Secondary Characters in Lady Anne and Howl in the Dark

I’ve always been fascinated by the role of secondary characters in novels. What would Jane Austen’s Persuasion be without Sir Walter Elliot and his overweening vanity? Or Jane Eyre without poor, dear Helen Burns, or lively Adèle? Those characters live to serve, in a way. In the best sense, secondary characters provide more than a placemarker, or merely someone for the hero or heroine to talk to. They should mean something to the plot, and they should reflect bits of the primary characters, exposing their strengths and weaknesses along the way.

And so I thought I’d reveal a little about the secondary characters that people Lady Anne and the Howl and the Dark, and the next two installments Lady Anne and the Ghost’s Revenge & Lady Anne and the Gypsy Curse.

Many secondary characters in ‘Howl’ are, I realize, missing someone who has died or disappeared. (Hmm, funny how things can occur to the writer only after they are done writing the books! I never thought about that before I wrote this post.)

These are three:

The Marquess of Darkefell’s mother:

Lady Sophie Darkefell, Dowager Marchioness – Sophie was once a great beauty, a diamond of the London Season. Her marriage to the Marquess of Darkefell was a great coup, but we, as readers, aren’t really sure it made her a happy woman. The great tragedy of her life was not losing her husband, but losing her favorite child, Lord Julius Bestwick, Darkefell’s twin brother. When he died in Upper Canada, a part of her died too.

The Marquess of Darkefell’s sister-in-law, married to his younger brother John for four months:

Lady John Bestwick – Lydia, Lord John Bestwick’s young wife and a friend of Anne’s, has never been taught to think seriously on any subject. The great tragedy of her life is the death of her brother, Captain Reginald Moore, but not because she loved him so much, though she did, but because if he had lived, he would have married Lady Anne, to whom he was betrothed when he died in action in the war with the colonies. Lydia would have benefited enormously from Anne’s good sense and strength. Instead, when her brother’s death severed the close relationship with Anne - they stayed friends, but not nearly as close as the sisters they would have become - Lydia was left to drift into young womanhood, becoming very silly and unsteady along the way without the influence of a much wiser friend.

The Marquess of Darkefell’s secretary:

Mr. Osei Boatin – when Lord Anthony Darkefell plucked Osei Boatin from the frigid waters of the Atlantic (you need to read the book to know how that happened) Osei was grateful and has spent the last few years trying to repay the debt. But not one of those days goes by that he doesn’t think of his sister, seized by slavers at the same time as he, but not aboard the same slave ship. Is she dead? Is she alive? Will he ever know? Once a warrior and a prince, he has become a valued secretary to a powerful man, without whose intervention he would be dead. But no one around Osei is ever quite sure what he is thinking or feeling, for he is reserved and calm. Some people find that off-putting; they're wary and suspicious of him. But Anne immediately finds in him a kindred spirit.

So… I have always found secondary characters fascinating. Do you? Are there any memorable secondary characters in the novels you love?

And… Is your life like a novel? Are there memorable secondary characters in the plot that is your life?