Character Interview: Lucie

Introducing Lucie from Chosen of Azara.

1. What is your full name? Is there anything significant about your name?
My name is Lucie Barille. I don't think there's anything really special about it, but I like it.

2. How old are you?
I just turned 20.

3. Tell us about your family. What do you like and not like about them?
My father is Baron Robart Barille. I love him a lot, and he spoils me. My mother, Rinata, died when I was 11. I still miss her every day. Her mother, my Grandmama Lillia, lives with us. She came to help my mother take care of me when I was little, because my mother was sick for a long time, and she stayed with us after my mother died. So I wouldn't be alone in a house full of bullheaded men, she says. I'm very close to her. I also have two older brothers, Pavel and Petir. They're both really annoying, but I do love them. Even though I wish they weren't quite so annoying.

My great-grandmother Varena, Grandmama Lillia's mother, had a really interesting story. She was a wandering foreign woman with a baby daughter who took shelter at Meadowlook one winter, and the Baron there, Baron Arnaud Ellande, fell in love with her and married her. I think that's so romantic! He also adopted my grandmama, and raised her as his own. I never knew him, he died about ten years before I was born, but I think every man should be like him.

4. Who was your first kiss, and what did you think of it?
My first kiss was with my fiance, Estefan. I liked it, of course. Although... It wasn't quite what I was expecting. It wasn't really even on my mouth, more on my cheek, you know? He tries to be discreet, but I've seen how he kisses other girls, like the maids, and it wasn't anything like that. I suppose it wouldn't really be proper for him to kiss me like that until after we're married. (To be fair, Estefan isn't the only one who kisses the maids and kitchen girls, my brothers do it too. Estefan's mother, Lady Alise, says all men do that sort of thing.)

5. What is your occupation?
I'm the daughter of a Baron, and since my mother is no longer living I help my father manage his household. When I'm married I'll be a Baroness, the Lady of Hart's Leap, which means I'll be busy managing Estefan's household and raising our children. I can't wait! :)

6. What are your best and worst qualities?
Well, I sing well, and I play the lute and the harpsichord, and I'm very good at gathering herbs for the healer in the village, and I'm kind and cheerful. And my hair - does my hair count as a good quality?

On the bad side, I never paid very much attention in my lessons, and my brothers think I'm silly but they're even sillier so what do they know? And Lady Alise, my future mother-in-law, thinks I'm eccentric because I like to be outdoors a lot. And my nose and bosom freckle in the sun. Which I guess wouldn't be a problem if I didn't spend so much time outside. But that's okay, I'd rather be outside.

7. What quality do you value most in a romantic partner?
My fiance Estefan is wonderful, of course. He's very handsome, and strong and manly, and has a fine voice, though I do wish he had better taste in songs. And his house, Hart's Leap, is one of the most modern and beautiful houses in the Lower Districts of Ceryria. I'm very lucky that he wanted to marry me.

Though, I suppose I do wish he paid more attention to me and less to the housemaids. And I wish he wasn't always telling me what to do and what not to do. Except for those things, though, he's practically almost perfect.

Except sometimes I wish he was more like... Well, never mind that. And also a little more like my step-great-grandfather. But really, I'm very lucky to be engaged to him.

8. What is your favorite thing to do?
I love to go walking through the woods near my father's house. There's just something magical about them, and I feel like that's where I belong more than anywhere else. I especially like it when -- um, never mind that, too. Estefan doesn't think it's proper for me to go wandering around the forest, especially by myself, and I promised him I'd give it up after we're married, but until then, as long as my father doesn't forbid it - and he almost always lets me have my own way - I'll keep doing it for as long as I can.

9. What is your greatest fear?
My greatest fear? I don't know. Maybe that my Grandmama will die? She's old and in poor health, but I don't want to lose her. Also that Estefan might decide he doesn't want to marry me after all.

10. What is your most treasured possession?
I have this crystal pendant on a silver chain that my mother gave me when I turned 5. I guess that's awfully young for a gift like that, but my mother told me that it was a treasure that belonged to my great-grandmother Varena and that I must take the very best care of it, so I've always been very careful with it. I don't know what's special about it besides the fact that it belonged to my great-grandmother, but my mother gave it to me and it's one of the things that remind me of her the most.

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