Beatrice Wimsey

Character Profile: Beatrice Wimsey
- Created by Rhiannon

Name: Beatrice Katherine Verity Wimsey--Miss Wimsey to most, Bea to some, "bonny Kate" to one person.

Gender: Female

Age: 25

Occupation: Private tutor. She has been employed by the Bouckets to teach their children, Sheldon (eight) and Jane (six), for a year. Mr. Richard Boucket is a minor government official, and Mrs. Arisaema Boucket does her best to prod him up the social ladder. Miss Wimsey is responsible for keeping the children presentable, drilling them in social graces, and keeping them out of their mother's way. During some evenings and sometimes on her weekends off, Miss Wimsey works as an assistant librarian in one of the Upper Fourth libraries--her "employment" there, however, is subject to the whims of the eccentric head librarian, Mr. Willis Lucien, who periodically banishes her from the library and revokes her clearance to the Upper Fourth, only to lose his glasses and summon her again.

Residence: During the week Miss Wimsey resides in a small room--once a closet--off of the Bouckets' nursery in their Third Upper apartment. On the weekend (and her rare holidays) she visits her uncle, Jim Vimes, retired airship captain (freight), in his tenement apartment above Madame Maude's Medical Mysteries shop on Street Level.

Appearance: Miss Wimsey has the pale skin of someone who has lived for many years on the Street Level, but after a year of working on Third Upper she has developed a rosy complexion, the object of much teasing by her acquaintances in the tenements. On the rather short side of medium height, she has a rounded face with a small, pointed chin, a small, neat mouth, and very dark grey eyes behind thick spectacles. Without her glasses she is very short sighted, and she cleans her lenses with a handkerchief when nervous. She has a pert, lightly freckled nose (but very pale, new freckles, since her exposure to sunlight) that she feels is rather too prominent. Her hair is an unremarkable brown, and inclined to frizz--Miss Wimsey keeps it tightly pinned in a low bun, or occasionally confined in a snood, but she has an unfortunate habit of tugging at her hair when she thinks. When she is particularly thoughtful or harried her hair forms a curly halo. Out of doors she covers her head with a light scarf and (if she will be taking the children to an outing in a sunlit park) a hat, and wears a small shawl tied around her shoulders. Her clothing is plain but tidy--generally a full skirt and a pressed blouse with a waistcoat--and has a vaguely masculine look. This is because many of her blouses and vests began their lives as menswear, but were altered to fit Miss Wimsey when her occupation called for something more scholarly. She wears a chatelaine at her waist, which carries scissors, three keys, and her 'decoy wallet' (a sign to pickpockets that she's a street girl who knows to carry her money, identification papers, and upper level passes in a secret pocket hidden under her skirt, and that they shouldn't even bother). She often (especially when working in the Upper Fourth library) wears an apron with a variety of pockets for pens, bottled ink, notebook, a quantity of ink-stained pocket handkerchiefs, and a battered pocket watch. She has one "smart" dress and jacket, selected by Mrs. Boucket and garnished from Miss Wimsey's wages, that is reserved for occasions when she is required to chaperon the children at parties. When at "home" on street level, Beatrice generally wears untailored men's shirts (much too large for her) with the sleeves rolled up and layers of skirts (those too patched to be worn "upstairs") over leggings and boots and often an oversized 'dirigible cardigan' of the heavy wool variety generally worn by airship crewmen. Like many street dwellers, she sometimes wears her scarf wrapped over her face, leaving only her eyes visible, on days when the air pollution is too foul to breath directly.

Personality: Beatrice Wimsey is a cynical idealist--she believes that everyone is capable of good, but her experience tells her that most people choose to be...well, not so good, when it serves their interests. Frankly she finds this disappointing. When someone is kind to her, she wants to be able to think of them as good and assume the best about them--a naive habit that she hasn't been able to shake, and which has caused her disappointment and grief repeatedly. Bea has a naturally trusting and helpful nature, but circumstances have made her increasingly reserved, and sometimes she's thought of as snobby for keeping herself back. This reputation isn't helped by her intellectualism. She has an instinct for asking questions--stifled by her employers--and an inquiring mind. In another city she would have been a scholar, but in Doramraz her greatest aspiration is to gain access to the Zenith library--the largest and most complete library in Doramraz, accessible only to the Mraz family and their private staff of librarians. When someone has earned Bea's trust, they will have her loyalty forever, unless that trust is broken. She is devoted to her uncle, and feels that she owes a debt to certain people who have helped her in the past (among them Madam Maud, Widow Brown, Mr. Lucien, and Mr. Pitree). She believes that education is the key to improving ones lot in life, and is sometimes impatient with the lower class for being uninterested in learning. Her passion leads to a certain short-sightedness when it comes to understanding the views of others who may not share that passion.

