Elle
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Elladine "Elle" Agnes Tranter Lambert |
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|---|---|
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Disclosed |
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| Gender | Female |
| Date of birth | c. 1979 [SD 15] |
| First appearance | Chapter 15 |
| Chapters with POV scenes | |
Elle Lambert is a wealthy businesswoman, socialite, and aristocrat. The head of the Lambert estate ("one of the biggest names in the country") [SD 34] and the Peckinville Group, she uses her considerable wealth to bankroll Dorley Hall and Peckinville Associates PMC, among other operations.
Elle is shorter than average, with pale skin. In 2004, she wore her dark wavy hair at shoulder length. Beatrice considers her to have aged "magnificently" in the intervening years and believes she looks much the same at her current age of forty. [SD 15] Elle has a commanding, upper-class presence which belies deep insecurities; she is prone to wallowing in guilt and self-pity over her decisions regarding Dorley Hall, her privileged station in life, and what she considers a weakness of character. [SD 35]
Elle's only known romantic attachment was with Kelly, [SD 34] though she has since had a number of non-exclusive sexual relationships, notably with Bea [SD 15] and more recently with Cally. [SD 44] To this day, Elle wears a locket containing two photos of Kelly: one of her resting beneath a tree in the garden and another of Elle kissing her on the cheek, taken the day she was killed. [SD 34]
Despite owning her family's estate and a number of apartments located in "various cities worldwide", Elle typically lives mostly out of hotels; [SD 15] she has not returned to the family estate since the death of her parents and grandparents. [SD 35] Following threatening activity by the Smyth-Farrow children, she has relocated to a safehouse on Peckinville property.
"That chaser bitch"
Elle is gay and is profoundly disinterested in men [SD 44] but has a "ravenous" sexual appetite, [SD 21] specifically for trans women, that she often struggles to conceal; her obvious proclivities are infamous among the residents of Dorley Hall who are familiar with her. Christine describes her as someone who "looks at you like a piece of meat, but one she wants to rub all over herself". [SD 37] Monica seems to particularly dislike her. [SD 43]
Initially free to spend time at the Hall as she wished following the hostile takeover, Elle was eventually asked by Beatrice to stop spending nights at the Hall, following a pattern of sexual trysts with Dorley girls still in the programme. In hindsight, Elle regrets her behavior, recognizing that the power imbalance made any such relations coercive. [SD 35]
For her part, Elle is acutely aware of her own libido and has made a concerted effort to change her behavior in the years since then, not wishing to follow in the footsteps of her grandfather. Elle frequently admonishes herself in her inner monologue; she is often frustrated and, at times, sickened by her own desires and inner thoughts. [SD 34]
Dismantling Grandmother's Dorley
Elle has devoted her life to dismantling what remains of Dorothy's version of Dorley Hall, unearthing and exterminating Dorothy's old patrons and clientele as well as ensuring that new iterations of Dorothy's Hall are not allowed to take root.
