Clare Redford

**Clare Redford** is a minor character in *Mei-chan no Shitsuji*, being briefly mentioned during the Husband Candidates Saga. She was the only daughter of the prestigious Duke of Redford, the previous owner of the Redford Ducal Residence. Clare fell in love with the residence's headbutler, who is none other than Hideto Shibata himself and at the time was at his peak performance, as proven for he wore a Golden S Badge. Unfortunately, both of them fell in love with each others, as a lady and a butler cannot be within a relationship and thus was a bad memory for Hideto's butler career.

## Biography

### Early Life

Clare Redford was the only daughter of the rich Duke of Redford and an unnamed mother, presumably from a noble blooded family as well. She was possibly born within the Redford Ducal Residence and lived in the giant house for a major part of her life. There isn't much information known about her early life, not even her son Chris seems to know her past life or any other information as well.

### A Forbidden Love

By the time Hideto Shibata started to work as the headbutler of the residence, he also served as Clare's personal butler. But he quickly fall in love with her and she also shared her love back to him; prompting Hideto to break the ultimate rule of butlerhood and would be forced to resign of his badge and rank. But the couple decided to elope away from the duke and went into hiding for a long time, while the duke completely desperate to find his daughter and went into tracking them (with the possibility of punishing Hideto).

### Birth & Death

During the time the forbidden lovers hide, Hideto and Clare became intimate together and conceived twins, the girl was given the name Maria Redford and the boy was named Chris Redford. After the birth of the twins, the duke finally found the runaway couple but sadly learned Clare has unfortunately passed away due to maternal death and possibly died without interacting with her children. According to Chris, Clare was unfortunately born with a weak and frail body.

### Aftermath

The duke was possibly grieving and as well infuriated against Hideto at the same time, with the skilled butler having resigned from his position and badge later on. When the duke died, no one knew who would replaced him as Clare passed away, thus Chris was the one being chosen to replace the previous duke. In the meanwhile, Maria seemingly decided to change her name into became the headmaiden for Kintaro Hongo and subsequently the Hongo family. She would later marry Taizo and give birth to the Shibata Brothers later.

## Relationships

### Family & Relatives

* **Shibata-Redford Family**:
	+ **Duke Redford**: Her father, who seems to be very protective for her.
	+ **Unnamed Mother**: There is no mention of Clare having a mother and she possibly died long ago.
	+ **Hideto Shibata**: Clare's former butler, who she shared a forbidden love with him.
	+ **Chris Redford**: Chris seems to know very well the story of his mother's life and death. He doesn't seem to express emotions to his late mother since she died the day he was born, thus unable to feel sadness or grief for her.
	+ **Maria Redford**: Unlike Chris, Maria has never mention anything about her mother. It is possible she learned of what happened to her mother but like Chris, she doesn't seems to have any emotions for her.
	+ **Kento Shibata**: Her youngest grandson, who learned her life and death years later from Chris.
	+ **Rihito Shibata**: Her oldest grandson, he has never mentioned anything about Clare nor does he even knows her existence.

## Trivia

* The forbidden love between Hideto and Clare is a similar concept to *Romeo and Juliet*, made by William Shakespeare.