History: Beatrice's parents, Peter and Harriet Wimsey, operated a passenger vessel that traveled by sea to various ports, the Cheshire. The family lived on their ship, staying in motion year round and taking their daughter with them. Young Bea, without playmates, made a hobby of collecting information, keeping notebooks with lists of the facts and knowledge that she accumulated. Her parents encouraged her precociousness, giving her books, taking to her visit libraries in their ports of call, and offering discounts to educated passengers who would tutor her. In this way Bea received a very fine education. She began to outgrow her transient tutors at the age of sixteen, however, and an elderly woman--the Widow Brown, a regular passenger on the Cheshire, traveling between Doramraz and the distant island city Colia once a year--offered to hire Bea as her companion for the six-month duration of her stay abroad and continue her education. Mr. and Mrs. Wimsey agreed, and for the first time left Bea behind when they sailed. And that was how Bea was spared, when the Cheshire sank with all hands. The grieving Bea was well looked after by her employer, but the Widow Brown could not afford to keep her on when the six months were up. Arrangements were made for Bea to join her mother's brother, Jim Vimes, when his airship next came to Colia, and to return with him as his housekeeper to Doramraz. Captain James Vimes was, at the time, a prosperous airship captain, importing fine goods like delicate china, fine fabrics, and tea into Doramraz. The Mraz Family often hired him to transport cargo out of the city, as well. As their demands grew, so did Captain Vimes' temper, until one day he came home and informed Bea that he had suddenly retired. Bea never found out the specifics, but quickly deduced that her uncle had upset someone powerful, as mysterious solicitors suddenly produced documents claiming Vimes' dirigible, then his apartment. Bea and Vimes were forced to move repeatedly as landlords turned them out, without cause, after a week or a month, until they moved to the apartments rented out by Madam Maude above her quack shop. The illustrious Madam Maude, when mysterious strangers began making hints, and then veiled threats, simply set her gang of sons and grandsons on them--no one told Madam Maude what to do, and she only evicted people without cause when she felt like it. To support themselves, Jim Vimes found odd jobs as a tinkerer with machinery, while Bea worked in shops and (briefly, after Vimes broke a customer's arm when he caught him being fresh) a pub waitress. When she was 23--five years after her uncle's "retirement"--she visited Widow Brown, during the widow's yearly visit to Doramraz, and was introduced to Mr. Lucien, head librarian of the Upper Fourth libraries. He took her on as an assistant, but often forgot that he had hired her and ordered her out of his library--sometimes for being a woman, sometimes for being a stranger, sometimes for being someone other than himself--and it was one of the junior librarians, Mr. Pitree, who, familiar with Mr. Lucien's fits, found Bea regularly paying work (since Mr. Lucien sometimes refused to give a paycheck to someone he didn't recognize) as a private tutor.

Skills: Miss Wimsey can write a fair hand, take dictation in short hand, and is an accomplished stenographer. She is also familiar with the use of the typewriter. She has a great deal of general knowledge, she can swim, sail a small boat, tie impressive knots, and could probably pilot a small airship without crashing into anything (although she has never actually tried). She can communicate, through partial phrases, in a handful of languages, and read reasonably well in two or three. Given materials she can draw a fair likeness, she can dance (although mostly older dances--newer, more fashionable dances she has only observed), hold her own in intellectual conversation but not in social gossip, and hold her tongue in the face of her employer's crass social climbing and Mr. Lucien's senility. She has no formal athletic or fighting skills, beyond her ability to swim, but a passenger on the Cheshire did once teach her to throw darts and knives with reasonable accuracy--while a pub waitress she kept up her skill with darts, but hasn't had a reason to throw a knife in years (although, like most street dwelling women, she carries a small one in a pocket beneath her skirt). She has a keen ear for words, an observant eye, and a gift for quick memorization. Like most girls (and many boys) of limited means she can sew, cook a handful of uninteresting but filling dishes, and find a way to reuse broken or discarded machinery.