It’s time to take a look at Theodore Groves’ history and in particular his sisters because I have put this off for far too long considering how much I yell about them; their full details can be found on the NPC page, but in the meantime here is this.

First of all, Theodore is not of the gentry – everything he has done and all appointments he has gained have been earned working his way from the ground. With no esteemed sponsorship to ease his path, nor any particular volatility to bar it, he has done exceptionally well for himself and he knows it – he is also very proud of it.

When Theodore was born, his family could ill afford another child. Still, they found ways to manage it by keeping him in the cast down clothes of his sisters. When he was four, his father died – taking with him his lamentable drinking habits and affording his wife more room to maneuver monetarily to support their children. Still, it was not until Theodore was seven that the Groves were able to furnish him with boy’s clothing – and he deeply lamented the advent of pants, though he was wise enough to keep mum on it anywhere but at home.

When Theodore’s mother died, he was ten years old and had already been working towards his mental goal of the Navy by helping out fishermen down at the docks. His sisters, by that point, were 19 ( Adella ) 16 ( Eudora ) and 14 ( Constance )  By that time, Adella had been working as a maid to a noblewoman by name of Lady Anne Caldwell for nearly eight years. Lady Anne had taken a shining to Adella early on and was in fact the reason she became educated in the work of a seamstress as she was apprenticed rather early at Lady Anne’s bequest.

Upon hearing of the situation the Groves were in, Lady Anne gave Adella a proposition that was swiftly taken. Leaving their home behind, the Groves children moved into a servant’s cottage on the Caldwell’s property. Adella continued her services as a maid and seamstress while Constance began her training as both under Lady Anne’s watchful eye. Her husband, Sir Edwin, was a major with the military and fairly intermittent. He tended to turn a blind eye to Anne’s decision, often referring to it as ‘charity work’ on the rare occasions anyone dared comment. By all appearances he seems to have no role with the Groves, but funnily enough every time he’s home there’s chocolate or little fruits in the girl’s weaving baskets after breaks. ( He has, on two occasions, held conversations in Constance’s line of hearing that harangue men she may be courting; generally critiquing their ‘heavy hands’ with women and their ‘many dalliances’ which has spared her terrible matchmaking decisions. )

When Theodore was twelve, he managed to get himself into the Navy – Sir Edwin pulled him aside and pressed coins to his palm, insisting he would need a good, warm cloak to start out with and perhaps some better clothes. This was the only patronage he ever received from anyone, and Theodore repaid it double over time. Well over 90% of his earnings go to his sisters, as he keeps only enough to keep his uniforms neat and to feed himself when landlocked.

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End Note: It was due to their mother’s insistence that the children learned to read. Eurydice Groves née Saunders came from a military family and eloped; her education was greater than her husband’s and though she was committed to a life of poverty due to him, she loved her children and he enough to not return to her easier life but rather to work to give her children the tools to make one for themselves.