Jenny Talbot, character in Two Paradises fantasy/fiction realm

from *The Essential Paradise*, series sourcebook

#### **Jennifer Leigh ‘Jenny’ Talbot** (b. 26 Feb 1981) is a Paradisian schoolgirl, featured in numerous novellae and episodes in the Two Paradises fiction/fantasy realm, by author Jonnie Comet.

She appears in many of the Paradise Two story arcs involving Lady Susie Cavaliere, who is a very close friend and, for a time, her lover. She is a principal character in *A Small Affair*, the story of her romantic involvement with Lord Jonathan Cavaliere.

## Personal information

* Full name: Jennifer Leigh Talbot
* Nickname: 'Jenny'
* Birthdate: 26 February 1981 (Pisces)
* Birthplace: Mercy Hospital, Hurricane Hole
* Parents: John and Lena Talbot
* Nationality: Paradisian citizen, belonger
* Residence: Talbothays, 8 North Beach Road, Surfside Borough, Derby Township, Eden I.
* Height: 160 cm [5 ft 3 in]
* Weight: 47.5 kg [105 lb]
* Figure (cm): 81B, 56W, 82H
* Hair: light brown-to-blonde, wavy, medium-long
* Eyes: grey
* Complexion: fair; well-tanned
* Ethnic background: English
* Religion: Anglican
* School: North Eden High School, Eden I.; O-levels: 1997
* Sports: cycling, swimming, Strategy
* Sexual orientation: *de facto* bisexual

Story arcs: Paradise One, Paradise Two; 1994-2002

## Background

Jenny's father, John David Talbot, Jr., is a financially-successful commodities trader with Dewey Haines, Ltd., in Hurricane Hole. Her mother Helene ('Lena') is a former classroom teacher and a socialite. She has two elder brothers, Brandon and Charles, both of whom choose to go abroad for their university education after 1993.

Jenny met Lady Susie in 1992 when both were in early forms at North Eden High School. Though she knew of Lady Susie by reputation, Jenny was initially reluctant to befriend (then) The Hon. Susie Cavaliere, as she does not make friends quickly nor easily and the daughter of the baronet seemed an intimidating presence. But Lady Susie became fond of the shy, ladylike girl from Surfside and gradually nurtured her latent social graces, helping Jenny become one of the most popular girls at NEHS.

## Personality

Jenny’s mood is often variable. At times she will be outgoing, enthusiastic, cheerful and fearless; at others she will seem more reticent, even closed, and almost depressed. Most often this negative side is displayed in her intense loyalty for friends, first Lady Susie and later Naomi Meyer, to the express mistrust of and disregard of most others. She is known as a reliable secret-bearer and to be frequently full of good sense.

At NEHS her marks are in the upper range for her O-level class. Teachers and fellow students consider her a strong student. She participates in the sewing club during 3rd and 4th form.

## Interests and activities

Jenny’s eye-catching beauty is often recognised by male and female characters throughout the various series. Whilst not as shapely as Lady Susie, she is much more so than Darby St Claire, who acknowledges a certain rivalry with her.

### **Attire and nudism**

Under the influence of Lady Susie, Jenny develops a fondness for dressing down, even in public, and is known to play Strategy in private attire, typically in very light knickers, and more than once even naked.

Jenny and Lady Susie achieve Somerset-area notoriety for hiking over the Heart of Paradise empty-handed and entirely nude, one morning in 1995, in order to retrieve Lady Susie's sailboat which she had left anchored off Knighthill, the home of her cousins Paul and Angel Cavaliere. The two swim out to the boat before sailing it round through The Race and into Pirates' Bay, where the Camelot estate boat basin is located.

Once she begins dating Lord Jonathan, she often greets him at her home whilst wearing nearly nothing, or nothing at all, a practice to which, though he is well used to the sight of pretty girls undressed, takes him overly long to become accustomed.

### **Athletic pursuits**

Jenny joined Lady Susie’s Strategy team, Ménage Maroon, upon its establishment in early 1993. Since then she has become very adept at strategic planning, leadership of hers, and shooting, in which she is considered one of the best female shooters in Somerset, where the team is based. She is an avid ocean swimmer and had competed as a member of the NEHS school swim team.

Jenny’s athleticism is deceptive, as she does not look nearly as muscular and as strong as she is. Known for a feminine, almost delicate demeanour, she regularly commutes the 20-odd kilometres’ distance between her house and the Camelot estate gates via her roadracing bicycle, only to spend the rest of the day, or a full weekend, running, swimming, and hiking with Lady Susie, often engaging in the exceptional physical challenges of the Strategy games.

Jenny is a casual surfer, an interest she takes up further once dating Lord Jonathan.

## Home

The Talbot family live in a 1920s three-storey Victorian-style house on North Beach Road, one of the most exclusive neighbourhood of Surfside. The elevated section is immediately north of the large preserve known as Surfside Wood; the house backs up on the Pacific Ocean.

