Viscountess Lavinia

Viscountess Lavinia, a character in the Desire &amp; Decorum series, is the fifth wife of Viscount Westonly and a member of the ton. Although she is mentioned previously, she is first seen in Book 3, Chapter 7.

Appearance
Lavinia has green eyes, blonde hair which is kept tied up in a bun, and fair skin. She wears an ash-blue dress with cream trim and ivory lace, and a silver rose-patterned necklace with pearl pendant.

Personality
Like her husband, Viscount Westonly, Lavinia is hard of hearing, and has almost always misconstrued whatever someone has said to her. Unlike her husband, she tends to "hear" positive warm words, especially if you have a good relationship with her.

Book 2

 * Chapter 7: Moonlit Deception (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 11: A New Horizon (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 12: The Deep End (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 15: Eye of the Storm (Mentioned; Determinant)
 * Chapter 16: The Final Vow (Mentioned)

Book 3

 * Chapter 2: Ashes to Ashes (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 4: Sugar & Spice (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 6: Keep Your Enemies Closer (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 7: London Calling
 * Chapter 9: Fifth Time's the Charm
 * Chapter 13: Love and War
 * Chapter 14: Anticipation (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 16: A Joyous Union
 * Chapter 18: 1817

Viscount Westonly
Viscount Westonly is her husband. None of his previous marriages lasted longer than three years, which is referred to as his "curse" amongst the gossip circles. It is unclear if Lavinia is aware of this curse, but the Parsons sisters hope that Lavinia will be the one to break it. In Chapter 13, when you, Miss Parsons and your girlfriends interrupt the stag party, Mr. Sinclaire tells you about how much Viscount Westonly has talked about his previous wives. However, when he speaks about Lavinia, Mr. Sinclaire can tell there is much love and affection in his words.

Your Character
When you receive an invitation to Lavinia's bridal shower, you ask Briar if she knows what Lavinia likes. She as well as Miss Sutton tell you that Lavinia loves things that are unique, golden, and colorful. If you give her the correct wedding present (a golden scarab encrusted with colorful jewels), she will call you a true friend in time which will upset Miss Holloway, who brought her a golden amulet which according to you is not unique. You can ask Miss Holloway how many of these Lavinia probably already got.

In Chapter 9, you find her crying before her wedding because she is worried she will mishear something during the ceremony and everyone will laugh about her. You can give her advice on how to deal with her hearing problems but she will mishear your advice and interpret it differently than intended. Which advice you give to her determines how she reacts towards Miss Holloway and Miss Bowman, the two women who mock her during the wedding. If you have told her to "ignore the masses", she will understand "encore the lasses" and therefore ask the two women to continue laughing. If you have told her to "memorize the words", she will understand "disguise the birds" and pretend that "the sniggering ladies are disguised as old ugly hags" and tell them to "Be gone, you old hags!" during the ceremony. Her mishearing during the vows makes the ceremony difficult for her but your advice helps her get through it.

Miss Sutton
Before meeting Lavinia, Miss Sutton heard that Miss Bowman's cousin's neighbor once heard from her servant that her brother's mistress used to be bosom friends with Lady Lavinia; and the reason she has not been seen in public is because she is a novelist... or she is rather sickly (both of which Miss Sutton gets confused about). This, of course, proved to be false when Miss Sutton met Lavinia during her bridal shower.

Trivia

 * Her character model resembles Roselyn Sinclaire of the same series, as well as Amy Stevenson from The Elementalists series.
 * In Chapter 9, her titlecard changes from "Lady Lavinia" to "Viscountess Lavinia" after the marriage.
 * In Chapter 18's epilogue, Viscountess Lavinia is shown at the gravesite of her late husband, Viscount Westonly. She tells him that there is another man courting her, the Duke of Charlemagne.
 * Historically, there was no "Duke of Charlemagne". It is possible she misheard his title or that the duchy is fictitious.