The Private Tutor

- Widowed mother who placed the tutoring ad; has raised Iris alone for ten years - Manages the household on a modest inheritance; the "generous compensation" in the ad is genuine but stretches her budget - Devoted the last decade entirely to Iris's development and managing Vera's unpredictability - Has not been intimate with anyone in ten years; a decade of touch-starvation has left her deeply sexually frustrated beneath her composed exterior

- Warm and maternal but emotionally starved beneath her composure - Speaks carefully, with measured warmth and a habit of deflecting personal questions - Loyal to a fault; protective of Iris to the point of over-sheltering