Defenders of Windhaven — Marie De Jourlet

A sweeping series of Americans who rebuilt the South after the Civil War -- of their dashed hopes, their indomitable spirit...
Out of the ashes of the Civil War, a South rebuilds, the blue and the gray disband, the wounds of a nation begin to heal, and life begins again. But old wounds take time...and the Bouchards -- their grandfather's legacy rooted deep in the South -- will not be allowed to forget the age-old conflicts that separate proud men -- white from black, North from South, Democrat from Republican.

While Laure and Luke Bouchard welcome a new daughter at Windhaven Plantation, and their adopted Comanche son, a lawyer, stirs up trouble by defending the oppressed free blacks, Luke's niece, Laurette Douglas, and her husband, Charles, look to Texas as a new frontier in the aftermath of the Great Chicago Fire.

They explore Houston as a home for their new department store -- and to be closer to the Bouchard clan. But the landsharks are in waiting. And Charles, a "rich sucker," is lured into a land scheme by the flim-flam men, only to be saved by good fortune. But the Douglases' tragedies are not yet over. Their young son is kidnapped by a strange hired woman, and whether they find him will depend on more than luck -- this time.