Loontwill, Leticia

Leticia Loontwill is the mother of Alexia Tarabotti, Evylin Loontwill, and Felicity Loontwill. She is married to Squire Loontwill and is the widow of Alessandro Tarabotti. Her maiden name was Leticia Phinkerlington she is the sister of Eustace & Percival Phinkerlington and the aunt of Everard Phinkerlington.

Art by Rem.

Appearance

Mrs. Loontwill is described as a diminutive blond with a rosy complexion. She has pale blue eyes. She is prone to wearing gowns meant for women half her age, which causes her daughters embarrassment.

Personality

She is prone to wearing yellow and engaging in bouts of hysteria.

Mrs. Loontwill puts Alexia on the shelf at a young age, as her appearance was a disappointment. Mother and daughter have an acrimonious relationship. In Soulless, Mrs. Loontwill slaps Alexia in front of family and Lord Maccon.

Mrs Loontwill has gone from being a Baronet's daughter to marrying a simple Squire. Alexia's marriage to Lord Maccon causes Mrs. Loontwill transports, despite his werewolf status, he is titled so Alexia becomes Lady Maccon.

History

She is the younger sister of Percival Phinkerlington and Eustace Phinkerlington, and aunt of Everard Phinkerlington.

After her eldest brother Eustace became a claviger, she started getting nightmares and screaming in the night. Her brother Percival takes her on holiday to Egypt for her health. In Egypt, she meets Alessandro and blushes significantly at him. After her brother dies, Alessandro escorts her back to England and marries her. Leticia admits that she fell for Alessandro's handsome and exotic features. Alessandro abandons her before their daughter Alexia is born, due to them both being preternaturals and unable to breathe the same air. In 1850, Leticia is widowed when her husband dies trying to kill a mad alpha.

An undetermined time later, Leticia meets and marries Squire Herbert Loontwill. Together they had two daughters, Felicity and Evylin.

In the books

The Curious Case

Leticia and her brother Percival are in Egypt on holiday for her health. Percival runs into his brother's friend Alessandro and introduces the two. Percival is killed by Alessandro in a dispute between governmental and supernatural dispute and his dying wish is for Alessandro to see Leticia home safely.

Meat Cute

Mrs. Loontwill is escorting her daughters to a ball. She fusses and complains at Alexia's lack of social skills until a group of werewolves appear at the ball. Once the werewolves arrive, she gathers her other daughters to put forth on the marriage mart despite her personal distaste for werewolves.

Soulless

Mrs. Loontwill (and the rest of the Loontwills) is unaware of Alexia Tarabotti's preternatural state. To them, she is a strong-willed spinster that they, out of duty to family, must continue to habitat with.

When Alexia is caught in an indelicate state with Conall Maccon in their home, Mrs. Loontwill (after a fit of hysterics) demands that Lord Maccon marry her daughter. Which, he does at the end of the book.

Changeless

Mrs. Loontwill brings her daughter, Felicity, to stay with her eldest (Lady Alexia Maccon) at the the beginning of Changeless. Felicity and Evylin have been fighting ever since Evylin's engagement has been arranged, and Mrs. Loontwill has been manipulated by Felicity into believing the best course of action is leaving her at Woolsey Castle.

Blameless

Mrs Loontwill does not give Alexia shelter in Blameless when Alexia has left her husband and causes a scandal with her pregnancy.

Heartless

Mrs. Loontwill and Felicity Loontwill are on the outs because of her nocturnal activities, which prompts Felicity to go and stay with Lady Maccon.

Timeless

Mrs. Loontwill visits Chapeau de Poupe with her daughters, Felicity Loontwill and Lady Evylin Mongtwee. The three of them are generally rude and leave without buying anything.

Imprudence

It is made clear in Imprudence that Mrs. Loontwill no longer has any contact with Lady Maccon's family.

