The Official Essex Sisters Companion Guide (19 page)

                       
Loretta looked up in surprise, and Jenny sighed. Loretta was a different sort of person than anyone Jenny had ever met. As far she could tell, Loretta never thought about anything other than how to become a great actress. Even when she stepped on people’s toes, it was only because she had forgotten that they weren’t privy to her thoughts.

                            
“I didn’t mean it that way,” Loretta said penitently. “You know that I couldn’t touch butter, not after that unfortunate episode last year.”

                            
Jenny was the only one who knew that the unfortunate episode was a baby.

The Taming of the Duke

Cooper
—
Pleasure for Pleasure

Upon learning of Eliot Thurman’s financial ruin, his butler, Cooper, fills two crates with silver teapots, a pair of candlesticks, and other household silver, whistles for a hackney, loads up the crates, and hops into the carriage. He leaves the front door swinging open, just in case anyone cared to enter (unfortunately for Thurman, two men do indeed enter).

Cooper, Mrs.
—
Kiss Me, Annabel

The village woman who tells Annabel that consummation needn’t be painful if she married a man who knew what he was doing. “Marry a tired rake,” Mrs. Cooper told her. “They know everything, and yet they’re worn out and ready to settle down. As long as he doesn’t have the pox.”

Cristobel
—
The Taming of the Duke

Cristobel is the memorable entertainer at Hynde’s Black Swan, who plunges into a cask of wine with Imogen. Eloisa did not base Cristobel on a particular historical figure; in fact, she thinks that Cristobel’s practice of choosing one man from the crowd to supposedly take to her bed might have led to arrest. The practice, of course, was a ruse, since her husband is a master of disguise and shows up in different clothing, waiting to be chosen. Cristobel broke this pattern only once, with the Earl of Mayne. Eloisa says that must have happened well before she married.

                       
Before Rafe knew what was happening, one of the burly men had hoisted Cristobel directly onto the wine barrel next to Imogen.

                            
Who gasped and straightened, automatically giving Cristobel more space on the top of the cask.

                            
Cristobel laughed down at the crowd. “Aren’t we the prettiest ladies for leagues around?”

The Taming of the Duke

Crogan, Baby Son—
The Taming of the Duke
(b. November 1817)

The youngest of four boys of the eldest Crogan brother. There is an ancient agreement between the Crogans and Ardmores that when an Ardmore daughter marries a Crogan, a particularly large amount of gold travels to the Crogan household. The arrangement is of long standing, but to this date, no Crogan had managed to talk a woman of the Ardmore house into marrying him, even though Crogans had done some serious courting. Perhaps a future story for Eloisa! (A note: Eloisa says that she would have a terrible time creating a hero with such an unpleasant last name.)

Crogan Brothers
—
Kiss Me, Annabel, Pleasure for Pleasure

As Eloisa writes, “Neighbors may well be the nearest . . . but not the dearest.”

The Crogan brothers, Ewan’s neighbors, grow rather excitable once they’ve had something to drink. Annabel must endure a meal with the Crogans after the harvest fest;
it would be paramount to a declaration of war to change the tradition, since the Crogans and the Ardmores have marched along beside each other for a century. The present Crogans’ grandda actually managed to feather Ewan’s grandmother in-law, and they nearly succeed in plastering Annabel with molasses and feathers prior to her wedding. They also attempt to court Josie and nearly ruin her season in London.

Cruikshank, George
—
The Taming of the Duke

Cruikshank (1792–1878) was a famous caricaturist and book illustrator in Georgian England. In
The Taming of the Duke
, he is reported to have made a wicked caricature of Lord Kerr’s gypsy eyes.

D

Dapper
—
Much Ado About You

In a letter to Annabel and Josie, Tess writes that the housekeeper, Mrs. Gabthorne, is feuding with the head housemaid, Dapper.

                       
“According to Mrs. Gabthorne, Dapper has an eye for one of the footmen who is at least five years her junior, and Mrs. Gabthorne worries (very righteously, you understand) that Dapper will attempt to corrupt the youth. Meanwhile Dapper tells me that Mrs. Gabthorne is ‘borrowing’ tea and taking it to her sisters in the village. And how am I to ascertain the truth of that, pray? Of course, I daren’t mention the footman to Dapper, either. In all, I find it more work to manage an establishment with servants than it was to manage a quite similar-sized house without servants.”

