Prologue
This is the tale of two brothers.
No, allow me to go back. This is the tale of two half brothers, a distinction that does
not affect the brothers as much as it creates a place for the story to begin.
They were born deep in Wiltshire’s Deverill Valley, less
than a mile from the River Wylye, in a crumbling manor house called Rossmore
Court.
Although the Rainsleigh title was ancient and the family
lands entailed, the boys’ parents, Lord Franklin “Frankie” Courtland, the
Viscount Rainsleigh, and his lady wife, Este, were not held in high esteem—not
by their neighbors in Wiltshire nor by members of London’s haute ton. Instead, they were known mostly for their predilections:
recklessness, coarseness, drunkenness, irresponsibility, and deep debt.
Their notoriety did not curtail their fun, however, and
they carried on exactly as they pleased. In 1779, the viscountess became
pregnant, and Lord and Lady Rainsleigh added “woefully unfit parents” to their
list of indiscretions. Their firstborn was called Bryson—the future viscount,
Lord Rainsleigh’s heir. Young Bryson was somber and curious, stormy and
willful, but also inexplicably just and kind.
In 1785, Este and Frankie welcomed a second son, favored
almost immediately by his mother for his sweet nature and easy manner, his
angelic face and smiling blue eyes. The viscountess named him Beauregard, known
as “Beau.”
On the whole, the boys’ childhood was not a happy one.
Lord Rainsleigh was rarely at home, and when he was, he was rarely sober. He
managed the boys with equal parts mockery and scorn. Lady Rainsleigh, in turn,
was chronically unhappy, petulant, and needy, and she suffered an insatiable
appetite for strapping young men, with a particular preference for
broad-shouldered members of staff.
Money was scarce in those years, and schooling was
catch-as-catch-can. The brothers relied on each other to get along.
Bryson’s hard work and good sense earned them money for
new coats and boots each year, for books, and for an old horse that they shared.
Beau employed his good looks and charm to earn them
credit in the village shops, to convince foremen to hire them young, and to
persuade servants and tenants to stay on when there was no money for salaries
or repairs.
And so it went, each of the boys contributing whatever he
could to get by, until the summer of 1807, when the old viscount’s recklessness
caught up with him, and he tripped on a root in a riverbed and died.
With Frankie’s death, Bryson, the new viscount, set out
to right all the wrongs of his father and cancel the family’s debts. He moved
to London, where he worked hard, built and sold a boat, and then another, and
then another—and then five. And then fifteen. Eventually, he owned a shipyard
and became wealthier than his wildest dreams.
Beau, on the other hand . . .
Well, Beau had no interest in righting wrongs or
realizing moneyed dreams—he wasn’t
the Rainsleigh heir, thank God. His only wish was to take his handsome face and
winning charm and discover the delights of London and the world beyond.
For a time, he sailed the world as an officer of the
Royal Navy. For another time, he imported exotic birds and fish. He spent more
than a year with the East India Company, training native soldiers to protect
British trade. His life was adventurous and rambling, sunny if he could manage
it, and (perhaps most important) entirely on his own terms.
Until, that is, the day the Courtland brothers received,
quite unexpectedly, a bit of shocking news that changed both of their lives.
The news, which they learned from a stranger, was this:
the boys did not share the same father.
The horrible old viscount—the man who had beaten them and
mocked them, who had driven them into debt and allowed their boyhood home to
fall into ruin—was not, in fact, Bryson’s
father after all. Bryson’s father was another man—a blacksmith’s son from the
local village with whom their mother had had a heated affair.
Beau, as it turned out, was the
only natural-born son of Franklin Courtland.
Beau was the heir.
And just like that, Beauregard Courtland became the
Viscount Rainsleigh, the conservator and executor of all his brother had toiled
over a great many years to restore and attain.
It made no difference that Beau had no desire to be
viscount, that he was repelled by the notion, that the idea of becoming
viscount made him a little ill.
In protest, Beau threatened to leave the country; he
threatened to change his name; he threatened to commit a crime and endure
prison to avoid the bloody title—all to no avail.
He was the rightful
Viscount Rainsleigh, whether he liked it or not.
His brother, now simply Mr. Bryson Courtland, shipbuilder
and merchant, set out on a new quest: to train, coach, and cajole Beau into
becoming the responsible, noble, respected viscount that he himself would never
be again.
To answer that, Beau seized his own quest: resist. He
could not prevent his brother from dropping the bloody title in his lap, but he
could refuse to dance to the tune the title played.
He would carry on, he vowed, exactly as he had always
done—until . . . well . . .
“Until” is where this tale begins.
But perhaps this is not a tale of two brothers or even
the tale of two half brothers.
Perhaps it is the story of one brother and how the past
he could not change built a future that he, at long last, was willing to claim.
Charis
Michaels is thrilled to be making her debut with Avon
Impulse. Prior to writing romance, she studied Journalism at Texas A & M
and managed PR for a trade association. She has also worked as a tour guide at
Disney World, harvested peaches on her family’s farm, and entertained children
as the “Story Godmother” at birthday parties. She has lived in Texas, Florida,
and London, England. She now makes her home in the Washington, D.C.-metro area.
Genre: Romance, Young Adult
