McCoys

Believing what he does in private is no one's business but his own, Donal McCoy lives the secret life of a rake while his public appearance remains impeccable. Unfortunately, his father upsets his son's well-hidden exploits when he orders Donal to find a bride and provide a grandchild to carry on the family name. The last thing Donal wants is a wife. Marriage will ruin his fun altogether. Reluctantly carrying out his father's wishes, he soon discovers his private misbehavior may have a devastating effect on his future plans, when Love-and a conniving former mistress-get in the way...

Colin McCoy wants to imitate his older brother-but the wrong one. His father demands he return home after finishing university at Cambridge, to live down his bad brother's sins. When he falls head over heels in love with the daughter of his father's boss, he is surprised at the older generation's approval. Lady Fiona Cleary discovers her carefully controlled passion can be allowed freedom in her marriage to Colin, and their son is born just as the "bad brother" writes home that he also has a son with his new wife in the American West. How can Colin overcome the humdrum nature of his life and be more like his newly redeemed brother, wild adventures and all, without losing the wife and child he loves?

Padraig is the black sheep of the McCoy clan. Until now, his father's money has always bought him out of scrapes...but at last Padraig goes too far and finds himself a remittance man, paid by his father to leave home and never come back. Boarding a ship to America, the ne'er-do-well doesn't stop traveling until he comes to Nebraska's Great Plains. Finding a rancher willing to take a chance on hiring a greenhorn who knows nothing about cattle, Padraig sets out to become a cowboy, and that's when Fate deals Padraig McCoy a different set of cards. On a trail drive to Sedalia, the young wastrel's life is changed forever...