# Short Fiction — Character guide

> Key figures in Short Fiction by Catherine Louisa Pirkis.

- [Lettice Tremarten](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_61_se/characters/lettice_tremarten.md): Lettice is one of the Misses Tremarten visiting Lochiel, and her unexplained departure with Captain McCormack triggers the story's central crisis. Her eccentric upbringing, blamed by Aunt Rosamond for her indiscretions, 
- [Lord Hardcastle](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_61_se/characters/lord_hardcastle.md): Hardcastle has lost Amy, the woman he loved, and now devotes himself to her devastated father, Mr. Warden, whose health is failing. He wrestles with the responsibility of dragging an old, ill man abroad on an uncertain s
- [Mr. Warden](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_61_se/characters/mr_warden.md): Mr. Warden sits beside his ailing wife as a thunderstorm rages, listening as she insists their dark days are ending and that Amy will come home. His choked silence and the howling of the hound Presto betray a grief too d
- [Frank Varley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_61_se/characters/frank_varley.md): Frank lies in Dublin, saved from fever but sunk in blank despair over Amy, whom he had hoped to marry. His mother, Mrs. Varley, gently confronts his selfishness, pointing out that Mary Burton has worn herself out caring 
- [Captain Ivie McCormack](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_61_se/characters/captain_ivie_mccormack.md): Captain McCormack spirits Lettice away to Ingleside, and it is his man Ellis who coolly informs the Tremarten household of the outing before escaping back to his master. His sister Lilla, described as fast and strong-min
- [Amy Warden](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_61_se/characters/amy_warden.md): Amy is the beloved daughter of Mr. Warden and the woman Lord Hardcastle loved, recovered from the reeds with a look of agony on her face and a wedding band where an antique ruby ring once sat. Her death shatters her fath
- [Aunt Rosamond](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_61_se/characters/aunt_rosamond.md): Aunt Rosamond presides over her niece Lettice's London season with aquiline disapproval and a foot that taps a rapid tattoo whenever her brother Owen edges toward matchmaking. She champions the girl's right to know her o
- [Fay](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_61_se/characters/fay.md): Fay is the beloved at the center of a circle of men—a father, a truehearted lover, and Lord Hardcastle—who kneel over her mud-stained blue silk dress and clasped hands. The wedding ring on her finger, replacing the antiq
- [Helen](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_61_se/characters/helen.md): Nellie moves through the household with a love of fun that makes stillness impossible, yet beside the polished Beatrix she confesses to feeling small, indifferently dressed, and lacking in manner. That unease sharpens in
- [Lilla McCormack](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_61_se/characters/lilla_mccormack.md): Lilla belongs to a world where the poor show a refinement that higher ranks forget, and where a flower-girl presses fern and geranium into a small thin hand. Her fate is bound up with Caleb, the blind old man who begs fo
- [Val Thorndyke](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_61_se/characters/val_thorndyke.md): Val whispers of freedom, Italy, and a marriage of heart to heart while the tide ebbs and the rocks seem to fling his words back. He is reckless, romantic, and utterly certain that Archie's yacht and four sailors can carr
- [The Professor](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_61_se/characters/the_professor.md): Professor Thurstane meant to be a bookworm but inherited the family acres, an orphan nephew Piers, and an heiress niece Nellie, so he lives two lives in snatches and barricades himself against both. His treatise on contr
- [Beatrix Harley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_61_se/characters/beatrix_harley.md): Beatrix moves through the same drawing-rooms and skating parties as Nellie, but she is the one who slips Piers a pencilled note reading 'At twelve tonight.' Nellie reads that cramped, sly little hand as the mark of a wom
- [Rhea Crossley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_61_se/characters/rhea_crossley.md): Lady Glencross began as Miss Rhea Crossley, picking gooseberries in a vicarage garden, until a hunting accident left young Lord Glencross a six-week prisoner under her care. Society credits luck for her rise, but her rea
- [Isola](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_61_se/characters/isola.md): Isola belongs to Aimée, a woman who fled a cruel husband for the Convent of St. Geneviève, and she tells Aimée's daughter Amy the story with a bias that quietly poisons the girl against her father. She cannot comprehend 
- [Caleb](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_61_se/characters/caleb.md): An older servant or retainer, providing local color and information.
- [Dr. Herron](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_61_se/characters/dr_herron.md): Dr. Herron plays chess at The Eyrie with Mr. Tremarten and remembers Ivie McCormack from Rugby days, which is exactly why his opinion carries weight. When Tremarten reads aloud his daughter's letter mentioning the captai
- [Lady Glencross](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_61_se/characters/lady_glencross.md): A noblewoman, possibly a relative or acquaintance of the main cast.
- [The Doctor](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_61_se/characters/the_doctor.md): A medical professional attending to various characters.
- [Piers](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_61_se/characters/piers.md): A character who appears in the narrative, possibly a servant or local.
- [Trevor Yorke](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_61_se/characters/trevor_yorke.md): A character with a role in the subplot.
- [Mattie](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_61_se/characters/mattie.md): A young servant or local girl, appearing in various scenes.
- [Lord Lochiel](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_61_se/characters/lord_lochiel.md): A Scottish nobleman, possibly a minor character.
- [Jack](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_61_se/characters/jack.md): A character, possibly a servant or local, appearing in the later chapters.
- [Lavinia](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_61_se/characters/lavinia.md): A cousin of one of the main characters.
- [Mr. Hill](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_61_se/characters/mr_hill.md): A detective involved in the investigation.
- [Mary Burton](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_61_se/characters/mary_burton.md): A woman with a minor role, possibly a servant or acquaintance.
- [Miss Kempe](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_61_se/characters/miss_kempe.md): A woman of some importance in the subplot.
- [Aunt Judith](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_61_se/characters/aunt_judith.md): An elderly aunt, possibly of the Wardens or another family.
- [Lucy Williams](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_61_se/characters/lucy_williams.md): A woman with a past, possibly related to Tom Williams.
- [Aimée](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_61_se/characters/aimee.md): A French-sounding character, possibly a servant or acquaintance.
- [Dulcie Crossley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_61_se/characters/dulcie_crossley.md): A young girl, possibly related to Rhea Crossley.
- [Euan Mackreth](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_61_se/characters/euan_mackreth.md): An older man, possibly a relative of Lady Elizabeth.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_61_se/characters