Andrea Valentine
Point of View
Andrea is the only main character whose eye witness narrative is given in third person, but who is the narrator of her story? One might reasonably assume that Natasha, as the manuscript's deemed editor, would be the most appropriate and also best placed to know Andrea's story in sufficient detail for they are, by the time the of the telling, married to one another. However, having Natasha narrate scenes from Andrea's point of view in which she, herself, is an actor might prove problematical. So, for now at least, we shall assume that some other person (perhaps Kumiko, having been given the facts by Natasha) is doing the narrating or that Natasha is playing the part of an anonymous narrator, referring to herself, dispassionately, also in third person where the need arises.
Personal Data
Full Name
Alternative Name
A travelling name Andrea sometimes assumes. When running errands for the Butterfly Club, it is not always a good idea to advertise one's true identity. The name Rose (after the name of week 37) was initially a simple blind to suggest a date of birth other than Andrea's own but the persona of Růžena Rowland has since been built into an elaborate false identity designed to stand up to at least casual scrutiny.
Nickname
Andrea's actual birth-week name; it has only ever been used by Erin and Magdaléna the Wanderer.
Relationships
History
As only a procreative father, Radclyffe had not been expected (or, as you may have read elsewhere, not by everyone even wanted) to play the rôle of a devoted father but, whatever the expectations, he loved his two daughters Andrea and Erin very much. It was a love reciprocated by both girls though, to a casual observer, by Erin rather more than Andrea.
It was not, however, through any lack of affection on Andrea’s part, rather that she was the less gregarious of the two which, in turn, may well have been a learned predisposition arising from the calm in her mind she could only achieve by being away from people and the din her nascent telepathy generated from their emotions. Indeed, Radclyffe was just about the only person she felt comfortable enough to confide in about this matter and, although there was never anything to suggest that he was himself a telepath, he was, in some way, able feel her pain in a way that resonated with her.
After Magdaléna had been and gone, Andrea prevailed upon her father to take her out into and to teach her the ways of the countryside and the lonely places. At first their “expeditions” were little more than family picnics but, as Andrea and Erin grew older, stronger and more responsible, they became increasingly adventurous. After Kiki had departed the scene at Prague Street, father and daughter grew closer and, though the coquettish Erin might, emotionally, always have been his favourite, it was, of the two, Andrea who bonded with him more firmly and in a rather more grown-up fashion.
Nevertheless, as she entered her teens, as her knowledge and self-confidence grew, Andrea took to heading out into the hills far more frequently on her own; Radclyffe understood her need for solitude and, indeed, that probably made the time they did spend together that much more precious.
After the accident, Andrea mourned the loss of her father every bit as much as she did that of her mother, Vienna, and even Erin. It was her determination to keep his memory alive that compelled her to take over proprietorship of the Boundary Café, to keep it running just the same way that he had run it for such a very long time.
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