Will Moves to Texas to Become a Ranger (Book One, Chapter Three)

         “I finally arrived in Austin in the fall of 1873. I located the people Alex knew, introduced myself, and settled in. One of the families was kind enough to offer me a room and board, given my connections. They pointed me toward the Texas Rangers office, and I made my way there immediately."

  The Rangers office had not been what he’d expected. Instead of a room full of cowboys, he’d found a neat front office, complete with desk, bookshelves, and a sitting area. Behind the desk sat a young man, a few years older than Will himself, dressed smartly in a tweed coat and tie. Beside him sat a neat bowler hat.

        “I told him that I wanted to be a Texas Ranger, I showed him my letter, and he nodded,” Will told Elizabeth. “No one jumped out to offer me a badge and gun, as I’d expected. Instead, he told me that he would set me up with an appointment for an exam. I was told to come back the next morning.”

“You must have been extremely disappointed,” Elizabeth observed.

Will nodded. “I was, but I knew that I was following my destiny. You must also remember that this was my first time out of Boston, and in Texas. I was so excited to be in a new town that I could barely contain myself. I spent the entire day – and most of the night – exploring the town, meeting new people, and getting into trouble. I even believed that I fell in love with a girl, that day,” Will finished, smiling to himself. He glanced up at Elizabeth, blushing. “I was very young, and impressionable. The entire world looked new to me, and bright with possibility. The family I stayed with must have thought that I was crazy. The next day, though, I marched back into the Texas Rangers office, ready for my exam.”

Will' Grows up in Boston (Book One, Chapter Three)

        Will glanced around the courtyard as the man set him down, noting that the ranch was a thriving enterprise. The courtyard measured at least 75 feet in each direction, and acted as the centerpiece for the ranch buildings. There were corrals – filled with young horses – across the yard from where they sat, and buildings on both sides. The courtyard itself was made of bricks, laid into the ground, and built to last through the ages.

“Your ranch is beautiful,” he noted quietly, taking in the number of people moving through the buildings and working with the horses. “Tell me more about it, then I will tell you my story.”

        “The ranch is over 100 years old,” Elizabeth started. “It was built by my husband’s great grandfather, Alfonso Arroyo and his wife Louisa. The bricks you see before you were brought in by hand, and laid out one by one.” She pointed to the opposite corner of the courtyard, where the brick ended. “The last brick in that corner holds a number of initials. When you are able to walk, I will show you. Initials were added for each of their children, and then each of their children’s spouses. We add new initials every time a child is born.”

        She paused, thinking. “That brick is growing quite full, now. I believe that we will have to start a new one soon.” She turned to Will smiling, and he smiled back. “The building to our right is the main ranch house, where my family lives. We added the second story many years ago, as the family was outgrowing the original house.” She pointed to the building next to it. “That is the traveler’s house, where we house any guests. Behind you is the hands’ house, where you are staying. The other buildings, but for the barn, are the houses of various other family members.”

Will nodded, looking around him, and looked toward the corral in front of him. He heard children laughing in the distance, and turned back to Elizabeth. “Are those the children who saved me?”

Elizabeth laughed. “Oh no, those are the children of my brother-in-law and his wife. Pilar and Santiago are much older, at 11 and 12. They are in the house now, with their teacher.”

Will looked back toward the main house. “I would very much like to meet them,” he said softly. “I owe them a large debt of gratitude.”

Elizabeth nodded, understanding. “I will bring them out when they are finished with their schoolwork. Now, since I have brought you breakfast, I believe you owe me a story.” She handed him a plate of rice, beans, and eggs, and told him to eat. 

As he took his first bite of the rich food, Will cast his memory back to the place where his life had started, and told her his story.

“I was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1849.” He sighed, remembering a lonely childhood. “I never knew my mother. She died just a couple days after my birth, when she was only 20. She had been married to my father for less than a year.”

Joseph Austin had been several years older than his bride, but he always said that Olive Perkins was the most beautiful girl in town, and had caught his eye when she turned 16. He, in turn, had been from one of the most established families in Boston, and the owner of one of the oldest general stores. It had been a perfect match.

 “They met when my mother came into the store as a customer, and fell in love immediately. My father proposed within months. They moved in with my father’s parents, who had a house a few blocks away from the store.”

