Odette Gillard

Born 1756 in France, Odette Gillard (nee Dubois) was not lucky enough to be born into wealth and privilege. Her father was a laborer and her mother a seamstress in a dress shop who despite her skills with needle and thread could never manage to get promoted. While Odette's parents and siblings at some point had accepted their lot in life, Odette was never satisfied. She wanted more. She deserved more. She knew it as certainly as she knew the sun would rise each morning. She deserved better than to merely hope for enough money to satisfy landlords with lascivious gazes. And so even as a young girl she cooked up schemes and tricks to accrue more wealth, nicer things, shoes that wouldn't get a hole in them after a month. An undetected theft here, a lie there, and she became rather skilled at lying. In a world that was cruel and unfair, who was she to care about the morality of how she acquired what she wanted? It wasn't as if the world would ever allow her more than her parents' station in life. And so, she took whatever she wished for herself.

When Odette had pushed and pulled her way into a position as a maid in a wealthy woman's house, she showed a pleasant facade of meek helpfulness. Friendly and easily trusted, and yet there was an intimidating air to her that not even the most saccharine smile could hide. And all the while her cutthroat nature helped her net her fair share of benefits. Sometimes all it took was a secret whispered into the wrong ears. Other times nothing more than a misplaced ribbon. Either way, rivals were easily dealt with if one was observant and patient. And the kindly ones were generally too gullible and trusting to question her. Eventually, Odette caught the eye of a well-to-do merchant, and naturally when given the opportunity of marrying up, she grabbed it. She had never anticipated loving the man yet in time found she had quite the fondness for him, even if such affection did not soften her. If anything, any genuine care and vulnerability on her part were limited to him and the two daughters she bore. Surely she had all she could have asked for. Money, a handsome husband, a nice house. And yet she still strove for more, this time with the intent of securing her new family as well as herself.

Yet such luck was not to last. Some years after the birth of her second daughter, the Gillards family found its husband and father's business suffering against rival merchants. And more than most of Odette's under-the-table dealings were going south. It seemed that finally word had slipped about her deceptive nature and it was coming back to bite her. Desperate to salvage both her reputation and her family's finances, Odette eventually took a deal she couldn't refuse. How different was assassination really from everything else she'd done? Maybe some people needed a knife in the back. Or a bit of poison in their tea. She was adaptable, she would conform to her needs when necessary. Yet every job contained every sort of obstacle in her way; unfaithful informants, someone keeping the target away from home longer than they should have been. And still, Odette would claw her way to a successful job.