If you've read the first two books in my Laredo series, you're acquainted with the Wilson family and oldest brother Boone. Moses is the focus in the second book, but youngest brother Ezekiel comes to the forefront in The Birthright of Ezekiel Wilson, book three and now available for pre-order. The novel releases from World Castle Publishing on February 24, my first 2025 release.
Here's the cover:
The blurb:
At
twenty-one, Ezekiel Wilson is a man, grown up after hightailing it to Texas at
the age of fifteen. Although he’s a valuable ranch hand, Zeke is prone to
fisticuffs and brawling, although he doesn’t drink. He has a fondness for
saloon girls, however, until he meets a feisty Irish girl, Katie O’Neill, who
is the sister of a cowboy he hires during a cattle drive. Katie is a healer,
and although she lives with her aunt, who keeps a boarding house in Laredo, she
soon comes to the ranch. Before Zeke can court her, he suffers serious injuries
and must be nursed back to health. Youngest of the five Wilson brothers,
Ezekiel longs to become a family man, although he misses his mother and brother
back in Kentucky. When the Wilsons become owners of the ranch, Zeke realizes
his family and the love they share are his birthright. With Katie at his side,
Ezekiel decides he can face anything.
Other titles will include The Heart of Jacob Wilson and The Nature of Garrett Wilson and more.
The first two are The Legacy of Boone Wilson and The Endurance of Moses Wilson.
Here's the dedication and first full chapter from The Birthright of Ezekiel Wilson with pre-order links to follow!
Dedication: Without my beloved grandfather,
Thomas “Frenchy” Llafet, the Laredo series and Boone Wilson would not exist. As
a proud descendant of Daniel Boone, Pop filled my young head with tales of
Boone, Kentucky, and pioneers! If he hadn’t. Boone might have had another name.
The
Birthright of Ezekiel Wilson
By Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy
Chapter
One
1877
Less than a week after his 21st
birthday, Ezekiel Wilson sported a black eye, a bruised cheek, and a split lip,
the result of a bare knuckles brawl at the Out Of Luck Saloon in Laredo. Blood
from his nose stained his shirt. As bad as he looked, however, his opponent had
more injuries, and the consensus was that Zeke emerged the victor.
He hadn't headed to town to fight
but to play cards. He won more than he lost, and he saved most of it. Sometimes
he smoked, but he never drank. In Jemima Wilson's household, whiskey had been
for medicinal purposes only, and then in moderation. Something about the saloon
drew him although he wasn't sure what. Gambling ranked high as an attraction,
but he liked the ladies, too. The months he'd lived above the Out of Luck while
Boone recovered from a gunshot wound had given him a taste for saloon life.
In about six weeks, he'd be trailing
cattle. It would be his seventh year, and maybe he wouldn't have to ride drag.
Some years he had, some he hadn’t. Ezekiel knew it would be months of long,
hard days in the saddle, sleeping on the ground, fighting weather,
rattlesnakes, and disease. Grub would be far from the best and although there
was a certain camaraderie about life on the trail, there wouldn't be any fun
until the end.
Last year, they'd switched from the
Chisholm Trail, one he'd learned so well he bragged he could ride it
blindfolded, to the longer Great Western Trail. Unlike the Chisholm that had
fetched up in Abilene, Kansas, the Western trail ended at Dodge City. Although
Abilene had been no place for the faint-hearted, Dodge City had turned out to be
wilder, filled with more wickedness, and more ways for a man to find trouble. Compared
to the Out Of Luck, Dodge was a sinner's paradise.
"Are you fit to ride?" his
brother Jacob asked, looking sideways at Zeke's battle scars.
"I reckon so." His head
ached, his face hurt, and he'd have sore muscles by morning. He might have
cracked a rib, too, but he'd ride.
"We won't get back to the ranch
till after sunrise," Jacob said. "By then your eye will be swollen
shut, most likely. Might be better if we just bunked in town tonight and set
out first thing come morning."
