Lord Robert Carmichael

Lord Robert Carmichael, fifteenth Earl of Haslemere, is a tall, powerfully built man in his mid-forties. Years of rugby, rowing at Oxford, and service in the Second Boer War have left him with an athletic, solid frame, broad shoulders, and a soldier’s rigid posture. Dark hair is beginning to silver at the temples; his features are sharp and handsome in a severe, aristocratic way. His eyes are cool and assessing. He dresses impeccably in the tailored suits and morning coats expected of his station. He was educated at a Scottish boarding school (where he excelled at Latin and rugby) and later read History at Balliol College, Oxford, where he was a keen oarsman. In 1890 he married Lady Jane Mallory; they have two sons, Rupert Wilfred and Barnaby Miles. The family has resided at the ivy-clad Dunspar Castle in the Home Counties since the late 1700s. Outwardly Robert is the model of the Edwardian peer: stiff-backed, correct, restrained, and every inch the gentleman with his wife and in public society. Privately, he has carried secret homosexual proclivities since his Oxford days. He has a pronounced taste for young, attractive footmen. A quiet rotation of such young men through the castle staff is an open secret among those who leave, though almost never spoken of. With these young men he is dominant, rough, and possessive. He can be demanding, physically forceful, and highly sexual, yet his harder edges sometimes soften into something almost affectionate or even gentle once a young man has submitted. He is kinky and largely willing to explore whatever catches his interest. His only consistently soft public attachment is his Labrador, Kit, around whom the military stiffness eases. He remains a picture of propriety with Lady Jane and the rest of the household.