Behind the Character: Estelle Kline

Estelle Kline is the housekeeper at Diamond Villa in Gilded Silence, and alongside her husband Isaac, one of the very first people to make Genevieve feel like a person and not an asset.

At first glance, she is warm and grandmotherly. She offers compliments out of the blue and for no reason, which means no one can actually be prepared for them. She plates her warm banana bread even while asking what you want for breakfast, because she's already noticed the decision fatigue you're suffering from. She hums while she works, and she calls everyone "sweetheart" or "dear" like she's known them their whole lives.

Funnily enough, she was one of the harder characters to write. I didn't want her to just be a soft, comforting character in the background that the other characters fall back to. I wanted her to be all that and still someone no one wants to piss off. Without raising her voice, without resorting to theatrics, still soft, and still formidable.

It took a lot of work to get that kind of complex character right. Her gentleness should not be mistaken for lack of a spine. The softness is what comes out when she is with the people she loves, but the fierce mother dragon still lurks, waiting for a threat to show up. She knows exactly how the Donovans expect their employees to behave, but she has never agreed nor complied with that aspect of her contract. It hasn't become a problem.

What I loved most about writing her is that Genevieve trusts her almost immediately, before she can figure out why. Estelle's kindness doesn't come with strings, and it doesn't come from obligation the way Genevieve initially assumes it must, given that the Klines technically work for the family. It comes from something Estelle decided a long time ago about what kind of person she was going to be in this house, regardless of the money it came with.

She's not trying to replace anyone Genevieve lost. She's simply there, every single morning, with tea and breakfast and a steady, unshakeable kind of loyalty that never once asks to be thanked for it.

Estelle never had to be soft. She chose to be, and she made sure everyone around her learned not to mistake that choice for weakness.