Although Jacob spoke with the voice
of reason, Ezekiel resented it. He had a suspicion the only reason his brother
had come along to town was to keep an eye on him, which was probably one of Boone's
fool notions. Jacob hadn't played a single hand of cards, taken a drink, or
flirted with a painted lady. He'd sat at a corner table and drank black coffee.
He hadn't eaten anything, either. More than once, Zeke had wanted to tell him
that he didn't need a nanny but didn't. He appreciated the company, although Jacob
didn't seem to remember how to have any fun. Since Boone and Moses were both
settled family men, neither ventured into town unless it was for supplies.
"I reckon it would be,"
Ezekiel muttered with a long, drawn-out sigh. Riding in the dark of night
wasn't a great idea, although he'd done it many times. "I confess I ain't
feelin' my best. Boone's gonna whale away at me for not coming home,
though."
"He will, but only 'cause he'll
be worried," Jacob said. "You know that."
"He'll be madder when he sees
my scrapes," Zeke replied. It wouldn't be the first time he'd come back
from town with a black eye or bruises, and he didn't imagine it would be the
last, either. "Alrighty, let's head for the livery. They'll let us sleep
in the loft."
The next day, it was close to noon
before they arrived at the Double Deuce, formerly the Double B Ranch. They'd
changed the name when the three Wilsons bought into the spread, and the name stood
for four brothers – since Liam was as close as a brother to Boone. By then,
Zeke's left eye was swollen shut, and his headache hammered his skull with the
force of a blacksmith. All he wanted to do was go lie down for a spell, until
his various hurts healed enough to stop paining. That was his plan once they'd
unsaddled and stabled their mounts.
As they headed for the one-room
cabin that they'd built last year behind Boone's place, Boone stood up to greet
them on his dog trot porch, his forehead creased with concern.
"Where in tarnation have the
pair of you been?" he asked, his voice more gravely than usual with worry.
"Moses wanted to ride into town to find you, but I said to wait."
"We spent the night at the
livery stable," Jacob explained. "It was late, and we figured it was
better than riding back in the dark."
"Might not have been so late if
Ezekiel hadn't engaged in fisticuffs again," Boone said, walking into the
yard to face his younger brother. "You look like you've been trampled in a
stampede."
Although his tone wasn't light,
Zeke's answer was. "Feels like it, too."
"If you feel as terrible as you
look, it's a wonder you're still above snakes. Best let Rachel tend to those
wounds as best she can and get some shut-eye."
That sounded like a plan and Ezekiel
thought he'd got away without a lecture until Boone said, "Go on inside.
I'll be there directly and you can tell me just what happened this time."
Boone's wife, Rachel, gasped when
she saw his damaged face. "Oh, Ezekiel, it must hurt.”
Mima, his five-year-old niece,
abandoned her doll to steer him to a chair at the table.
"Z, your face is hurt
again," she said. "Do you got the headache, too?"
"I do," he told her.
As her mother gathered some herbs
and tinctures, Mima dipped a clean rag in water and used it to wash his face.
Her touch was surprisingly gentle, and the cool felt good against his skin.
Rachel treated his bruises with some witch hazel and
applied a little under his eye, careful not to get any into the eye itself.
When she touched his side, he yelped, and with a sigh, she tore up some rags to
fix his ribs, which he realized were cracked if not broken.
She had some willow bark steeping to
help with the pain, but before it was ready, Boone came in, followed by Moses.
"How'd the fight start this
time?" he asked, pulling up a chair and straddling it backwards. "Was
it over one of the gals?"
Twice before, Ezekiel had stepped in
when one of Mary's fancy women protested rough treatment from a cowboy or,
worse, a sheep farmer. To avoid shooting someone in cold blood, he'd stopped
wearing his pistol on his hip when he entered the saloon and tucked it into his
saddle bag instead. Swinging for murder wasn't part of his plans, but he
couldn't bear to see a lady, even a soiled dove, roughly handled.
