Lady Mary Van Eck

Mary grew up without a father and a narcissistic rich mother. Growing up, her mother Nancy was always looking out for herself first, the servants second and Mary last. So as soon as Mary was old enough, she packed her bags, grabbed some of her mother’s money and left her family home. Finally free from her mother’s watchful eye, Mary was able to stand on her own feet but quickly had to realise that she had idea on how to do that (think Rachel from Friend’s in season 1). She had to realise that the lavish lifestyle she led before could not be sustained if she continued like this. But also… she didn’t want it to change. She needed a plan. So, Mary dressed in the last fine dress she still possessed and went on the prowl for a spouse. First, she met John.
They met at the park, when Mary’s hat got stolen by a goose and she was too frightened to get it back. That’s when John came into the picture, saw her catatonic state, and chased the goose until it dropped the hat. He was caring and made sure she felt better before asking her out to lunch. Mary could tell by the manner he held himself, that he was wealthy. They soon got married and for a while, Mary was content. That all changed when John fell gravely ill. No doctors were able to help him, and he soon passed away, leaving everything he had to his wife. Mary at first was distraught; she was too young to be a widow and couldn’t be sure that John’s money would be enough to support her for the rest of her life.
During that time in her life Mary met Marianne strolling through the park. The woman seemed to bear a heavy pain herself, not unsimilar to Mary and the two of them formed a friendship. As the weeks went by, the two women grew closer, and Mary found herself drawn to the other woman who possessed the extraordinary ability to hide in the shadows if needed and fight quite elegantly with daggers or shorts words. One night, Mary watched Marianne in the privacy of her own home practice with her blades and she couldn’t move her eyes from her. Frankly, Mary found the sight very hot. Still in mourning over her husband, she found these feelings quite confusing. Over the next few weeks, Mary found excuses to invite Marianne to her home if only to talk and pass the lonely hours. What Mary couldn’t know is that Marianne was quite in the same boat as her. She had found the simplest reasons and excuses as to why she showed up on Mary’s doorstep time and time again, just to be close to her.
Finally, Mary made her move and after an exquisite dinner she had invited Marianne to, she kissed her when saying goodbye. Save to say, Marianne didn’t leave that night and kept staying over. That kept going on until Mary received a strong worded letter from a male acquaintance trying to blackmail her because of her supposed lesbian relationship. Marianne was close to giving up when Mary had come up with the plan to put up the farce of Marianne being her maid. For that, however, Mary had to marry a wealthy man again. After plenty of back and forth, the women agreed that marrying for money and to keep living together, this play was the least bothersome. Mary kept the blackmail letter safely hiding in her vault, as a reminder never to trust men.
Only days later, Mary donned the most elegant black dress she owned and went to church. She knew from past visits that there were always some bachelors prying on young widows, so that’s where she would start. And she was right and was soon married to husband Nr. 2, Count Robert. Mary was fully intent on keeping up appearances and making this marriage work on “some” level, all the while having her beautiful girlfriend by her side. However, the noise he made while eating was excessive to say the least. It drove her insane. Marianne was close to killing him for her own reasons and together the pair come up with a plan. The next few weeks nothing happened until one dinner, Robert began to choke and foam at his mouth until he dropped dead. The paper later told the story that the poor Count was allergic to nuts, leaving behind his distraught widow.
And on and on it went. Mary was quite good at finding new wealthy spouses, men most of the time since she had less problems in getting rid of them, but also very easily annoyed. Husband Nr. 3, William, coughed too loud, Nr. 4, Donald, had an annoying laugh. Nr. 5, James, was very nice for a while but ended up buying a goose for the house, which Mary was deathly afraid of. She made the cook prepare the goose for dinner at which she poisoned James; it was delicious. George, husband Nr. 6 was far too eager to jump into bed with her, so she poisoned him during their wedding night. Thomas, husband Nr. 7 was very suspicious as to all her husband’s untimely deaths so he too had to be killed quite soon. Mary waited 2 years to let the rumours die down until she went looking for husband Nr. 8. She found him in Frank, a wealthy merchant who had a penchant for sleeping around. Mary wouldn’t really have minded that much as it gave her more space with Marianne, but he had to make many unwanted advances on her wife in all but in name. So, of course he had to die as well. Marianne was always ready to help her girlfriend with poisoning her husbands and covered for her. Mary kept a very small amount of personnel, only the bare necessities to not let anyone in on her secret. The personnel that did work for her however, all knew about the two women but knew to hold their tongue.
Lady Mary van Eck, as she is now called, is now on the prowl for husband Nr. 9 (NEIN hehe). She is now 35 years old. Over the years she has collected all her previous husband’s wealth and come to like rare art pieces. She started her collection of rare artefacts during her third marriage, and it has grown considerably since. Some she collects through her husbands, some she buys from official handlers, some she buys from thieves. What she wants, she usually gets.
If the townspeople would get too suspicious about too many untimely deaths of Mary's husbands, she would change towns and don a new idendity. Her wife Marianne always by her side. Sometimes, if the fortune of the latest husband was big enough, Mary and Marianne would settle down as wifes themselves until the money was close to running low again. Then Mary would go on the prowl again to gain the next fortune, Marianne once again with her as her maid.