WAITING IN THE WINGS - SUBSIDIARY BUT NOT FORGOTTEN

One of the delights of reading Georgette Heyer is to see how the principal characters interact with other characters. It's very easy to write a dastardly, fiendish character that alienates everyone including the reader, but it's much harder to write about the 'supporting cast' in a way which makes the reader as interested in their trials and tribulations as they are in the plight of the hero and the heroine.

This first in a series of profiles on the 'Supporting Actors' and 'Supporting Actresses' in a Heyer novel will begin with the very lovable Cedric Brandon, a personal favourite of mine, followed closely perhaps by Sherry's rowdy friends in 'Friday's Child' and the Viscount and his hilariously inebriated mate Pommeroy in 'The Convenient Marriage'. I'm still playing around with the idea, so the page is majorly under construction.

Full Name: Cedric Brandon

Residential Address: Brook Street (London Address)

Current Residence: Somewhere on the Peninsula. Probably a tent somewhere.

Father: Lord Saar

Mother: Lady Saar (Emily)

Brother: Beverley (deceased)

Sisters:

Melissa (cold, icy and kind of obnoxious)
Sophia (spotty)
Amelia (has squints according to George and a slight case in one eye according to Louisa)
Fourth Sister - name is not mentioned in 'The Corinthian.

Age: Unknown - younger than Sir Richard Wyndham, and probably older than Beverley. My guess is his early to mid-twenties.

Words to describe the Honourable Cedric Brandon:
"a rakish young gentleman of lamentable habits, and a disastrous charm of manner."

"graceless"

Passages in which Cedric plays a part

From the following passage, we are able to see that while the Honourable Cedric is somewhat erratic, he seems to have a genuinely kind heart and a love for his friend.... although his duty to family seems decidedly lacking. We can see that he is very typical of the young man of the era - bored, prone to drink and gambling. He also appears to have a predilection for speaking in an exclamatory fashion!

"Ricky, my only friend!" cried the Honourable Cedric, dragging Sir Richard into a small salon at the back of the house. "Don't tell me you've come to offer for Melissa! They say good news don't kill a man, but I never listen to gossip! M'father says ruin stares us in the face. Lend me the money, dear boy, and I'll buy myself a pair of colours, and be off to the Peninsula, damme if I won't! But listen to me, Ricky! Are you listening?" He looked anxiously at Sir Richard, appeared satisfied, and said, wagging a solemn finger: 'Don't do it! There isn't a fortune big enough to settle our little affairs: take my word for it! Have nothing to do with Beverley! They say Fox gamed away a fortune before he was twenty-one. Give you my word, he was nothing to Bev, nothing at all. Between ourselves, Ricky, the old man has taken to brandy. H'sh! Not a word! Mustn't tell tales about m'father! But run, Ricky! That's my advice to you: run!"

"Would you buy you yourself a pair of colours, if I gave you the money?" asked Sir Richard.

"Sober, yes; drunk, no!" replied Cedric, with his wholly disarming smile. "I'm very sober now, but I shan't be so for long. Don't give me a groat, dear old boy! Don't give Bev a groat! he's a bad man. Now when I'm sober I'm a good man - but I ain't sober above six hours out of the twenty-four, so you be warned! Now I'm off. I've done my best for you, for I like you, Ricky, but if you go to perdition in spite of me, I'll wash my hands of you. No, damme, I'll sponge on you for the rest of my days! Think, dear boy, think! Bev and your very obedient on your doorstep six days out of seven - duns - threats - wife's brothers done-up - pockets to let - wife in tears - nothing to do but pay! Don't do it! Fact is, we ain't worth it!"

"Wait!" Sir Richard said, barring his passage. "If I settle your debts, will you go to the Peninsula?"

"Ricky, it's you who aren't sober. Go home!"

"Consider, Cedric, how well you would look in Hussar uniform!"

An impish smile danced in Cedric's eyes. "Wouldn't I just? But at this present I'd look better in Hyde Park. Out of the way, dear boy! I've a very important engagement. Backed a goose to win a hundred-yard race against a turkey-cock. Can't lose! Greatest sporting event of the season!"

He was gone on the words, leaving Sir Richard, not, indeed to run, as advised, but to await the pleasure of the Honourable Melissa Brandon.

From the next passage we can see that Cedric is irreverent to the lofty Louisa. Despite his careless ways, he appears to be quite observant and intuitive in his thinking, although there appears to be no love lost between himself and his sister. Even at this early stage, his deductive skills are stirring as he is pondering the strange circumstances surrounding the theft of the Brandon diamonds. We should also note that upon hearing of his family's trials, his first instinct is to flee to the Peninsula.

[Louisa] broke off, as the Honourable Cedric walked into the room, and stepped forward, with her hand held out. "How do you do, Cedric? I am afraid Richard is not at home. We - we think he must have been called away suddenly on urgent affairs."

"Taken my advice, has he?" said Cedric, saluting her hand with careless grace. "'You run, Ricky! Don't do it!' that's what I said to him. Told him I'd sponge off him for the rest of his days, if he was fool enough to let himself be caught."

