Gardenia Russel
Sobriquet:
Appearance: Gardenia is a curvaceous, but petite redhead with a very strong 1940's pinup girl flair. She prefers to wear W.W.II inspired fashions, but is just as comfortable the 1990s power suits for women. Her name is based on her bright green eyes that hold a distinctly mischievous glint.
Background: Gardenia was born in 1962 in London, the illegitimate child of Prince William of Gloucester. As such, she was a member of the House of Windsor with the ambition, but without the opportunity to ever succeed to the throne. She attended the best primary schools, prestigious girls schools and finally universities available to an unrecognized royal. She has two degrees from Oxford, one in political science and the other in English Law. She drew Lady Anne's attention as a potential replacement for Margret Thatcher, during that prime-minister's heyday. As Anne's most recent childe, she has received a lion's share of the Queen's attention and has been recently promoted to Seneschal Pro tempore.
Personality: In public, Gardenia is the very soul of discretion and proper deportment; but she has refined flirtation to a fine science. In private, she can be quite promiscuous, but she is very selective about who she socializes with and she leaves no doubt that the pursuit of power comes first, everything and everyone else come second. She would never risk her position as Anne's favorite or more recently as seneschal for anything. While ambitious, she is quite loyal and believes in rising through merit rather than by birth or embrace. She is not a fan of subversive scheming, seeing it as the lazy approach to the acquisition of authority. But, she does maintain an extensive list of informants to keep abreast of current events. While well versed in the use of blackmail, she tries to use it sparingly, but prestation is her forte and she is quite adept at its application and acquisition. Her philosophy is one of pleasant professionalism, tempered by equal parts of ambition and jurisprudence.
Current Events: She recently met with Yan Sirkov the Ventrue Alastor at Carfax Abbey. While she knows that he is a clan hero, she is worried that he might be tracking an Anathema in London and what kind of risk that poses to Lady Anne and herself. She is also concerned about the Night Society of London, her allies, her few friends and the potential possibility of a major breach of the Masquerade.
