Chapter Text
Beginnings
Headcannons about Lilly Mae James: Her Life before the Van der Linde gang
- Lilly’s parents met when her father (a 30 something year old conman,
but nowhere as talented as Hosea) planned to swindle a 40 something year old widow by marrying and absconding with her wealth. This plan fell apart when he encountered the widow’s daughter (then aged about 19) and fell in love. They eloped, with baby Lilly arriving around 9 months later in Dec 1873 - She was born Elizabeth Mae (named after her mother - who she was the spitting image of) and was nicknamed Lizzie by her parents. As she grew up though she couldn’t quite pronounce it and instead called herself Lilly
- Lilly’s mother died in childbirth when she was about 4, so was brought up solely by her father
- They spent most of her childhood moving about the mid west
- When Lilly was about 12 her father was struggling to provide for the two of them - he reluctantly got back in contact with her grandmother (who had since remarried and was living on an old plantation with her new, very rich but very mean husband)
- Always one to see an opportunity Lilly’s father haggled & effectively sold his own daughter for $50 dollars (but she didn’t find this out until she was 15 after going through Grandmother’s letters)
- Grandmother doted on & spoilt Lilly, but wished she’d be more of lady (years of roaming the land made Lilly a bit more of a tomboy who preferred adventure rather than a girl sitting demurely around the house waiting for potential suitors to pop by)
- When Grandma died around 1889, Step grandfather didn’t want to look after Lilly and had plans to get rid of her.
- Around the same time Dutch and Hosea had gotten wind of a rich old miser who treated his workers poorly & possibly had a stash of money on his property
- They at first befriend him posing as a business partners looking for investors in a mine they’re interested in buying (While this was going on Lilly spots Arthur & John scoping out the grounds from her bedroom window)
- Lilly enters the room to question Grandfather about intruders just as he’s turning down the fake deal.
- “I won’t part with my money, but if you want an investment take the girl. I’m sure you can earn at least a dollar a night from her - ‘cause that’s all she’ll ever be good for"
- A few nights later the gang rob the place and Lilly stumbles across them in the hallway. Frightened she’ll alert somebody John goes to tie her up - only for her to offer to show where a the goods are hidden.
- Her only request is that they help her escape too.
- Unsure what to do, Arthur & John bring her to Hosea & Dutch who are more than happy to accept her into the gang. (“We save them that need saving”)