Age Differences In The Liveship Traders [LST Spoilers Alert]

[londonlassie]

OK, this is probably a silly thought, but it’s been niggling at me since I first read Liveships. Exactly how much older than Althea is Keffria supposed to be? I always thought that since it’s implied they grew up together, it would be a few years at most – say, Althea is in her teens and Keffria is in her early twenties. But Her Hobbness also made it seem that Keffria was considerably older than Althea, the points showing which I’ve listed below.

He’d died fourteen years ago, on the deck of the Vivacia. He’d been sixty-two, and Althea herself but a little girl of four. – SOM, Chapter 2, page 53

- Thus Althea is eighteen.

“[Kyle] has been Keffria’s husband for close on fifteen years!” – SOM, Chapter 3, page 61

- Thus Althea was three when Keffria married.

It was the old shout from when she was small and she would quarrel with Keffria…”Look what you made me do!” Keffria had screeched it at an annoying small sister as often as Althea had shrieked it up at an older oppressor. - SOM, Chapter 5, page 180

- Thus Keffria and Althea grew up together, despite Althea’s being three when Keffria married (and Keffria therefore wouldn’t have been at an age where she was screaming, “Look what you made me do!”)

The half-deliberate breaking of a dish or vase, the dumping of a bucket of water, the tearing of a dress. - SOM, Chapter 5, page 180

- If these were the chores the girls were doing when they were arguing, I sincerely doubt Althea was doing them aged three. I don’t know any three-year-olds, but I can’t imagine them having the strength to carry buckets of water or tear dresses. Pushing vases off tables…possibly.

After that, of course, Keffria would have been married and therefore would have behaved like an adult. Screaming at her baby sister wouldn’t have been seen as particularly adult behaviour, and even if Ronica/Ephron had tolerated it (which seems unlikely), I doubt Kyle would have been impressed with his wife conducting herself that way.

Also, Wintrow is thirteen at the start of SOM. That means he is only five years younger than Althea, his aunt. Now seeing as Keffria probably wouldn’t have had a skull navel ring, Wintrow probably would have been conceived shortly after she was wed to Kyle. So assuming he was born the year after Keffria married, Althea would still only have been four. So wouldn’t she have been more likely to grow up shouting at Wintrow, rather than her sister, as he is closer in age?


On a slightly different note, (and because I wouldn't feel right posting anything that didn't have Kennit in it ), in Mad Ship, Kennit tells Etta, “I thought you would be with me for a time, until another attracted you…[Wintrow] is closer to your age than I am.”
While there’s never any evidence I’ve come across to agree with or dispute this, it’s not mentioned IIRC how old Kennit or Etta actually are. So either my mental picture of Kennit is younger than the Kennit in the book (which is definitely possible since I do tend to age down my favourite characters for some weird reason ), or my mental picture of Etta is older than she’s meant to be, because I never had either of them down as particularly old, but I definitely didn’t see Etta as being particularly close to Wintrow’s age, which is fourteen in Mad Ship IIRC. Am I the only one who got this feeling?


So, any thoughts? Is there something I'm missing, or is the Keffria/Althea one a...(dare I say it )...mistake?

I put spoilers in the title since I wasn't sure if anything I've posted here is spoilerish.

Ack, another long post alert.