Sidheag Maccon, later known as Lady Kingair, is a major character in the Finishing School and Parasol Protectorate series.
Sidheag is the great-great-great-granddaughter of Lord Conall Maccon and resides in Castle Kingair, Scotland. She was married to Niall, the Kingair Pack's previous Alpha, before Niall's death. She is Alpha female for the Kingair Pack, first as a human and later as a werewolf.
Appearance[]
As a young lady, Sidheag is very tall, with thick plaited hair, a masculine face, and tawny yellow eyes.
During the Parasol Protectorate series, Lady Kingair is in her late thirties, but looks much older than that. This is a pattern that started before her Finishing School days. She has coarse thick hair, which tends towards grey and is usually worn in a long plait. Her tawny eyes turn a wolfish yellow when overcome with powerful emotions, much like her great-great-great-grandfather's, whom she is said to resemble a lot when angered.
Her features are described as handsome, but not pretty. It is also stated that she is physically very fit and quite muscular. Sidheag is also very tall, being almost as tall as Lord Maccon.
As stated in the Finishing School series, she prefers to wear plainer plaid dresses that are usually far from the current fashion, but which do not look out of place for a woman with her title and responsibility.
She also has a profound Scottish accent and uses barracks language.
As a wolf she is described as "a craggy, rangy creature, graying about the muzzle but muscled and fit despite evident signs of age."
Personality[]
Sidheag Maccon is a very strict woman, boasting a battle-axe demeanor. She is also strict on herself, only eating a bowl of unseasoned porridge with plain toast in the morning.
She had to take on a great deal of responsibility at a young age and has grown bitter as a result, which seems to be intensified by her husband's death mere months before her appearance in Changeless.
In the book it is implied that she seems to be the type of woman to smoke, while the manga adaption clearly depicts her smoking after dinner.
She is very fierce and commanding, and manages to control a pack of werewolves as a human before being made a werewolf by Lord Maccon.
History[]
Sidheag was born on February 1, 1837. Nothing is known about her early years except for that she was raised by the Kingair Pack, which only consisted of men.
After the pack was abandoned by her great-great-great-grandfather, Sidheag proceeded to marry Niall and served as Alpha female alongside him. Unfortunately, Niall lacked Anubis form and was unable to bite her for metamorphosis. Despite her human state, Sidheag was able to help tame the pack through force of will, though the lack of a true Alpha resulted in the local loners rebelling and a loss of status for the pack.
Sidheag Maccon after metamorphosis. Art by Rem.
At some point she decided to join the army as nurse to go with the pack, which she saw as her duty as Alpha female.
In the books[]
Etiquette & Espionage[]
At the start of this novel, Sidheag is 14 years old. Having been raised by werewolf soldiers, she is not very concerned with feminine habits and manners of dress. Lord Maccon sent her to Mademoiselle Geraldine’s Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality in the hopes that she would learn more feminine and socially acceptable behaviors. In school she excelled in the more physically demanding classes, such as werewolf defense. While at school she met Captain Niall, the werewolf fighting instructor. She also enjoyed fighting with the sooties—the boys who worked in the boiler rooms shoveling coal.
Curtsies & Conspiracies[]
“Sidheag could be quite crass, the result of having been raised by men, or Scots, or soldiers, or werewolves, or all four.” (Chapter 2).
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Waistcoats & Weaponry[]
When the pack betrayed Lord Maccon and he, as a result, left the pack, Sidheag is still away at finishing school. The dewan appoints Captain Niall as the Kingair Pack's new Alpha, and arranges a marriage between Niall and Sidheag.
Manners & Mutiny[]
Sidheag writes to Sophronia and reports that she is back home with the Kingair Pack, which is about to leave for campaign in the Crimea.
Changeless[]
Two months prior to the events of Changeless, Niall is killed in battle, leaving the pack leaderless again. As of the time of Conall and Alexia Maccon's visit, Sidheag had petitioned Lord Maccon for metamorphosis every year for ten years. Although Sidheag and Genevieve Lefoux must have known each other at Mademoiselle Geraldine's, they pretend not be acquainted in this book. Sidheag also lies to Alexia about how she originally met her husband Niall. (See Trivia below.)
Timeless[]
In Timeless, Sidheag discovers that Professor Lyall was behind the conspiracy that led to Lord Maccon's abandoning the Kingair Pack. In a fury, she assumes werewolf form and races off to find him. She finally corners him at the London BUR office. Biffy arrives during the fight between Sidheag and Lyall, and comes to his Beta's defense. When the three return to human form at dawn, Lyall explains his motives. Lady Kingair understands, appearing moved, but ultimately disapproves of Lyall's method of overthrowing his abusive and insane Alpha. She demanded that Lyall come to Scotland and serve as the Kingair Pack's Beta as punishment, since Dubh, her Beta, had recently been killed, and that Lord Maccon was no longer speaking with him. Lyall, though saddened by the thought of leaving Biffy behind, agrees without protest.
