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Character Histories

Here's s series of blogs introducing you to some of the main characters in the Choices and Consequences series

First there’s Prospero.

He’s about 6ft 2in tall with short black hair and deep blue eyes, so dark they are almost navy in colour. He’s been a monk for some years now and he finds that both satisfying and fulfilling. He comes across as confident, sure of himself and strong in his faith. He works as a doctor and enjoys everyday clinic work best, just making other people’s lives that little bit better. Like all the doctors where he works he has a specialism. In this environment about a quarter of the population have some degree of mental ability such as telepathy or telekinesis. Prospero’s specialism is dealing with what happens when something goes wrong with that ability.

Prospero himself is very Gifted with such mental abilities. He’s strongest at telekinesis – moving things with his mind – but he’s also skilled in telepathy and teleportation. He doesn’t have any real ability with pyrokinesis (setting fire to things) and just a very little skill in precognition.

He doesn’t think he has a favourite colour, but if he had to pick, he’d say green. He sees food as fuel and will eat whatever is on offer although he’d definitely miss bacon if it wasn’t available. As well as being a doctor, Prospero works in the gardens at the monastery, mainly with the flowers and foliage used for decorating the monastery, hospital and Abbey. As a result he’d say that one of his hobbies is flower arranging. He’s also interested in social and cultural history – where various customs and traditions come from and what they mean.

Prospero’s closest friend is Andrew.

Andrew is also a monk. In fact, they’ve been monks for almost exactly the same length of time, although they were already close friends before that. Andrew is slightly shorter than Prospero and fair where Prospero is dark. He’s quiet and thoughtful, which makes many people think that Prospero is the leader and Andrew just follows him around. Actually, their relationship is much more complex than that.

Andrew is also a doctor and he specialises in the development of the mental gifts, which makes the two of them a very useful team. Andrew is also very Gifted himself. He’s not as good at telekinesis or telepathy as Prospero but much better at pyrokinesis.

Andrew helps out in the stables and he’s good with horses – he’s been looking after them all his life. He’s also skilled with languages, being fluent in most of the common ones in use in the world.

Their world is going to be disrupted by Leonie.

Leonie is a lot of trouble wrapped up in one small package. She’s about 5ft 4in tall, with flaming red hair which curls and tangles at the slightest opportunity. She has honey coloured skin and dark grey eyes which flash with green when she’s excited, angry or simply using her Gifts. Although she doesn’t realise it, she’s more Gifted than either of the other two.

She’s a very private person and life has taught her that it’s best to keep out of the way and try not to be noticed. The problem is that she’s inherently noticeable. She hasn’t yet learnt to manage her Gifts under all circumstances and the thought that she might hurt someone by accident really worries her.

Her favourite colour is yellow and she can’t stand scarlet. She has a very sweet tooth and a particular liking for chocolate chip cookies. Her favourite breakfast is pancakes and bacon with lots of maple syrup. Leonie loves baking, particularly bread, and experimenting with different recipes. She’s also skilled in the use of herbs for medicinal purposes. She enjoys swimming but her favourite hobby is reading. Given the opportunity she’ll curl up somewhere comfortable with a good book.

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Today, I thought I’d introduce you to a few of the other characters.

Lord Gabriel is both the High Lord of House St Peter and the Abbot of the monastery there. Fortunately he’s very good at delegation. Brother Benjamin runs the hospital, Lady Sarah manages the college, Sister Elizabeth is in charge of the convent and Lady Eleanor handles anything to do with the part of the Great House that isn’t a monastery.

Gabriel is in his late fifties and has been a monk for about thirty years. In his teens he spent some time living and travelling with Traders. He is very Gifted, having all the major Gifts – telepathy, telekinesis, pyrokinesis and precognition – and extremely powerful, but he uses his Gifts as little as possible. His strongest Gift is precognition and he sees visions of possible alternative futures, along with the knowledge that his actions will determine which future actually takes place. This terrifies him.

Lady Eleanor is the same age as Lord Gabriel and also spent time with the Traders in her teens. She married young, to Harry, and went away to live with him in a different Great House. Harry died when their daughter, Melanie, was very young, and Eleanor and Melanie then came to live at House St Peter to be near Eleanor’s brother. Eleanor is very capable, very organised and many people at House St Peter (and elsewhere) find her slightly scary.

She’s an avid reader and has a (secret) addiction to romantic fiction, but it has to have a happy ending. She’s also very Gifted, with one of her key skills being telepathy, although again she doesn’t use it much. I think there is some history between her and Brother Benjamin, but I haven’t found out what – yet.

