Lucy Bennett Thames

Lucy was the first ray of sunshine that Edmund seen since coming to Breeston. He met her in the outer wards when Julius goaded him into venturing past the great wall out from the more lawful area of the city. If it wasn't for Camille, he might could get the courage to court her.
    She was born and grew up in Tanner Square, her father, a carpenter, died when she was fourteen by falling from a height unto the hard cobbles in the Horn Ward. Her mother was desperate, married her off to her childhood sweetheart Wyatt before her fifteenth birthday.
    Lucy's mother who was still fair for her age, and ran off to Billinglsey with a salt merchant, never to be seen again. Lucy was happy and in love. Her husband Wyatt was a mason's apprentice and they began there life in the Bollox Ward. They were so poor that they often dined with the Timmons, before their mother died from melancholy.
    Her husband often scoured the wards with Julius and Osmond, aiding in various tasks to earn extra coppers as Lucy sewed minor things like socks and hats to help acquire basic needs.
    Wyatt was wrongly accused by the Ward Boss in Bollox and sent to the mines. He died in an accident there when Lucy was seventeen, leaving her a widow. Julius used a favor owed to him to get her settled in the Widows Ward.
    Her sweet disposition got her close to Madge, the rough edged female Ward Boss who claimed her as a favorite. She put her among the senoir widows to be a skilled seamstress. Her mind was quick, and soon she was making quality garments for Old Street by age twenty. Lucy found it frustrating as the merchants were offering her an apprenticeship as a ruse to be their concubine.
    She has been stiffed by many of the merchants on Old Street, and collected much of what was owed to her by Osmond with the aid of his cudgel. The constant bickering leaves her broke and she finds extra coin by selling stew from her home to commoners.
    Julius and Osmond are like her brothers, who were close to Wyatt and pity her, finding her customers to gain her any coin when possible. When Edmund was duped by Julius to buy wares from her she fumed. The trick made her angry at Julius to take advantage of a stranger.
    She was smitten with Edmund's eccentric and noble stature, and found it endearing at how embarrassed he was in her presence.
    Lucy turns down many men who pursue her. She commented once to Julius, that she married once for love and it broke her heart. She will only marry again if it can get her out of poverty to pursue real happiness.