History

1820

Jospeh(ine) Clelland

“Deaf/mute” but not really… why?

I will always carry a notebook with me to communicate with.

I am no Helen Keller as I “lost the ability to hear and speak from some tragic incident/ailment/accident” (incident is left vague on purpose) not long after learning to read & write.

Why deaf/mute? Because if he spoke all would know he is a she. It is safer for a girl travelling by ship to England alone to be considered a boy for very obvious reasons.

It is easier to get charity from family if they think you are crippled in some way... thus I am not homeless... as I am being "sent" to Baron Ashford because the family I was with in the small colony home died of some riot and the home is no longer safe for me. I am related distantly (like most) and am actually the daughter from the New England family being hidden here in case the riot attack was something "else" tho that is unclear. Hints that the situation that sent me might be fey related. I might be fey related but know nothing of it if I am, beyond vague obscure overheard conversations that made no sense and may not even be true. Told to come here just before the riot started and arrive with a letter begging family charity. Arrived a couple days before Ashford died

Father: unknown / unstated, declared deceased

Mother: Lady Mary Clelland (formerly Mary Eldon) an apothecaire

Step-father: Lord John Clelland, a doctor

Ewan Ashford (23) of course was generous and took me in.

I might be a sister as his father “got around”...

will have "a small collection of "clues" to her parentage as she didn't know she was related to Ashford before ordered to flee on the ship, given a carry case, a small locked box (containing her clues), and her notebook and told to be a boy till it is truly safe

but then Ewan died... so what is considered safe? will the new lord turn her out?

send her back to America?

Best ensure someone she trusts wins

hasn’t had the heart to open the box (GM can decide true parentage and contents of lockbox)

she was a bit shocked to learn that the man she knew as father wasn’t

that he supposedly died when she was too little to remember him

and at 20... feels like a spinster... but as a boy/man... has discovered a sense of liberation and freedom