Who You Are Dealing With
A skeptic running a scam, an earl being managed by his own staff, an aunt with an invented name, and a butler who is the smartest person in the house.
The two at the center
Kathleen, called Kate
Dark red hair “the color of good mahogany,” fine features, and a temperament entirely at odds with the plot she is running. She is the practical one in a household of women who mix potions, and she has appointed herself “the only practical, and therefore responsible, female member of the family.”
Her aunt has her exactly: “a stickler for annoying things like honesty and a forthright manner and a direct approach.” Which makes the fake amnesia genuinely costly for her rather than a lark. She is not a schemer having fun. She is an honest person doing something she finds distasteful because she cannot see another route.
She is also braver than she lets on and knows it as a possible fault. After deliberately hiding her fear from Oliver she notices the habit and does not like what it might mean: “she was the kind of person who didn’t let anyone know when she was afraid. And she didn’t know if that was good or very, very bad.”
Her funniest moment is defensive. Told she is “old. And probably desperate,” she clenches her teeth and answers “I suspect I would know if I were desperate.”
Oliver Leighton, Earl of Norcroft
Wealthy, handsome, an earl, “one of the most eligible bachelors in the country,” blue eyes, and thoroughly tired of being a project. He won the tontine and has been treated as a failure for it ever since.
What makes him likeable is that he is not stupid about her. He catches the Shakespeare, catches the history, and tells her outright that he has been trying to work out who she is. He is simply willing to wait. His approach to a woman who is obviously lying to him is to keep her comfortable and let her decide when to stop, which is a more attractive quality than most heroes in this subgenre get.
He also has a sentimental streak he would deny under oath. He gave away the tontine winnings to a stranger with a wish attached. He thinks a Roman wall in his garden was built by magic, or did as a boy. He hoped a woman he had never spoken to would have green eyes.
The household, which has opinions
Hollinger
The butler, and the best-written character in the book. Openly allied with the countess in the campaign to get Oliver married, and entirely unembarrassed about it. When Oliver accuses the entire staff of conspiring with his mother, Hollinger’s defense is “My lord, I would never consider such a thing,” followed immediately by pointing out that the young lady’s arrival “is through no fault of anyone here at the manor.”
He is also the only person willing to state Oliver’s dilemma to his face, which he does in one immaculate sentence at page 304 and then calls a summary. Oliver’s reply is a surrender: “You’re very good, Hollinger.” His reply to that is “Yes sir.”
When pressed for an honest opinion on whether his employer is scholarly, he hesitates, is pressed again, and delivers: “As you wish, my lord. Not especially scholarly, no sir.”
Lady Norcroft
Oliver’s mother, and the engine of the marriage campaign. Relentless since the first tontine chair emptied. Fond of spring flowers, still occasionally does archery, and has recruited the entire household staff to her cause. Notably, she is not the obstacle. She is the reason a stranger with no memory gets a bed rather than a doctor and a train ticket.
Mr. Berkley
Oliver’s man, and the one who says the quiet part. After three roof slates nearly kill his employer he manages a magnificent piece of hedging: “One might wonder, sir, if one believed in superstitious nonsense, which of course I don’t, if perhaps this wasn’t some sort of, well, of a sign.”
Kate’s family, who believe in all of it
Aunt Hannah, also known as Lady Fitzgivens
The believer, the co-conspirator, and a far better liar than her niece. She offers to “mix up a potion. Concoct a charm or something of that nature” and is refused. So she does it the mundane way instead, inventing an entire identity on the spot and delivering it with unnecessary detail about train timetables and the shortsightedness of Lord Darlington’s estate placement.
Her working philosophy, offered cheerfully to her niece’s face: “Few of my plans have ever included honesty. Indeed, it seems contrary to the very nature of plans.”
The grandmother
A countess, and the person who actually resolves the novel. She believes in the curse completely and dismantles it with pure logic anyway: either it required a marriage between the families, in which case it ended two centuries ago with “the bastard son marrying the widowed daughter,” or it required a sacrifice, in which case Kathleen’s willingness to give up both love and her family’s future has supplied one.
Her refusal to overclaim is what makes her convincing: “Shall we simply say there was a curse and perhaps now there isn’t.” And her closing argument is the thesis of the book, delivered while holding her granddaughter’s chin the way she did when Kathleen was a child: “There are no assurances in life, my dear child. Hope and love are the only things that can sustain us.”
She is also proud of exactly the trait that makes Kathleen doubt the curse: “In spite of my best efforts, you have grown up to be a practical, sensible, intelligent woman with a good head on your shoulders.”
Malcolm Armstrong, Earl of Dumleavy
Kate’s uncle. Tall, rugged, graying, Scottish, and blunt to the point of rudeness. Arrives at page 249 and, on being introduced to the earl his niece intends to marry, delivers a verdict on the man’s conversational skills: “If that’s all he can say, lass, you’ve made a bad bargain of it.” Then snorts.
The jury
| Who | What they do |
|---|---|
| Gen | The eldest of the three and the one who says it outright: “Oliver. She wants Oliver.” Also responsible for calling Kate old to her face. |
| Belle | Twin. The diplomat, who converts “old” into “older. Than we are.” Also the one who notices the near-kiss. |
| Sophie | Twin. Smirks, and reports that Oliver was about to kiss Kate “practically under the nose of his mother.” |
| Cook, Joseph Clarke and his boy Tom | Household and village. Present for the arrival, awed and uncomfortable in a parlor they do not usually see. |
And one who never appears
The woman in the shabby cloak. She is mentioned once, on the last page, and she is the whole series. Oliver gave four shillings to a poorly dressed woman he passed, wishing her better luck than they had brought him. Those were the tontine winnings. She was Kate. She kept them, she came back, and she tells him about it in the middle of accepting his proposal, adding only: “I really must get a new cloak.”
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