Immediately following the hostile takeover of the Hall, Elle began work on what would become the washout program. [SD 34] With the new regime still obligated to provide "Dorley girls" to multiple networks of Grandmother's patrons, washouts were utilized to infiltrate and ultimately kill Elle's targets, typically in ways that could deniably be framed as accidents or natural causes. This allowed the Hall to keep up appearances and maintained a sufficient degree of separation from risk for Elle, Beatrice, and their allies. Elle also seems to derive a sense of poetic justice from the endeavor. [SD 44]
In the modern era, Cora is the only active washout operative; [SD 44] however, Peckinville seems to have been carrying out assassinations regardless -- Henrietta Smyth-Farrow reports a potential contact being recently killed at some point prior to 2020, during a period where Cora would have still been on probation. [SD 36]
Elle considers herself responsible for the deaths of three Dorley girls, who were murdered when she got too close to her targets in early campaigns. [SD 43]
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Kelly
Elle grew up on her family's Cambridge estate, where she befriended a series of serving women in her grandparents' wing of the house, each of whom were "miserable" and would occasionally disappear, never to be seen again. After returning home from completing her education, she finally came to learn the truth behind these girls' disappearances from the newest serving girl, Kelly, who eventually revealed the secret: all of the serving women in the Lambert estate were Dorley girls. The two soon grew to have a romantic and sexual relationship and Elle began making plans to help Kelly escape. Before their plans could come to fruition, Kelly was killed at the order of Elle's grandfather. [SD 34]
Afterward, Elle is confronted by her grandfather, who reveals that he had been spying on the two young women the entire time via hidden cameras. After he describes the details of Kelly's death to her, Elle, fearing for her own life, convinces him that she found the force feminization process arousing and lies that she had been stringing Kelly along with false promises to hear more stories about her time at the Hall. [SD 34] Elle's grandfather believes her and promises not to tell her grandmother that they have spoken. Elle keeps up the charade until she is eventually able to "have his heart stopped". [SD 28]
Kelly's legacy
[Elle] has never ceased to be angry. Sometimes she thinks she was born when she met Kelly, and born again when Kelly was murdered. Born again into a pure and mournful rage, a rage she refined into a weapon, turned first on Kelly’s killers and then on the greater organisation. She cannot truly arrest the tendency towards depravity among her peers, the so-called betters of Britain, but she can and will strike at it, bloody it, weaken it, raise its cost to the near-insurmountable. [SD 43]
Elle first began to consider the possibility of reforming Dorley Hall from "the moment" Kelly revealed her origins. [SD 34] Following Kelly's murder, Elle's rage and grief fuel her appetite for vengeance; she begins her campaign of retribution by arranging the deaths of everyone involved in Kelly's murder, including members of her own family connected to Dorothy. Frankie is aware of Elle's connection to Kelly [SD 43] and is knows of at least one male relative Elle had killed; [SD 39] Christine believes that Elle may have killed one of her family members herself. [SD 26]
Having kept her knowledge of the Hall a secret from her grandmother, Elle was able begin her plot to take control of the Hall following her grandfather's death. [SD 28]
Hostile takeover
The plan
By the fall of 2002, Elle has managed to save one Dorley girl [SD 34] (later indicated to be Gerry) [SD 43] by using her resources at Peckinville to stage a car crash. The girl is so traumatized by her time at the Hall that she believes her rescue to be a trick and must be kept under constant supervision, lest she attempt to harm herself. Looking to expand her efforts, Elle seeks out Bea to bring her in on her plan. [SD 34]
On August 2nd, 2002, Elle arranges a meeting with Bea, who is working as a high-class prostitute. Elle reveals to Bea that she is aware of her origins at Dorley Hall and asks for her help: In the years since Kelly's death, she has discovered that her family maintains "significant interest" in the Hall, leading her to create the "bones" of a plan that will ultimately grant her control of her family's finances, and with it, Dorley Hall. Elle enlists Bea to use her experience and knowledge of the Hall to help her investigate its history and current activities as well as help her map out its funding sources, clientele, and staff. When they have all the necessary information, Elle declares, she will end her grandmother's life and take control of the Hall. [SD 28] Bea becomes a "key instrument" in dismantling Dorothy's network, in large part due to her lack of a legal identity which allows her to move more freely in her investigation than Elle, whose efforts are constrained by the high visibility of her status and position. [SD 33]
