Jill Wolcott

Jill was Jack Wolcott's twin sister. She was a main character in *Every Heart a Doorway*, *Down Among the Sticks and Bones* and *Come Tumbling Down*.

## Appearance

Jill had freckles and was quite tall, being an inch or two shorter than Nancy. She styled her long hair into loose curls "the size of soup cans" which she tied back in a ponytail. When she was first introduced, she was wearing a flowing pink dress, with a low cut bodice and lots of lace flourishes. She also wore eyeliner and a pink ribbon in her hair that matched her choker.

Later in the book, she wore a similar outfit of a lilac dress and deep purple choker. She also had a lacy peignoir, and a cream coloured gown that "Nancy would have considered sleepwear, not something to wear to group therapy." She said that she wears pale colours because her Master liked her to, as it showed her blood better.

While she was in the Moors, she was required to wear a thick purple choker, adorned with an amethyst and pearl, when she was in the presence of anyone but the servants. Jill notes that it's quite tight, but that she could get used to it. She also had a pixie cut, but started growing her hair out once she got to the Moors.

## History

### Every Heart a Doorway

Jill is first mentioned by Eleanor, who mentions that she and Jack might be excited to meet Nancy.

Sumi mentions her later, informing Nancy that she had wanted to have sex with Kade until she found out he was assigned female at birth, and then referred to him as "she" until Eleanor reprimanded her.

Nancy later meets Jill and Jack at dinner, noticing that they physically look exactly alike but dress completely differently. Jill asks Nancy if she's on a diet, proudly announcing that she herself is to get herself iron-rich blood. She tells Nancy that they went to a nice place with nice people, but they had to return to Reality due to a problem with the local constabulary. When Nancy gets upset thinking about being away from her world, Jill comforts her, patting her hand and assuring her that it never got easy, but it did start to hurt less. She also assures her that neither Jack nor Jill had lost hope, as she'd kept her iron levels up and Jill had worked on her experiments, which causes Jack to stand up and leave.

At the Group Therapy session, the children who went to Wicked worlds are asked to speak. Jill recites a paean to the Moors during this. When Sumi confronts Nancy, telling her that her world very well could have been Wicked and she wouldn't have known, she looks to Jill, trying to see her reaction. Jill doesn't appear to notice.

When Nancy runs off to the grove to cry, she is surprised to find Jill already there, sitting on the edge of a root. She tells Nancy that it took her weeks to find the place- the shadiest spot on the grounds- and agreeing with her how hard it was to get along with people who went to pastel dream worlds. When Nancy points out Jill's pastel clothes, Jill responds that she wears pale colors because her Master liked them; they showed blood better. She tells Nancy that her Master was good to her, giving her things and telling her how beautiful she was, and saying about how unladylike it was for Jack to lock herself away with Dr. Bleak. She also seems upset thinking about returning to Reality, and says that she'd only accidentally found her way back, as the Master had opened up a door for Jack to be rid of her, and he would find a way to open a door back to her. She then briskly leaves.

Sometime after the next night's therapy session, Jill cuts off Sumi's hands for her Skeleton Key, leaving the girl to die of her wounds.

While Jack is hiding with Nancy, she explains that her parents had expected them to be fraternal twins, and were disappointed that they didn't have a boy. They decided that Jill was the smart one and encouraged her to be a tom-boy. They had both felt trapped in their roles until they were twelve and found a doorway to the moors, and that they'd been curious, and angry at their parents and each other, so they went onto the Moors and went to have an adventure. Jill had gone to serve The Master, who promised Jill that she could be his daughter and rule alongside him. When the villagers had marched on the castle, he'd sent Jill to them, and Dr. Bleak had pushed them through the doorway- Jill had to be sedated. The two of them had been on a bus to Eleanor's Home within a month, to prevent them from affecting their new brother.

At the next dinner, Loriel, who suspects Jack of killing Sumi, dumps her soup on her head. Jill seems more offended at this than Jack does, shrieking at Loriel in horror. Jack eventually bolts, and Jill runs after her. They both arrive for the next therapy session, Jill wearing a cream gown that seemed more sleepwear than something to wear to therapy.

The next night, Jill finds Loriel, who had wandered off to look for her door, and hits her on the back of her head, knocking her down and cutting out her eyes. Loriel later dies of the shock. She then leaves her to die of hypovolemic shock.

