Elenna, 27

“Cross swords with her once and she'll leave you breathless, possibly half-dressed.”

Elenna is the heiress of an old Mexican family: she runs its horse hacienda outside Oaxaca and teaches fencing to anyone brave enough to face her. She grew up in Spanish ballrooms yet learned the sword in secret, and the fastest way to her heart is still a duel she doesn't win too easily. With long dark curls, brown eyes that flash when she argues and an hourglass figure in riding boots or a scarlet gown, she is proud, passionate and generous to a fault, the kind of woman who slips money to the poor and slaps a governor. She has heard about a masked stranger in town. She suspects it is you.