Jemima Barns
Jemima Fleming, later Jemima Barns, grew up in Bledoe at the same time as Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. Her parents were Lee and Lesley Fleming. (PROSE: Lucy Wilson and the Bledoe Cadets) Her young self was a noted tomboy.
She had feelings for James Lethbridge-Stewart, (PROSE: The Forgotten Son) who officially ruled she was an 'honourary boy' so she could join the Bledoe Cadets (PROSE: In His Kiss) as Henry Barns had a crush on her. What she didn't know is that James didn't actually return her feelings and just saw her as a girl he could play jokes on; for her part, she knew and didn't return Henry's feelings. The jokes were often cruel after James encountered the Great Intelligence. (PROSE: The Forgotten Son)
Like Henry, she was annoyed when James's younger brother Alistair tried to join in with the Cadets. In July 1937, she and most of the other Cadets threatened to make Alistair stay overnight in the "haunted" Pengriffen fougou - only to learn from Henry that a stranger spotted around there. This led to Henry being taken captive by escaped murderer Jim Cliskey; when James took the Cadets to find and rescue Henry, Alistair was taken along and helped alert the police, endearing him to the group. (PROSE: The Bledoe Cadets and the Bald Man of Pengriffen) As he grew older, she would consider Alistair to be an odd boy.(PROSE: In His Kiss)
By February 1945, Jemima had become more subdued due to James's death and the war. She was dating Henry Barns, who didn't join the war effort due to an accident with a tractor, but mainly out of convenience and was frustrated by his lack of passion. She briefly transferred feelings for James onto the older Alistair before having contact with an entity she assumed was James's spirit - an encounter that left her with a nervous breakdown and a brief pregnancy (she was unaware the miscarried foetus didn't appear human). After rejecting the spirit, she decided to settle for Henry and they became engaged shortly after World War II ended. She broke off contact with Alistair after he appeared to blank her on her return home. The town quietly chose to forgot her pregnancy. (PROSE: In His Kiss)
She had two children with Henry; Jonathan in 1953, and James (or Jimmy) in 1955. They would go on to attend Liskeard Grammar School. (PROSE: The Forgotten Son)
When Alistair returned to Bledoe in 1969 to face the Great Intelligence, he had a planning meeting at the pub the Barns's owned. Jemima made tea and bacon sandwiches for everyone before taking the children to school. (PROSE: The Forgotten Son)
On Christmas 1969, she got drunk and phoned Alistair. He found the call awkward as he remembered her to be a spirited girl when they were young, and now it felt like she lacked any purpose in her life. After she told him to "consider [himself] kissed" even without mistletoe up, he got out of it by wishing her family a merry Christmas and then hanging up. (PROSE: Home for Christmas)
As Alistair kept visiting Bledoe, his fiance Sally Wainwright got to know Jemima; the two women got on well, which unnerved Alistair for reasons he couldn't work out until Raymond pointed out this was his first kiss talking to his fiance. (PROSE: Night of the Intelligence)
Alistair liked to remember his first kiss as being Imelda Clarke in Coleshill rather than Jemima. During a time-travel incident, one version of the Brigadier used that fact to prove to the other that they were the same man and not an imposter. (PROSE: The Enfolded Time)
In the 2000s, when comparing his childhood to his granddaughter Lucy's, Alistair would reflect that Jemima was the only girl "allowed" to join the gang. (PROSE: Lucy Wilson)
