Members of the Court | Saint-Cyr staff | Louise and her entourage | Charlotte and her entourage | Hortense and her entourage | Isabeau and her entourage | Éléonore and her entourage | Henriette and her entourage | Gertrude and her entourage | Olympe and her entourage | Adélaïde and her entourage | Jeanne and her entourage | Victoire and her entourage | Gabrielle and her entourage | Diane and her entourage
The characters who appear in Book 4, La Promesse d'Hortensenote .
Hortense de Kermenet
The main character of La Promesse d'Hortense. A shy, dutiful, profoundly religious girl, her life is shaken when she falls in love.
- Best Friends-in-Law: With Charlotte.
- Cannot Spit It Out: So sheltered that in Book 1, she can't even put a name on her feelings for Simon, to the point of annoying her friends.
- Character Development: The stickler to Catholic dogma of the first book evolves as she spends time around Protestants and outside of the strict confines of Saint-Cyr to have more open views on religion and freedom of cult. Her timidity, while still present, also takes the backseat to her courage on several occasions. She gets significantly better at lying and acting, though she never comes to like it.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: She assumes that most of the girls she and Simon meet on their journey are threats to her relationship. To be fair, he does have a history as a ladykiller, and his love is everything she has left since she ran away from Saint-Cyr.
- Converting for Love: Invoked. She initially convinces herself that God does want her to marry Simon so she can convert him and his family to Catholicism.
- The Determinator: She promised that she would find the Lestranges and free Simon and she will!
- Even the Girls Want Her: A tavern girl starts flirting heavily with her when she's dressed as a valet.
- The Fundamentalist: Her Catholic faith is a core component of her personality and her guide in nearly all of her decisions. Prior to meeting Simon, she wanted to become a nun.
- Humble Hero: Grew up in poverty and is fine with it, as she doesn't care for luxury.
- Missing Mom: Lost her mother (and sister) to cholera when she was eight years old.
- Not So Above It All: Humble Hero aside, she cannot help but marvel at her reflection in the mirror when she puts on a court gown for the first time.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: Turns every head in the room whenever she appears in a new dress.
- Sheltered Aristocrat: Eloping and being on the run from the law gives her a lot of new experiences, among which sitting in a tavern or riding a horse. She does not have any bad thoughts about sleeping on the ground or eating nothing but bread and water, however, being the humble sort of this trope.
- Shrinking Violet: She is extremely shy, and acting doesn't cut it for her. She grows in confidence throughout her book.
- Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: Boasts beautiful red hair, and is depicted with green eyes on the covers on which she appears.
- Significant Haircut: She is heartbroken when she has to cut her hair to cross the border, explicitely saying that she sees it as the loss of her femininity and innocence. Her newly short hair is a sore point to her.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: With Protestant Simon.
- Sweet Polly Oliver: Pretends to be a peasant boy on her journey through Savoy to be more discreet.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Her elopement is one of the events that push Madame de Maintenon to turn up the religious severity of Saint-Cyr.
- What Is This Feeling?: So sheltered from the outside world that she can't even put a name on her feelings about Simon.
Simon de Lestrange
Barthélémy Joseph Ignace de Kermenet
Hortense's father.
- An Arm and a Leg: Lost a leg in battle.
- Boyfriend-Blocking Dad: Hortense believes that he will respond like this to Simon's proposal, as he dishonored her by abducting her; in fact, she believes that he might kill both of them over it.
- Dad the Veteran: See Retired Badass.
- Forgot to Pay the Bill: Hortense is fully aware that their destitute state is at least in part due to her father being terrible at managing his lands.
- Heroic BSoD: Fell into a deep depression after the deaths of his wife and daughter.
- Retired Badass: While he's not good at being a landlord, he can boast a brilliant career in the military.
Babeth
Hortense's old wetnurse.
- Old Retainer: The only member of the Kermenet staff who stayed after her employers could no longer afford to pay their servants.
- Parental Substitute: Kept Hortense alive after her mother died and her father went as good as catatonic.
- What the Hell, Hero?: She is the one who pestered Hortense's father out of his depression to make him fight for his daughter's future.
Gabrielle de Barville
A friend of Simon's who lives a few hours away from Versailles.
- Arranged Marriage: She is betrothed to the Count of Tillet-Montrame.
- Best Friend: To Simon. Or so they claim.
- Blue Blood: Her family are counts since the reign of Henri IV.
- Chekhov's Gunman: After a quick stopover at her castle when Hortense and Simon first elope, Hortense returns to her in the last act of the book in hopes that she may help her release Simon from prison.
- The Ditz: She does sometimes seem to be this, compared to quiet Hortense.
- Innocently Insensitive: She is quick to remind Hortense of her miserable situation, but given that she is otherwise friendly and helpful, her comments are swept under the rug.
- The Reliable One: Simon knew at once that he could go to her after eloping with Hortense and that she would help them.
- Spoiled Sweet: It's plain her parents have never said "no" to her, but she is nothing but a helpful hand.
Claude-Marie de Boisjourdan
After meeting Hortense in an inn in Burgundy, she escorts her all the way to southern Auvergne.
