Hugh Crawford

Hugh Crawford, a character in The Unexpected Heiress series, is the Hayes family solicitor and one of Your Character's love interests. He is first seen in Chapter 3.

Appearance
Hugh has green eyes, black hair and light skin. He wears a sky blue shirt with a blue tie, and an olive green vest with the same color of jacket and pants.

Personality
"I've played it safe all my life, hid myself behind jokes and laughter. But I see now there's so much I haven't confronted."

- Hugh to You

Hugh says he is a man set in his own routines. As a member of the middle class, he knows he can only air his complaints if he cloaks them in humor. He says the strictures of the upper classes do not come naturally to him, even though he rubs elbows with them on occasion. He dislikes high society because of the pretension.

If you dance with him at the Whittenbys' ball, he says that being among the nobility makes him feel invisible. He also talks in detail about his plans to move to the United States. He explains that his dream is to work as a solicitor for people of all backgrounds. Although he knows he will always have to depend on the rich for most of his income, he would like to be able to take on clients with less money. He is especially passionate about helping immigrants.

Background
Hugh hails originally from London, having gone to university at Kingsbridge on scholarship and later Oxford. He comes from a long family line of solicitors and he believes he has a few more years to go before they start hounding him to make future little solicitors. Although successful, his family never owned land or a farm and thus Hugh's social graces were learned while he was at boarding school, such as riding horses and ballroom dancing. He had kind classmates that taught him what he needed to know. He had courted a lady during his Oxbridge days but it came to an abrupt ending when her family discovered he was a "lowly" solicitor. Since then, his father had been adamant that Hugh work in the right circles to ensure the family wasn't looked down upon.

He moved to the Windcroft area when he was working for another firm before he became a sole practitioner. Because he has his own practice, he doesn't have family pressure on him to wed as there would be nothing to gain from marriage and any lady with a large amount of money would not consider him to be a suitable match.

As your family's solicitor, he has a standing invitation to all Somerset family functions. In Windcroft Village, he lives next door to the Wandering Stork pub and has an office in town. When he thinks about starting a business in the United States, one of his reasons is to put distance between him and his father, to escape his father's expectations.

The Unexpected Heiress

 * Chapter 3: Lay of the Land
 * Chapter 4: Roses & Thorns
 * Chapter 5: Without a Trace
 * Chapter 6: A Sordid Affair
 * Chapter 7: Belle of the Ball
 * Chapter 8: The Chase
 * Chapter 9: The Cause (Determinant)
 * Chapter 10: Power Play
 * Chapter 11: Upper Echelon
 * Chapter 12: The Hunter and the Prey
 * Chapter 13: Raising the Stakes
 * Chapter 14: Buried Truths
 * Chapter 15: Reckoning
 * Chapter 16: The Bride

Amelia Hayes
Hugh considered Amelia a close friend due to their similar situation. He thought she was a lovely soul, like sunshine in England's generally grey weather. They had met about a year ago when she first arrived in England and bonded over feeling out of place in the company that they kept. He treasured her companionship but never thought about her romantically.

In the last few months of her life, they grew more distant. During that time, he chalked it up to anxiety about her engagement and navigating the shark-infested waters of high society. He knew she was always busy and that something was worrying her, but she wouldn't tell him. At the end of Chapter 3, he reveals Amelia tried to make a withdrawal that your father wouldn't authorize so he had to turn her down. In turn, she had to borrow the huge sum of money from Aunt Maude, who deposited the money in multiple small transactions. He says that Amelia then directly transferred the large amount to another person, one Stanley Archibald Weatherington, who he believes is a fake name.

In Chapter 5, Hugh recounts one of his meetings with Amelia several months ago. He had told her that he was thinking about going to America and establishing his business there. He knew it wouldn't be easy but it would be challenging and a change of pace. Despite Amelia's support, he knew if he were to follow through on those dreams, his family would consider it nothing less than a betrayal to them.

Your Character
In Chapter 3, Hugh recognizes you while you are in Windcroft Village, and runs up to meet you. He apologizes for his abruptness but he recognized you from your photograph and wanted to make your acquaintance. When John leaves, Hugh continues giving you the tour of Windcroft Village and you have the premium opportunity to get to know him better and figure out if he and your sister were involved romantically. If you decide to flirt with him, you find him handsome, shrewd, and thoughtful.

In Chapter 5, you tell him about the dowager's grand nephew, eliminating him from your list of suspects. If you decide to retrieve the package that Amelia gave him a couple months ago, you can also confide in him that you suspect Amelia was murdered. Whether you do or not, you still keep your fake engagement a secret until Chapter 7.

If you romance him in Chapter 10, he is well aware of the societal differences between you two. Although he has feelings for you, he tells you that he cannot give you what a viscount could.

In Chapter 16, if you do not romance him, he tells you that he has finally gained the courage to tell his father that he wishes to begin a new life in America and open a practice there. This naturally infuriates his father, but Hugh doesn't care and is excited to be starting his business in New York in a few months. If you do romance him and/or decide to marry him, you can travel with him back to New York or convince him to stay in England.

Miscellaneous

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Trivia

 * He is shown on the cover of The Unexpected Heiress.
 * In Chapter 3, he reveals he was a student at Kingsbridge University, which Simon/Ava Montjoy from A Very Scandalous Proposal also attended.