Herbert "Soot" Saxby

Herbert Saxby, also known as "Soot", is the deuteragonist of Awful Auntie.
==Biography==
Herbert was born in 1880 along with his twin brother, Chester. He was the older of the two twins, meaning that, as the oldest son, he was supposed to take on the title of Lord Saxby when his father passed away. However, the twins' older sister, Alberta, tried to thwart this by smuggling him out of the house, putting him in a box, and sending him afloat in the river.
Fortunately, the box did not sink, but floated until Herbert was found and taken to an orphanage. However, the man who ran it was a cruel man who would whip the boys with his belt. Herbert ran away and became a chimney sweep, with his master giving him the nickname, "Soot". A decade later, he went back to Saxby Hall to do service, but had a feeling that he had been there before. However, his resemblance to Chester did not escape Alberta's notice, and realizing who he was, she lit a fire underneath him when he went to clean the chimney. He was swiftly immolated.
Soot makes his first appearance when Alberta locks Stella in the cellar. He tells her to move some coal about, and when she does, he reveals himself to her and tells him the parts of his story he can remember. When he finishes his story, he helps Stella up the coal chute. When they go to the wrecked Rolls-Royce, Stella slowly recalls the events of the awful day of the crash and realizes that Alberta must have poisoned her parents, so she and Soot decide to call the police. Soot decides to create a diversion to give Stella a chance to make her call, so he fights Alberta's pet owl, Wagner, causing a lot of commotion. Alberta cannot see Soot, so he isn't worried about being found out by her. After Stella makes her call, Soot stakes out on the roof to check on the police. When he sees what he thinks is a policeman, he alerts Stella. He tells her to shout through the letterbox so he doesn't wake Alberta up.
Meanwhile, Soot stays in Alberta's room, trying to keep watch over her in case she ever wakes up. When he spots some talons under the covers, he lifts up the blanket and finds Wagner. This causes him to shriek and awaken Wagner, who, in a rage, starts to attack him. After (unsuccessfully) trying to subdue him by throwing random objects at him, Soot shoots up the chimney in an attempt to escape. However, Wagner follows him and keeps attacking him until he uses a door to knock the owl out. It then dawns on Soot just where Alberta truly is.
Unbeknownst to him and Stella, Alberta, who was outside finishing her snow-owl earlier, overheard their conversation in the garage, so she cut the telephone line, pretended to be the operator and then the police, and disguised herself as a detective named Detective Strauss (after her second favorite composer). She then disconnected her motorcycle from the sidecar to make her ruse seem authentic and drives over to Saxby Hall. She tries to convince Stella that the whole event was an accident, but Stella does not believe this. Alberta tells Stella more lies about the “accident,” which keeps baffling Stella. When Stella starts talking about them, Alberta asks Stella if she knows where the deeds are. Stella claims not to, but glances over to the shelf holding the Tiddlywinks Rulebook, alerting Alberta, who quickly goes to the shelves to start looking. When Stella (who hasn’t learned the truth yet) tries to stop her, Alberta sends Stella to get sherry.
Soot arrives just as Alberta throws off her disguise and reveals herself. Because she cannot see him, Alberta thinks that Stella is becoming delusional. Soot hides in the chimney while Alberta looks for Stella's "imaginary friend". Alberta puts Stella on the Owl-Rack to make her sign over the deeds, but Soot rescues Stella, and together, the pair devise a series of tricks to send Alberta screaming out of Saxby Hall. They put ants in her knicker drawer, flood her carpet with marbles, replace all her tobacco with gunpowder, mix the bubbliest bubble bath with toothpaste, put black boot polish in her bar of soap, and put a shard of glass from a cracked window in the Rolls-Royce in the toilet so it shoots back up at her when she uses it. Unfortunately, these tricks succeed only in putting Alberta on the warpath, and after torturing Stella on the Owl-Rack again (where Stella has positioned herself), she starts looking for Stella’s accomplice. Because he is invisible to grown-ups, however Alberta can’t find Soot. He pushes a cupboard on Alberta, trapping her inside and giving Stella a chance to flee. They rush to the Rolls-Royce, and despite its bad condition, Soot’s protests, and Stella’s inability to drive, the pair manages to drive out, with Soot working the pedals. However, Alberta (having gotten out of the cupboard) chases after them on her motorcycle. The iron gates prove tough for our heroes to smash through, but they go in reverse and drive around, with Alberta in hot pursuit. But Alberta sends Wagner to block Stella’s view, sending the girl onto the frozen lake. The Rolls-Royce dies and falls through the ice, and Soot leaves Stella to save herself. Stella manages to climb onto the roof as the Rolls-Royce sinks into the lake, but is trapped. Alberta promises to save her if Stella signs the deed to her, and (under Soot’s insistence) Stella reluctantly agrees, whereupon Alberta sends Wagner to rescue her.
Eventually, however, Stella and a now-refomed Wagner defeat Alberta and save Soot from the lake. Stella has learned the whole story from Alberta about what happened to Soot and tells it to him. At midnight, however, he ceases to be visible to Stella, but after Saxby Hall is converted to an orphanage, he is often seen playing with children.
Category:Male
Category:Book Heroes
Category:Deceased
Category:Related to Villain
Category:Kids
Category:Tricksters
Category:Siblings