Gretchen Byrnes

— Gretchen during Murdoch's route

**Gretchen Byrnes** (née **Rowan**) is a character in The Smoke Room. She is the principal of Echo School, the wife of Alfred "Red" Byrnes, and the mother of Holly, Murdoch, Dahlia, and Seamus. Due to her influence within the community, Gretchen is a key political figure in Echo's power dynamics.

## Appearance

Gretchen is a middle-aged fox. Her fur is mostly orange, with black on her hands and ears and white on her muzzle and the inside of her ears. She has coif of styled red fur on her head and brown eyes, with prominent eyebrows that tend to give her a displeased expression. Gretchen wears a white sweater with a frilled neckline and light floral embellishments around the collar, as well as a plain brown skirt and a gold wedding band on her left hand. She also wears a pair of golden half-moon glasses attached to a chain.

During Holly's wedding, Gretchen wears a light yellow dress with matching arm-length gloves, a belt of the same color held by a golden buckle, and a large hat adorned with red roses. She also wears pearl jewelry including a necklace and bracelet. Samuel refers to this outfit as the most expensive he's ever seen.

## Personality

Gretchen has a forceful and controlling presence, and places great importance on the standing of her family within Echo. She can be quite condescending, and has little patience for those she believes are not pulling their weight. Gretchen also has strong convictions about the rights of women. She is a staunch suffragette and has raised her daughters to be educated and successful in their own rights, although she seemingly still expects them to find traditional, advantageous marriages. Although she projects a commitment to decorum and tradition, she is not afraid to act against social norms that she feels are damaging to the women of the community. Gretchen is also a supporter of Prohibition.

Despite her occasionally haughty bearing, Gretchen also exhibits a more open-minded side as a result of her relatively progressivist views. She does not judge others based on their background or beliefs so long as they are willing to work hard and contribute to society, and though she is devoutly Catholic herself, Gretchen does not expect nor force her employees to subscribe to the same beliefs. Gretchen also feels that all citizens should be entitled to a quality education and equal rights, and laments the lack of equitable opportunities for those less fortunate than her children.

Murdoch recalls that Gretchen was very loving during his early life and describes her reading stories to her children frequently, but by the time of The Smoke Room she has become much more closed-off emotionally.

## Story

### Before The Smoke Room

Gretchen was born Gretchen Rowan and is the daughter of Grandma Rowan, who immigrated from Eire and came to settle in the area near Echo.

Grandma Rowan is still alive but lives outside of Echo and only visits for special occasions. She disapproves of the town where her daughter has made her life, for reasons largely rooted in Eire's traditional spiritual beliefs, which she adheres to instead of Catholicism like Gretchen. Gretchen and her mother have had a strained relationship for years, likely stemming from quarrels over these many differences.

Regardless of her mother's wishes, Gretchen eventually came to live in Echo, where she met and wed Alfred "Red" Byrnes, the owner and operator of a local general store. With Grandma Rowan's financial support the pair bought a house, and Gretchen worked hard to ensure that she and her family would be prosperous and well-established in the town, eventually even becoming the principal of Echo School. Gretchen and Red had four children: Holly, Murdoch, Dahlia, and Seamus. By Murdoch's account, the family was close during his childhood and Gretchen loved her children dearly. The Byrnes children regularly left Echo during the summer to visit their grandparents, though Gretchen and her husband did not accompany them because of Gretchen’s distance from her mother.

As an educator herself, Gretchen made sure her children were given the best education she could offer them; this included sending Dahlia and Holly to prestigious universities. Gretchen also became a key member in the local suffragette movement, along with other local activists like Dora, and instilled the values of women's rights in her children, especially her daughters. She has worked to establish a variety of community events in Echo, such as a yearly picnic held on school picture day. Through her work as principal, Gretchen has become a deeply respected figure in town, with some even considering her to be a 'second mother' to the town's youth due to her active role in their education and upbringing. By the time of The Smoke Room, Gretchen's good standing and prominence in the community have made her one of the town's more powerful figures, and she seems to hold informal political sway over even Echo's mayor. Gretchen notably uses her connections to discreetly distribute abortive drugs to women in Echo who need birth control; Marcy Greene is a beneficiary of this.

