Florie Punt

Florie Punt grew up as a lower middle class household. Her father, Arnold, had run out on his wife and daughter early. Her mother, Rosamund, worked long hours as a day nurse, Rosamund attended aa nurse to a feeble and senile elderly lady.

Beginning at age 14, Florie worked odd jobs, and looked after her younger siblings: a boy  and two twin sisters. She ended mopping floors at a public house. Her mother, who sought solace in religion, disapproved, and warned her that she would go the same route as her father, or had already.

One night, Florie decided not to come home. She bought a ticket to the furthest point away that she could afford. At her work, she encountered Professor” LaBlanche, a tall, spectral and icy man with an odd sot of left-handed charisma. LaBlanche never attempted to woo her, for which Florie felt gratitude, and seeing intelligence in Florie, trained her as a confederate in a fake séance act.

Florie delighted in swindling the rich people her mother practically worshipped, and in the fancy hotel rooms and nights on the town that the money could buy her. LaBlanche, whether he knew it as a native or not, knew fluent French. Over the next three years, he made sure to immerse her in the language by speaking constantly, even while alone. IFlorie asked for this.  Posing as a French girl, Floriecould hide her working class accent. The persona enabled her to sound “proper”. Mostly, they got along well. She never did find out his true history.

The Professor, she noticed, had a sour attitude towards life, but looked for pleasure where he could get it. Her final quarrel took place over a boy, one whom LaBlanche had set his eyes on inveigling into bed with him. The professor had developed an emotionally clingy attitude towards her, anyway. She felt ready to divest himself of him anyway.