Lefoux, Beatrice

Formerly Beatrice. Art by Rem.

Formerly Beatrice Lefoux was the aunt of Madame Genevieve Lefoux. She also appears in the Finishing School Series as Madame Lefoux, the most intimidating and unsympathetic of Mademoiselle Geraldine's female teachers. She taught modern languages, weaponries, modern inventions, and truth extraction.

Appearance

As a younger woman, Madame Lefoux is tall, bony, and angular, with a pretty face lined from frowning. Sophronia describes her as looking "like a human hatstand."

As a ghost, she is described as a tall, gaunt, severe-looking older woman with spectacles, who looks a bit like Genevieve Lefoux.

After death, she is physically translucent, as are all ghosts.

Personality

Beatrice is of French origin, and speaks the language fluently. She appears to have never married, or had children of her own. She reluctantly admits to liking Quesnel despite this. 

She is a very proud woman, and is suspicious of the supernatural set. She fears preternaturals instinctively, as most ghosts do, as a preternatural's touch will end their existence. 

She secretly cares a great deal for her niece, going very far out of her way to try and keep her out of trouble in Heartless. She also seems to accept Genevieve for who she is, and has told Lady Maccon on a few occasions that Genevieve has feelings for her. When Genevieve was young, Beatrice was accepting of the masculine way Genevieve dressed, and even helped her get into Bunson and Lacroix Boys' Polytechnique under a male guise.

History

Beatrice taught at Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing School for Young Ladies of Quality (see Finishing School series). Her subjects were modern weaponry and technological advancements. She was also a drone to the school's vampire Professor Braithwope during her time there. She was an honorary member of the Order of the Brass Octopus, which did not allow women in its ranks at that time.  

After her niece Genevieve finished attending school, Beatrice opened a shop with her in Paris. They produced and sold women's domestic gadgets. She also sold custom-made teapots, and presumably other deadly glassware.  

She recalls having lost a student (Sidheag Maccon) after the Alpha werewolf of the Kingair Pack left. It is revealed in Heartless that Beatrice had an order placed by the Kingair Pack for a lead-lined teapot for the queen. This teapot would activate the poison the pack made and had planned to lace her tea with. However, this plan was foiled when their Alpha found out, killed his Beta, and deserted the pack.

In the Books

Etiquette & Espionage

Coming soon.

Curtsies & Conspiracies

Coming soon.

Waistcoats & Weaponry

Coming soon.

Manners & Mutiny

After the events of the Great Picklemen Revolt of 1854 and the subsequent closure of Mademoiselle Geraldine's, Beatrice returns to France.

Changeless

Formerly Beatrice Lefoux is introduced after Alexia sneaks into Madame Lefoux's underground laboratory following an explosion that knocked out the lights in the shop. She appears in a conversation with Genevieve and Quesnel, while they are all speaking French.

Blameless

It is revealed that Beatrice raised and educated Madame Genevieve Lefoux, as the girl's father, Beatrice's brother, had had multiple extramarital affairs and she was not legitimate. She now also educates Quesnel, the adopted son of her niece.

Heartless

Beatrice nears the end of her afterlife, and begins to go through the stages of becoming a poltergeist. She sends a message through the ghost network in the hopes of reaching Alexia, that someone was trying to kill "the queen." However, the message deteriorated, and by the time it reached her, Alexia believed that Queen Victoria was in danger. The queen Lefoux meant was Countess Nadasdy, who was the "queen" of the Westminster vampire hive.

Nadsady had "kidnapped" Quesnel from Madame Lefoux, who sought to get her son back and kill the countess for the trouble she had caused her family and her former lover, Angelique. While Alexia gets this information from Beatrice, as Genevieve is nowhere to be found, the ghost turns poltergeist, and Alexia hurriedly breaks open the container used to preserve her body and touches her, thus ending Formerly Beatrice Lefoux's afterlife. Immediately following, Lady Maccon sets out to stop Madame Lefoux from putting her plan into action.

Trivia

• Lefoux is pronounced "Leh-FOO"

Quotes

• "Miss Tall was the only one of the three who actually looked the part of a teacher. Sophronia adjusted her assessment from merely "tall" to "impossibly angular." Like a human hatstand. This woman was severely dressed, with a face that might have been pretty if all the lines resulted from smiling rather than frowning. As it was, she looked like a stoat with gastric problems." (Etiquette & Espionage, Lesson 4)
• "Worried, are you? You should be. Professor LeFoux takes a firm hand. Although she's too fearsome for debuts." (Etiquette & Espionage, Lesson 4)
• "Old Lefoux has charge of modern weaponry and technological advancements. She's an honorary member of the Order of the Brass Octopus. They don't allow women, not officially, but they certainly use her designs." (Etiquette & Espionage, Lesson 6)
• "She also had a French accent, which hundreds of years of animosity had trained nice young Englishwomen to suspect as evil." (Curtsies & Conspiracies, The 2nd Test)