While the students wait in the dining hall for information, Nancy notices that Jill seems to be serene, and is one of the few students eating. Jack, who is making a case for lying about the death, says that she has to take care of Jill, who responds that she can take care of herself. She also refuses to help with Loriel's body, as it would ruin her dress.

After putting the body in acid, Jack, Kade, Nancy and Christopher decide to go find her; Jill doesn't want her to be alone. She says that she is not worried about her getting hurt, but because she would hurt someone trying to get away. She also reveals that the two of them stick together less because they like each other and more out of self-defense, so they could stand as a united front. Christopher mentions that he had offered to show Jill around when she arrived, but Jill had simply said he was a cute little boy but she couldn't lower herself to be seen with him. Jack informs him that this was her way of trying to save him, as before the Moors, Jill had always been outgoing and wanted to be friends with people, and had been the one always trying to find the door back home. She had tried to play with the kids from the village, but the Master got jealous and had them killed. Jack was only spared in case Jill needed a transfusion.

The group splits up to find Jill; Jack and Christopher go to the dining hall and Kade and Nancy go to the tree grove. She later finds them when they regroup in the attic, and asks why they had left her alone. Jack and Christopher then leave to get Loriel's skeleton.

Later that night, Jill kills Lundy for her brain and kidnaps Seraphina for her beauty, taking them up to the attic to make her Skeleton Key. Jack finds her and confronts her, and Jill stabs her before getting away, not noticing Nancy watching her. Jack reveals to them that Jill was the reason the villagers revolted and they had to be sent home, and the kids run upstairs to stop her. She has everything ready for surgery in the attic, revealing that she's going to use Seraphina as a Skeleton Key to go home, and will kill her once she reaches there. As she talks, Jack sneaks up behind her and stabs her with scissors, killing her. She then uses the blood to open up a portal home, and takes Jill there, saying that she intended to resurrect her, and that her Master wouldn't want her now that she was undead and couldn't become a Vampire.

### Down Among the Sticks and Bones

Jillian and her sister Jacqueline are born, which disappoints their parents, who were expecting a boy and a girl. She is named after her father's head partner's wife. When neither twin stops crying, her parents Serena and Chester call Chester's mother to raise them. They stop crying once she holds them.

When the girls get older, Serena and Chester notice that Jillian is the braver of the two, always throwing herself at risks to see what would happen, so she is given a pixie cut and boyish clothes, encouraged to get masculine interests. On their first day of preschool, Jillian cries, not wanting to leave her house, but once they get to the preschool, Jillian is calmed by the pretty teacher and runs off to play with a bunch of boys. She also runs around playing on her fifth birthday, and her father says they've been looking at peewee soccer leagues. That night, Louise is made to leave, and the twins are told she forgot how to love them, which cements the children's distrust in adults.

As Jillian grows older, people stop wanting to associate with her, as the girls find her dorky and weird and the boys are told not to play with girls. She begins to hate her sister for being the "pretty one", but also is jealous of how popular she is. One rainy day, Jillian is upset that soccer practice is rained out and bored, so she convinces Jacqueline to go into the attic with her- their safe spot to hide from their parents. The two of them are surprised to find that the dress-up trunk no longer contains outfits, but a long, spiraling staircase. Jillian doesn't want to explore it, as it looks new and dangerous, but when Jacqueline begins to go, she refuses to be upstaged by her "less brave" sister. She follows her, getting increasingly scared, until they reach a door at the bottom that only says "Be Sure." Jacqueline opens it, and the sisters step out onto the Moors.

The girls run into the Moors, finally free; Jillian is relieved that nobody can tell her to go faster or be competitive, so she stops and looks at flowers, falling down and laughing. However, she notices that the Moon is huge and red, and informs her sister, who horrifies her by telling her that the Moon should be pulling the planet apart from its gravity. She realizes that the door is gone, and Jacqueline asks her where she wants to go, which excites her, as she was rarely asked what she wanted to do. She decides to go Left, further down the Moors, and the sisters walk until they fall asleep. When they awake, they continue walking until they reach a fence. Jacqueline knocks on it, to Jillian's horror, and when the gate opens, they meet The Master. Jillian apologizes for the intrusion, saying that they'd thought they were still in their house, and the Master asks if their house normally contained another world. Jacqueline explains about the door, saying that it had told them to "Be Sure." When he asks if they were sure, the girls reply that they weren't, and he thanks them for not lying to him. He then tells them to follow him to get some food, referring to them for the first time as Jack and Jill.