Much Ado About You

Darlington, Anna
—(b. 1821)—
Pleasure for Pleasure

Anna is the daughter of Sir Charles and Lady Darlington (i.e., Griselda). Anna was born a couple months after her father was knighted for his work on Princess Charlotte’s biography.

Darlington, Sir Charles
—aka Lord Charles Darlington—
Pleasure for Pleasure

Darlington is a very good-looking, yellow-curled, blue-eyed writer who does not always put his creative gifts to good purpose. Not only did he come up with the term that plagued Josie—the “Scottish Sausage”—but he wrote the pseudo memoir of the Earl of Mayne, as well as many other popular books. He confesses his reasons for coming up with cruel nicknames to Griselda before he asks her to marry him, which she does. Later he is knighted for his work on Princess Charlotte’s biography, and he and Griselda have a daughter, Anna.

                       
There was no doubt that life was difficult when cravats were so expensive, and the
ton
so tiresome. Of course, there were pleasures in life, although small.

                            
The pleasure of a well-turned retort was one. One might think that Darlington was something of a monster, but he was not. He knew perfectly well that he was a trivial person, and he never failed to promptly acknowledge the fact, as did his friends.

Pleasure for Pleasure

Derwent
—
Much Ado About You

Lucius Felton’s gloomy manservant is resigned to his fate as an artiste in the service of a man with no sense of fashion.

                       
Alas, Lucius Felton was resolutely conservative when it came to dress. No mustache. No facial hair whatsoever, as a matter of fact. The most he would allow his valet to do was to sleek his thick blond hair back from his face in a style that was most severe.

Much Ado About You

Devonshire, Duke of
—
The Taming of the Duke

A most interesting historical character. When Griselda informs Rafe that it is unsuitable for him to entertain his ward in the presence of his illegitimate brother, the duke asks her why not, given that the Duke of Devonshire raised all seven of his children (from three different mothers) together. The Fifth Duke of Devonshire, William Cavendish (1748–1811) was portrayed in the movie
The Duchess
, featuring Keira Knightley.

Dobson, William
—
Much Ado About You

William Dobson (1611–46) a portraitist, was one of the first notable English painters. Lucius reports having bought one of his paintings, a depiction of the children of
a roundhead cavalier, for nearly a thousand pounds—a painting that Eloisa wishes she hadn’t described because she made so many errors in identifying the subjects (see
Part One
for her confession).

E

Ellerby, Miss Alice
—
Kiss Me, Annabel

Lucius Felton pays Miss Ellerby a large sum of money to publish a truly scintillating account of her relationship with Lord Ardmore, so that Annabel can return to London without marrying Ewan. By the time Annabel gets the news, she has already fallen in love with Ewan, so she goes forth with the marriage.

Elsie
—
Much Ado About You

Elsie, a nursemaid, becomes a lady’s maid after Holbrook met his new wards; she is assigned to Annabel. She travels with Annabel to Scotland.

                       
“You’ll wear it with the double row of pearls from Mrs. Felton,” Elsie said, scurrying about the room. “And more of those French roses in your hair.” She had her jaw firmly set.

                            
“All right,” Annabel said. “I’ll wear the gown, but I’ll not wear the slippers.”

                            
Elsie scowled and Annabel wondered just how it happened that she ended up ruled by her maid instead of the other way around.

Kiss Me, Annabel

Essex, Charles—Viscount Brydone
(deceased)
Much Ado About You, Kiss Me, Annabel, The Taming of the Duke

Viscount Brydone was the father of the Essex sisters, and died when he was thrown from a half-tamed stallion. We learn he had written to a mere acquaintance, the Duke of Holbrook, asking him to be the guardian for his daughters, and offering him a horse in exchange.

Brydone was “horse crazy” and spent all his money on his stables while neglecting his family. The viscount repeatedly promised his daughters that they would have a season in London to find husbands once he won big at the racetrack. He left a racehorse as a dowry for each of his daughters, together with the stipulation that no groom could sell his horse before the first year of marriage had passed.

