Eliza Kemble is the youngest of the Kembles of Crick's Bend, in her late teens.1
Description
Personality
Eliza keeps her own business to herself. Asked where she goes, she said only that she spends time with friends, and Temerity could tell she was being vague on purpose.2
Eliza pushes back when she is pushed. When Temerity kept pressing, she told her she did not need saving and that something awful had happened to Temerity, and she meant it to get under Temerity’s skin.2
Eliza passes off her licensing scheme as a joke. She told Luma she had been about to reveal the prank, and told Temerity she had only thought it would be funny, though she probably would have kept the gold.32
Eliza names no ambition. She told Temerity she did not want to spend her life on a farm, and did not know whether there was any career she wanted, since she did not see the point.2
Biography
Session 5
Her father Henry Kemble said she had taken to running off without telling anyone and coming in after dinner, which was new, and that nobody in the family knew where she went. She had always been mischievous and had grown more rebellious over the past year, but to Temerity this was a turn, and it seemed to date from when she left for Argentum.1 Juniper Kemble said she had tried talking to her and got only yes or no.1
That night Luma nearly walked into her sneaking up the road in the dark. Eliza asked what she was doing by her family’s house, then told her that a mapping license from Argentum carried no weight in Crick’s Bend, that she happened to work in the office that issued the local one, and that it would cost ten gold. Luma offered to have her follow along and certify her over three or four hours instead, at which point Eliza remembered she had to get home and ran.1 Temerity worked out from the map who it must have been.1
Session 8
Eliza came late to dinner on 28 Coldrise, 1714 PSF, and was seated beside Luma, whom she had tried to charge for a mapping license on the party’s last visit. “Hi, I’m Eliza. You look like the kind of gal who knows how to take a joke. I hope.” She insisted she had never meant to take Luma’s gold, and nobody was convinced. Luma said she knew it was a joke.3 Asked by Trever Kemble where she had been, she said she had been out with Beth and Ash and lost track of time, and asked them not to make a thing of it. She took water and bread and said little after that, and looked away when Temerity tried to catch her eye.3
When Hazel pressed Juniper Kemble, Eliza told the table that June had been in love with Temerity since Temerity saved her life.3 While the table’s attention was on Temerity and Hazel, only those two saw Eliza slip around the corner and up the stairs.3 Temerity decided to find her early the next morning and talk to her.3
Session 9
Temerity came to the farm before sunrise on 29 Coldrise, 1714 PSF, and threw a pebble at Eliza’s window. Eliza came out the back door dressed for the day with a satchel over her shoulder, told Temerity she was not her mother, and said she only spent time with her friends, there being nothing else to do in a dead little town.2 She said nobody had talked about being worried about her, and told Temerity that she was not in trouble and did not need a hero.2
When Temerity spoke of her family’s worry, Eliza apologized for what she had said and for the dinner the night before. She said she had needed space, that she liked spending time with her friends, and that the rest of her family had chosen barrels and fields at her age, which she did not want.2 She agreed to try to come to more dinners, promised to keep an eye on Juniper Kemble, and gave Temerity a half-hearted hug.2 Then she walked off into the mist north of the barn.2