The takeover
On August 8th, 2004, Elle and Beatrice inform Dorothy and her sponsors that the two of them have become the Hall's new owners. [SD 15]
In the years following the takeover, both Christine and Frankie describe the takeover as a "coup": [SD 33] As planned, Elle has become the guardian of the Lambert family's holdings following the death of her grandmother, granting her a sixty-four percent stake of Dorley Hall's funding. While Elle and Beatrice were able to convince nearly all of the other benefactors to withdraw their financial support when confronted with the full truth of Dorothy's activities, they were unable to dissuade Crispin Smyth-Farrow, who revealed himself to have full knowledge of Dorothy's depravity at the Hall [SD 15] (having himself helped in the Hall's creation). [SD 37] Un-phased by Elle's legal threats, Smyth-Farrow maneuvered to have his lease on the first floor flat at the Hall honored for its remaining two years, allowing Dorothy and her sponsors to remain in the building for the duration as "consultants". [SD 15]
Under Elle's oversight, operation of the Hall is immediately transferred to the Dorley Hall Foundation, with Beatrice in place as its sole trustee and administrator. Armed with enough evidence to have them all incarcerated for life, Dorothy and her sponsors are given a choice: face certain ruin or keep the secret of the Hall so that Elle and Beatrice may reform it under their new vision, [SD 15] a project Elle refers to as "triage on the world". [SD 31]
That same day, Peckinville workmen are brought to the premises and immediately begin the process of renovating the Hall and its basement. Meanwhile, Elle offers comfort to Maria and Barbara, who are still adjusting to their newfound freedom. Afterward, Bea reassures Elle that the girls will be well taken care of. The two discuss how they will maintain the trust of Dorothy's clientele in order to fully dismantle her network; Elle begins formulating her designs for the washout program. [SD 34]
With Dorothy and her staff no longer at the helm, Beatrice, Maria, Barbara, Ashley, Sarah, and Trish meet on Christmas Eve 2004 to plan the 2005 intake. Later, in her role as Aunt Bea, Beatrice models her commanding accent on Elle's. [SD 31]
Dorothy's return
Elle and Beatrice meet in early November 2019 to belatedly celebrate Bea's birthday; at dinner, the two discuss their concerns that Dorothy is gearing up for something drastic following Karen's reappearance (and subsequent disposal) the month prior. [SD 15]
In the years since the takeover, Elle has bankrolled Bea's annual search for Valérie. [SD 21] On December 13th, after escorting Bea back to the Hall following her latest search, Elle confides in Christine that while the search was unsuccessful, they discovered a security breach within Peckinville. [SD 26] It is soon revealed that two Peckinville soldiers (including Trevor Darling) have gone missing, [SD 27] along with Declan, and all are presumed dead. [SD 35] (In her investigations into the Peckinville breach, Elle also discovers that Abby has reconnected with her family without official approval, which she relays to Bea and Maria.) [SD 34]
The night of December 30th, pursuing a rumor, a pair of Peckinville operatives attend a dinner hosted by Dorothy at the Smyth-Farrow manor house at Stenordale posing as interested new clients; there, they are presented with a feminized Declan as a "showroom exhibit" and given the lurid details of his transformation. [SD 35] Elle reports her new findings to Bea: a Silver River operative (Jake) is responsible for the Peckinville security breach and has delivered Declan to Dorothy, who is now residing at Stenordale Manor. Elle now believes the "cold war" between the two factions is finally heating up and that the Smyth-Farrow children, now adults, are funneling "American church money" to Dorothy through Silver River in search of a new enterprise in the mold of Old Dorley. She convinces Bea to allow Peckinville to set up a security presence at the Hall. [SD 34] Elle's assistant Jan, a former Dorley girl, is brought on to oversee the installation. [SD 35]
Unable to safely extract Declan, by January 3rd of 2020, Elle speaks to Bea about sending some Peckinville operatives to covertly reconnoiter Stenordale Manor to gauge the Manor's forces in an effort to determine their next move. Bea voices her concern that Trevor has suffered a similar fate, a possibility Elle is privately also concerned with. [SD 35] Before they can act, Stenordale Manor mysteriously burns to the ground the night of January 4th. [SD 36] When Trevor, Frankie, and Valérie arrive at the Hall the next day, Jan introduces herself to Trevor on Elle's behalf. [SD 37]
