Character Showcase: Anne Follyot

            Anne is a young woman who has, for many years, managed everything for her family— when they will let her. But now her beloved father is dead and the plan for Anne to safely spend her future looking after him in his dotage is scuppered. Now somewhere must be found to put Anne.

            Her elder brother, Wilfred, is disdainful of his sister's worth and thinks her more than a little "addled" for talking to make-believe friends, dancing in the rain, and not knowing when to "shut up."

 

            "Her chattering tongue shows a peculiar want of humility and is most unladylike."

  

           When her no-nonsense mother was alive, Anne's wistful perusal of brighter colors on the haberdasher's shelves had always been corralled with a sharp dose of wisdom and practicality.

            "Anne, you do better in brown," her mother would say. "It doesn't show stains or make promises you can't deliver. It's steadfast, practical and doesn't try to stand out."

Her sister, Lizzie,  was only five when their mother died and Anne was ten. From that time onward Anne became her little sister's mother figure and did everything for her. But now that they are older and Lizzie newly married, their roles are awkwardly reversed. Anne is still trying to get accustomed to the change and to young bride Lizzie's amiable, but ill-equipped, attempts to "look after" her spinster elder sister.

            Anne also has several aunts and great-aunts who have made it their mission to find her a  home now that Wilfred has sold the family house. And, of course, that means finding her a husband, no matter how far into the barrel they must scrape.

            But all her family's efforts to make her resigned to the dull fate of a plain girl, fit only for brown and practical uses, are in vain. Anne has—shockingly—made up her own mind about how she wants to spend her future. She is determined to know independence as a "modern girl" of 1877.

On her own for the first time at one and twenty, she takes herself into the exciting, wicked world of London, far away from the little Oxfordshire village where she grew up (population forty-nine, and all her business, or lack of it, known to them, as theirs was to her). She has found employment—after a few false starts— as a salesgirl at Lockreedy and Velder's Universal Emporium. For her it is the perfect position, allowing her to meet new people every day and to be a part of the ever-changing, ever-moving world that, until now, has passed her by like a speeding omnibus.

 

           Of course, she has managed all this very slyly, before any aunts can organize an alternative

path for her, but she writes to them all regularly, so that they need have no fear of her being abducted by pirates or highwaymen. She makes sure her letters are entertaining enough that nobody might get it into their head that she is lonely, homesick or afraid for her future as a single woman.

            Well, perhaps she makes up a few adventures for herself in those letters, but at least they do the trick of keeping her well-meaning aunts from finding more potential suitors for her. After all, they have not got the slightest idea what sort of man she might like, anymore than they know of her yearning for a rose madder dress instead of brown. They have not even bothered to ask. They think they know what's best for her. As an aunt once explained,

 

            Now, be mindful of this, Anne. You are a serviceable creature, not afraid or unaccustomed to hard work. Keeping house for your father and siblings these past ten years you are well broken in to drudgery, and that is your main attraction— your usefulness. Remember that. A plain, mild tempered bachelor, or a steady, elderly widower, will serve you better than some handsome, charming scoundrel likely to chase after every pretty face that passes...

 

            But Anne knows, in the back of her mind -- where he has been abandoned in the land of forgotten memories -- exactly with whom she wants to spend her future. She just needs a hard nudge to remember him.

            And when she is about to lose all chance of ever knowing a kiss from his lips, Anne Follyot's  clever, vivid and determined imagination finds a way to bring them together. With the help of a little seasonal magic, a few ghosts of Christmas past, present and future, and the strength of true love, she stops a certain grumpy fellow in his tracks and diverts his course to finally collide with her own.

            Her father had always said that her lively, clever mind would be the way to a man's heart. But  he did not know how right he was.

            Anne Follyot has always taken care of everybody else. Finally, this Christmas, its time she takes care of herself and gets the very present she wants. Nothing will stand in this "modern girl's" way.

 

* * * *

 

Want to know how Anne's Christmas wish for love comes true? Pre-order your e-book copy of The Snow Angel now! Or purchase now in print!

Images used: "Study of a girl reading" by Valentine Cameron Prinsep (c. 1860-1870)
and "Decorating the Christmas Tree" by Marcel Rieder 1898.