Catherine Harcourt
Character Profile
| Name: | Catherine Harcourt |
| Date of Birth: | c.1785 |
| Service: | Aerial Corps |
| Rank: | Captain |
| Nationality: | British |
| Billets: | Loch Laggan covert, captain to Lily |
Biography
Catherine Harcourt was a tall, slender young woman with long red hair, which she usually wore in a braid. Her mother was a woman from Plymouth who died of a fever when Harcourt was but one year old. Her father, Jack Harcourt, was a member of the Aerial Corps and served as a lieutenant aboard Fluitare. He died in 1802, by which time he already knew that his daughter had been assigned as captain to a yet unhatched Longwing egg and that her future was assured.
The egg hatched five years earlier than expected, so early that Harcourt had not even thought of a name and ended up naming the dragonet Lily instead of one of the more usual Latin names given to British dragons. Longwings, with their acid spray, are naturally the leaders of their formations. The other dragons are trained to fly patterns which give the Longwing the greatest sweep over the ground while retaining the protection of the rest of the wing around it. However, Lily had hatched so early that Harcourt was unusually young to be not only the captain of a heavy-weight but also the lead captain in the formation.
Because of her youth, Harcourt was at first sometimes a bit shy and awkward in dealing with men in the Corps, especially those who such as Jeremy Rankin who seemed to make a point of drawing attention to her sex. However, she was quick to speak up in defense of her own rights, as when William Laurence made the mistake of addressing her as "Miss Harcourt" rather than Captain Harcourt.
She also told Laurence and Berkley about an occasion, when she was 16, when she was harassed while attending a concert. She had worn skirts for the occasion, which she was not accustomed to and found a great deal of trouble to arrange when she sat down. So rather than stand up again and hit the fellow who was bothering her, she borrowed a pot of hot coffee from a passing waiter and poured it into his lap.
Besides illustrating Harcourt's character, this incident gives some insight into the sartorial difficulties of female aviators. At the time, it was not merely shocking for women to wear what was perceived to be "male clothing" by the public - it was actually illegal. Female aviators were able to wear trousers and coats only by a special exemption from the laws. On the occasions when they left the coverts, they had to wear long dresses or at least cover their uniforms with long cloaks.
Laurence, when he met Harcourt for the first time, was rather shocked by what he perceived as her "immodest" attire: "breeches that showed every inch of her leg, with a shirt held closed only by a neckcloth" (i.e. exactly what he was wearing himself). He dealt with the situation by addressing "the unalarming top of her head." However, once Temeraire began training with Lily's formation, Laurence rapidly became more used to Harcourt's presence, even addressing her as simply Harcourt in post-practice discussions.
In August 1806, the French Admiral Villeneuve and his fleet were caught at Cadiz and penned there by Admiral Nelson. The Longwing Mortiferus and his formation were sent to Cadiz to assist, while Lily's formation was sent to the Dover covert to take Mortiferus's place in the Channel formation, alongside Excidium's formation.
Due to Harcourt's lack of experience, at this time Celeritas gave formal command of the formation to Captain Sutton of Messoria, instructing Sutton to consult with Harcourt as far as possible.
Shortly afterwards, while Lily's formation was on patrol along the Channel, they were ambushed by the French. Lily was badly injured by a Grand Chevalier nearly twice her size. The British formation was able to escape the French only after Captain Jean-Paul Choiseul and Praecursoris, who had gone on ahead of the others, returned to help, apparently because he had only just then caught sight of the battle.
Harcourt was quite distraught over Lily's injuries, and Choiseul took the opportunity to get close to her at this time, bringing food for her to Lily's side and taking it in turns to watch over Lily so that Harcourt would agree to sleep. It turned out that there was more to Choiseul's intentions than simply admiration for a brave and attractive young woman. He had been sent by the French to retrieve the Celestial egg sent to Napoleon by the Chinese, as the French did not yet know that Temeraire had already hatched. When Choiseul learned this, he first considered killing Temeraire, then instead decided to bring Lily to them by seducing Harcourt, then taking her hostage and using her to enforce Lily's cooperation.
Choiseul's plan failed because Laurence overheard what was going on and intervened. While Laurence and Choiseul were wrestling on the ground, Harcourt retrieved an iron bar from Lily's equipment and brained Choiseul with it. Afterwards, she asked Choiseul if he had arranged the ambush in which Lily was injured so that he could make use of it, but he would not answer.
Harcourt and Lily fought bravely and skillfully during the Battle of Dover. Shortly afterwards, Harcourt was given command of the formation. She was in command during the action that occurred in late 1806 when a French convoy tried to get past the British Channel blockade and make a run for Le Havre.
Lily's formation came to the aid of Temeraire and the HMS Allegiance during the Valerie engagement. This was where Harcourt first met naval captain Tom Riley. However, at the time she was in uniform with her flying hood covering her braid. When Riley invited the other aviators to dinner, Harcourt pled sea sickness so that the naval officers would not have much opportunity to observe her closely.
Harcourt was technically the senior aviator aboard the HMS Allegiance when Lily's formation was sent by Jane Roland to Africa to find a cure for the dragon plague. She found herself in the middle of a squabble between Laurence and Tom Riley who clashed ideologically over the issue of the slave trade. Laurence was so absorbed in the search for the cure, he did not notice the budding relationship between Riley and Harcourt. He was completely shocked when she announced she was pregnant with Riley's child.
Catherine hastily married Riley on a shipboard ceremony. As an aviator and as such distanced from society Harcourt didn't see the need for the marriage, though as a naval Captain and therefore more conscious of social etiquette Riley was insistent. Lily protested the union, and promised to hurt Riley if he mistreated her. Harcourt vowed to take the child to the corps if it was a girl and give it the surname "Harcourt".
However, the child turned out to be a boy. Harcourt appeared to be somewhat let down that it was not a girl--for Lily's sake. And for her part, Lily did not like "the egg" (as the dragons called it) much at all. Eventually, Harcourt decided the child should go to sea with his father, but after Laurence desribed to her the conditions on prison-ships she changed her mind.
She fought during Napoleon’s invasion taking part in battle above Folkestone, cutting off French supply lines and serving in the Battle of Shoeburyness.
