Apr 24
"Remember you... Remember me..."
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"Remember you... Remember me..."
Have you read Assassin by Grace Cavendish (Patricia Finney) (2004)?
yes
no
I didn't finish it
I've never heard of it
⚠️Vote for whomever YOU DO NOT KNOW⚠️‼️
Round V
Giane (Sangue Bom)
Grace Cavendish (The Lady Grace Mysteries)
I know Both/Neither
Okay, I know I literally just said I had only vague ideas for historical ocs and didn’t know when I’d flesh them out only two days ago but last night my brain reminded me of the Lady Grace Mysteries!
Set in the Tudor court in 1569-1570, Lady Grace is an orphan and maid of honor to Elizabeth I.
She’s thirteen in 1569 so she must have been born circa 1556.
Descriptions of Grace are pretty minimal given it’s her daybooke (like a journal or diary) where she records everything that goes on but some details we have are:
Hair color:
“Now I know it isn’t true because no one with mousy hair can outshine Sarah Copper-locks Bartelmy, but it was nice of her to say it, so I kissed her back.”
Tomboyish -> she likes to climb trees and playing with the Queen's dogs and isn’t as interested in fancy dress as some of the other maids of honor, she is often chided by Mrs. Champernowne, the mistress of the maids, for her disregard for clothes/lack of grace (haha), she doesn’t like to wear facepaint:
“Mary Shelton just came in and made moan to me about Lady Sarah not wanting to walk the dogs—even though it is her turn. I see an opportunity. I must run!”
“So when I want to go there, I generally volunteer to take the Queen’s little dogs for a walk. Everyone knows I’m the only one of the Queen’s Gentlewomen who actually likes them. They’re small and hairy and smelly and quite fierce and a bit snappy if they don’t know you—but I never have any trouble with them. They like me.”
“This time Mrs. Champernowne caught me on the back stairs. I think she lies in wait for me. ‘Lady Grace!’ she shouted. ‘Lady Grace! Stop at once and wait!’
She’s Welsh, you know, and very strict. But I have to be respectful to her, because she’s served the Queen longer than anyone else—since Her Majesty was just Princess Elizabeth and everyone thought she’d be executed. So I stopped and curtsied. I knew exactly what she was going to say. And she did.
‘Lady Grace! When will you live up to the pretty name your poor mama gave you? How many times do I have to tell you not to clatter down the stairs like a herd of cattle?’”
“‘I don’t like wearing face paint,’ I said, and pushed the pot away.“
Tall:
“When they had finished, they turned me round to look in the Queen’s own looking glass, which is huge and made of Venetian glass and worth as much as a good horse! It was as if a tall lady had come in and was facing me. While Fran tied a small ruff round my neck, I curtsied to her—the reflection did the same. Well, I knew it was me, really, but I didn’t believe it until then.”
“‘But wherefore is Lady Grace’s kirtle still not finished, Mr. Beasley?’ the Queen asked disapprovingly. ‘Surely this is not your wonted service to me. Why so long a-making? I had desired to see it before she wears it.’
‘But Your Majesty,’ the tailor said desperately, ‘the beauteous Lady Grace keeps on growing, but the cloth does not!’”
Flat-chested:
“So for the Volta I got Sir Gerald. He smiled and bowed and looked straight at me. The new gentleman was staring at Lady Sarah’s chest, but Sir Gerald was looking at my face. (Well, I’ve got nothing to see further down, even in a French-cut bodice.)”
The covers of the editions I’ve included are likely all meant to represent Grace (I’ve excluded the cover for Exile which features a main character in that mystery who decidedly cannot be Grace). I’m unsure if it was all done based on the same model but it certainly seems so.
I’ve decided to take my cue from the covers.
Mousy-hair is a descriptor that pops up a lot in historical fiction and that I’ve never been able to nail down an exact shade for. It seems to be somewhere between blonde and brown, which is what I’m going to go for for my Grace, with brown eyes.
I don’t know which AG doll looks closest to the girl portrayed on the cover (happy to take input/advice), and I will probably go for what I can find inexpensively secondhand since I don’t see the point in paying full price for a doll I’d most likely be modifying anyway.
I could also go for an Our Generation doll. I’m not picky. I am eliminating Carpatina, A Girl for All Time, and Magic Attic dolls as options since they’re all slimmer and won’t fit the same clothes. Unfortunate, since the Carpatina and Girl for All Time dolls do have a bit of an older look to their faces but none of them looks close enough to Grace for it to be worth it for me to use one.
(The Hampton Court dress is to die for but it’s a few decades too early for Grace anyway.)
The only thing is that Grace wouldn’t work for the zoominag project twice over, given she’s not American and her time period is before 1580, so I will have to keep pondering my other ideas for historical characters.
⚠️Vote for whomever YOU DO NOT KNOW⚠️‼️
Round IV
Gola (Horned Cook, Gola)
Grace Cavendish (The Lady Grace Mysteries)
I know Both/Neither
⚠️Vote for whomever YOU DO NOT KNOW⚠️‼️
Round II
Grace Cavendish (The Lady Grace Mysteries)
Gramma Hattie (The Urbz: Sims in the City)
I know Both/Neither
⚠️Vote for whomever YOU DO NOT KNOW⚠️‼️
Round III
Goobleck (Just Roll With It)
Grace Cavendish (The Lady Grace Mysteries)
I know Both/Neither
Did anyone read The Lady Grace Mysteries?
yes
no
heard of it, haven't read
I was reminded of it when I saw news the BBC had a TV show adapting it out