Elle summons Bea and the three escapees to a secure Peckinville location on January 13th for a debriefing of their time at Stendordale. Before the meeting begins, she reveals the newest crisis: while Peckinville was able to win the bid to oversee the excavation of the Stenordale ruins, they have been unable to entirely stave off police involvement. A murder investigation has been opened following the discovery of corpses in the central quad. [SD 41] The Hall immediately goes into lockdown. [SD 42]
Later that day, Elle is visited in her office at the facility by a lawyer representing Henrietta Smyth-Farrow, who delivers a message obliquely demanding Trevor's return to Silver River's possession. After sending the lawyer away empty-handed, Elle's conviction in thwarting the Smyth-Farrows' plans is strengthened, but the stress of the day begins to weigh on her; she reflects on her ever-growing isolation, with no living immediate family and a dwindling circle of found family members. Before returning to her suite, she calls Gerry (who has de-transitioned in the intervening years since his rescue and now lives a quiet life working for Peckinville Insurance), and warns him of the recent developments at Stenordale so that he will not be caught off-guard by the impending headlines. Despite his traumatic past, Gerry now lives happily with his wife and two daughters; he takes the news stoically. When the call is done, Elle can no longer hold back her crying. [SD 43]
The Smyth-Farrows
By the morning of January 18th, Elle has been hooking up with Cally for almost two weeks, believing her sexual relationship with Bea to be over now that Valérie has returned. The two's relationship has mainly been sexual thus far but Cally has shown interest in becoming a larger part of Elle's life. The Smyth-Farrows' lawyers have contacted her again, this time by phone, making "not-so-veiled threats" concerning Trevor and Diana. Elle confides in Cally that she feels guilty for not having ended the entire Dorley programme when she had the opportunity and recognizes that she and Henrietta Smyth-Farrow are of similar natures. When Elle remarks that she feels she has failed the Dorley washouts in light of Diana's reformation (Diana having recently returned to the fold following her escape from Stenordale Manor), Cally convinces her to unburden herself by sharing the details of the washout program. Cally is shocked but not repulsed by the details and refuses to condemn Elle for her part in it, encouraging her to own her decisions but not to wallow in guilt; instead she should move on and use her past experience to better inform her future actions. [SD 44]
The next day, Elle goes to visit Dorley Hall to give a briefing to the sponsors in person. In an effort to cover their own tracks, the Smyth-Farrows have publicly offered a reward for information regarding the bodies found at Stenordale Manor, intentionally causing the police investigation to be flooded with false leads. While the investigation will likely continue for "quite some time", Dorley Hall should now be unlikely to come under suspicion in connection to the case. Elle explains to Pippa that the modern Dorley programme, through charitable outreach, is able to subtly exert its influence in the surrounding area, diverting young men who would otherwise be at risk for going missing (or becoming candidates for intake) onto better paths, thus keeping the local missing persons statistics sufficiently low enough to avoid suspicion despite the number of abductions carried out by the Hall. Elle concludes the briefing by recommending the lockdown be eased. Following the briefing, Valérie approaches Elle with a request. [SD 44]
On January 21st, Elle has summoned Diana, accompanied by Monica, to her secure Peckinville facility for a debriefing with Trevor. (Monica notes that Elle is visibly aroused by the two escapee's oblique references to their time at Stendordale Manor.) Elle makes a point of apologizing to Diana; even had she not been abducted by Silver River, her intended fate in the washout program was not "generous". Following the lengthy debriefing, Elle offers Diana the choice to stay at the secure facility where she can be better protected from the Smyth-Farrows' increasing incursions; Diana demurs, preferring to take her chances at Chiamaka's bed and breakfast. [SD 44]
On January 23rd, Elle is attacked by a sniper while briefly traversing the courtyard to her vehicle. The attempt fails and the sniper is neutralized, but in the aftermath, Elle finds herself wishing she had been killed. The Peckinville washout assassin Cora and her handler, Haley, currently stationed in Florida, are activated to standby status. [SD 44] Elle is immediately transferred [SD 45] to a villa at Peckinville House, her childhood estate. [SD 46]
The next day, Jan takes Valérie to meet with Elle, who has agreed to her request: Elle will allow her to join the Peckinville task force targeting Dorothy and the Smyth-Farrows, provided she undergoes proper training. [SD 45] Valérie begins training under Jessica Bell within the next few days. [SD 46]
Trivia
Elle wears size seven boots. [SD 35]
| Outside friends, family, and allies | |
|---|---|
| 2016 intake | Elle, Rani |
| Peckinville Associates | Elle, Haley, Isla, Jackie, Squad Misandry, Perry |