An Interview with Lucy Turner

Allow me to introduce you to Miss Lucy Agnes Blois Turner of Victoria Road, Kensington. All Lucy really wants is to be the mistress of her own destiny.

Sadly, in the Year of our Lord 1866, young ladies – especially those who are members of the large Turner clan, with sisters, aunts and cousins that are reckoned up by dozens – are distinctly NOT encouraged to become mistresses of anything! The Victorian ideal of womanhood is the Angel in the House, sweet and modest, caring and self-effacing –   although it is likely that, in the Turner family, this ideal is honored more in the breach than in the observance.

Today, The Author sits down to have a little chat with Lucy about her life. Could it be possible that Lucy herself doesn’t know that in the very near future, she will be embarking upon the most unladylike adventure of her life?

If only she had known…

 

Lucy: How do you take your tea? And please take a piece of gingerbread – it’s a special Turner family recipe.

The Author: Why, thank you! No sugar, just a splash of milk. I’m glad you don’t mind telling me all your secrets.

Lucy: No, not at all. There’s simply not much to say. (holding milk jug poised over the cup) Is it not unusual for an American to take milk in her tea? That is what I have been told.

The Author: Yes, well, I don’t usually … but when in Rome, you know. That is to say, in England people take milk…

Lucy: Oh, but you don’t have to. And if you’d like just a tiny amount of sugar, I certainly won’t tell anyone!

The Author: Okay, as long as it’s just between us.

Lucy: How exciting that you are an American! I’ve never traveled anywhere outside England. Tell me where you are from? Is it near to California?

The Author: No, it’s pretty far actually…wait. Perhaps I should ask you a question or two! What a lovely semi-detached villa this is! And Kensington seems almost like a small village, even though the City of London is only a few miles away. Have you lived here all your life?

Lucy: No, in fact I was born on a farm in Suffolk. My mother, sister and brother were staying with our Turner relatives there after their arrival from India, and I was born a few months later. But Mama bought this house in Kensington when I was only five, so I have grown up here.

The Author: I’m surprised your grandfather Turner allowed your mother to set up her own household. He seems like an autocratic old gent who believes women ought always to live under masculine supervision.

Lucy: He could hardly stop her! Mama has her own money, you know, which she inherited from her father, Sir Herbert Compton. He was the former Lord Chief Justice of the Bombay Presidency. In her youth, Mama was known as the Belle of Bombay. We would be living in India still if it hadn’t been for my father’s untimely death, just a few months before I was born.

The Author: I’m so sorry for your loss. You said you had a brother and a sister?

Lucy: Yes. Grace is the oldest. She’s married now. My brother Samuel is in the Army. So at home it’s just Mama and me. And Malli, of course.

The Author: Who is Malli?

Lucy: She is Mama’s closest companion. Malli was Mama’s aya when she was a girl and her lady’s maid after she married. Then she was our aya – Grace’s and Samuel’s and mine – when we were young, too. Now she keeps house for us.

The Author: What activities do you like to do? How does a young woman keep herself busy all day?

Lucy: Oh, any number of things! I love to ride horses. We have a riding stable directly across the street from our home and Hyde Park is just the other side of Kensington Road. I also read a great deal. And naturally Mama and I must pay endless calls on our friends and acquaintances. But they are more Mama’s friends and acquaintances than mine. Mama is also very active in our church. In fact, Mama practically runs the Ladies’ Auxiliary single-handed, no matter what our neighbor Mrs. Gilbert says.

The Author: Who is this Mrs. Gilbert? What is she like?

Lucy: Oh dear. Would you like some more gingerbread?

The Author: No, thanks. Wait, that wouldn’t be the Mrs. Gilbert, whose son is William Schwenk Gilbert? That tall, blonde barrister who writes that funny poetry called the Bab Ballads? I love his drawings, too — some of them are on this very blog. I heard that Lewis Carroll asked him to draw the artwork for Alice in Wonderland, but had to fall back on another artist called Tenniel when Gilbert turned him down.

Lucy: Yes. He has written quite a lot of funny and clever pieces, not just the poems. And he is working on a play, too. Or so I’ve been told. I don’t really know him.

The Author: It sounds as if you know a lot about him.

Lucy: Oh, no! He’s just a gentleman who … who one knows. I daresay he doesn’t even think of me. I’m quite a bit younger than he is. Nearly 11 years. But not quite eleven years – several days short of the total. He was born on 18 November 1836, and I was born 14 November 1847.

The Author: Do you like him?

Lucy: Do have some more gingerbread. It’s a family recipe.

Lucy Turner is the heroine of my new, upcoming historical mystery series, which will debut in 2016! Stay tuned for details.