Charlotte Wells

**CW: discussion of sexual abuse**

## **Appearance**

 Pretty and ware of it, Charlotte is 5'9" with shoulder-length, chestnut brown hair, blue eyes, and pale skin. She can often be found in a great deal of makeup, fancy clothes, and even wigs, though. She is decidedly a Lady of Fashion.

## **Talents**

Sex, seduction, conversation, being devastatingly witty, hedonism.

## **Interests**

Freedom, money (which grants freedom), the theater, parties, gambling (she's terrible).

## **History**

When Charlotte was 12, her mother Margaret sold her virginity to the highest bidder--Lord Repton--for fifty pounds (about 9,000 today). This was no surprise to Charlotte, as she'd been prepared for this almost since the day she was born. Raised in her mother's brothel, Charlotte, and later her younger sister Lucy, always knew they'd fetch a high price their first time... and maybe the second and third.

Lord Repton's house was an education, even for a girl raised to sell sex. His strange mind games, his drunken, lascivious wife, his wonky prick, all of it were both repulsive and of strange interest to Charlotte simultaneously. Her spirit and wit won the pair of them over, and the sex itself wasn't so bad--she even managed to pretend to enjoy it, and was impressed with the effect it had on the couple. She was, officially, a devotee of Venus.

Charlotte worked at her mother's brothel in Covent Garden on and off for the next few years, alternating with temporary arrangements as rich men's "mistress" or "in keeping" as it was known. It was always Margaret's intention that her pretty and entertaining daughter should go into more permanent high keeping with some rich, great man of the world. This seemed sensible enough to Charlotte. She bought into her mother's main points: that marriage meant subjugation to a man's whims, that this was the only way she could keep her own money and property once she got some, and that she was beautiful and canny enough to manage it. In her first year out, she got a prime listing in Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies, which helped to rocket her to fame... it didn't hurt that the author was a prime customer of hers, either.

She had many offers of keeping, but all were just words, and Margaret wouldn't let her daughter go for less than a written contract safeguarding her assets. Charlotte, a terrible gambler, was an expensive but extremely entertaining companion, and despite her lack of prudence was more and more sought after. Finally, Sir George Howard, baronet, contracted her as mistress and gave a generous offer for her keeping.

Charlotte hemmed and hawed for months while living in style at Howard's London house, spending his money on jewels and clothes and wine, and keeping him happy in bed. Unfortunately, he was a ridiculous peacock of a man, sullen, whining, and absurd by turns, and the idea of being bound to his whims for the length of a contract rubbed Charlotte the wrong way. Not that she would've been glad to sign a contract for any man, knowing them as well as she did.

Howard and Charlotte got into a fight over it on the very evening Lucy's virginity was being put up for bid. To spite her, Howard put in a large bid at the last minute, which won Lucy. Charlotte, bored and tired of his pettiness and angry at her mother's grasping, flounced off and spent the evening with a charming, poor Irishman instead--not in bed, but helping him understand what it was to be a harlot since he claimed to want to enter into the business. When she left him, she entered into an inn, meaning to spend the evening alone... and ended up in Wall, instead.