, 1807, Patrick Doyle was born. On July 6th, his mother died.

With a wet nurse and a housekeeper, Patrick grew. His father had little attention to pay the child. He was constantly fighting off English raiders, trying to gain a foothold in France. Rochefort was one of the major ports in France and one of the furthest from Paris. His garrison of only 600 Irishmen and forty cannon was barely enough to do the job.

On March 18, 1807, a British ship of the line landed 200 marines and sailors south of Rochefort near Ronce in a raid of coastal positions of cannon. This was an attempt to soften the defenses of the town in order to invade the main city. Captain Doyle received word of the attempt from his father-in-law and personally met the invaders. He cutoff the majority of them from their boats, including their Captain Leland McGregor. Without any ships to capture it, the British 120-gunner got away.

To taunt the ship into coming back, Doyle hung one hundred sailors and marines, including their captain. The ship returned and fired its cannon on the town for two days. Captain Doyle sent a rider to his general telling him of the under-crewed British ship. However, the ship retreated before the French fleet could arrive.

From that moment forward, the four frigate fleet remained in Rochefort. Napoleon was ecstatic over the defeat of the British at Bordeaux. Though no real damage was done to the English, it was a welcome victory after so many defeats at the hands of the English Navy. Doyle was called to Paris, where he received a gold medal and 100 golden Napoleons.

Doyle returned to Rochefort a French hero. His father-in-law took the money and made Doyle a partner in his inn and other activities. With capital to work with, Lateur soon had a network of smugglers throughout Western France.

In 1808, the Irish were all formed into a regiment and sent to Spain in what was to be known as the "The Peninsular War." Napoleon himself promoted Doyle to Colonel. Colonel Doyle was given command of the Irish cannon. His cannon were instrumental in the conquest of Madrid following the Dos de Mayo Uprising. At the Siege of Astorgia, the Irish regiment led the charge into the city.

In 1811, while serving as part of Masséna's Army of Portugal, Colonel Robert Bruce Doyle lost a leg below the knee cap and the sight in his left eye. He was pensioned out and moved back to Ronce. With the loot, he had amassed from cities and villages, his troops had ransacked, Robert Doyle secretly formed a group of wounded Irish veterans. This group edged out their French competition. His father-in-law never expected the knife that killed him.

By 1813, Doyle saw the handwriting on the wall and started smuggling in minor French nobles, who had been exiled to England and America. He knew it was only a matter of time before Napoleon fell and he wanted to be on the winning side. So the man that hung a British Sea Captain smuggled in a British Colonel and his command. On March 11, 1813, the British contingent along with French Loyalist captured the port of Rochefort.

With Napoleon fighting in Austria against the alliance of German states could not afford the troops to recapture the city. He planned to defeat the alliance and then retake several cities that the British had captured. One year later, Napoleon I was forced to sign the Treaty of Chaumont and he was exiled to the Island of Elba.

When the Bourbon monarchy was reestablished, the nobles smuggled into France by Doyle were more than happy to look the other way at his activities, as long as they profited by those activities. And profit they did.

The rule of the Louis XVIII was very profitable. Between the Royalist and the Liberals, business for smart smugglers was premium. As long as the money flowed to both sides, everyone was happy.

In 1824, two things happened Louis was replaced by Charles X and Robert Doyle was murdered. While tending the bar of his inn in Ronce, an English sailor shot and killed the murder of an English Sea Captain. His 17 year old son, Patrick personally knifed the man before he could escape.

Patrick had been one of his father's lieutenants for two years, but several older lieutenants felt they could do a better job. In early 1825, seven bodies of prominent Irish veterans were found floating in the waters around Ronce with their throats cut. No one disputed Patrick's claim to his father's business after that.

However, the reign of Charles X was very repressive. In his first act as King, Charles attempted to unify the House of Bourbon by granting his cousin of the House of Orléans the title of Royal Highness. The family had been deprived of the title by Louis XVIII, because of the former Duke of Orléans' role in the death of Louis XVI.