Sister Chloe is one of the nuns. She’s in her early twenties, with deep brown eyes and mousy brown hair. Like Eleanor, she’s very organised and so, despite her youth, she runs Lord Gabriel’s office, schedule and communications. From her teens, her only ambition was to become an nun, and she’s one of those people who is always happy, always content, always sees the positives in everything. Chloe is definitely telepathic, but she can also see what’s happening in other people’s dreams if she is near them when they are asleep.

Turns out, she’s also a really skilled manicurist. And she likes chocolate chip cookies – the ones with gooey middles.

The Them. Every Gifted adept has nightmares as their Gifts develop, based on their worst fears and experiences. The nightmares are different for each adept, and the stronger their Gifts are, the worse and more terrifying the nightmares. Leonie’s nightmares are peopled by the Them, always dressed in black, hooded and cloaked, always reaching for her. If she runs from Them, they chase her; if she attacks, they fade away and reform elsewhere. If there are real people around when she’s having a nightmare, she’ll see them as the Them. You’ll have to read book 4, Cloth of Grace to find out the full story behind the Them, but here’s an early appearance from Strand of Faith.

The Them were coming for me and the only thing I could think of was that I needed to get back to the campus. The Them swirled around me, cloaks and hoods billowing in the breeze. I had no weapons, nothing I could use and they were coming towards me, getting closer and closer, surrounding me. I took my courage in both hands and charged into the Them who were directly in my path. They melted away like mist as I reached them, but now they were behind me and chasing me. I ran and ran but somehow they appeared 

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Much of Weave of Love takes place at Deep River Farm, which is the home of Prospero aka Perry’s – family. So I thought I’d introduce you to them.

Mary : Mary is Perry’s mother. She’s not much taller than Leonie – about 5ft 6” but she has a big personality and manages to keep order among her family with no trouble at all. She’s the youngest sister of Lord Neville, the High Lord of Great House Tennant, but they haven’t spoken for many years. They argued over her choice of husband and way of life but the final straw was when Lord Neville chose her oldest son, Perry, to train as one of his potential heirs. Mary enjoys baking, just as Leonie does, and is well versed in the use of herbs in both cooking and medical matters. She doesn’t like telephones – which are rare anyway – and won’t have one in the house. She’s happily married to:

Michael : Mary’s husband and Perry’s father. Michael is tall and dark – Perry looks very like him – and quietly competent. He doesn’t like arguments and confrontation, but he’ll face up to trouble and stand his ground when he considers it necessary. More often, he’ll just quietly get on with doing what he believes to be the right thing in the background. He doesn’t speak a lot, but he’s always there when one of his family needs him and really, he’s the glue that holds the whole family together.

Matt : Matt is the second oldest son, a year or two younger than Perry, who is the oldest. He and Perry look alike, too. Matt is impulsive and energetic and, like Perry, tends to dive into things without always thinking them through. He feels things very deeply although he tries to hide this and takes his feelings out in his work around the farm. He specialises in the arable side of the farm. He’s handfasted – a form of preliminary or temporary marriage – to Chrissy who teaches at the local school.

Sam : Sam is the third son, a couple of years younger than Matt. He’s the tallest and broadest of all the brothers, and fair where the first two are dark. He usually moves more slowly and patiently than his older brothers, thinking things through before he acts. Like his father, he’s calm and quiet which helps when he’s working with the farm animals. He’s handfasted to Lizzie who works as a nurse practitioner and midwife at the local surgery.

Jack and Eddie : Jack and Eddie are identical twins, never apart. They even talk as one, taking it in turns to utter a couple of words in any sentence. No one but their parents can tell which is which. Having each other, they don’t seem to need anyone else. They run a horse breeding and training business in a small yard to one side of the main farmyard.

Jonny : Jonny is the youngest son and there’s a bit of an age gap between him and the twins. Their only sister, Jenny, was born between them and she died shortly after birth. Jonny looks like Perry, Matt and their father. He’s only just developing his mental Gifts, but the signs are that he’s going to be very Gifted, just like Perry. He’s very cheeky, saying things that others won’t, and like many youngest children, he gets away with far more than his older siblings. He’ll be off to college shortly, where he plans to study veterinary science. His girlfriend is Emlee, who’ll be off to college at the same time, although she plans to study medicine.

The other member of the family mentioned in Weave of Love is Amber, Perry’s dog. Amber’s breed is never defined, but I think of her as a golden brown border collie.

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