Cecilia Bassingthwaite is the protagonist of The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels. She is the daughter of Cilla Bassingthwaite and Patrick Morvath and the great-niece/granddaughter of Miss Jemima Darlington. She has fair skin and long, red hair. She lives with Miss Darlington throughout her childhood, after her father murdered her mother in front of her.

As a member of the Wisteria Society, Miss Darlington raised Cecilia with the help of other Society ladies and educated her at home in the ways of piracy. Cecilia is an adept fighter, a competent flier, and an avid reader. She yearns to join the Wisteria Society as a full member like her aunt but has not yet been invited to join despite fulfilling most, if not all, of the membership requirements like robbing a bank, blackmailing a marchioness, and flying the Channel. Even after Lady Armitage puts a bounty on her head and sends an assassin after her, the ladies refuse to offer her full membership. 

Throughout the narrative, Cecilia goes through many transformations, as her character is very dynamic. At the beginning of the novel, she is meek, reading poetry to her aunt who has decreed that if she goes outside “she would develop a cough and be dead within the week” (1).