Author Games: Salem

PEOPLE OF SALEM: Chastity Lydia Carstairs - The Midwife ✝

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Name: Chastity Lydia Carstairs (Called by either her middle name or simply 'The Carstairs Girl', as her first name annoys her to no end)

Age: Twenty-five

Sex: Female

Occupation: Midwife

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Appearance: Chastity is definitely one to stand out in a crowd of people, though not always in a bad way. Her delicate, almost fairylike, features make her look childish at times and have this sort of gentle kindness to them that many people find reassuring. A little smaller than average height and very slender, she is sometimes mistaken for a child. She usually stands out, however, because of her waterfall of coppery auburn hair, which when braided still reaches all the way down her back. Chastity eyes are a sharp, and rather startling, shade of grey that look like they could pierce steel and seem out of place in her kind face. However, you wouldn't notice most of this until you got past her small bump of a stomach and the way it seems to already dominate her small body.

Personality: For somebody who looks like a child and spends a lot of time with young children, Chastity is a surprisingly mature person. Not to say that she isn't fun or happy or anything like that, she's just very grown up. Her defining feature is her gentle nature, how kind she is and her cool calmness in many situations that would make most people lose their heads. Chastity is rather selfless, almost to a fault. She's a rational person most of the time, trying to think before acting despite the messy emotions that always seem to get in the way of rational thinking. Despite her kindness, Chastity is a strong-willed woman and she isn't afraid to speak her mind, despite the looks of loathing it may get her. However Chastity is very fragile behind all of her selfless deeds and kind smiles and blunt opinions; it doesn't take much to shake her up. There's still something very calming and reassuring about her friendly nature that makes her rather hard to dislike sometimes.

Family Tree: Chastity's family is of Scottish and English descent, though her Salem heritage is the only one she really knows and cares about. Her father was Abraham Carstairs, he's been dead since Chastity was two months old. Her Uncle John and Aunt Prudence were a big part of her life, as were her large gaggle of cousins on both her mother and father's side of her family. Her mother, Dorcas, was a bit unstable so Chastity wasn't too close to her. The father of her child, a cobbler named Elias, is very close to her heart despite the fact that they aren't married yet.

History: Chastity has Salem in her blood, as the Carstairs family has been living there since before she herself was born. Her father was a rather rowdy man who ran the tavern that's been run by their family for quite some time, and his rowdiness was what led him to be killed in a drunken fight at the tavern when she was a baby. Her father's brother, John, and his wife ran the tavern and helped raised Chastity as well after that. Chastity's mother was the best-and only- midwife in Salem and when she passed away of pneumonia, the job was left to a seventeen year old Chastity. Chastity insisted on being called Lydia around this time or simply not being named at all, as her first name bothered her. She was a rather good midwife, though she tended to get attached to the children she helped birth and tended to check up on them every once and a while. She was been pressured to settle down and get married after a while and her hand was forced when she became pregnant a few months prior to this. Despite her virtuous name, Chastity was known to be involved in a few dalliances with people who will forever remain nameless. She plans on marrying Elias, as she does care for him. She's really overjoyed to be having a child of her own and is secretly happy that if she has to marry anyone, it's someone she cares about.