San Antonio and the Rose Window by Stephanie Suesan Smith

 

Rose Window

San Antonio, Texas

For a large number of years, my parents, my sister, and I went to Padre Island, Texas for three days, then to San Antonio, Texas for four days.  We could only stand the beach for a few days before we got sunburned and sick.  When we went to San Antonio, it usually rained.  Sometimes buckets of rain.  

No matter, we always had to go on the Mission trail.  This is a collection of five Spanish missions built by the priests who accompanied Spanish soldiers to occupy the land and enslave the indigenous people.  The Spanish did their level best to exterminate the local population, or at least make them Catholic.  They forced them to build the missions and an aqueduct that still carries water today.

I personally didn't like going to the missions. I saw them once and wasn't impressed, but Mom liked to look at them. My sister and I have a series of photographs standing beside the rose window for several years running.

After the Mission trail, we would go to the Riverwalk and eat Mexican food.  That was the part of San Antonio I liked.  We would also walk through the open-air market.  Things were too expensive to buy, but looking didn't cost anything.  Of course, we ate Mexican food practically every meal while we were in San Antonio.

One year, my Dad got stung on the heel of his foot by a wasp.  He limped around for a day before Mom made him go to an urgent care place.  He was given antibiotics and a tetanus shot because, as the doctor said, you never knew where the wasp had been.

An Agent for Magdala

by Caroline Clemmons

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Magdala, on the other hand, got to stay in the best hotel in San Antonio and try to catch a jewel thief who didn't want to be caught.  She also went to the market. 

Here is the blurb:

She craves adventure, but this may be too much…His job means the world to him…Capturing jewel thieves will test them…

Magdala leaps at the opportunity to become a Pinkerton agent. Learning the position requires a paper marriage shocks but doesn’t deter her. Maggie plans to get an annulment before her unusual family learns of the situation. She’s determined to prove she has the grit to be an excellent investigator. But, why does she have to be partnered with the one man who has been rude to her?

Douglas “Cloud” Ryan loves being a Pinkerton agent. Otherwise, he’d never go along with his boss’ crazy plan to marry him to a female agent. He’s certain women have no business dealing with criminals. After barely surviving the stagecoach trip from Denver to San Antonio Maggie needs to stay in the background and let him solve the case. He has reasons to distrust women, especially women like Maggie.

Can Maggie and Cloud catch the jewel thieves plaguing an historic San Antonio hotel without becoming victims? Will they take a chance on the love growing between them?