Alexandre Lestrange
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| Portrayed by Alessandro Nivola (unofficial, retired character) | |
| Full Name | Alexandre Lestrange |
|---|---|
| Title | unknown Comte |
| Associated Noble House(s) | defunct French Comté |
| Date of Birth | 30 October 1782 |
| Father | |
| Father's Rank | Comte |
| Mother | |
| Mother's Rank | Comtesse |
| Town Residence | |
| School | |
| University | No |
| Profession | Pastry chef at Gunter's Tea Shop |
| Income | |
Alexandre Lestrange is a pastry chef at Gunter's Tea Shop and is a retired character created by Emily
Background
Alexandre Lestrange tells a sorrowful tale of himself.
He was born into the luxury of a noble household, the only child and son of a count, and with the blood of the Bourbons flowing in his veins. He was privately tutored, learning English alongside his native French, and pieces of Latin and Greek as befit his status. He was petted and generally spoilt as such sons are, raised in splendor and isolation at the family's lavish estate in the French countryside.
Then came the Terror.
His parents managed, somehow, to hide their young son's whereabouts and identity from the oncoming storm by disguising him and placing him with a baker and his family, swearing the boy to speak nothing of his origins upon the pain of exposure and death. With a tearful kiss from his mother and another stern warning from his father, Alexandre's parents disappeared, never to be seen or heard from again. Beyond flashes of memory, images, sounds, words and scents, Alexandre finds he is unable to recall precise details of his childhood prior to this change—though he feels his name, or part of it, anyway, was Alexandre, and his father was a count.
The rebellious, hurt, and spoilt young lord had a tendency to boast his connections, despite all prior warnings—a threat to the family which could not be ignored, nor go unpunished: one day Alexandre went too far, too publicly, and the sinews of the baker nearly cracked with the force of the beating he gave the boy. Some money, evidently, had been left to look to Alexandre's well-being, but the baker, knowing its aristocratic source, and knowing it to be finite, and the never-ending costs of raising a growing boy, decided not long afterwards that it would be best to see Alexandre apprenticed elsewhere. A position with a pastry chef was found, and Alexandre lost every former connection and hope of finding his parents. Though as a younger boy he hoped they might return for him, over the years he grew bitter and cynical, and now presumes they are long dead, fallen under the inexorable 'justice' of Madame Guillotine.
Forced by circumstances to think practically, Alexandre set aside his dreams of his past in the face of his republican present, and attended as diligently to his tasks as anyone could wish. He learned a great deal, and, upon finishing his apprenticeship, worked beneath a renowned chef in Paris for some years.
By hard work and keeping his lips sealed, Alexandre at last saved enough to secure passage to England--a safe haven, over two years ago. At last, he feels he may speak openly of his past...and yet there are few who care enough to listen to a working man--and none who seem interested in helping a chef claiming to be the lost heir to a county on the ravaged Continent. Alexandre has put his talents to work at Gunter's, creating light pastries and confections to be served in that elegant establishment alongside the famous ices.
In addition to the sweet things he creates in the kitchens, Alexandre has had the good fortune to catch the eye of certain lonely patronesses of the ton as he has gone about his work and spread word of his charmingly desolate history—and he doesn't scruple in the slightest to revel in their sympathetic favours...as long as their appreciation manages to be material, as well. Presently, he has been noted to have escorted the much-older and overburdened-with-worldly-wealth Lady ffowkes to the opera scarcely a week after her arrival in town (notably sans her husband, who is ailing and remains in the country.)