Partridge, Cleo

"...a formidable-looking woman in a smartly tailored suit.  She looked elegant, dignified, and judgmental." - Just One Damned Thing After Another

Mrs Partridge is PA to Edward Bairstow and assists with filing paperwork. However, Mrs Partridge is far more important than she first seems. She acts as a mentor, guardian and protector to Madeleine Maxwell. When Max returned from The Cretaceous Period, Mrs Partridge assisted with the debriefing. Mrs Partridge also assists Max in more subtle ways, such as telling Max to do her laundry, which consequently led to the discovery of a pine cone brought back from The Cretaceous Period. This is important because it led Max to realise that an object can be removed from its own time if it no longer has a future, for example, if it damaged or about to be destroyed.

It is during the destruction of the library of Alexandria that Max correctly deduces that Mrs Partridge is in fact Kleio, the Muse of History.

N.B. For clarification, the spellings "Cleo" and "Kleio" both appear in the first novel (JODTAA).