Charles's government passed a series of laws that bolstered the power of the nobility and clergy. Charles gave his Prime Minister, Jean-Baptiste de Villèle, lists of laws to be ratified every time parliament met. In April 1825, he gave nobles government bonds for those who had lost their lands, in exchange for their renunciation of their ownership. It cost the state approximately 988 million francs and forced taxes to be raised. In the same month, the Anti-Sacrilege Act was passed. Charles's government attempted to re-establish male only primogeniture for families paying over 300 francs in tax, but the measure was voted down in the Chamber of Deputies.

In order to pay the new taxes, tariffs were raised and smugglers were arrested and hung. Patrick was forced to stop all smuggling activity for two years. In late 1826, Patrick reestablished his ring of smugglers in a small way.

In 1830, Charles was deposed in favor of Louis-Phillippe. Charles had tried to usurp the power of the Chambers and become absolute monarch of France. The people immediately took to the streets and the Les Trois Glorieuses, the three glorious days, was born. Patrick and had planted many discontents in Paris and they were very vocal in the streets. They even hired some ex-soldiers to participate in the barricades.

Under Louis-Phillippe, the haute bourgeoisie, the high bourgeoisie, of bankers, financiers, industrialists and merchants flourished. One of which was Patrick Doyle. In 1837, the thirty year old purchased a vineyard and wine factory in Bordeaux. Though he kept his less reputable business, he was now respectable.

In that same year, Patrick met a young noble woman named Hope Martine. He was strong, handsome and roguish. Hope was young and infatuated. She was only 16 and bored. Her father was a member of the Chamber of Peers. So, when the young woman became pregnant, her father made her give the child to an English Baron named Fredrick and Constance Isles. Maura Dorthea Isles never touched her mother and was on a ship to England by March 12, 1838 at the age of eight days.

Baron Martine sent his daughter to his sister in Paris, where she became a renowned artist and married a wealthy count. Patrick Doyle found out about his daughter, only after her ship had sailed for England.

Fredrick was a former Sea Captain, who was knighted by King George III in 1804 for the sum of Ᵽ10,000; the sum of the King's gambling debt to Captain Isles. Isles was a notorious whist player and was always known for playing for high stakes. The King thought he was a great whist player and played high stakes.

Sir Fredrick had been a privateer, a very successful privateer. He, then, became involved the rum trade. He had three sugar cane plantations in the West Indies and a rum mill in Savannah, Georgia. His ships would take the sugar to Georgia, where it was turned to rum and brought to England for sale.

By 1820, he owned a fleet of twenty ships, with five more plantations and another rum mill in Louisiana. In fact, he was in Rochefort to purchase three old frigates from King Charles. Not only did he get his ships, but he also got a daughter. The Isles were childless and Fredrick had gotten typhus while at sea and could not have children after he recovered. In fact, he never fully recovered and was constantly plagued by illness and fatigue.

The trip to Port Talbot was very safe with Captain Isles's original three 32 gun frigates and the three 42 gun French frigates, no pirate or pirate group would dare to attack. This part of the Atlantic was calm and peaceful this time of year.

Port Talbot was not yet complete. The Talbot family was diverting River Afan to open their land to a dock, which was under construction. Captain Isles had agreed to dock at five of his ships and construct three warehouses on their dock area. The agreement was sealed by his marriage to a younger cousin.

Constance Isles was born a Talbot. She was a direct descendent of John Talbot, who fought valiantly at the Battle of Cressy in 1346. He had also noted dog breed and breed the first beagle. Christopher Talbot the head of the family owned an ironworks in the area and wanted a Port from which to transport his product faster to his customers. However, he had no ships. He had, however, several female cousins. In particular, a very beautiful third cousin named Constance, who was unwed at the age of 19.

Captain Fredrick Isles had many ships and the capital to get many more. He was unwed at the age of 56. So, a bargain was struck and many documents were signed. And the young Constance was married to a man 37 years her senior. She vowed this would never happen to her Maura.

Constance, now 21, doted on the child. Constance had had a very liberal education. She had even attended Salem College in Virginia, where she studied the Arts. Captain Isles encouraged her to continue her education by hiring a retired Oxford Professor as a tutor. William Benton Talbot was a distant relative of Constance, who retired to a small cottage in Bryn. The cottage was rented to him by Constance's father.

