Eleanor Le Couteau

In the short story At the 'Bells and Motley, Eleanor Le Couteau (later Mrs Harwell') was a French Canadian woman, who bought Ashley Grange.

Eleanor Le Couteau was in reality an member of the Clondini family, a troup of arcrobats, who turned to crimes, by robbing french castles. The gang members were a mother and her two children, a daughter, who played Le Couteau, and a son. They sold plenty of the loot, but there were objects, that would be difficult to fence, so they hatched a plan to make it possible.

The daughter in the role as Eleanor Le Couteau brought Ashley Grange in England, hired a dunna to be her chaperone and spread a fabricated backstory of being an wealthy orphaned French-Canadian descendant of French aristocrates, who escaped the revolution, and filled the house with the rest of the loot. Her mother and her brother settled down near the house posing as a gardner called John Mathias and his wife, who were in her employment. Le Couteau managed to become popular in the village Kirklington Mallet and gained admires, among them Lord Leccan. Her brother then turned up in the role as Captain Richard Harwell and together they staged an engagement and later a wedding. After the honeymoon 'Captain Harwell' dissapeared, while he in reality went back to the role as Mr Mathias. The plan was to give Le Couteau an excuse to sell Ashley Grange and along with it the rest of the loot without raising suspicious. She played the part as a tragic heartbroken woman who was eager to part from every memento of her lost happiness. And as the injuried party no one would question her motives or doubt her and everyone would be distracted by the mystery of Harwell's dissapearance and identity to even investigate her. An American named Cyrus G. Bradburn brought the house with the inventar for 60000 pounds. After the sale Le Couteau left the area, and was never heard from again.