Jack and Jill follow the Master through the village, while Jill keeps her focus entirely on him. Once they get to the Master's house, he tells them that for three days, they are to be given hospitality, and until that time is up, nobody could harm, hex or draw upon their blood, which baffles Jill. They enter the house and go to the dining room, where the Master has them sit on opposite sides of the table, and has Mary bring them conjured food. Jill is given three slices of rare roast beef, with mashed potatoes and spinach, with a silver goblet of milk, which is remarkably similar to what the Master has. Dr. Bleak soon arrives, and believes that the Master has chosen Jill, due to her food preference. When the Master argues that they should both stay with him as a Matched Set, Jack argues that they're going home as soon as they find their door, to which Dr. Bleak explains that their door may be gone for a while. Jill is horrified, saying that her Dad will be angry with her if she misses soccer practice. Dr. Bleak offers to take them both, saying that while they wouldn't live in luxury, they would be taught about the world and granted safety. Jill sulks a little at this.

The two girls are brought to a room for the night, where Jack tells Jill that she wants to leave. Jill wants to wait with the Master while waiting for the door, and Jack reminds her that the man wants them to call him "master." Jill retorts that the other man wants to be called "doctor", not knowing the difference between the two. She asks why they always have to do what Jack wants to do, and Jack replies that they didn't have to stay together. Jill feels upset, having enjoyed spending time with her sister, as they'd finally agreed on something, but she also liked living in the castle.

The next morning, the two are brought breakfast by Mary and two servants, and Jill immediately eats, not caring that her sister would like a bath. When Jack still doesn't want to eat, Jill tells her to tell Mary she was done eating, and maybe then she'd get a bath. Jack then realizes that her sister still thinks of this as an adventure, something that would go away once she got bored, and that she needs to leave, as she does not want to upstage Jill as a "decoration." Jill continues eating after Jack leaves, and only when she's finished does she go to find Mary. She is upset to find out that Jack had chosen Bleak and left with him, as she'd hoped her twin had decided to stay. She wishes that she could share the adventure with her sister, and tells Mary that she wants to tell the Master about her decision to stay. Mary informs her that since Jack chose Bleak, Jill herself does not have a choice. Jill is affronted by the fact she once again does not have a choice, and decides to tell the Master that she'd chosen first, and Jack had only gone downstairs first so she could show off. When she is lead to the Master, she does this, and assures him that she isn't lying. The Master informs her that she will be prepared to live there, and will be expected to meet his standards and obey him, unless her door should come, but he hoped that she would choose to stay instead of returning to her world.

Mary is put in charge of fixing up Jill after she decides to stay, and brushes through her tangled hair; Jill is excited that she will be able to grow out her hair. Mary shows her a door that had just appeared, and Jill hesitates before opening it, worrying that it would take her home. When she goes through, she finds a very fancy bathroom. She is amazed at the beauty of it, and smug that it was all for her and not for Jack. She bathes until lunchtime, when Mary gives her a purple, blue and white dress, which takes Jill a while to get on, though she needs Mary to fasten it. Mary also gives her a purple choker with a pearl-and-amethyst pendant, and tells her to never take it off around anyone but the servants. Jill is excited to finally wear something pretty.

The years pass, and Jill lives with the Master, and the people in the Village believe she is his daughter, though they are also afraid that she is a Vampire. Two years after she arrives, Jill gets her period, which she at first is terrified of, sitting in the baths alone and only emerging to eat. When her period ends, the Master comes to her and finally shows her his fangs, hoping to feed on her blood, and talks to her all night to make sure she understands; he also promises that one day he will make her a Vampire, and she will be his daughter. Jill allows him to suck her blood, effectively making her the Master's daughter in all but name. After the Master feeds on her, she has to wait three days to see him, and he feeds on her every two weeks. The Master wants the people to see her walking around the grounds, so she can see the people and what she would give up should she become a Vampire. Jill is impatient to become immortal.

