Black Dog of the Sea: Protagonists – Part 2

Laia Hexton

Lady Laia Hexton is the only living child of Lord Percival and Lady Valentina Hexton. They had another daughter before Laia, named Fontina, who died of illness at four years of age. After Laia came a younger brother. There was a great pandemic in the first three years of his life, and consequently Laia was never able to play with him or even see him very much. Sadly, he was kidnapped shortly after his third birthday.

While Laia never forgot her little brother, she had ambitions even as a child. After a particularly disagreeable cousin told her that medicine was the worst possible profession for a lady, Laia decided she should be a docotor. Perhaps more suprisingly, she found she enjoyed reading medical volumes in her father’s library, and caring for injured animals she came across.

Her family humored her interest in medicine, believing it to be a passing childhood folly, but they became more concerned as she began approaching marriageable age and showed no sign of giving it up. While they didn’t quite agree with Laia’s cousin, they didn’t think consider the idea very favorably. Lord Hexton is the head of the very pretigeous Dappleton and Folke Insurance Company, so society at large considers Lady Laia quite secure of making a good match. So you see, a career in medicine would be of little help in securing her a future as the wife of a nobleman or powerful man of business, and might even get in the way.

For her part, Laia had only shown real romantic interest in Lord Dorian Wavorly, despite his lack of prospects as the fourth son of Lord Merrick Wavorly. Unfortunately, Lord Dorian vexed Laia greatly by purchasing a commission from the army of the nearby Tovernon Empire and never being seen again.