Hey there!
Let’s have a chat about Michael Wayland, jaded rake, secret cinnamon bun, and hero of Courting Scandal.
I mentioned before, in my post about my approach to historical accuracy, that Michael’s rise to prominence as owner of a gaming-hell was based loosely on the rise of William “Crocky” Crockford. Crocky opened his gaming-hell a few years later than when I’ve set Courting Scandal. Michael follows a similar trajectory through the different gaming-hells in the city. He begins in Temple Bar betting for shillings. Eventually he moves to the silver-hells in Piccadilly where he is waging larger sums with the rich and famous.
One night, shortly before his brother, Hugh, turns 18 and takes over management of the estate, Michael wins an astronomical sum. (Side note: I’m toying with a story involving one of the son of one of the men Michael wins his fortune from and one of his daughters.) Trying to find a purpose now that his life’s work for the past several years is ending, he decides to open Wayland’s.
Hugh and Michael have always had a strained relationship, driven primarily by Hugh’s mother, Agatha’s, attitudes toward Michael. Hugh is also a proper gentleman who doesn’t want his family name associated with a gaming-hell. Hugh cuts Michael out of his life which leads to the four year estrangement that comes to an end in the beginning of Courting Scandal.
Michael is now one of the richest and most powerful men in London. However, because of his situation, he moves within society but always outside of it.
What about Michael’s family situation?
Well, Michael is the eldest son of a viscount. Unfortunately, he is illegitimate and never knew his mother. For the first four years of his life, he was raised as a ward by his father. He was treated as a son.
Until Agatha. Agatha wed the viscount and was worried about Michael displacing her future sons in her husband’s affections and pocket. She has Michael banished to be raised with the servants. She spews vitriol at him whenever she sees him. The only comfort the viscount insists on is the benefit of education.
In the kitchens, Michael finds his first real family. A mother figure in the cook, Mrs. Hudson, a reluctant father in the butler, and a brother and sister in Augie, the stable master’s son, and Anna, Mrs. Hudson’s daughter. The older servants teach them to play hazard and other games of chance. Michael takes to them like a duck to water. While he’s in the kitchens he also teaches Augie and Anna some of his lessons.
Years pass, Agatha gives birth to an heir, Hugh, and a spare, Tom.
-
Then the worst happens. One day, Michael looks out on the lake nearby and sees his father, face down in the lake. Michael nearly dies trying to save his father, only to discover that he had killed himself.
Michael smooths over the details of the death to protect his brothers and stepmother from the painful truth. It quickly becomes apparent that Hugh isn’t ready to take on the responsibilities of viscount. Michael becomes viscount in all but title and he learns the extent of the estate’s debt.
Augie takes him to Temple Bar to blow off some steam and there Michael discovers his talent, he can win the money to save the estate. And he does, he spends years winning enough to bring the accounts back to where they should be. And then he earns enough to improve wages for the servants and build a safety-net.
When the time comes, Michael hands the keys over to an ungrateful Hugh who Michael has kept ignorant of both the circumstances of their father’s death and the mess the estate was in when he took over.
Michael’s family has left him jaded and distrustful of the ton. He’s perfectly willing to take their money, but he wants no part of the gentry.
He masks the hurt from the trauma and abuse he suffered through sarcasm and bravado, determined to remain unaffected at all costs.
Underneath all that, is an oozy gooey cinnamon bun center that few people get to see. He loves fiercely, even Hugh whose distant, disapproving nature hurts him at every turn.
When Michael meets the Juliet, the perfect debutant, he knows that she isn’t meant for him. Just like the visconty, she may allow him to flirt with her, but she’s meant to be a duchess.
Still, he can’t stay away from the girl with the bright blue eyes and wayward hair. The one who occasionally lets her mask of placid perfection slip in his presence. Juliet, who lets him see the brilliant, talented, kind, damaged girl beneath the flawless exterior. She’s an addiction, in the way the gaming tables never have been.
When one thing leads to another, Michael will have to decide; should he give her his heart and wait for the inevitable destruction? Or should he hurt himself now to save devastation later?
To find out, you’ll have to read Courting Scandal out this July.
I’m so excited for you to meet him! Though he would never forgive me for saying it, Michael has his own kind of Cinderella story, if that’s your jam, you’ll adore him.
<3 Ally