Character Showcase - Dr. Evander Fielding

Readers of the first novel in the series (“BESPOKE”) will remember Dr. Fielding, the handsome and gallant gentleman who has his eye on our heroine Miss Lucy Greenwood, owner of Bespoke Temptations bakery and teashop.

Unfortunately for Dr. Fielding, Miss Greenwood prefers to keep him as a friend rather than a suitor. Her comments to this effect, however, have not prevented him from the occasional attempt to change her mind. He thinks she’s a lady in need of somebody to save her reputation and he, being a somber, earnest and caring fellow, believes he is the man who can do that.

Evander grew up in Oxfordshire, in the village of Tender Tumblety, very much under his stern mother’s thumb. His father died when Evander was only four, so he and his mother were left to struggle on together. It has not been a loving, happy relationship, since his mother made it clear that a son could be nothing but a disappointment. Whatever he did or said, it was always the wrong thing. As soon as he had the opportunity, therefore, he came north to Yorkshire, to start his own life away from Mrs. Henrietta Fielding’s bitter resentment.

He knows his mother would never approve of a modern, independent-minded woman like Lucy Greenwood for her son, but perhaps that is why he pursues her. Mrs. Fielding did not approve of his decision to move to Yorkshire either, and he did not listen. He would be shocked if she ever approved of anything he did.

But since he arrived in Yorkshire last year and took over a medical practice within sight of an old hotel called ‘The Brindle Horse’, things have not been going so well for Evander Fielding. He’s been suffering bad dreams about a murder that once took place at the hotel and he’s beginning to wonder whether they truly are dreams, or whether they might be memories.

The last time he was here, ten years ago, he stayed one night at ‘The Brindle Horse’ hotel and accidentally became involved, as a reluctant witness, in a scandalous murder trial. His mother warned him then, that no good could come of travelling so far away from her. For a while, after it happened, he was inclined to believe her; his life  was turned upside down and inside out by those shocking events and everything that followed. But surely it was simply ill luck that he should get mixed up in something like that once before. It must be safe now to return, he’d thought. It couldn’t possibly happen to him again, could it?

Although living there, close to ‘The Brindle Horse’ hotel, he has not yet been back inside it. He can’t quite seem to summon the courage. But he keeps the building within his sights, just in case he catches those wisteria covered walls up to no good.

Something has drawn him back there after ten years, but what could it be? Or who could it be? After all, ‘The Ladybird Murder’-- as the newspapers called it at the time-- was never solved. No body was ever found and the accused murderess, Mrs. Amarinda Siddaway, was eventually acquitted.

Perhaps Evander’s dreams are trying to tell him something about that decade-old mystery. Something he knows about the case, but has been trying to forget.

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What's troubling poor Dr. Fielding? Find out on July 5th in "A LOVELINESS OF LADYBIRDS"

(Image used here: Frank Holl, self-portrait 1863)