Prudence[]
Sidheag meets her aunt, Prudence Alessandra Maccon Akeldama, at a garden party in India. She expects it is because Lord Maccon has sent Rue to recall her Beta, Professor Lyall, back to the London Pack in the event of Lord Maccon's retirement. Rue, however, is oblivious of this plan.
Reticence[]
Sidheag attends Rue's wedding along with Sophronia and Madame Lefoux. She dances with Aggie Phinkerlington at the wedding reception after asking Madame Lefoux for an introduction. It is revealed in the epilogue that Aggie leaves the Spotted Custard to work for the Kingair Pack, and it is heavily hinted that she and Sidheag form a relationship.
Trivia[]
- Her name is pronounced either SHEE-ak or SIDH-hey and means "wolf" in Gaelic
- She knows how to use a rifle
- The manga portrays her with multiple scars all over her body, the most prominent being on her right cheek
- She enjoys fighting, and has so since she was young. This helped her gain the top scores in Niall's werewolf defense classes at Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality.
- Her nickname at Mademoiselle Geraldine's was "Lady Bacon."
- As a young woman, she shows interest in locomotives.
- In Changeless, Sidheag claims that Niall was a loner she met abroad and brought back to Scotland to marry, only then discovering the Kingair Pack in shambles. However, in Waistcoats & Weaponry we learn that Sidheag already knew of the pack's break-up before her engagement to Niall. We do not know why Sidheag changed her history, but since she also keeps her acquaintance with Genevieve Lefoux a secret, we must assume she doesn't want Alexia to know anything about Mademoiselle Geraldine’s.
- After the Parasol Protectorate books as a real Alpha, Sidheag would hold the position of Countess of Kingair.[1]
- She likes trains.
Links[]
Images[]
Quotes[]
- “Sidheag came up next to him, and after he managed to straighten, threw a companionable arm around his soot-covered shoulders. She was more relaxed than Sophronia had ever seen her. 'It makes sense. Why should we fight like gentlemen? After all, as you keep reminding me, Sophronia, we aren’t gentlemen. We aren’t even soldiers. We’re supposed to be intelligencers. We should learn to fight dirty. We should learn to fight any way we can.'” (Etiquette & Espionage, Lesson 14)
- “Sidheag could be quite crass, the result of having been raised by men, or Scots, or soldiers, or werewolves, or all four.” (Curtsies & Conspiracies, The 2nd Test)
- "'No, what's a man like down there?' 'Oh,' Sidheag wrinkled her nose. 'Unimnpressive. They have -' she gestured towards her own nether regions with one hand- 'a sort of dangly sausage - lacks tailoring.' 'Really?' 'Yes, like it wasn't fitted into its casing properly. And hairy.'" (Curtsies & Conspiracies, The 6th Test)
- “Sidheag, you think like a predator.’ The Lady of Kingair glowed in pleasure. ‘Thank you very much, Sophronia. What a nice thing to say.” (Curtsies & Conspiracies, The 15th Test)
- “Sidheag surely does grumpy old man very well for a sixteen-year-old girl.” (Waistcoats & Weaponry, Session 2)
- “Well, you shouldn’t go around being nasty when the rest of us are armed with nibbly bits, should you?” (Waistcoats & Weaponry, Session 2)
- "The dewan said, 'Is that lady Kingair? Oh, good, she can help sort this out. Sensible female, for a mortal girl." (Waistcoats & Weaponry, Session Fifteen)
- “She boasted the general battle-ax demeanor of an especially strict governess. This was the kind of woman who took her tea black, smoked cigars after midnight, played a mean game of cribbage, and kept a bevy of repulsive little dogs. Alexia liked her immediately.” (Changeless, Chapter Eight)
- "Lady Kingair seemed incapable of multisyllabic sentences that were not crass or dictatorial in tone." (Changeless, Chapter Nine)
- “That was a remarkable display of whatnot.” (Timeless, Chapter Three)
- "There stood, feet braced, an ill-dressed older woman to whom the pack instantly deferred. She was also quite tall and tough as old boots, her expression uncompromising and her stance one of controlled power. Her long greying hair was plaited like a schoolgirl's, showing off strong features and a face that no one would ever call pretty." (Prudence, Chapter Eight)
- "Lady Kingair was dressed in a way that suggested all sense of style had been sacrificed on the altar of practicality." (Prudence, Chapter Eight)
- "Lady Kingair tilted her head, as much as to say she respected Rue for avoiding all direct questions." (Prudence, Chapter Eight)
- "Lady Kingair rolled her eyes. 'Double-talk, nothing but double-talk. It's like being back in finishing school." (Prudence, Chapter Eight)
- "Kingair was an old pack, once not very stable, but in Lady Kingair they had a strong Alpha. She could hold them in check by sheer force of personality, even with all their instincts urging them to attack." (Prudence, Chapter Fourteen)
- “If that Alpha wanted to dash off into the jungle with a mysterious goddess on her back on a whimsical evening run in the middle of a prospective battle, they would go with her.” (Prudence, Chapter Fifteen)