You came to the religious life as a mature woman. As the daughter of the Earl of Rotherham, you were married young to a much older nobleman, with whom you had twelve contented years of mostly leaving each other alone to separate wings of your manor while you read books or hunted game, and he hunted game or men. As your friends and relatives never ceased to mention, you never had children, and when your husband died, the firm rumour among the peerage was that you were barren. Unable to find you another husband, your father found you a place at Whitwood instead.

Your life since then has been stable and secure, albeit missing the trappings of courtly life — the power, the status, the luxuries, and the occasional marital duty with a husband. Being a nun does not change who you are - daughter and sister of earls - and the other nuns would do well to remember it, even if being noble-born doesn’t carry the same weight at Whitwood that it does elsewhere.

From early childhood, you were taught to behave with grace and to make the best of whatever situation you found yourself in. You maintain close correspondence with your relatives and maintain as many connections as you can. The previous Abbess, Henrietta, recognized your status and groomed you to be her replacement, making sure you rose to the position of Almoneress. When Henrietta died ten years ago, you tried to get yourself elected Abbess. All seemed to be going well until Maud threw her support behind Joan. Joan was elected, and you remain deeply suspicious of them both—particularly Maud, an upstart with no noble blood at all. You see her as ambitious and greedy.