I started him off in India, where he had an entire book's worth of adventures. He fought at Assaye in company with the future Duke of Wellington, ran afoul of an evil French aristocrat, was betrayed by his mistress, and did injury to an elegant English aristocrat, the Archangel Earl of Varden. Four hundred pages later I took him home to England, where he met the heroine. At last! Did I mention this was my first book?

After three year of labor I had a great stew of a book, over-long and plotless and unpublishable. It was a great education for a writer, and the next book sold straightaway. But I still loved the dark and dangerous man whose courage, directness, and humor kept him alive in my imagination. One day, I would find the right story for him. Now, with my thirteenth book, Michael Keynes has finally come to life.

And he sent me an e-mail!

Last year, just as I started writing Tiger, I downloaded e-mail one morning and saw a message from Michael Keynes. Yikes. Had I lost the last of my marbles? Slipped off into my own fantasies once and for all? Then I figured Alicia Rasley, a writer-friend with whom I'd brainstormed the story while we were traveling in England, was messing with me.

But it really was Michael Keynes, the 21st-Century version, a young man completing his doctorate in mathematics who had discovered a mention of his name on my website. And because it is apparently a rare name, he wondered how I'd chosen it for a romance-novel hero.

Last month, because they were in California to visit family, I had the pleasure of meeting Michael and his journalist sister for lunch. We talked for hours about writing and Buffy and Lord of the Rings and our travels. Turned out that Michael had long been fascinated with India and gone there alone to experience the country and its people. This Michael is not the athletic, sardonic warrior of my book, but like my hero, he is intelligent, witty, and has the soul of an adventurer. Here's a picture:

Now to the book and the places where it is set. Some are fictional, of course: Birindar's compound, Tallant House and Longview, and most particularly, Beata Neri's lavish palazzo. For its location, I chose a good-sized property near the Chelsea Embankment that was occupied in Regency times by Gough House. The nearest street running parallel to the river was Paradise Row, a perfect name that got lost as the area changed.

For Tallant House I chose Berkeley Square because of its central fenced garden, where ladies on the lam could hide themselves. Thirty large maples were planted there in 1789. This is how it looked in 1813, with the garden at the far left.

Much of the area northwest of Palazzo Neri, where David took Michael for a ride, was farmland. Here is the sort of vehicle David ought never to have bought--a high-perch phaeton.

Tattersall's London Horse Auction Mart, where Michael buys Loki and encounters his vicious brother, was established in 1766 near Hyde Park Corner. The founder, Richard Tattersall, rose from the position of second groom to become the Duke of Kingston's Master of Horse and used his contacts in the world of racing to set up a business of his own. Tattersall’s eventually moved to Knightsbridge and is now located at Newmarket.

Here's the rotunda at the center of the circular enclosure at Tattersall's, where Michael and his brother confront each other. The Prince Regent was a friend of the proprietor, and that's a bust of Prinny atop the cupola.

Suspected of murder, Mira is taken off to Number 4 Bow Street, the First Magistrate’s Court and the place where Bow Street Runners could be hired.

The Chief Justice at that time was Sir Richard Birnie, a Scot who worked his way up from saddler's apprentice to partner in a company that supplied the Royal Family. He further improved his lot by marrying a wealthy London merchant's daughter.

Excessively ambitious, with a reputation for being high-tempered and vindictive, he became a magistrate at Bow Street and had his eye on the knighthood that would come with being appointed Chief Magistrate. In 1821, a near-riot took place at Queen Caroline's funeral, and when the Chief Magistrate hesitated, Birnie seized authority and, on his own initiative, read the Riot Act. Pretty soon, he had his appointment and knighthood.

My character is closely modeled on the real Chief Magistrate of the time, but since I couldn't find enough information about him to feel comfortable using his name, I changed it just a bit.

The Tower of London, where an aristocratic felon was likely to be incarcerated, looked somewhat different in 1823 than it does today. For one thing, the moat was still there, although it’s not easily seen in this illustration:

A Duke, even one likely to be executed within a short time, would not be imprisoned in a grungy tower or a dungeon unless a monarch was seriously annoyed with him. Although Michael, heir presumptive to his murdered brother, had to await proof that his sister-in-law wasn't carrying a direct heir, no one--including the sister-in-law--was challenging his position. So, like Ann Boleyn and Katherine Howard, he was incarcerated in the Tudor-framed Lord Lieutenant's Lodging (known since 1858 as the Queen's House or King's House, depending on the sovereign).

But enough with crime and punishment. On to the wedding of Michael and Mira. After twenty years spent in India, and having accepted the hospitality of a Punjabi family that is making a place for itself in England, it was only natural that Michael surround the traditional Anglican ceremony with the beautiful customs of his friends. I had great fun exploring the music, food, and traditions of the Punjabi community in San Diego, especially when I got to dance the Bhangra. Fun for me, but probably not a pretty sight for observers!

On the Night of Mehndi (meh-hend-dee), the women gather for a party and adorn the bride's hands with henna. It is an ancient tradition, and the henna plant (Lawsonia mermis) has been celebrated for centuries.

"My beloved is unto me a cluster of henna flowers in the vineyards of En Gedi." (Song of Songs 1:14)

The leaves of the plant are dried, crushed into powder, and mixed with a liquid concoction that might include lemon or lime juice, tea or coffee, sugar, eucalyptus and clove oils, and sometimes tamarind paste. For a deeper color, it is allowed to sit for two days. The reddish-brown paste is used to ornament the bride's skin and nails. Michael, aware that Mira is sensitive to the appearance of her hands, chooses the Mehndi ceremony to tell her, without words, of his feelings. The patterns in the illustration are not the ones he chose to paint, but they will give you an idea of traditional bridal adornments.

Michael and Mira play significant roles in THE SILVER LION, available in November from Onyx.