Though short and stout, Mr. Pettigrew has the quiet but dignified bearing of a gentleman, which makes him seem taller than he really is. It is only when standing next to him, looking down on his balding pate, that one realises that he is quite a little fellow. To disguise his baldness, his bright ginger locks are pulled across in an unsuccessful 'comb-over' which rises, with comical effect, in a light breeze.

Obscure.

Worcester, pronounced "Whuster" (hence the nickname Wus).

Manager and surviving partner of Pettigrew & Packham Corsets. He also dabbles in the arcane, to the extent of writing the weekly horoscope for the Kalispell Union under the pseudonym of Oberon.

Lives in his Bachelor Quarters above the dress store.

Astrology

Astronomy

Business

Corsetry Engineering

Fencing

Mesmerism

Music

Pattern Cutting

Pattern Making

Sewing

His last surviving sister, Zillah, died recently at the old family plantation near Lafayette, Louisiana. His remaining close family are gone now, either through the ravages of old age or the effects of the war, both his brothers having been killed in the conflict.

Wus kept in touch with his half brother Paul Pettigrew (his slave name was 'Pompey') until he died, but continues the correspondence with Paul's daughter in New Jersey)

His Father was Captain Thomas Pettigrew, USN, known (on account of his once having to command two ships at once during the war of 1812) as The Commodore.

5th Jauary 1816: Born to retired war hero and planter, Captain Thomas Pettigrew and Fanny McAdam, nr. Lafayette Louisiana, 6th and last child.

1828: At age 12 'told on' to his father by his sister, Zillah Pettigrew, for playing with her dollies and making new outfits for them. He is summoned, terrified, to his Father, a stern and flinty man. The Commodore, however, is also a man of the world and a realist, having spent many years in the navy. He gives young Wus a disturbingly practical set of advice about how to survive as a homosexual gentleman in society, how he needs to maintain "all the marks of dignity of any gentleman of quality" be courteous to ladies, protect small children, to be a fair, but not mollycoddling, master to his slaves, and so forth. The two phrases that stick in his mind, nearly sixty on:

"Your private love affairs, Sir, you must keep discrete; but not to the point of being blackmailed. Should that happen, you must say, like the Duke of Wellington, 'Publish and be damned!' and then, at the earliest opportunity, find the man and shoot him down like a dog in the street!"

and the other, more pithy:

"Buggery, Sir, I absolutely forbid! It is injurious to both the active party and the passive, use of 'starters' notwithstanding."

Worcester later had to ask his younger, but wiser, half-brother Pompey what the Dickens Buggery meant, the both of them were stumped by 'starters'.

He and his Father never spoke of the matter again, but whereas his older brothers went into the Army and Navy, he was secured a berth at a fashionable Ladies Outfitters in New Orleans as a trainee cutter. A step down from the life of a Southern aristocrat, perhaps, but one that he loved. His brothers and sisters, after a stern talking to by their Father, accepted 'little Wus' for what he was and any insult offered to him was an insult offered to them, with perhaps the exception of his brother Farley. When he, as Captain Farley Pettigrew of the Louisiana Tigers was brought back to the plantation to die, a leg amputated above the knee and wound in his shoulder that refused to heal, Wus rushed back to Lafayette to nurse him in his final weeks, and the two men came to some sort of understanding of each other.

1832-1861: Pettigrew rises slowly but surely in the Ladies Outfitting business in New Orleans, his prestige and fortune ever growing. A number of affairs with other young men of similar sensibilities surprisingly easy to stumble into in that cosmopolitan port. He is well known and sought out by both ladies of quality and the demi-monde of actresses and courtesans to dress, corset and adorn them to best effect.

1857: Botched suicide attempt after a disastrous love affair with a well known Secessionist Fire Eater in the Louisiana Legislature whose wife objects to their liaisons.

1861-1866: The misery of the Occupation by Federal Forces. When Union governor General 'Beast' Butler makes his proclamation that any New Orlean Lady caught out after curfew will be treated as a common prostitute by Union soldiers, he is the first person to send the monster his card, calling him out. General Butler declines the offer of a duel.

1866-1871: Unhappy with the scene in post war reconstructionist New Orleans, and with no interest in taking over the now worthless and slave-less plantation, Worcester Pettigrew tries heading North for Washington and New York. However, his fashion ideas are seen as old fashioned and hopelessly Southern and parochial. He is not a success in the North.

1872-1876: He accepts an invitation to join an old Louisiana acquaintance, John Lockhart Packham out West, where the latter is opening a Ladies Outfitters in some God-Forsaken hole in the Territories called Kalispell. By the time a ruffled and dusty Pettigrew arrives, via railroad, stagecoach and at one point even mule, Packham is pushing up daisies in the local 'boot hill' leaving him to run the business alone, or rather with hired local help. However, he has never had the heart to take Packham's name off of the store front sign.

A lovely, kind gentleman, but can be roused to a suffused fury by unmannerly or un-gentlemanly behaviour. Very attentive and understanding with his sometimes quite hysterical lady customers. A keen student of human personality with an interest in such sciences and para-sciences that aim to explore the same. His nautical Father, The Commodore, bequeathed him an interest and expertise in Astronomy, and the ability to acquit himself well on the field of honor, with pistol, sword or walking cane. From his mother he imbibed a love of music and some small ability on the pianoforte, and he is a great encourager of musical talent in others. From his sisters, he inherited a love of fashion, fine fabrics, neat sewing and feminine beauty. From his brothers he inherited an ability to be at ease in the company of rough and tumble, manly, 'real' men, and to be at home in even spit and sawdust Saloons like the Stardust.

Mr. Pettigrew is a Confirmed Bachelor. Although homosexual, he is by choice not sexually active, long ago deciding that with his balding head and chubby frame he would cut a ludicrous figure as a lothario. However, he may be extra kind and helpful to attractive young men, especially those who remind him of past loves.

WIP