The Nurse and the Knight

Suspect: Imogen Welles, Nurse

Age: Forty

             Nurse Welles was hired to look after and manage Lord Percival, Lady Isolda's younger brother, who can be quite a handful. She is a no-nonsense sort with a dry sense of humor and a resting expression that seems steeped in vinegar. But something about her self-complacent smirk suggests she knows more about the family secrets and sins than she's letting on.

            Whatever she knows, Nurse Welles protects her information as a crypt-keeper guards bones. She steers clear of the servants' hall to avoid all the petty squabbles, and lives in Lord Percy's rooms on an upper floor of the house in what used to be the nursery.

      

      It is evident that the nurse sees herself as superior to all other staff and, indeed, to most of the Welfords too. According to the butler, she has ingratiated herself with the lady of the house by freely supplying certain remedies for anxieties and headaches, as well as providing a confidential and sympathetic ear on occasion. The butler, of course, resents this intrusion, as he has been her ladyship's friend and confident far longer. But Nurse Welles remains unmoved by the butler's dislike and only faintly amused by his jealous fussing. In her eyes she is far above him in consequence and in Lady Isolda's favor.

            After all, two women together can not only share a great many secrets they would never tell a man, they can also complain about things the male gender would never understand.

            As for Lord Percival, she can handle him better than anybody else ever could. The knack, she says, is not to believe a word he utters -- but to presume everything he comes up with is an extension of his make-believe world. Her job is to take care of his practical, daily needs and keep him sheltered from the real world. In other words to keep him "out of the way" where he cannot embarrass the haughty Welfords, who, in actual fact, do a fairly good job of embarrassing themselves.     

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Suspect: Lord Percival Skefflington

Age: Fifty-two. (Prefers five and a half. Or twenty-five.)

 

            Percy Skefflington is the younger brother of Lady Isolda and the last child of the fifth Marquess of Skefflington. His elder half-brother Amyas, the current Marquess, resides in Bermuda, where he has lived since before Percy was born. Amyas Skefflington still holds the title, but gave up most of his Yorkshire property when Percy was a boy, selling the land to wealthy, socially ambitious, Yorkshire businessman Ezra Welford.

      

      He might not appear to have much grip on reality, but Lord Percy is very much aware of his proud, noble and ancient Skefflington roots -- just as he knows the Welford family are cuckoos on that land. The old castle on the hill might be in ruins, but Percy still sees it as it used to be, long ago, when brave warriors defended the battlements on behalf of his ancestors. He also imagines himself as a much younger man, armor-clad and ready for war to protect his Skefflington birthright.

            But since marrying into that "common" family of thieves and humbug-salesmen, his sister Isolda has promised to look after Percy. She vows to keep him safe and out of an asylum. She's also promised him that one day, when she's gone, he will inherit secret treasure. Or so he says. Perhaps she simply wanted to keep  him on his best behavior.

            Perhaps it is just another of his fantasies.

            As Nurse Welles remarks, "Lord Percival says a lot of things all day long. Very little of it has anything to do with reality. If I rushed around in response to every statement he makes, I'd never have a moment's peace."

            But the last thing Percy wants is for anybody to be at peace on his land. Not when the usurpers don't belong there.

            Fortunately for them, he is distracted, at present, by what flavor jam he'll have in his sandwiches for tea at three o'clock and that is his most pressing matter.

 

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BESPOKE is now available for pre-order, or pick up your copy on February 20th!

 

(Images used here: Our Nanny by Joseph DeCamp, 1895. Portrait of Lord Percy as a Young Man William of Orange by Antonis Mor, 1555)