"It was," Ezekiel said.
Boone punched the table with one
fist. "Kid, I've told you that those women can't be protected. It's not
your place, and most of them don't want help. They're working girls and they
know the risk they take. I fear one of these days you're gonna get worse than a
busted lip or black eye. You need to keep your nose out of their doings."
He'd tried and failed. Seeing a
grown man slap a woman, even one of ill repute, hard enough to knock her to the
floor or mark her face, made him angry. "Boone, this time it was
Peggy."
Boone's expression changed.
"Oh, Ezekiel. She's a lost cause, and well you know it."
He did but Peggy had been his first
infatuation. That first year he'd been in Texas, just fifteen years old, he'd
met her when Boone lay fevered and believed to be dying from a gunshot wound.
Peggy had been about the same age as him, and when he'd first known her, she
did no more than dance and flirt with the fellows. She'd been sweet and fresh, as
pretty as a wildflower in springtime.
Peggy had been a friend and maybe more. Ezekiel had
stolen kisses, ones he didn't think Boone even knew about, and he had dreamed
of taking her away from the sporting life before it corrupted her. Instead,
while the Wilsons were still living in the room over the saloon, Peggy had
entered the oldest profession.
They'd never talked about it, he and
Boone, but his brother had to know that Mary, proprietor and madam at the Out
Of Luck, had auctioned off Peggy's virginity for a high price. The once lovely
young woman who had tempted him had become a hardened prostitute in the last
seven years. She had aged hard, become jaded, and prone to using laudanum to
escape from the daily grind. Still, they'd been friends once and so Ezekiel had
always shown her some measure of kindness.
He'd never gone upstairs with her or
any of the women, although he'd danced with many and kissed a few. When a man
twice or more his age had pulled her away from the piano where she played a
merry tune, she had resisted, so the man had slapped her twice across the face.
That was when Zeke stepped into the
fray. He'd pulled the man away from her and punched him square in the face,
breaking his nose with the first blow. Next thing he knew, he'd been fighting
the man and his friend. He'd bested both in the end, but not without suffering
damage himself.
Mary had screeched at him and told
him to leave, so he had. Jacob had trailed him out, and although he didn't join
the fight, Ezekiel knew his brother had his back. If it'd been necessary, he
would have.
"I know, Boone," he said
now. "I just couldn't bear to see her treated so. We were friends
once."
"I liked her, too," Boone
said. "Not the way you did, but she was a spritely little thing. But she's
made her bed, and now she must lie in it. Did she even thank you for what you
done?"
"No." Instead, she'd
cussed him and tried to hit him.
"You ain't no knight of olden
times or a storybook hero like in the fairy tales," Boone said.
"Saloon brawls get nasty. One of them yahoos could've shot you dead, and Jacob
would have brought you back face down over the saddle. I ain't mad, but Liam
might be, thinking your wild ways give the ranch a bad reputation. I worry,
though."
"I don't mean for you to,
Boone."
His brother came to his feet.
"I'm aware. I got work to do and plenty of it, whether Sunday or not.
Drink this willow bark and rest your head. I want you ready and in the saddle
tomorrow morning."
"I'll be there," Ezekiel
promised. He would be, he thought, unless he died from the pain, which wasn't
likely.
Boone thumped his shoulder in
passing. Moses lingered long enough to pat his arm with sympathy.
After he downed the strong and
bitter tea, Rachel coaxed him into eating some of the chicken and dumplings she
had simmering for dinner. He ate a bowl, then retreated to the tiny cabin he
shared with Jacob.
It was one single room with a bed on
either side of the door facing the fireplace. There were hooks on the wall for
their clothes, and their gear could be stored under the beds. A table with
bench seating in one corner completed the furnishings. The cabin, along with a
small corral and lean-to barn for their mounts, had been built by the Wilsons
after the partnership with Liam became final. Once Liam took on more hands, the
space in the bunkhouse shrank. The additional hires were to help with the huge
new project — fencing the Double Deuce with the new-fangled bob-wire that was
all the rage. With sharp barbs–hence the name —it reminded Ezekiel of thorn
trees or mesquite.