When young Constance had been recalled home from her Virginia College, she had been devastated. She came home sullen and cross. She was shrewish toward her new husband to be. So, to placate her and make her a bit more cooperative, her father convinced his cousin tenant to complete his daughter's education.

At first, the former college professor did not want to tutor a woman. He felt like most Oxford and Cambridge professors that education was wasted on women. But after talking to the bright if not brilliant woman, he decided to tutor her. One thing that Professor Talbot cherished over anything else was talent. He had two prize possessions, one was a third generation copy of Chaucer transcribed by Westminster Monks in 1325 and the other is a non-published original Marlowe play in his hand. He received these items from parents of students that showed talent, but were not reaching their potential. Professor Talbot got them to reach their potential.

Now, he was going to get Constance Isles to reach her full potential. What he didn't know was he was going to have an even more talented student in the near future.

The Isles employed a nanny and wet nurse in France by the name of Gina Deville. Gina was of mixed Italian and French descent. She was an intelligent and witty twenty year-old with two girls, Georgina, who was 3 and her newborn Bridgette. Her husband, Daniel O'Toole, was captured smuggling weapons into Ireland and sent to Newgate for twenty years. She was pretty lass with jet black hair and bright green eyes that turned to steel blue, when she was angry. She had a dark olive complexion and a very petite figure, despite having two children. Maura took an instant liking to her, but maybe that was because she was hungry.

Professor Talbot did not make the trip, which resulted in the adoption of Maura Isles. He had been preparing his new quarters and classroom in the Isles mansion in Swansea.

Swansea was headquarters of Isles Trade and Shipping Company, as well as the majority of the Isles fleet, which now consisted of 25 frigates, 5 merchant traders, 6 brigs, 10 schooners and 4 galleons, which he using only in home waters to transport goods from Wales to Dover, London, York, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

The new family arrived at Port Talbot on April 4, 1838. One month old Maura was introduced to her Talbot cousins. They all adored the obviously beautiful baby with blonde hair and hazel eyes. Constance was in heaven. She had never been welcomed more by her family. Furthermore, Constance was being accepted and praised.

The real purpose of this stop was not to show off the new baby, but it was business. Captain Isles was here to finalize the purchase of the land on which he would build his warehouses. He had contracted to build three warehouses, but was actually planning on building five. He would store the steel for shipping. He had already lined up buyers in London, Glasgow and Edinburgh. Additionally, he had foreign buyers in France and Germany. He would ship to those customers from Dover to Pas de Calais.

Christopher Talbot was insistent on a firm date of when the ships would arrive. Fredrick assured his cousin that four galleons and a frigate would arrive in two weeks to take the first shipments. Though the docks were not complete, they were finished enough to load ships for shipment from the ironworks.

Christopher Talbot was also a liberal Member of Parliament. So, Sir Isles was looking for influence so he could made Lord; He had been giving gifts to influential members for months. Now, he would be getting an audience with Queen Victoria on June 3rd to present his case, which meant a sum to help Victoria with one of her pet projects. He, also, asked for political backing to get the harbor at Swansea deepened. Lastly, he also obtained financing for the building of five new clipper ships on condition that they will be docked at Port Talbot for five years.

Satisfied with his stop, Sir Isles decided to leave for Swansea on May 16. He would adequate time to get his family to London by June 3rd. He really needed that Lordship. All his plans lay in his getting into the House of Lords.

Sir Isles sailed into London harbor with his family and four frigates and two brigs. He was carrying a Ᵽ25,000 worth of silver nuggets, which he had had mined from a claim he acquired near El Paso, Texas. The claim came from a Mexican Rancher. Now, that Texas was an independent state, he needed British influence to insure his claim remain his.

Some very fine gold had been found in the raw silver ore. For every three pounds of silver being found, only one ounce of gold was being mined. At last count, the silver output was approximately 300 pounds a week. The silver and gold are milled and smelted in New Orleans and shipped to Swansea with a rum cargo.

