Lilly Pendragon never intended to become a protector. She did not see herself as a guardian, nor did she believe she had the temperament to raise a child. Yet when her sister Sarah died and Lucy vanished into the folds of ordinary life, Lilly chose a different kind of care, one built on restraint rather than presence.
Knowing Lucy had been placed with loving foster parents, Lilly remained in the background. She watched from afar, careful not to disrupt a childhood already forming its own roots. Her concern was constant, but her hand was light. Lucy was meant to grow without expectation or inheritance pressing down upon her.
Pendragon’s Nook became Lilly’s answer to distance. By purchasing the shop, she placed herself close enough to observe, yet far enough to remain unseen. She sold books gathered through years of travel and estate stewardship, slipping in and out of Northmere with quiet regularity. To the town, she was simply the proprietor. To Lucy, she was only a familiar figure on the edges of memory.
Lilly had planned to reveal herself on Lucy’s twenty first birthday. She believed adulthood would grant Lucy the strength to hear the truth and choose her own path. Illness took that choice away. When her diagnosis came, Lilly acted quickly, reshaping intention into contingency.
She left Pendragon’s Nook to Lucy outright and arranged the transfer of the Pendragon estate under one condition. Lucy had to discover the letter hidden within the safe and follow the trail it revealed. The test was never about knowledge or bloodline. It was about curiosity, resolve, and the quiet stubbornness that defined the Pendragons.
Lilly died six months before Lucy’s story begins. By then, Lucy had already been running the shop for half a year, unaware that it had been given not just as an inheritance, but as an act of faith. Lilly’s protection ended not with revelation, but with trust. She believed Lucy would find her way when the time was right.