Lydia Hartley

Overview

Lydia Hartley is the younger of the two Hartley sisters, daughter of English businessman Josiah Hartley and his ambitious wife Agnes Hartley. The Hartley family have been fellow English residents at Palais Kinsky since the party’s arrival in Vienna on 3 August 1814 — Lydia first appears in canon at the Palais Kinsky bar that same evening, “wide-eyed and excited” at her first time out of England. She is described as flirtatious, vain, competitive, and lacking her elder sister’s restraint.

Lydia practises pianoforte every afternoon — a detail that matters more than her parents realise. In a Vienna where Professor Herzfeld is harvesting young female musicians for the Brotherhood, an English ingénue who plays the pianoforte daily and whose mother is actively trying to introduce her to Herzfeld is exactly the kind of person who disappears.

Lydia has openly pursued Adrien de Montferrand from their first meeting in the Palais Kinsky bar, picking up every conversational gambit, making googly eyes at the opera in Session 2, accepting his arm to the bar at intermission, and continuing the pursuit at the Palais Kinsky breakfast table in Session 5. Adrien has consistently treated her like a little sister, to her ongoing disappointment. At the Grand Masquerade in Session 8 she was publicly slighted when Adrien stepped past her to ask Caroline first — in front of half the room. Whatever face she kept in the moment, the slight cost her real social standing in front of witnesses, and she is unlikely to forget it.

Physical Description

Pretty, polished, and a touch over-decorated for her age. At the masquerade she wore a gold mask with feathers over a gown cut visibly lower than her sister’s — a deliberate contrast. She moves with the slightly-too-fast confidence of a young woman who has been told her whole life that she is the prettier one and is starting to suspect that prettiness is not enough.

Personality

Lydia is not malicious. She is young, vain, competitive with her older sister, and in over her head in a foreign city among adults whose actual stakes she does not understand. She mistakes Adrien’s polite distance for the kind of fashionable indifference that European gentlemen affect before declaring themselves, and she has not yet realised that he genuinely sees her as a child. The masquerade snub — in front of witnesses, in front of her sister, in front of her mother — is the first time the truth has been shoved in her face. She will react somewhere on the spectrum between sulking, weeping, scheming, or all three.

Portrayal Note: Speaks too quickly when nervous. Laughs at things that aren’t funny. Drops Adrien’s name into conversations he isn’t part of. Stops mid-sentence when he enters a room.

Canon Timeline

• Session 1 — Vienna (Palais Kinsky bar, evening of 3 August 1814): First appearance. Wide-eyed and excited; her first time out of England. Introduced to the party by her mother Mrs Agnes Hartley alongside her father and sister. Particular interest shown toward Adrien when his title was announced.
• Session 2 (Burgtheater, 4 August 1814): Made open eyes at Adrien throughout Don Giovanni. Allowed him to escort her to the bar at intermission, where she was treated like a little sister to her disappointment.
• Session 5 (Palais Kinsky, breakfast): Continued forward pursuit at the breakfast buffet. Mother Agnes began to redirect her energies toward Caroline.
• Session 8 (Palais Lobkowitz, Grand Masquerade, 8 August 1814): Adrien stepped past her to ask Caroline to dance first. Public slight, witnessed by guests. Romance arc with Adrien definitively closed; sibling rivalry with Caroline definitively opened.

Session Appearances

• Session 1 (Vienna): First appearance, Palais Kinsky bar, evening of 3 August 1814. Wide-eyed, excited, first time out of England.
• Session 2: Burgtheater opera (forward eyes during Don Giovanni; intermission with Adrien at the bar).
• Session 5: Palais Kinsky breakfast — continued pursuit of Adrien.
• Session 8: Grand Masquerade at Palais Lobkowitz. Publicly snubbed in favour of Caroline.