- Ambiguous Criminal History: Initially. She claims to be on a pilgrimage to escape the King's police; she is actually on her way to be married. In her situation, she understands and respects that Hortense has secrets of her own.
- Arranged Marriage: On her way to meet her fiancé, Sir de Rochecolombe.
- The Confidant: Hortense eventually confesses her elopement to her, after becoming The Confidant herself and hearing her story.
- Spoiled Sweet: Covered in fine clothes and jewels (most as part of her trousseau) , does not hesitate to offer them to Hortense.
- The Pollyanna: A Protestant on the run from the law on her way to marry a old Catholic man so as to avoid being locked up in a convent for the rest of her life... And yet, a cheerful girl who manages to make the best of her situation.
Henri de Boisjourdan
- Abhorrent Admirer: Downplayed, as he is very respectful, but Hortense can't help but notice how he is looking at her, and how homely he is.
- Arranged Marriage: On his way to marry a Catholic girl of good birth. While not a Perfectly Arranged Marriage yet, he makes the best of it as his fiancée is said to be pretty.
- Facial Markings: The important smallpox scars on his face are one of the things that make Hortense find him ugly.
- Nice Guy: Regardless of his appearance or taste for Hortense, he is very thoughtful, kind and gentlemanly. Hortense thinks that it means he's
either this or The Casanova.
Monsieur and Madame de Boisjourdan
Claude-Marie and Henri's parents.
- Ambiguous Criminal History: Like their daughter, which explains why they would stop in a discreet tavern when they are so scornful of it.
- Rich Bitch : Scorn the food they are served in taverns ("Our tenants wouldn't even feed this to their pigs!") and grimace at grimed-up Hortense and Simon when they first see them.
Monsieur de Lestrange
Jean-Jean
A boy who offers Simon and Hortense to smuggle them into Savoy.
- Venturous Smuggler: Often guides French Protestants across the border to Savoy. His prices are high, but he does what he's paid to do (as long as it does not get him in prison).
Gustave's family
Gustave, his wife and their son Jacquot, Peasants living on the border between France and Savoy
- Big Damn Heroes: Shelter Hortense, find a plan to help her through the border, and Jacquot puts himself in serious harm's way to give her news of Simon.
- Covert Distress Code: They let migrant smugglers know about the presence of guards in the area with the laudry they hang up.
- Makeover Fairy: Inverted, as the wife makes Hortense over to look like a peasant boy instead of a lady of good birth. She keeps her clothes and hair to sell.
- No Name Given: Gustave's wife doesn't get a name, despite being the first of the family Hortense meets.
- La Résistance: While not actively involved in an organization, they take it upon themselves to shelter Protestant fugitives and help them cross into Savoy.
- Roguish Poacher: Jacquot, due to his family's poverty, is often setting traps or gathering wood in the local lord's forest.
Lelong
A smuggler who gets Hortense from Aix to Lake Leman.
- Actually Pretty Funny: Laughs for the first time when Hortense decides to let herself slide down the icy mountain on her butt instead of repeatedly falling.
- Asshole Victim: Gets half of his smuggler's price swindled away when Hortense, tired of his abuse, runs away without paying his second half. She had already given him a craftsman yearly salary prior to departure.
- The Big Guy: Hortense repeatedly describes him as a giant.
- The Brute: Especially when he drinks; he also seems to take pleasure in verbally abusing Hortense even when she doesn't need to pass as his valet.
The Priest and Marie
A Catholic priest from the banks of the Rhône and his housekeeper.
- Good Shepherd: The Priest is a kind, charitable man, who asks Hortense no questions but whether she knows her prayers, even when she comes to him in a peasant boy's rags.
- Makeover Fairy: Old Marie, who helps Hortense clean up and gives her a Swiss-style gown out of charity.
Musard
A friend of the Lestranges in Switzerland.
- Thicker Than Water: Hosts his entire family and extended family and family friends when they fall on hard times, to the point that he can't even take two steps in his own home.
Eugène Dunoyer
A Swiss notary who accompanies Hortense on her journey from Geneva to Zurich.
- Lady and Knight: The knight in shining armor to Héloïse's lady.
- Nice Guy: While after Zurich he is mostly motivated by Héloïse's fair eyes, from Geneva to Bern he is already incredibly friendly and generous to Hortense.
- Nobility Marries Money: A Swiss notary, he marries a girl of impoverished French nobility.
- Uncle Pennybags: He is the main source of monetary support of the last third of book 4, and still somewhat plays this role in book 9.
Constantin
Musard's contact in Zurich.
- The Fundamentalist: Of the strict Calvinist sort. Notably...
- Slut-Shaming: He thinks Hortense is slutty for showing her hair and neck and does not hesitate to tell her in the ten lines they exchange.
Madame de Lestrange
Héloïse de Lestrange -Dunoyer
Monsieur and Madame de Barville
Gabrielle's parents.
- Blue Blood: Their family are counts since the reign of Henri IV.
- Stage Mom: Madame de Barville, who is obsessed with her family image and hates the idea of anyone being able to one-up her daughter.
- Pushover Parents: It's clear that they've never said "no" to their daughter, especially not the dad.