The Isles would reside in a sixteen room manor constructed using classical Roman architecture between the Ladbroke and Norland estates. The three Isles were accompanied by Gina and her two daughters, Professor Talbot, Captain Isles's coxswain, Martin Tinsmith, Constance's handmaid, Melissa Tinsmith, the cook, Mistress Moore, Christopher's daughter and heir, Emily and her maid and cousin Hillary Talbot Grant. The household staff consisted of a gardener and his helper, two scullery maids, two kitchen maids, a butler and his assistant and six bullyboys as guards.

Gina and her daughters were assigned the bedroom off the nursery, the Isles got the master bedroom, Emily and Hillary had two adjoining rooms across from the master suite, Professor Talbot had the small bedroom off the library, where he would tutor Constance, while Fredrick and Emily were off on business and Coxswain Tinsmith and his daughter Melissa shared the servant's quarters with the permanent staff.

What was to be a two week stay, turned into a six month stay, as each audience with the Queen was rescheduled and rescheduled again and again.

Fredrick and Emily filled their days selling steel and wrought iron throughout the London area. With orders that would take two years to fulfill, Emily went home to Port Talbot to arrange for the steel and wrought iron to be loaded on Isles ships. Fredrick sent instructions with his coxswain to his assistant in Swansea. His daughter Melissa stayed.

Melissa was an intelligent girl and spent many hours in study with Constance and Professor Talbot. The professor was a lifelong bachelor. He was now nearly 50 and receiving a small pension. He would dearly love to still be teaching at Oxford, but he was a poor politician and with few friends in academia to help him, he was forced out by others who coveted his position.

However, the Professor was smitten with the 22 year old Melissa. Melissa was as fair and innocent as her father was dark and menacing. She had long blonde curls and bright blue eyes. Her face was of classic beauty and her figure was full and ripe. The truth was she could have married several time, but they always seemed to shy away when they met her father.

Constance knew before either of them that they were in love. But she knew Coxswain Tinsmith. No man was good enough for his daughter, so Mrs. Isles bided her time and looked for an opening to approach the matter with her husband.

So Constance and her entourage, consisting of the Professor, Melissa and two bullyboys toured London. They went to museums, the opera, the theater and the shops. Sometimes, Maura and Gina would accompany them to the shops, where Constance would dote on her daughter with new dresses and toys. Maura was a charming diversion to be taken off the shelf and played with and then put back on the shelf.

Fredrick on the other hand doted on his daughter with his affections. He would spend all his off hours playing with the young girl. She laughed whenever she would see him. Constance never forgave Maura for when she was five months old she spoke her first word, "Fada."

Other firsts for Maura happened in London during their stay. Her first step was taken just short of her eighth birth month. By her tenth month, she was toddling along on two legs at a good clip. By the time they departed London, she had an extraordinary vocabulary for a child short of one year.

Her father was amazed and proud of his child. He would often entertain his frequent guests with her advanced abilities. His clients and friends would marvel at her abilities. Constance, for her part, reveled in her daughter's beauty. Though most babies tended toward a chubby frame, Maura was a willow wand. Her legs did not bow as much as Bridget and her daughter had long beautiful blonde curls, which she refused to have cut.

Each night, Constance would brush her daughter's golden locks, one hundred strokes with Fredrick locking on with a smile. He would have been a content man, if only the Queen would stop stalling. He was considering his next move, when things finally came to a head when, word came from France that Louis Napoleon was stirring up trouble. Captain Isles was known to have friends in France that could be helpful.

In 1836, Louis Napoleon tried to overthrown the July Monarchy of Louis-Philippe. It had failed. Now, word was coming out of France that he was forming another attempt. The Queen needed information and because of Fredrick's contacts in France, the Queen was sure he could get it for her.

So, in a secret interview on January 14, 1839, the Queen made her pitch. If the Captain were to discover the plans of Louis Napoleon and deliver those plans to her, then she would make him Lord Isles. Captain Isles knew that this was a dangerous assignment, but the reward would be worth the risk. So, he started making plans to return to Rochefort.

Fredrick started the rumor that he was going on a selling trip to Rochefort for the Talbots. He would take his entire household to alleviate any suspicions. So six weeks short of Maura's first birthday, she was on her way back home.