Trivia

• Leticia Phinkerlington is the younger sister of Baronet Percival Phinkerlington and claviger Eustace Phinkerlington. She is aunt to Percival's son, Everard. And great aunt to Everard's daughter, Aggie.
• Alessandro Tarabotti, her first husband, is responsible for the corruption of her oldest brother, Eustace, who left his title to become a claviger. (We do not know if he successfully becomes a werewolf but this is unlikely.) Alessandro is also responsible for the death of Leticia's other brother, Percival. He may, or may not, have married her because of a guilty conscious. Alessandro was likely never faithful to his wife.
• After the birth of Leticia's first daughter, Alexia, Alessandro Tarabotti had little to no further contact with his wife. Preternaturals cannot share the same house. It is possible that Leticia blamed the infant Alexia for a perceived rejection by her husband.
• Mrs. Loontwill faints when Queen Victoria is announced to be visiting Alexia.
• Refers to Lord Maccon's pack as his "associates."
• Mrs. Loontwill does not want to be thought mean, so she dresses Alexia in current styles despite not hoping for her to catch a husband.

Quotes

• "Mrs. Loontwill had made no allowances for her own age with her gown, which much resembled those of her younger daughters." (Meat Cute)
• "He [Alessandro] was rather handsome. But what is swarthy and brooding and exotic in a man of his caliber is unfortunate in a girl of yours." - Mrs. Loontwill (Meat Cute)
• "Mrs. Loontwill, as she was Loontwill since her remarriage, leaned a little too far toward the frivolous in any given situation." (Soulless, Chapter One)
• "She had thought that putting Alexia on the shelf would keep the exasperating girl out of trouble. Instead, she had inadvertently managed to give Alexia an ever-increasing degree of freedom. Thinking back on it, she really ought to have married Alexia off instead. Now they were all stuck with her outrageous behavior, which seemed to be progressively worsening as she got older." (Soulless, Chapter Two)
• "Really, what had she been thinking, marrying an Italian? Well, she had been young and Alessandro Tarabotti so very handsome." (Soulless, Chapter Two)
• "But there was something else about Alexia, something... revoltingly independent, that Mrs. Loontwill could not blame entirely on her first husband. And, of course, she refused to take the blame herself. "(Soulless, Chapter Two)
• "Mrs. Loontwill was very good at operating on the theory that what she did not know could not hurt her, particularly regarding Alexia and the supernaturals." (Soulless, Chapter Two)
• "She wondered how little they could get away with spending on Alexia's future wedding and retreated to the study with her husband to consult on the matter." (Soulless, Chapter Six)
• "And what new dress will you be wearing, Mama?' she asked sharply. 'Something appropriate, or your customary style-a gown better suited for a lady half your age?" (Soulless, Chapter Eight)
• “Mrs. Loontwill did what any well-prepared mother would do upon finding her unmarried daughter in the arms of a gentleman werewolf: she had very decorous, and extremely loud, hysterics.” (Soulless, Chapter Nine)
• "Mrs. Loontwill was no longer hysterical. There was instead a steel-edged gleam in her pale blue eyes. A gleam that made Lord Maccon wonder which side Alexia had gotten her flinty personality from. Until that moment, he had blamed the deceased Italian father. Now he was not so certain." (Soulless, Chapter Nine)
• “Oh, Herbert," she said pleadingly to her silent husband, "you must make him marry her! Call for the parson immediately! Look at them... they are...," she sputtered, "canoodling!” (Soulless, Chapter Nine)
• "The woman waiting for her in the front parlor was a diminutive blond with a rosy complexion that owed more to artifice than nature, wearing a visiting dress of pink and white stripes that would better suit a lady have her age." (Changeless, Chapter Five)
• “Such poopitations of the heart as you would not believe.” (Changeless, Chapter Five)
• "She said this last as a subtle hint, but her mother existed well beyond subtlety." (Changeless, Chapter Five)
• "It was a constant source of amazement to Alexia that the only thing she had ever done in her entire life that pleased her mama was marry a werewolf." (Changeless, Chapter Five)
• "Most unattractive quality in a married woman, pertness." (Blameless, Chapter One)
• “Mrs. Loontwill’s face, that of a pretty woman who had aged without realizing it, screwed itself up into a grimace Alexia supposed was meant to simulate motherly concern. Instead she looked like a Pekingese with digestive complaints.” (Blameless, Chapter One)
• "A more inappropriate phrase had never yet been applied to his wife, whose hands were capable of nothing more complex than the occasional, highly stressful, bout of embroidery." (Blameless, Chapter One)
• "Rue had little to do with her Grandmother Loontwill over the years, first at her mother's insistence and later at her own." (Imprudence, Chapter Thirteen)