"I wonder that you should talk in that vulgar way!" said Louisa. "Of course he has not run! I daresay he will be back any moment now. It was excessively remiss of him not to have sent a note round to inform Lord Saar that he could not wait on him this morning, as he had engaged himself to do, but - "

"You've got that wrong," interrupted Cedric. "No engagement at all. Melissa told him to call on m'father; he didn't say he would. Wormed it out of Melissa myself an hour ago. Lord, you never saw anyone in such a rage! What's all this?" His roving eye had alighted on the relics laid out upon the table. "A lock of hair, by Jove! Devilish pretty hair too!"

"Found in the library this morning," said George portentously, ignoring his wife's warning frown.

"Here? Ricky?" demanded Cedric,"You're bamming me!"

"No, it's perfectly true. We cannot understand it."

Cedric's eyes danced. "By all that's famous! Who'd have thought it, though? Well, that settles our affair! Devilish inconvenient, but damme, I'm glad he's bolted. Always like Ricky - never wanted to see him bound for perdition with the rest of us! But we're done up now, and no mistake! The diamonds have gone."

"What?" Louisa cried. "Cedric, not the Brandon necklace?"

"That's it. Last sheet-anchor thrown out to the windward - gone like that!" He snapped his fingers in the air, and laughed. "I came to tell Ricky I'd accept his offer to buy me a pair of colours and be off to the Wars."

"But how? Where?" gasped Louisa.

"Stolen. My mother took it to Bath with her. Never would stir without the thing, more's the pity. I wonder m'father didn't sell it years ago. Only thing he didn't sell, except Saar Court, and that'll have to go next. My mother wouldn't hear of parting with the diamonds."

"But Cedric, how stolen? Who took it?"

"Highwaymen. My mother sent off a courier post haste to m'father. Chaise stopped somewhere near Bath - two fellows with masks and horse pistols - Sophia screeching like a hen - my mother swooning - outriders taken by surprise - one of them winged. And off went the necklace. Which is what I can't for the life of me understand."

"How terrible! Your poor mama! I am so sorry! It is an appalling loss!"

"Yes, but how the devil did they find the thing?" said Cedric. "That's what I want to know."

"But surely if they took Lady Saar's jewel case - "

"The necklace wasn't in it. I'll lay my last shilling on that. My mother had a hiding place for it - devilish cunning notion - always put it there when she travelled. Secret pocket behind one of the squabs."

"Good Gad, do you mean to say someone divulged the hiding place to the rascals?" said George.

"Looks might like it, don't it?"

"Who knew of it? If you can discover the traitor, you may yet get the necklace back. Are you sure of all your servants?"

"I'm sure none of them - Lord, I don't know!" Cedric said rather hastily. "My mother wants the Bow Street Runners set on to it, but m'father don't think it's the least use. And now here's Ricky bolted, on top of everything. The old man will go off in an apoplexy!"

"Really, Cedric, you must not talk so of your Papa," Louisa expostulated. "And we don't know that Richard has - has bolted! Indeed, I am sure it is no such thing!"

"He'll be a fool if he hasn't," said Cedric. "What do you think, George?"

"I don't know," George answered. "It is very perplexing. I own, when I fear heard of his disappearance - for you must know that he did not sleep in his bed last night, and when I saw him he was foxed - I felt the gravest alarm. But - "

"Suicide, by God!" Cedric gave a shout of laughter. "I must tell Melissa that! Driven to death! Ricky! Oh, by all that's famous!"

"Cedric, you are quite abominable!" said Louisa roundly. "Of course Richard has not committed suicide! He has merely gone away. I'm sure I don't know where, and if you say anything of the sort to Melissa I shall never forgive you! In fact, I beg you will tell Melissa nothing more than that Richard has been called away on an urgent matter of business."

"What, can't I tell her about the lock of yaller hair? Now, don't be such a spoilsport, Louisa!"

"Odious creature!"

"We believe the lock of hair to be a relic of some long-forgotten affair," said George. "Possibly a boy and girl attachment. It would be gross impropriety to mention it beyond these walls."

"If it comes to that, old fellow, what about the gross impropriety of poking and prying into Ricky's drawers?" asked Cedric cheerfully.

"We did no such thing!" Louisa cried "It was found upon the floor in the library!"

"Dropped? Discarded? Seems to me Ricky's been leading a double life. I'd have said myself he never troubled him much about females. Won't I roast him when I see him!"

"You will do nothing of the sort. Oh dear, I wish to heaven I knew where he has gone, and what it all means."

"I'll tell you where he's gone!" offered Cedric. "He's gone to find the yaller-haired charmer of his youth. Not a doubt of it! Lord, I'd give a monkey to see him, though. Ricky on a romantic adventure!"

I've always thought it a pity that Georgette Heyer didn't write another novel so that we could learn more about what happened to Cedric. Then again, we were only lucky enough to have 'sequels' in These Old Shades and Devil's Cub and Regency Buck and An Infamous Army. This is the principle test of how we know whether a Supporting Character has been successful or not. If we are indifferent to the departure of this character, or if we roll our eyes each time he appears (like August Fawnhope), then we know that he is not a success. If however our cheeks become sore from laughing and we wonder what becomes of the Supporting Character as well as wondering what becomes of the Principal Characters, then it has been a success. I'm just jotting down little thoughts about Cedric right now, so this isn't finished yet. =) I'm also working on a profile on Sir Roland Pommeroy for any of you who fancy him.