Character Showcase - Old Lady Hardwicke and Sir Buxton

A LOVELINESS OF LADYBIRDS (available for pre-order here) contains a wedding and two murders, but no funeral. There are also, however, a great many people in mourning black. Among them is old Lady Hardwicke, who claims seventy-five years, but might very likely be hiding a few more under her widow’s weeds.

Lady Hardwicke is a woman of strong opinions and voice. She has no time for weakness, sickness, wastefulness or inefficiency. Her only son, Sir Buxton is about to be married, which means that she will now become the Dowager Lady Hardwicke. But she does not see that as a reason to be sat down in a corner. The lady takes swift objection to anybody who dares suggest she would prefer a quiet spot out of the way.

In public, she speaks very highly of her son and his seat in the House of Lords – after all he is the Hardwicke family’s last chance of continuation into another generation and another century -- but there are only so many times an intelligent woman can overlook a man’s faults, his negligence and his bumbling clumsiness.

Sir Buxton is in his fifties and never previously married. This has led to all manner of rumor and the general expectation that he will remain a bachelor. The announcement of his wedding to a governess, therefore, comes as a shock to many. Especially as it is undertaken so speedily.

Can old Lady Hardwicke finally have run out of patience with her son and pushed him to marry as quickly as possible, to beget the all-important Hardwicke heir? What secrets are they all hiding that makes this hasty marriage necessary? And why choose Miss Edina Meridies – a sweet girl, but shy and meek, and certainly not the titled, moneyed heiress one might expect for a Hardwicke? There are rumors that Sir Buxton chose her to be a companion for his mother, whenever the demands of his post keep him in London for extended periods. Edina isn’t the sort to be any trouble, of course, and has no temperament capable of challenging his mother.

The Hardwickes live in Feldale House, a crumbling mansion that was once the grandest house in the little hamlet of Quipsey Denby, a few miles outside York. Despite its steady decay, the house still has impressive bones, but although it has many beautiful windows, they are mostly rendered blind by having the curtains constantly drawn to keep out light. Old Lady Hardwicke believes this will save the “Hardwicke Treasures” – items our heroine, Lucy Greenwood, calls “detritus”– from the devilry of too much sunlight. In many rooms, candles have to be lit throughout the day, giving the house an aura of gloom and constant night.

The old lady herself seldom sees much daylight or cheerful company. With her son away so often and her husband long dead, she is most often left alone in her house with a few dour servants to wait on her. This wedding is, for her, a rare jaunt into the outside world. And it just might open her eyes – and her curtains-- in more ways than one.

As for Sir Buxton, well, things aren’t quite going to turn out the way he expects.

But it all begins long, long before he tries to reach a jar of Epsom salts on a washroom shelf.

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Grab your copy of A LOVELINESS OF LADYBIRDS on July 5^th .  Or PRE-ORDER here.

You can catch up on Lucy Greenwood’s life and her relationship with Detective Inspector Deverell in BESPOKE, the first book in the series, available now from most online booksellers.

(Images used here: Mary Ann Baxter by Edward Hughes c. 1883 and Portrait of Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess of Wellesley by Thomas Lawrence 1813-1830)