Character Interview - Dermot Sinclair

I recently asked my readers what questions they would like to ask Dermot Sinclair of the Once & Future Series if they could interview her. I have supplemented their questions with a few of my own. For our purposes this interview will take place between the end of Thrice to Thine (Book 3) and the beginning of Nothing Good Gets Away (Book 4).

You’ve had a varied career, the army, private security, academia, but you are often thwarted by someone else’s agenda. What are your professional goals?

I think my goals are a lot like Sarah’s. I want to earn my doctorate, continue working at what I’m passionate about. For Sarah, it’s music. For me, it’s stories. I’m fascinated to see how the legends that my mother spent her life studying have influenced the stories that we still tell today. It’s fascinating to see how those stories have evolved and changed. It tells the story of the Gaels through the centuries.

If you hadn’t been injured, do you think you would still be in the army?

I think academia was always calling to me. It’s sort of the family business. Still, the army taught me a lot. I met a lot of great people and traveled to places that I probably would never have gone to on my own. And I have to admit after a sort of nomadic childhood, I liked the structure of it. If I hadn’t been injured, I definitely would have stayed in longer than I did, but I don’t think I would have made a career out of it.

What has your mother told you about your father?

(Sighs, head shaking.) Nothing. Never a mention, not even to say that I have my father’s eyes, or chin, or temper. When I was a boy, I fancied that Henry Stuart was my father. He and my mum were great friends, and he was always this larger-than-life character. But neither of them ever said anything, and I doubt we would have been spent so much time with the Stuarts if Lady Anne suspected that. No, my father was probably one of my mother’s colleagues that she had a fling with.

What would you do, how would you feel if you found out Walter Stuart is your father?

That’s not possible. (Laughs) My mother doesna like Walter any more than I do. (Looks off into the distance thoughtfully.) No, not possible.

James Stuart is rich, handsome, powerful, and charming. He says he loves Sarah. Do you ever worry that she might choose him?

I did. I mean that was the plan all along. I tried to push her to choose him. (Smiles.) There are more important things to her than money or status. She’s made her choice clear, and she’s tenacious when she sets her mind on something. I don’t worry about her choices anymore.

If you and Sarah were truly free to live and be yourselves together, where do you think you would spend your life together? The Highlands, North Carolina? Somewhere else?

Wherever she is is my home. The place doesna matter.