Jacob wasn't a partner since he'd
arrived with no funds to put into the project. One of Ezekiel's goals in
playing faro was to save his winnings and then give them to Jacob so he could
have a stake. His brother didn't seem to care either way.
After sleeping much of the day,
Ezekiel woke hungry and went to beg food from Rachel or Mattie. Rachel had made
Boone's favorite meal, most likely to placate him. There was enough left of the
chicken and dumplings for him, so he ate it. He lingered long enough to listen
to Boone sing his babies to sleep, first Benjamin, then Rob, then Mima. His
voice almost lulled Zeke to sleep, so he bade them good night and retreated to
the cabin. Jacob was already in bed, asleep and snoring.
He rolled a smoke and sat outside to
enjoy it. As he did, Ezekiel reflected on his life. He still loved the ranch
and what he did for a living, but he found himself lonesome. Two of his
brothers had loving wives and children. Jacob had had both, still had three
daughters who wrote a few times a year back in Kentucky. A photograph of them
hung on the wall above Jacob's bed but he hadn't seen them in more than a year.
No one mentioned his late wife, Sally Ann, as requested by Jacob but he still
mourned her. He showed no interest in finding a new woman or much of anything
but working.
Ezekiel, however, had a hankering
for a wife. Each time he watched the tender devotion that Rachel showed to
Boone or the affection Mattie demonstrated in small ways to Moses, he longed
for the same. Part of the reason he made frequent forays into Laredo was to
fill the emptiness and to seek a woman. He knew he'd never find the kind of
lady he would marry in a saloon, but he hoped for a chance encounter. Rachel
had been a schoolteacher who took pity on Boone when she chanced across him
after he was wounded. Mattie had come to the ranch to help her sister, Liam's
wife. She and Moses had fallen in love, then married but not without
difficulty.
He had no doubt his brothers loved
him. So did their wives, especially Rachel, because of their history together. The
little ones cared for him, too, especially Mima, who had both his mother's name
and her face in miniature. Ezekiel wanted a woman who would fuss over his
hurts, who would salve them and comfort him. He sought someone who would
encourage him, fight with him if the cause were right, and to sleep beside him
in the long, solitary nights.
By the end of April, he and Jacob
would be trailing cattle. Now that the Chisholm Trail was not used as often,
they would pick up the Great Western Trail at Kerrville. If they were still
setting out from just south of San Antonio, there might have been a better
chance of meeting a likely gal. He would be on the trail for months, and he
doubted any woman he found in Dodge City at the end of the trail would be wife
material.
Once he crushed out his smoke, he
downed the willow bark tea Rachel had sent home with him and applied some more witch
hazel to his scrapes.
Come Monday morning, Zeke was back
in the saddle despite a few lingering aches. His eye, as was to be expected,
looked even worse with violent purple and yellow shades, but he could see out
of it. He had expected to be sent out to string barbed wire at some far
boundary of the ranch, but instead, Boone had him working with the yearling
horses. That suited him and left him time to think about where and how he might
find a woman to love.
Zeke links
http://books.apple.com/us/book/id6740248461
https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=kOA8EQAAQBAJ
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-birthright-of-ezekiel-wilson
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DS56QWN9
Here is the Booksprout link:
https://booksprout.co/reviewer/review-copy/view/194522/the-birthright-of-ezekiel-wilson
Great news! Google Play is now offering audiobooks.
They have an auto narration program, and the books are of good quality. I’ve
placed your book on audio. Here is the link:
https://play.google.com/store/audiobooks/details?id=AQAAAEAKYBEgCM
Here’s the link on Goodreads.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/223353835-the-birthright-of-ezekiel-wilson
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