One Fourth of July ten years before The Smoke Room, Gretchen and her husband were out of town when their son Seamus died in a boating accident on Lake Emma. This tragedy strained the bonds between the members of the Byrnes family and presumably caused Gretchen to begin putting immense pressure on her surviving children. After Seamus' passing, Gretchen became much more devoted to her work and other causes and now seems to largely disregard the emotions and desires of her family. The tension between Gretchen and her children was likely heightened when both Murdoch and Dahlia came out as gay.

After Holly and Dahlia grew up and finished their schooling, Gretchen hired them as a teacher and the school librarian respectively, while pushing Murdoch to help with photography and work at the general store with Red. Five years before The Smoke Room, Gretchen was presumably instrumental in securing the grant from the governor that funded the construction of a telescope atop Echo School, both for Dahlia's personal use and for the instruction of local students. According to Holly, Gretchen also uses her influence to cover up any potential scandals that could endanger the family's reputation, particularly Murdoch's homosexuality.

Shortly before the events of The Smoke Room, Holly became engaged to Jim Sterling, an out-of-towner who came to work as an assayer for Echo's mining operations. Gretchen was pleased by the pairing, evidently content that one of her children would be carrying on the Byrnes family legacy. Though she allows Holly to plan the wedding on her own, Gretchen seems to be quick to offer her own suggestions for the preparations whenever possible.

### Murdoch's Route

During Samuel's first day as an employee of Red's General Goods, he and Murdoch visit Echo School to deliver paperwork for school picture day and encounter Gretchen there. She berates Murdoch for failing to anticipate a change in the event's scheduling and for his infrequent church attendance, though upon seeing Sam's strong physique she approves of Murdoch's decision to hire him. The following day, Gretchen appears again while Murdoch is setting up to take the school pictures and once again criticizes him, this time for not dressing Sam properly for the occasion.

A few days later, Gretchen sends Holly to invite Sam to dinner at the Byrnes' house so that the family can get to know their newest employee. During dinner Gretchen dominates the conversation: she commends those who proudly take credit for their accomplishments and praises Holly for seizing the initiative to plan her entire upcoming wedding ceremony herself, while scolding Murdoch and Dahlia for what she perceives as their comparative unassertiveness. She tells Sam that Murdoch is lucky to have him, while praising the dignity and value of manual labor, and calls hiring him the best thing her son has done in months. After leading the prayer before dinner, Gretchen volunteers Sam and Murdoch to serve as ushers for the wedding ceremony, with such presumptuousness that Murdoch objects on Sam's behalf, but she silences him by promising to pay Sam fairly for his additional work. Dinner continues once Gretchen has ensured that the two will be involved in the wedding as requested, although she expresses mild disapproval at the thought of Jim's bachelor party, and afterward she thanks Sam for attending the meal.

On the day of the bachelor and bachelorette parties, Gretchen is making sun tea for the guests as they arrive at the Byrnes house. She welcomes Murdoch, Ralph, and Sam inside before sending them to get ready for the festivities. Afterward, she and Sam talk alone while waiting for the others to finish preparations. Gretchen remarks that she wants to get to understand Sam better, and the pair discuss women's suffrage as well as Sam's background, including his lack of civic education, before they are interrupted by the arrival of Jim and his friends from the city.

Gretchen hurries over to the door to stop Sam from letting the men inside, insisting in a partly playful manner that Jim must not be allowed to see Holly before the wedding because it is bad luck. To keep the bride and groom apart and the men entertained, she ushers Murdoch and Sam out of the house with Jim's friends and sends them off to The Hip.

Gretchen attends Holly's wedding the following day dressed to the nines, busily making final preparations for the reception and welcoming guests as they arrive. Cynthia reveals that Gretchen has invited the entirety of Echo's suffragette party. Gretchen greets Madam Dora and thanks her for attending, though the two narrowly avoid a disagreement over the reception's lack of alcohol, in adherence with Gretchen's support for the Prohibition movement. At one point Jim pours himself a drink from a pocket flask and Sam observes that Gretchen may be willfully ignoring the sight.

Once it becomes clear that Jim's parents are running late, Gretchen laments that she herself would be devastated to miss her daughter's wedding but firmly sticks to the schedule nonetheless, since everyone else has already arrived, and remarks that the Sterlings can pay for a second ceremony on their own if they are upset.

Gretchen takes her place on stage beside her daughter as the ceremony begins, and is the first to mention the sudden smell of smoke that fills the room as the attendees collectively realize that the Hendricks Mansion has caught fire.