One day, when she is sixteen, Jill sees Jack in the village. She follows her to the Choppers' Inn, and storms in, starting to provoke Jack, as she is upset she did not come to visit her. Jack begins to talk back to her, until Alexis begs her to stop, and Jack softens up, offering to accompany Jill while shopping and buy her a ribbon. Jill is excited by this and takes Jack; the Villagers are terrified of her and refuse to look her in the eye, and Jill refuses to let Jack pay the stallholders. When they reach the ribbon stall, Jill offers to take Jack home with her and train her to become a lady. Jack politely declines, and Jill takes a handful of ribbons and storms away.

About a year later, Jill awakes to Mary bringing her red roses. She is excited to learn that it is her fifth anniversary of coming to the Moors, and that she is almost eighteen. She asks if the Master will turn her into a Vampire that night, and Mary reminds her that he will not until he is certain she is eighteen, which would be at the end of the season. Furious and impatient, Jill decides to prove she is ruthless and can be a vampire immediately, and sneaks out of the castle and goes into the village to follow Alexis. Once Alexis is alone on the Moors, Jill murders her.

Jill returns to the village, covered in Alexis's blood, to be intercepted by an angry mob. She is confused at this, as she is the Master's daughter. Mary then arrives, chastising her for being impatient, and tells the mob that the Master has disowned her, and she was to be left to the Mob. She goes into shock, as Jack drags her to the Windmill. When they arrive, Jill is denial, screaming that the Master loves her, and tries to run away, until she is knocked out by Bleak. When she awakes, Jack is carrying her up the staircase to their old home. Jill tries to throw herself down the stairs, only to be forced into the attic by her sister. When she forces the trunk open again, she only finds clothing, and tries in vain to return home. The two sisters go downstairs, to find their parents dining with their new son. Serena sees them and screams, before Chester recognizes them, calling them Jacqueline and Jillian. The two sisters then cling to each other and sob.

## Gallery

Jill trying on her new dress and choker.Jack and Jill walking down the impossible staircase inside the dressing up box.Jack and Jill running through The Moors.(From left to right) Jack, The Master, and Jill, sitting at the dining table in his house.Jill's blood on the scissors, showing the silhouette of The Master's castle.
## Trivia

* Jill was named after her father's head partner's wife.
* Jill is the second-born twin.
* Her birthday is 15th September.
* "Jillian" is an English name meaning "downy-bearded".
* Seanan McGuire confirmed that Jill is heterosexual and "probably needs a cold shower more than Jack does."
* According to Jack, Jill used to watch *Doctor Who*.
* Seanan McGuire said in a Q&A that "Jill is partially based off my friend Meg, though she has forgiven me for that."
* Jack is referred to by Kade as an Addams, in reference to the Addams family.

## References

1. ↑  Down Among the Sticks and Bones, page 159: Jill's eyes widened. "I'm seventeen?" [...] "I was almost twelve and a half when we arrived here," she said excitedly, starting to shovel her covers back onto the mattress. "That makes me practically eighteen."
Every Heart a Doorway, page 52: "It gets better," repeated Jill. "It's been a year and a half for us." If the twins were seventeen-and-a-half when they left the moors, a year and a half later, they would be either nineteen or almost so.
2. ↑ Down Among the Sticks and Bones, page 19:

"Have you thought about names?" asked another, handing Serena the second infant.

"My mother's name was Jacqueline," said Serena cautiously, glancing at Chester. They had discussed names, naturally, one for a girl, one for a boy. They had never considered the need to name two girls.

"Our head partner's wife is named Jillian," said Chester. He could claim it was his mother's name if he needed to. No one would know. No one would ever know.
3. ↑ Down Among the Sticks and Bones, page 26: Jacqueline had been the first born, and that seemed to have taken up all of her bravery; she was the more delicate of the two, hanging back and allowing her sister to go ahead of her.
4. ↑ Down Among the Sticks and Bones page 18: "Serena did not want a C-section if she could help it, did not want the scarring and the mess,so she pushed when she was told to push, and rested when she was told to rest, and gave birth to her first child five minutes to midnight on September fifteenth."
5. ↑ From Seanan McGuire's tumblr: "Jill is heterosexual.  Jill probably needs a cold shower more than Jack does."
6. ↑ Every Heart a Doorway, page 119: "Believe it or not, [Jill] used toe be the gregarious one, even if it was a nerdy sort of friendly. She's run to ground to tell you about the latest episode of *Doctor Who*."
7. ↑ Seanan McGuire's Continuum 13 Guest of Honour Hour
8. ↑ *Every Heart a Doorway*