Will and Elizabeth Meet on Rancho Arroyo (Book One, Chapter Two)

        Will awoke cold and confused. He had no idea where he was or how he came to be there, though he felt both exhausted and weak, as though he had traveled a long distance. He turned his head to the side, seeking some clue about his location, and saw light streaming in through a window on the other side of the room. Indoors. He was in a room somewhere. The room was clean but sparsely furnished, with a table and set of chairs near the window. He was in a bed. There was an unknown woman sitting in a chair on the other side of the room, and he could not sit up.

He tried again to move, but stopped when he felt a sharp pain shooting from his left leg up through his right shoulder. He grunted in pain and fell back against the bed. Something was very wrong with his body. Moaning, he tried again. He was in unfamiliar surroundings, without a clue about how he arrived there, and it wasn’t safe for him to stay in this bed. It wasn’t safe for him to be at such a disadvantage. What if these people weren’t his friends? What if danger came through the door? He needed to be up and moving, ready for whatever came his way. He didn’t know how he’d come here, but he could remember that there had been danger, and recently. Something had been wrong, and he had been scared the last time he was awake.

Suddenly, though, the woman was at his side, no doubt roused by his struggles to rise.

“Hush, now,” she said, pushing him back down on the bed. “It isn’t safe for you to move. You’ve been hurt, and you’ll tear the stitches I put in.”

Will sank back onto the bed, registering the increased pain in his thigh and shoulder and trying to process what she had said. “Where am I?” he mumbled.

The woman smiled kindly. “You are on my family’s ranch.”

“Who are you?”

“My name is Elizabeth Arroyo,” she answered quietly.

Will frowned, thinking. That name was familiar. Did he know her? Had she been his friend once, or had her husband helped him at some time? He tried to track the thought but had trouble focusing through the pain in his shoulder, and put the idea away for another time.

  “What is your name?” the woman was asking.

He thought briefly, forcing his mind to function. His head was terribly sore, as though he’d been drinking for weeks, and didn’t want to work the way it should. "Will,” he remembered suddenly. “My name is Will Austin." 

“Will Austin. Welcome. You are on my family’s ranch outside the town of Santa Maria, about 50 miles south of the border. You have been here for two days.”

Pilar and Santiago Bring a Wounded Man Back to the Ranch (Book One, Chapter One)

            Pilar galloped ahead of the wagon on her horse, rushing toward the ranch. She was the faster rider, and had ridden ahead of her brother and the wagon to warn her mother and the other ranch hands about the situation. Carrying the American to the wagon had been very hard work, and she was already exhausted. She pressed on, though, fearing for the man’s life. Fearing for the possible consequences of his death. Santiago rattled along behind her, driving the wagon at a slower pace to avoid harming the already injured man.

Before long she was at the outskirts of the ranch, flying past the outbuildings, the barn, and the corrals where they held the horses. This was a large, well-established horse ranch, and took up over 500 acres on its own. Normally she found the size to be a benefit – it kept strangers away from the house at the center, and gave her plenty of areas to find privacy. Today, though, the ranch’s size was a detriment. She put her heels to her mare’s sides, asking for more speed, and began to scream for her mother.

“Mama! Mama! Necesito! Necesito!” she shouted, her eyes flying over the courtyard that served as the center of the ranch. Her mother ran the ranch with other members of her husband’s family, and had years of experience in treating injured people. She would save the American they had found. But where would she be at this time of day? Pilar hauled her horse to a stop and jumped to the ground, turning in a circle as she called.

Will Shoots and Kills Pedro Gomez, Northern Mexico, 1884 (Book One, Chapter One)

Chapter One

Northern Mexico, 1884. Approximately 50 miles south of Roma, Texas.

The hot September wind swept across the plain, rattling the dried cornstalks of their field, and Pilar glanced up involuntarily. The day didn’t feel right, though she couldn’t put her finger on the source of her fear. It was fire season in this part of northern Mexico, and her family had been watching for the signs of smoke for the last month, but she did not believe that this was the cause of her discomfort. There was something else, something that wasn’t right in the area, and it struck deeper in her heart than a fire would have. She gazed across the fields, squinting her eyes against the sun and searching for the cause of her discomfort.

“Pilar, if you continue to daydream we will never get our job done,” her brother Santiago snapped, interrupting her thoughts.

Pilar glanced at him and sighed. He was right, of course, though she hated to admit it. They had been sent by their mother to gather the last of the year’s corn before it went bad in the field. These cobs had been left to dry on the stalks, for winter storage and grinding, but were ready to come in now. The stalks themselves were dried and ready for tilling into the earth. There they would enrich the soil for next year’s planting, and ensure another year of successful harvest. Gathering the corn cobs was an important job, though both Pilar and her brother were comfortable with the responsibility; they were 11 and 12, respectively, and had been gathering the crops for as long as either could remember. 