### Will's Route

Early in the route, Murdoch is shot during a poker game held at the sheriff's office while trying to protect Cliff from an apparent assassination attempt. The day after, Gretchen arrives at The Hip alongside Mayor Testerman in order to ask Sam how her son was injured. After hearing about the circumstances of the attack and determining that Murdoch could have prevented his injury, Gretchen states that she has no further questions regarding the matter.

Later, as William's investigation into Huxley Greene's murder progresses, Gretchen becomes a possible person of interest along with the rest of her family. Will finds a film canister like the ones sold at Red's General Goods on the Greenes' property, and Marcy Greene recalls that she last saw her husband taking his gun and leaving their home in a carriage with a 'red fox.'

Will questions Murdoch in the general store's darkroom about his parents' whereabouts in recent days, and learns that Gretchen usually drives the family's carriage and seems to have attended a party at the home of James and Cordelia Hendricks on the night Huxley disappeared. Suddenly, Gretchen herself bursts into the room and demands that any further questions be directed to her, since the men have work to do and Will's intrusion is costing the business. She also testily refers to Murdoch's gunshot wound, and implies that associating with the sheriff is what caused it.

After he plainly states that Huxley Greene has been murdered, Will observes that Gretchen either looks genuinely surprised or is faking it with practiced skill. Gretchen is not saddened, since all the women in town knew Huxley was an abusive drunkard, and remarks that something was bound to happen to him eventually. She also declares that those who do wrong are eventually righted, even if not by the law. Gretchen is very critical of Will for failing to intervene in Marcy's situation sooner, and espouses a belief that "men without character" should be swiftly cast out of town like they used to be, instead of temporarily imprisoned by a justice system focused on reaction instead of prevention.

Upon learning that Marcy has suffered a complicated miscarriage and her prognosis is dire, Gretchen leaves immediately for the Hip to see her, without another glance at Will. Dora permits her to come to the bedside, where she sheds a tear as she frets over Marcy in a motherly manner. She learns from Avery that Marcy has developed sepsis from multiple miscarriages, and Dora asks Gretchen to promise to stop distributing abortive drugs to women like Marcy without first consulting her or the doctor. Gretchen looks ready to argue but reconsiders after an intense look for Dora, then departs after Dora swears everyone present to secrecy.

### Cliff's Route

Gretchen does not appear on Cliff's route, but Murdoch briefly touches on the subject of his parents' stifling expectations if he is present for Sam and Cliff's visit to the hot spring.

## Relationships

### Murdoch

Murdoch is Gretchen's son and her second oldest child. According to Murdoch, when he was younger Gretchen was a caring woman who read to him often and treated him with kindness. She also had enough trust in Murdoch to rely on him to watch Seamus when she and Alfred left town on occasion. After Seamus died under Murdoch's supervision, however, Gretchen's behavior toward Murdoch changed drastically.

By the time of The Smoke Room, Gretchen typically treats Murdoch with constant exasperation, sometimes bordering on outright disdain. Gretchen holds Murdoch to an exceedingly high standard and frequently scolds him publicly for his "shortcomings." Gretchen seems to have little regard for Murdoch's feelings in particular and expects his unflinching acceptance of anything she says, bristling at the few occasions on which Murdoch speaks up for himself as him "causing problems." Though she exhibits little to no affection for Murdoch, Gretchen is implied to at least begrudgingly accept his homosexuality and is said to use her influence to "keep him out of trouble." She also seems to be familiar with Murdoch's taste in men, commenting that he tends to go for "fanciful, reedy little things," much to her distaste.

### Red

Red is Gretchen's husband and the father of their four children. The two appear to get along fine, with both having a mind for business and little else. It is said that Red was a "trophy husband" back in the days before his fur went gray. According to Murdoch, prior to Seamus' death the two were much more affectionate.

### Holly

Holly is Gretchen's oldest child as well as one of her employees at Echo School. Of her children, Gretchen blatantly favors Holly and often speaks highly of her accomplishments. Gretchen seemingly expects Holly to serve as her successor as the Byrnes family's matriarch, and as a result has high expectations for her. She depends on Holly to fulfill social obligations on the family's behalf and even dictates the clothes that Holly can wear. Though Gretchen is typically pleased with Holly's actions and behavior, the two have apparently quarreled over the possibility of Holly leaving Echo after her marriage. Gretchen also seems oblivious to her daughter's resentment toward her.

