The poor, young wife of the evil mayor who only survives by living in disguise
Elizabeth is a determined thing, who had only ever obeyed her grandfather. Now, even broken as she was by her marriage to the evil mayor, she still has the iron will to find a way to live well and help others live happily as well. She is known throughout the town as a kind girl with a musical voice. Those who know what she truly looks like love and pity her so much, they would never tell their hated mayor.
Elizabeth carries a large, gaudy cross of a necklace that only adds to the ugliness of her every day appearance. What people don't know is that the cross, once yanked from her neck, can be used as a dagger, the bottom part merely being a sheath for a hidden blade.
Elizabeth had been born into tragedy. She lost her mother in childbirth, and her father, miserable at the loss of his beautiful wife, drank himself to the grave, never once treating his daughter with kindness. In fact, he secretly blamed her for all his miseries. He died when Elizabeth was 9 years old. Her grandfather, a kind man to the end, took her under his wing and gave her all the love a sullen, bitter girl like her really needed. She flourished under his attentions and became a kind, beautiful girl, like her mother, with a bit of spunk to spice it all up. She never disobeyed her grandfather, even when his dying wish was to marry William Beddingsford. Elizabeth had never trusted the oily, deceptive man and had kept her disguise when her grandfather was too sick to leave his bed. She led William to believe she was ugly from the beginning, so he never tried to touch her in a sexual way, not until, of course, he decided he needed an heir. He tortures Elizabeth one night of every week, hoping she will get pregnant, and she did, but only once. She gave birth to Eleanor, but that was all she could bear. Elizabeth, glad that he was always too drunk and that his eyesight was poor in the first place to ever notice that she was not as she appeared, began to take natural herbs to prevent pregnancy, enduring as only she can. She refuses to grant him a son that could be corrupted into being like him. The world doesn't need another William Beddingsford. Her only regret is that she didn't spend more time with Eleanor before she died.
As the suicides occurred, Elizabeth, ever the clever girl became suspicious, especially after the death of her own daughter, which tore her apart. It was all too...strange. Now, she tries to investigate in secret, knowing that, were her husband ever to find out of her activities, he would become angry. Dangerous. Her actions are dangerous, even more so than she knows.