Thomas Montjoy & Moira

Thomas Montjoy & Moira, characters in the A Very Scandalous Proposal book, are Simon/Ava Montjoy's ancestors. They are first seen in Chapter 2.

Appearance
Thomas has brown eyes, short black hair, and fair skin. He wears a white dress shirt under a black blazer and vest, and blue diamond-patterned tie with matching handkerchief.

Moira has brown eyes, brown hair swept up into a bun, and fair skin. She wears a light blue gown with white sleeves and ruffled top.

A Very Scandalous Proposal

 * Chapter 2: The Proposal
 * Chapter 5: Secrets of the Estate (Mentioned; Physical Appearance Determinant)
 * Chapter 7: Apartment Hunting (Mentioned; Physical Appearance Determinant)
 * Chapter 11: The Plot Thickens (Mentioned; Physical Appearance Determinant)
 * Chapter 13: Facing the Music (Mentioned; Physical Appearance Determinant)
 * Chapter 16: The Next Generation (Mentioned; Physical Appearance Determinant)

The Unexpected Heiress

 * Chapter 4: Roses & Thorns (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 6: A Sordid Affair (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 12: The Hunter and the Prey (Mentioned)

A Very Scandalous Proposal

 * Chapter 2: The Proposal
 * Chapter 5: Secrets of the Estate (Mentioned; Physical Appearance Determinant)
 * Chapter 7: Apartment Hunting (Mentioned; Physical Appearance Determinant)
 * Chapter 11: The Plot Thickens (Mentioned; Physical Appearance Determinant)
 * Chapter 13: Facing the Music (Mentioned; Physical Appearance Determinant)
 * Chapter 16: The Next Generation

The Unexpected Heiress

 * Chapter 12: The Hunter and the Prey (Mentioned)

With Each Other
Thomas and Moira are very much in love. The problem is that he is married to Gemma Montjoy and in the time period - in the early 1900s - divorce especially in British nobility was not common. As Simon/Ava put it in 2020, divorce is simply not done among the upper crust; one honorably endures them instead.

When Thomas confesses his love to Moira, they throw caution to the wind and become intimate. Their encounter leaves Moira pregnant, and despite being in love with him, she tells him she has to end their relationship. A few years later, when he happens upon their son, she forbids him from seeing their son and tells him to stop sending her money. He tells her that he cannot live without her or their son and tells her that he will leave Gemma for her. Due to the stigma of divorce, Thomas tells her that they would be ostracized by the public and that Gemma could sue him and leave him penniless, but he wouldn't care as long as they were together. Moira tells him not to leave Gemma, but instead persuade her to legitimize their son Ollie as his heir. A year after he has accomplished this, they fake his death so that they can be together.

Gemma Montjoy
It is unknown if Gemma loves Thomas, but in Chapter 16's premium scene, she was hopeful for a brief time that he could grow to love her. When she realizes that he can't, she accepts the "freedom" that he has granted her - freedom to pursue love outside of marriage. Both Thomas and Moira believe she is a good woman who will love and take care of Ollie, so they enact their plan without her knowledge.

In The Unexpected Heiress, Gemma mentions her marriage with Thomas when talking with an American debutante. She speaks of him with kind words. In Chapter 12, as Your Character (The Unexpected Heiress) gets closer to her, Gemma tells her of Thomas's affair and their agreement, where he wanted her to legitimize Ollie as their heir and in exchange she would have access to his fortune and more freedom than she'd have otherwise. She believes that Moira has chosen to stay away from her and Ollie as that was their agreement before Thomas passed away.

Ollie
Ollie is Thomas and Moira's son. Moira has Thomas and Gemma legitimize him into Andrew Oliver Montjoy. Even though they do not want to leave their son, Thomas explains that Ollie will be attending boarding school in the fall and would not be able to spend much time with them if they remained. They hope that they'll be able to see him later.

In the future, he will become the fourteenth Duke of Wessex and later become Gerald Montjoy's father. Despite his birth, he grew to respect tradition and how things were done, to the point that he and his wife forced Gerald to break his first engagement to Margaret and marry Evelyn Thiselthwaite instead in 1966. When Gerald was miserable, the marriage was annulled and Gerald was allowed to marry Margaret to his heart's content.

Trivia

 * Thomas's character model resembles Edwin Smithe from Roommates with Benefits, Book 1.
 * Moira's character model resembles Kassidy Marquez from The Junior, Book 1.
 * Their story is told in a sequence of six letters. If all letters are purchased, a bonus scene reveals that Thomas Monjoy faked his death to be with Moira. The total cost to obtain all of the letters is 💎82.
 * The first letter starts on October 18, 1901.
 * The third letter is dated June 14, 1908, when Thomas discovered Moira bore him a son.
 * The fourth letter is dated November 15, 1908.
 * The fifth letter is dated March 25, 1908.
 * The last letter is dated November 15, 1908.
 * The bonus scene takes place one year after the last letter.
 * Thomas shares the same first name as Thomas Waverley from The Haunting of Braidwood Manor, Thomas Hunt from the Red Carpet Diaries series, Thomas from Nightbound, Thomas Mendez from Mother of the Year, and Thomas Stiles from Queen B.
 * The name Thomas is of Greek, English and Aramaic origin and means "twin".
 * In the third letter dated 1908, Thomas says Ollie looks like he did thirty years ago.