### Dahlia

Dahlia is Gretchen's younger daughter, the youngest of her surviving children, and one of her employees at Echo School. During Dahlia's adolescence, Gretchen ensured that she had various opportunities to further her career by sending her to various high profile schools for science and technology. Though she is not as acerbic toward Dahlia as she is Murdoch, Gretchen appears dismissive of her, characterizing her as a frequently distracted airhead and seemingly overlooking her in many cases. Gretchen is presumably aware that Dahlia is a lesbian, but it is unclear how she feels about her daughter's sexuality.

### Grandma Rowan

Grandma Rowan is Gretchen's mother. The two have a fraught relationship, much of which likely arises from their differing religious beliefs and Gretchen's decision to settle in Echo against Grandma Rowan's wishes. Gretchen disapproves of her mother's more spiritual outlook and is dismissive of the stories that she tells the Byrnes children. In return, Grandma Rowan considers Gretchen arrogant for trying to live in Echo and disagrees with the way she parents her children. Despite this, the Byrnes' house was bought with Grandma Rowan's financial support, and when her children were younger Gretchen often sent them away to stay with their grandmother during the summer even though she did not accompany them herself. Grandma Rowan is also invited to Holly's wedding and stays in the Byrnes' house, showing that they have not cut off contact despite their estrangement.

### Seamus

Seamus was Gretchen's youngest child and from Murdoch's account she loved him dearly. After his tragic death, Gretchen is said to have become much more closed off in her affection and began holding her family to higher standards. From this, it can be gathered that Seamus' passing likely devastated Gretchen greatly, and much of her behavior in The Smoke Room can be explained as a way of coping with her grief.

### Sam

Sam and Gretchen are largely unfamiliar with one another, a fact that frustrates Gretchen to some extent due to her general knowledge of most prominent figures in town. Gretchen approves of Sam's physique and sees it as evidence of him being a hard worker, and she supports Murdoch's decision to hire him as an employee of Red's General Goods. Gretchen tends to treat Sam with courtesy (albeit in her typical domineering way), though she exhibits acute curiosity regarding his character and past.

Given that Gretchen is aware of Murdoch's sexuality and several times is shown favorably comparing Sam to the kinds of men she usually sees Murdoch socializing with, Gretchen may have intuited the sexual relationship between Sam and her son, but this is unconfirmed.

### Marcy

Gretchen has been aware of Marcy's abusive domestic situation for many years and, frustrated by the law's failure to keep her safe, seems to feel very protective of her. In order to alleviate at least some of her suffering, Gretchen regularly brings Marcy abortive drugs, honoring her fervid wish not to have children with her cruel husband Huxley. After this results in Marcy nearly dying from a miscarriage, a visibly emotional Gretchen comes to her bedside to kiss Marcy's forehead and hold her hand as if she is her own daughter.

### Mayor Franz and Dora

As two of Echo's key political figures, Gretchen and Mayor Franz are familiar with one another and occasionally work together to discuss mutual goals or events of note within the community. Though she treats him respectfully enough, Gretchen also seems to have little sympathy for Franz's incompetence and weak leadership skills.

Dora and Gretchen often work together as two of the primary members of Echo's local suffragette movement. Gretchen seems to be either unaware or uncaring about Dora's distaste for her, and treats her in a casual manner. The two seem to have frequent quarrels over Prohibition.

## Trivia

* In the epilogue of Flynn's route in Echo, Chase mentions a street in Echo called "Gretchen Way" that is presumably named for her.
* When trying to get a better picture of who Sam is as a person, Gretchen tells him that "the ink smudges are there, but nothing substantial" regarding her perception of him. This may be a reference to the way Sam's "ghost" describes himself in Echo as "A facsimile of a person that was. I'm dabbing myself with ink so I never dry. But it smudges."
* In the modern AU's Christmas special, Murdoch's relationship with his parents is implied to be strained in a manner similar to their interactions in The Smoke Room. At the end of the Christmas special, Murdoch burns a Yule Log with a photo of Gretchen and Red attached as a symbol of letting them go as a past regret left at the end of the year. Afterward Sam's dialogue hints that the pair have vanished from memory in a manner similar to the snowgate phenomena Murdoch describes earlier in the special, though whether this is truly the case is left ambiguous.

## Gallery

DefaultAngryHappyFront-facingAnnoyedSmugGretchen in her wedding attire.An early sketch and sprites of Gretchen. Drawn by Shtarfish.