Garrett Roth
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| Portrayed by David Oakes | |
| Full Name | Garrett Leander Roth |
|---|---|
| Title | Baron Ashbourne |
| Associated Noble House(s) | Barony of Ashbourne |
| Date of Birth | 26 February, 1779 |
| Father | Cardew Roth |
| Father's Rank | 8th Baron Ashbourne |
| Mother | Amelia Roth, née Garrett |
| Mother's Rank | Baroness Ashbourne |
| Town Residence | Whitlands Park or Ashbourne House (London) |
| Income | 8 000 p.a. |
| School | Harrow |
| University | Oxford |
| Year Attained Title | 1780 |
Garrett Roth, Lord Ashbourne, is the 9th Baron Ashbourne, and the closest friend of Darcy Tessington since childhood. He is played by Emily.
Background
Orphaned as an infant, Garrett was raised by a preoccupied and distant guardian, and brought up by a succession of servants.
Tessington had been the first to befriend him, in the bewildering days when boys were first sent away to school. Darcy had always been brasher, braver, bolder. While they’d had their disagreements by and by, Garrett had always felt that, if he had ever had a brother by blood, he could not have been more to him than Darcy Tessington was by merit. Darcy’s lighter sense of humour brought the more solemn boy out of his shell, though Garrett’s humour tended towards the sarcastic—a wit far more barbed than Darcy’s, and with an ability to wound, which sense of cruelty Tessington rather lacked.
Despite their differences—or perhaps because of them—they remained close through those days of boyhood’s end, and as they had grown to young men, sharing all they did with the frankness of the most loyal friends.
The only real coolness to ever have arisen between them had come upon the occasion of Tessington’s marriage. Of course they had expected a wife would alter their bachelor ways...or, at least, that was what Garrett had expected. Darcy's marriage was contracted in a whirlwind, and Garrett hardly knew what was happening before Darcy was introducing Lady Tessington to him—a pert little thing with dark eyes and a gleam to her smile that did not sit well with Lord Ashbourne.
He tried to like her, for Darcy’s sake. He never quite managed it. The viscountess had an unpredictable nature, which he considered unsuited to Tessington’s own temperament, which could be fickle as fire, too. Oh, they seemed to like each other well enough, and the viscountess did her duty in producing healthy children—one of which was happily male—but Ashbourne retained something of a sense of the romantic, which Tessington had never entirely grasped, and the hollowness of their marriage was distasteful to him. Garrett would have wished for something better for his friend, but his friend’s choice has been made, and Darcy seems content.
Garrett has seen too much to be in any doubt of their mutual infidelity, following the birth of Jourdes--his godson--and this rather sealed his disdain for the match. Given his long history of friendship with Darcy, he could not always remain angry with him, and so the bulk of his contempt has found a home with the viscountess, resulting in his cool civility to her, and no more. He takes pains to avoid her company whenever possible, even when he is a guest in her house. He will say and do all that was polite, and no more.
This, to some, is but hypocrisy, given that Garrett's own ways are all that one might expect from a rich young lord, and a friend of Darcy Tessington's--he runs with the same fast set, often drinking and gambling beyond moderation, and keeps a beautiful young actress--Mrs. Julia Cliffton--in luxurious London lodgings.
In recent years, Garrett has the strong impression that he ought to start thinking about settling down and starting a family of his own. Rich, titled, handsome, and with the civil manners of excellent breeding, he must certainly be on many a mama's list of suitors worth encouraging.
Personality
By comparison to his dearest friend, Darcy, one would find Garrett Roth to be something of a let-down, perhaps. Of a more solemn turn of mind, Garrett must exert himself to truly enter into the revels of his set with the same levity, though once he is well enough along (or deep enough in his cups) he does not struggle in the slightest to enjoy the utmost debauchery with great enthusiasm.
Perhaps due to his upbringing, Garrett often quietly grapples with his own perceptions of himself as a lesser variation of the sort of man his friend is--everything seems to come to Darcy so easily, while Garrett must question nearly everything. As they seem to be two sides of the same coin, so, too, is Garrett the more generally responsible of the two. Though Darcy's home and fortunes never suffer any neglect, the viscount is content to delegate all boring matters of business to his steward and others, while Garrett makes an effort to understand the workings of the estate which depends upon him as its head, and takes pains to concern himself with the needs of his tenants in the north, at Whitlands Park, the old half-ruined manor house and estate he inherited when he was a child.
Garrett's secret self-consciousness and feelings of inadequacy will often lead him to resort to aloofness and the barbs of his ready wit, ready to be flung at anyone who may happen to cross him, however inadvertently. One way to gain the appreciation of others, he has found, is to make them laugh. While he is no desperate clown, he has honed his abilities with cutting words into something akin to an art-form, and even when his sharp tongue does not hesitate to wound, there are sure to be a few laughs thrown his way, to buoy up his sense of self-importance for a little while longer, at least.
Still waters run deep is a phrase which could aptly be applied to the baron. While outwardly he lacks for nothing in his life, and could have all he wanted at his finger's ends with only a word, inside there seems to be something left of that unloved boy, uncertain of where his precise duty lies, or where he, himself, belongs.
