Goodness, MISS DOROTTYA "DOT" CROW has arrived in London. SHE is 23, of the OXFORDSHIRE CROWS. Though they are NEW to the Season, we can only describe them as ENDEARING and CURIOUS, dear reader. Accompanied by HER MOTHER AND OLDER SISTER, they have settled in and are accepting social calls. But be warned: they are known for their INABILITY TO KEEP A SECRET.
â Personality & TraitsÂ
Being the youngest of four sisters, Dorottya learned early on that she needed to distinguish herself from the bunch. She was daddyâs girl and motherâs fellow gossip, always enjoying a good long talk about the strange happenings of her siblings. Known for being chatty and offering an open ear along with a wagging tongue, soon enough her sisters and brother learned to keep their secrets away from her. Her gossipping has never had any nefarious reasoning behind it, she only enjoys meeting people and having pleasant conversations â being somewhat malleable in character, it doesnât take too much pushing and prodding before she lets out a secret she should have kept, much to her dismay when she realizes sheâs done it again.
Fortunately, in spite of her tendency for gossip sheâs rather well-versed in the art of charming people. With three sisters she always knew she had to distinguish herself somehow and she discovered in this pursuit how very effective it was to make oneself likable. She follows the rules of etiquette when she must, though she also knows when to break them, the right moment to turn anotherâs expectations on their heads in order to draw forth a delighted laugh and smile. Well versed in the art of flattery, mixing the sincere with the calculated, she knows just the buttons to push in order to endear herself to someone.Â
In spite of her way with people, she still has a certain hopeful naivety to her. She looks upon the world with stars in her eyes, trusting everyone. As good as she is at earning herself anotherâs graces, it is just as simple to earn hers, and with that comes her trust, making herself an open book with reckless abandon.
â Biography
Four darling daughters, a son that appeared any motherâs dream, the Crows had a full house! Perhaps too full. With so many sisters, it was only a matter of time before arguments broke out, hurt feelings, secrets shared to undeserving ears and oh, thatâs only the start of the troubles that took place in that home.
Dorottya was born on the 26th of December, 1776, with three older sisters and a brother. The Crow family, though not poor, were certainly testing their means by having so many children. Their dowries were pitiful compared to many others of similar class, their dresses less stylish, their home more crowded.
All of this is to say that the pressure on Mister Crowâs shoulders was immense. He kept their family afloat, kept them in high social standing, but it was by the skin of his teeth that he managed. Dot was able to skirt by her life mostly oblivious to how close they always were to ruin, shielded by her fatherâs practiced explanations and her motherâs haughty nature (for how could they be at all tight on money if her mother gossiped about the finances of other, more well-to-do families?). This, along with the Crowâs talent for appearances, made the performance her parents provided incredibly easy to follow.
The cracks only started to appear to Dot when her eldest sister, Hanna made her debut. Talk of dowries became more frequent and Dot came to understand the tightrope her family had been walking. In spite of her small dowry, Hanna found her match during her second season, followed by Gizella, the second oldest daughter, two years later.
As her sisters began to clear out, Dot found herself spending more time with her brother. He would often take her into town while he ran errands and let her buy a new bow with the pocket change heâd managed to earn. Being the only brother, Imre was loved by all of his sisters and understood his position as heir quite well. When their father died in 1792, he was quick to step up, taking on the full weight of pressure their father had borne over the years and doing all he could to secure the future of their family.Â
Which meant he was often away, often on business. Dot wrote to him constantly, whether he was in London or elsewhere, always wanting to hear about the adventures he was up to. As she got older, he shared some of his business endeavors too, though vaguely, promising her heâd bring home a fortune, that their luck would soon be changed. He always seemed so hopeful in his letters, full of the same joy and ambition that Dot had always known him to have.Â
1798. A suicide, they said. Her fatherâs death had been difficult to bear but her brotherâs threw her world upside down. She couldnât make sense of it. Suicide? She spent many restless nights reading his letters again and again, trying to find what she had missed, replaying moments they had shared over the years. There had to be a hint, there had to be a seed of such sorrow, but she couldn't find it.
Only Missus Crow seemed to accept it for a suicide at first, saying something about too much pressure, it took father and son both. Blame passed like wildfire and over time, the rest of the Crows came to accept the circumstances of his death, too. âYou can never truly know a person,â Hanna had said.
Dot couldnât accept that. She tried but it just wouldnât rest. She needed to understand why. Her mother, worried about Dotâs obsession surrounding Imreâs death, urged her to make her debut. It would do her some good, she needed to make new friends, perhaps find someone she could settle down with. Anything was better than rereading old letters and reminiscing to the point of melancholy. It took some convincing but Dot agreed. It might ease her mind to be in society, away from their home in Oxfordshire with so many memories of ghosts. The season was nearly over but they thought she could make a late debut, perhaps stir some curiosity. At the very least, itâd give her something to occupy herself with for a few weeks.
â Dark Past
The circumstances surrounding her motherâs marriage to her father were unorthodox, to say the least. . . . Dot had assumed it was a love story: the English gentleman, traveling through Europe to find himself meets a poor, Hungarian woman. They fall madly in love and run off together to be wed, living happily ever after.Â
Such were the tendencies of her imagination. On the contrary, her father had an affair. Being a man of honor, when he found Dotâs mother to be pregnant with his child, they were quickly married. Her mother confided this secret to Dot the year her father died, though she much prefers the version sheâs always told herself. Surely, they loved each other, one had to love their partner in life. She did away with her motherâs version of events since it didnât suit her, choosing to ignore the reality in favor of the fairy tale. Her refusal to believe it is likely what saved the family from her letting such a scandal spill.