That didn’t mean that Pilar appreciated being under his thumb. She was just as capable of doing the job as he was, and more in tune with the world around her. 

She tilted her chin up in silent protest and took another step into the cornfield to look for the remaining cobs. They had driven one of the family’s wagons out to the cornfield in the early morning to finish the gathering, and were already halfway through the field. It would be an early finish for them today. As long as things went the way they should. Pilar felt the prickling in her spine again, though, and frowned.

“Santiago, something is not right here,” she mumbled quietly. “I will be glad to get home and away from this place.”

Her brother snorted. “We’ve been here at least one million times, and nothing has ever happened before. You will be glad to stop working and get home to your dolls,” he teased. “I know you.”

Pilar smiled despite her fear. Santiago was her older brother, and had been her best friend since the day she was born. He was the one who had raised her, taught her to ride her first pony, and shown her how to shoot a gun. He was also the only one she allowed close to her – the only person on the ranch allowed to tease her in this way.

“One of these days, Brother, you will listen when I have a–”

Suddenly a gunshot rang out, followed by several more. The sound tore through the air around them and drowned out Pilar’s words. She gasped and froze, her eyes darting across the land to her left. There. Gunfire in the woods to the east. At least three guns, and they were still shooting. She turned back toward the cornfield, desperately searching for her brother, but he was not where she had last seen him. Her eyes found only corn stalks, swaying in the wind. Pilar froze, her heart pounding.

“Santiago!” she whispered fiercely. “Where are you, Santiago?” 

She began to run, crashing through the corn stalks and their razor-sharp edges, and trying to find her way to the wagon. Before she had gone three steps, though, a hand snaked out from the vegetation, grabbing her ankle and bringing her down. She opened her mouth to scream, but the hand that had grasped her ankle moved quickly to cover her mouth and muffle any sound that came out of her mouth.

“Shhhh! What are you thinking, crashing through the field, making so much noise? Do you want them to shoot you, too?”

Pilar stilled on the ground, breathing heavily. Santiago. It was Santiago. He was safe, and she was not alone. She reached up to pull his hand away from her mouth.

“I could not see you. I was afraid that you had left me alone,” she mumbled.

“Silly girl,” he muttered back. He raised his head from the ground and peered in the direction of the forest. Pilar stopped her movement, listening with him. The gunshots had stopped, and all was quiet in the forest. Eerily quiet. 

Pilar licked her lips and swallowed heavily. “Santiago, who would be this close to the ranch? Who would bring guns to this place?”

Santiago shook his head slowly, then pushed himself up from the ground. “I do not know, Sister, but it is not our place to find out, and it’s far too dangerous. We must get back to the ranch and warn the others that there has been trouble.”

Pilar stood, placing a hand on her brother’s arm. “Santiago, they may be hurt. We must at least find out.”

Santiago looked at her as though she had lost her mind, then shook his head and turned away. “Pilar, there are times when I don’t understand you. They are strangers. They are not our problem. You put too much of your heart out to other people, and it is bound to get you hurt someday. I am not going to find out who these people are, and neither are you.” He stopped and turned toward her, his brows drawn down over his eyes. “Pilar, it is too dangerous. Surely you can see that?”

Pilar pressed her lips together and squared her shoulders, planting her feet in place. “Santiago Arroyo, where is your humanity? Those are people in the woods, and they may be hurt. Even dying. They may be our friends, and they may need help. The Good Lord tells us to help those in need, no matter who they are.”

The boy turned to face his sister, his brows drawn down in a dark frown. “Pilar, it is dangerous–” 

She paused for a moment, then found her opening. “It would be an adventure, Santiago,” she replied, her eyes dancing. “Think of it. Perhaps they are cowboys, and they have killed banditos(italics). Perhaps we will be heroes for saving them.” She suppressed a smile and watched her brother’s face soften. Santiago could never turn down an adventure, and she always kept this as her final argument for any situation. 

“Perhaps, if we were careful…” he murmured.

“I am going with or without you,” she continued, turning toward the forest where the gunshots had sounded out. “Do you want to be the one left behind?”

"Roma Arroyo" Now Available in Ebook Format From Many Dealers!

Available from Ebookit.com NOW!

Available through Amazon NOW!

Available through Barnes and Noble NOW!

Available through Kobobooks NOW!

Available through Google ebookstore NOW!

Available through Sony ebookstore NOW!

