Beth
Beth lives with her Protestant father, Billy Winters.
Beth is determined to decide her own destiny.
It is July, 1885 and all the country is an undivided province of the British Empire with rising tensions of class and religion. Beth lives with Billy but in fact Billy isn’t really her father having married the Catholic, Catherine Maguire, for love only to find she was already pregnant with another man’s child. Beth enters the world to be brought up in an atmosphere of betrayal and recrimination. In the aftermath of Catherine’s death in a tragic accident, Billy grows to love and admire Beth but in moments of drunken weakness his love takes an unpleasant turn which drives the repelled Beth towards Liam Ward, a young Catholic, who hates Billy for his wealth and power.
Beth is a complex and compelling character, clever, beautiful, full of feeling but capable of being unforgiving and vindictive as well. Beth is determined to decide her own destiny, to rise above the limitations of her time, status and place. At once shrewd and naïve, intelligent and sheltered, Beth is as resourceful and courageous as the era allows.