### **House**

The house, known for its wraparound verandah and upper sun decks, is called Talbothays, after the dairy farm in *Tess of the D’Urbervilles* by Thomas Hardy and meant as a play on the family’s name. It is mainly in white stucco over block and has pale-green shutters, a violet front door, and red clay-tile rooves. There are half-octagonal bays, one each side in front and one the end of each wing towards the sides. The tall chimneys are reddish brick; there is a lantern cupola on top of the hip roof which serves as a whole-house exhaust vent. The motif is repeated in the detached garage and the sleepout cottage.

### **Jenny’s bedchamber**

Jenny occupies a room above the kitchen and tea room, on the northeast corner in the breezier back side of the house, having a private sun deck to the rear. The chamber is rather long and narrow; the bed stands between the sash window and French window on the back wall, directly opposite the fireplace. A five-sided bay extends the north wall, a place where Jenny keeps easy chairs and a round cocktail table for reading. The *en suite* bathroom and wardrobes are to the inside end.

There are three other bedrooms on the second storey and three smaller chambers in the garret.

### **Cottage and grounds**

The rear lawn is wide, flat, sparsely-populated in trees or shrubs and meticulously kept. A cloister and arbour leads along the southern fringe of the section to a sleepout cottage, built after the style of Victorian follies, situated on a five-metre bluff above the beach. The cottage comprises a verandah, integrated with the end of the cloister, an octagonal sitting room, and a small square bedchamber with compartmented bath, shower, toilet, and dressing room with basin. A stairway, having two landings, provides direct access to the beach. As there is no swimming pool, Jenny has developed her strong competition strokes by swimming laterally in the ocean.

Once she has turned 13, Jenny’s parents allow her the near-exclusive use of the cottage as a private getaway; and she often spends nights or whole weekends out there, both alone and for trysts with Lady Susie, Vicki, Naomi and Lord Jonathan. She and Lady Susie also use Jenny’s bedroom as well as the front garret chamber.

A gate and hedgerow provide access to the adjacent Surfside Wood preserve, through which Jenny often hikes to the beach. With Lady Susie, and later with Naomi, Jenny attends clandestine campouts in the Wood with girls of the Sea Edge neighbourhood, which connects to the preserve as well.

## Relationships

Considering Lady Susie both a learned mentor and a devout friend, Jenny becomes friendly with most of the girls of Upper Somerset with whom Darby St Claire also associates. As a member of Ménage Maroon, she is a regular welcome guest at Camelot estate and is well-known to all the staff and family there.

Jenny easily falls for Lady Susie's advances over Festival 1995, after which the two begin and intensely intimate amourous relationship, which they effectively keep secret from others through October. Lady Susie both encourages Jenny to be faithful to only her and sees numerous others over the period of the relationship.

As of Darby St Claire’s 16th birthday in September, Jenny forsakes Lady Susie entirely and takes an interest in young Vicki Bolton of Devon. Within a few weeks, Vicki changes her mind and Jenny begins seeing Naomi Meyer of Long Shore Road, Surfside, with whom she has a passionate affair, later interrupted by the interest of Lord Jonathan, with whom she is romantically involved between November 1995 and March 1996.

Though geographically her neighbour, the Surfside Wood preserve is an effective barrier between Jenny and Nancy Boerch, with whom, and with whose usual cohorts, Jenny is not ordinarily sociable, though she is not unfriendly towards them, especially at school.

## Appearance in story arcs

Jenny appears in *The Seduction of Susie* as Lady Susie’s admiring, younger friend, surprised upon arriving at Lady Susie’s cottage to find Lady Susie has spent the night with Nicole Bonelle. *Best Friends* relates the successful attempts of Lady Susie to seduce her during Festival 1995. Jenny continues to be a substantive character throughout the Two Paradises realm, featured in *The Ball*, *Sunrise Surprise*, *Bosom Buddies*, and *Sweet Sixteen*, as well as numerous shorter episodes, predominantly those of the Paradise Two domain and many with games of Strategy as the subjects.

In *All In The Game* she initially deceives Amy Cavaliere in order to keep her from tagging along with the Ménage Maroon team during the big game at Camelot over Festival 1995. Though Amy eventually forgives her, considering it all a part of a game in which deceit and cunning are vital parts, Jenny never apologises for causing her distress.

Jenny's first and last tryst with Darby, her torrid affairs with Vicki and Naomi, and late-1995 romance with Lord Jonathan are related in *A Small Affair*.

Following their falling-out just before Darby's birthday, Jenny and Lady Susie see little of each other and, after *A Small Affair*, not much is written about Jenny’s personal life.

## \* \* \*

Doc. 6.36.11. b.2015.0802. ©Jonnie Comet Productions Ltd