Available through iTunes NOW!

Ingram Digital downloads: Coming Soon!

Goodreads page for "Roma Arroyo"

Click Here for the Goodreads Page for "Roma Arroyo"

Here is some information about Goodreads directly from their website:

What Is Goodreads?

Goodreads is the largest site for readers and book recommendations in the world. We have more than 8,900,000 members who have added more than 310,000,000 books to their shelves. A home for casual readers and bona-fide bookworms alike, Goodreads users recommend books, compare what they are reading, keep track of what they've read and would like to read, find their next favorite book, form book clubs and much more. Goodreads was launched in January 2007. 

"Roma Arroyo:" The Real City of Roma, Texas!

The Real City of Roma, Texas

“Roma was founded in 1765 and incorporated in 1936. It serves as a port of entry from Mexico into the U.S. via the Roma-Ciudad Miguel Aleman International Bridge. Prior to Texas's independence from Mexico in 1836, the town was listed as under the jurisdiction of the town of Mier, Tamaulipas,  and prior to Mexican Independence existed under Spanish rule.”

Click here for Wikipedia Article

Click here for City of Roma Website

Click here to Facebook page for City of Roma, Texas

Click here for Map of Current Day Roma, Texas

“The Roma-Ciudad Miguel Alemán International Bridge ordinarily serves a port of entry between Mexico and the United States It is open 24 hours a day, all year long. It spans the Rio Grande (known as Rio Bravo in Mexico) between Roma, Texas and Ciudad Miguel Aleman, Tamaulipas

This suspension bridge was built in 1928 and was reopened in 2004. It is a National Historic Landmark in the United States and in Mexico. Roma was a prosperous riverport in the 19th century. Historic structures front a plaza overlooking the Rio Grande with a view of the bridge.

The Roma Ciudad Aleman International Bridge is currently out of service pending renovation.”

Click here for Wikipedia Article

“Ciudad Miguel Alemán, known prior to 1950 as San Pedro de Roma, is a city in the Mexican State of Tamaulipas, located across the Rio Grande from the U.S. city of Roma, Texas. The two are linked by the Roma-Ciudad Miguel Aleman International Bridge, a suspension bridge. As of 2010, the population of the city was 19,997. The total population of the surrounding municipality was 27,015.”

Click here for the Wikipedia Article

“Mier (Spanish: Ciudad Mier), also known as El Paso del Cántaro, is a city in Mier Municipality in Tamaulipas, located in northern Mexico near the Rio Grandge, just south of  Falcon Dam. It is 90 miles (140 km) northeast of Monterrey on Mexican Federal Highway 2.  In 1990, the population was recorded at 6,190. By the 2010 census, it had dropped to 4,762 inhabitants.  It has an agricultural economy centered on cotton, sugarcane, corn, and livestock.

The town was founded on March 6, 1753. The land was originally owned by Felix de Almandoz. Land later passed on to General Prudencio Basterra who married Felix's sister Ana Maria. 19 Families from Camarrgo  formed the new settlement. The town is called Mier because the governor of the New Kingdom of León from 1710 to 1714, Francisco Mier y Torre, used to spend the night there on his way to Texas. It began to be called Estancia de Mier and then simply Mier. This is where the steamboats used to stop when they came up the Río Bravo.”

Click here for Wikipedia Article

A Great Bookstore that Specializes in Books About the US/Mexican Border

Roma Arroyo is Published!

Welcome to the first book in the “Will Austin Adventure” Series!

1884 in Northern Mexico. Two kids are gathering corn on their family’s 500 acre ranch. Suddenly, several shots ring out! They crawl to where they heard the shots come from and find a campsite with five dead men. After checking closer, they discover one of the men, an American, is still alive, but barely!

Born and raised in Boston in the middle of the Nineteenth Century, Will Austin leads a life of adventure and passion. He survives the death of both his parents at a very young age, and the cold blooded killing of his best friend, Boyd. As a young man, he makes the long and difficult journey to Austin, Texas, to chase his dream of becoming a Texas Ranger. Instead, he finds himself in the middle of the biggest case of the century: catching the ruthless and murdering Gomez Gang from the depths of lawless Mexico!

Join Will in his fight for justice in the small, but growing, border town of Roma, Texas. How far will he go to hunt down the Gomez Gang and their brutal leader, Pedro, and what toll does it take on his friendships, marriage and body as he stumbles to the edge of his sanity?

Order directly from the publisher at Lulu.com

All feedback and comments are welcome!