Essex, Miss Annabel
—Annabel Essex Poley; Countess of Ardmore—
Much Ado About You, Kiss Me, Annabel, The Taming of the Duke, Pleasure for Pleasure

Annabel is the second eldest Essex sister. She has buttery hair that gleams with the dull gold of old silk, eyes tilted slightly at the corners and framed with sooty eyelashes. When she was thirteen, her father discovered that she had a gift for numbers and dumped the entire financial accounting of the estate on her. Annabel, with a brazen belief in her own magnificence, has made up her mind to marry a wealthy English husband.

Essex, Miss Imogen
—Imogen, Lady Maitland; aka Her Grace, Imogen Jourdain, Duchess of Holbrook—
Much Ado About You, Kiss Me, Annabel, The Taming of the Duke, Pleasure for Pleasure

Imogen is the third eldest Essex sister. She has their mother’s sleek black hair and her laughing eyes, and an exquisitely curved mouth. In
Much Ado About You
, Imogen elopes with Draven Maitland, who dies just days after their marriage. Her first husband was penniless, but his mother dies shortly thereafter, leaving her private estate to her daughter-in-law, and making Imogen one of the wealthiest widows in all England. After her first six months of mourning, Imogen joins Annabel in London for the season and amuses herself by shocking matrons of the
ton
by wearing mourning dresses cut in daring styles. She is rumored to be having a flagrant
affaire
with the Earl of Mayne.

Essex, Miss Josephine “Josie”
—Josephine “Josie” Langham, Countess of Mayne—
Much Ado About You, Kiss Me, Annabel, The Taming of the Duke, Pleasure for Pleasure

Josephine, or Josie, as she is called, is the youngest of the sisters. Josie is quick-witted, and lush with unfashionable curves. Nicknamed the “Scottish Sausage” within a week of her debut on the marriage market, her chances of matrimony look dim, at least until she allows the scandalous Earl of Mayne to tutor her in the arts of seduction.

Essex, Miss Teresa Elizabeth “Tess”
—Mrs. Teresa “Tess” Felton—
Much Ado About You, Kiss Me, Annabel, The Taming of the Duke, Pleasure for Pleasure

Teresa, or Tess, as she is called, is the eldest of the Essex sisters. She conceals a dry sense of humor behind her irreproachable behavior. She is beautiful, with brandy brown hair and cheekbones that the harshest sunlight couldn’t diminish. She determines to marry a rich man for the sake of her sisters, and marries Lucius Felton after the Earl of Mayne jilts her at the altar.

F

Feddrington, Lady (Lucy)
—
Kiss Me, Annabel, The Taming of the Duke, Pleasure for Pleasure

In
Kiss Me, Annabel
, Lady Feddrington is portrayed in the grip of a passion for all things Egyptian. Her ballroom is flanked by twenty-foot-high statues of Anubis, an Egyptian god, which originally guarded the doors of an Egyptian temple. Giggling, Lady Feddrington tells Annabel that she thinks of them like superior servants: “so silent, and you can tell in a glance that they won’t drink to excess.”

By
Pleasure for Pleasure
, Lady Feddrington is over her passion for all things Egyptian and she has donated the statues to the British Museum. Her husband was apparently quite displeased by this, as the statues were so expensive, but he was quickly reconciled once the museum promised to name a room after him. (A note from Jody: the statues shrank from twenty feet high in
Kiss Me, Annabel
to ten feet high in
Pleasure for Pleasure
!)

At the Epsom Downs race course, Sylvie notices that Lady Feddrington is wearing a bonnet that looks like a huge meringue, tied with a ribbon, along with diamond earrings as large as daisies. Sylvie views her attire as gauche, but original.

Felton, Mr. Lucius John Percival
—
later Earl of Barnett
—
A Fool Again
(novella featured in the anthology
The One That Got Away
),
Much Ado About You, Kiss Me, Annabel, The Taming of the Duke, Pleasure for Pleasure

Lucius looks every inch a duke, a patrician, a wealthy creature of privilege who dominates a room merely by entering it. He is worth more than the Duke of Holbrook and the Earl of Mayne put together. He marries the eldest Essex sister, Tess. He is characteristically calm and nonjudgmental. It becomes clear through the series that when
something needs to be done, Lucius will get it done, quietly, and without a fuss. He longs for a home of his own, which Tess provides.