Did Lemony already know Beatrice at the time of ATWQ? The Beatrice Letters seem to indicate as much, but she is virtually never mentioned in the new series, and if anything Lemony is too infatuated by Ellington to care... or is he? Could you clarify the timeline, in between root beer and coffee? These kids grew up fast!
Yes, Lemony already knew Beatrice by the time he arrived to Stain’d-by-the-Sea. Here’s the testimony of their first encounter:
I will be the eleven-year-old boy wearing a green necktie and a pin with the insignia of our organization.[Lemony Snicket - The Beatrice Letters, LS to BB #1]
He’s eleven years old when he meets Beatrice. He’s twelve years old at the start of “All the Wrong Questions” and apparently turns thirteen over the course of the series.
And you’re actually wrong about Beatrice not being mentioned! In the last book, we see confirmation he’s already supposed to know who Beatrice is:
Josephine is delivering a message to Monty, and Beatrice is accompanying Olaf to the edge of a strange forest.[Ghede - Why Is This Night Different From All Other Nights?, Chapter Thirteen]
But yes, the way Lemony flirts with Ellington without a thought for Beatrice shocked more than a few readers! I suppose he was just a pre-pubescent boy at a time and hadn’t really integrated the idea of romance yet… Maybe he hadn’t really started falling head over heels for Beatrice. Daniel Handler probably thought it would be more realistic if their love slowly blossomed over several years.
I’m of the opinion Lemony never really loved Ellington anyway… He was attracted to the alluring mystery she represented, not her person. Besides, he was quite controlling towards her.
Beatrice is present through allusions within “All the Wrong Questions”, however: there are mentions of root beer floats. And also this passage about bats, which doesn’t necessarily refer to Kit:
I’d managed to acquire a new measuring tape for just that purpose, one that stretched out a very long distance and then scurried back into its holder with a satisfying click. The holder was shaped like a bat, and the tape measure was red, as if the bat had a very long tongue. I realized I would never see it again.[Lemony Snicket - Who Could That Be At This Hour?, Chapter Two]
Update, 2nd of July 2016:
Daniel Handler recently covered the question in a Q&A (Link):
Q: In reading All the Wrong Questions, some of us have wondered about how it relates to what we already know of Lemony’s youth from The Beatrice Letters. Lemony, though not yet thirteen, says ‘My schooldays are over’, and later gives up his apprenticeship. Does this mean that everything we know of his education comes before this - in particular the trip to the mountains mentioned in LS to BB #2? And were Lemony and Beatrice already sweethearts at the time of All the Wrong Questions? A: I suppose it depends what you mean by “schooldays.” I think of the term as referring to very traditional educational structures during one’s early childhood. Similarly, I think that one can’t really be sweethearts until one’s early childhood has passed by.
