The Albion Courier, Features Desk 

[Mrs. DeBourgh, Member of the House of Resources for Rosings Mining Company, agreed to speak with the Courier at Rosings. The interview was conducted on her terms, at her preferred time, and in a room she had clearly arranged for the purpose.] 

There are interviews where you feel like the one in charge of the conversation. This was not one of them. 

Mrs. DeBourgh received us in what her assistant, Miss Price, described to us as the smaller of Rosings’s two formal reception rooms.  It was not small. It was appointed with the kind of deliberate magnificence that signals not wealth exactly, though wealth is certainly present, but priority: this is what I have chosen to show you, and I have chosen carefully. Mrs. DeBourgh herself sat at the far end of a long table, which meant that you spent the first thirty seconds of the meeting walking toward her while she watched you do it. Whether this was intentional is a question she would almost certainly consider beneath her. 

She is, in person, exactly what her public record suggests: formidable, precise, and entirely comfortable with the impression she makes.  

Rosings 

Rosings Mining Company is, by most measurable metrics, among the most successful operations in the Hector-Sabrina family. Its claims cover some of the most productive metallic and radioisotope deposits in established Albion Space, accumulated across generations and managed with the kind of institutional rigor that comes from knowing exactly what you have and precisely how much of it remains. 

Mrs. DeBourgh did not build Rosings either. She inherited it, as she inherited her seat in the House of Resources, from her late husband, whose family had held the operation for three generations before her. What she has done with the inheritance is expand it, modernize its extraction infrastructure, and install her nephew Edmund DeBourgh as Chief Financial Officer, a decision she describes as obvious. 

“Edmund understands Rosings,” she says. “He understands what it is and what it is for. That is not a common quality.” 

She says this in a way that implies the rarity of the quality is itself a reflection of her own standards. 

The Wentworth Connection 

Mrs. DeBourgh was born Catherine Wentworth, which places her at the intersection of two of Albion’s more significant families. Her late sister was Anne Darcy, who held the Parliamentary seat for the Last Repose before her death, and whose son William now commands that ship. Her brother serves as executive officer of the marcher-ship the Blue Ruin. A third sibling married into the salvage industry. 

She speaks of her late sister with a warmth that is the most unguarded thing she offers in the course of the interview. She speaks of her nephew William with a proprietary affection that he would not perhaps reciprocate, if he permitted the question to be asked of him. 

“William is the finest Marcher of his generation,” she says. “He has his mother’s resolve and his father’s judgment. I take a great interest in his affairs.” 

She is asked whether he returns that interest. 

“He is a very private, discreet sort of person,” she says. “As were his parents. It is a trait I value, both in my family and in my staff.” 

She glances at Miss Price, who sits to one side throughout the interview checking the transcription for mistakes. Miss Price looks a little flustered, but smiles pleasantly and goes back to her work. 

Parliament and the House of Resources 

Mrs. DeBourgh has held Rosings’s seat in the House of Resources for nineteen years, which makes her one of its longest-serving current members and, by her own account, one of its more useful ones. She is not modest about her Parliamentary record.  

“The House of Resources exists in large part to protect the interests of Albion’s asteroid mining operations,” she says. “I protect Rosings’s interests. I also, where I can, protect the interests of operations that are less well placed to protect themselves. That is what experience in this chamber is for.” 

She is asked whether she sees herself as a mentor to newer members. 

“I see myself as someone who understands how this institution functions,” she says. “Whether newer members choose to benefit from that understanding is their own affair.” 

She sits on several Parliamentary committees, the details of which her office provided in writing before the interview. She references her committee work with the confidence of someone who considers oversight a natural extension of authority rather than a constraint upon it. 

She is asked, toward the end of the interview, whether she has any comment on recent suggestions, raised in certain quarters, that the Intelligence Committee might have been operating beyond the scope of its formal mandate. 

The temperature in the room does not change. Mrs. DeBourgh’s expression does not change. She does not even hesitate. 

“Parliamentary committees operate within the frameworks established by Parliament,” she says. “Any suggestion to the contrary is either uninformed or politically motivated. I have found, in my experience, that it is usually the latter.” 

She does not elaborate. She moves to the next question herself, without waiting to be prompted, and the moment closes behind her like water. 

On Being Profiled 

At the conclusion of the interview, Mrs. DeBourgh observes that the Courier has recently profiled both William Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet, Member for Longbourn. 

She is not asked for her opinion of either profile. She offers one regardless. 

“My nephew declined to participate, which is consistent with his character if not, perhaps, with his interests,” she says. “As for Miss Bennet, she is a capable young woman in a difficult position.”  

She smiles graciously when she says this, but does not elaborate. She is pressed for time; she tells us that she has a videoconference next.  

Miss Price shows us out, and behind us we can hear Mrs. DeBourgh greeting the Prime Minister on a first name basis as her videoconference begins. 

Pride & Planetoids is a space opera retelling of Pride and Prejudice, set among the asteroid families of the outer solar system. Mrs. DeBourgh, Member for Rosings, plays a significant role in the story.