What kind of a person is Gwen's mom? Provide examples from the text.

Nancy is mother to the boy Gwyn, and one time engaged to Margaret's distant cousin Bertram (who owned the cottage in the valley before he died). This last fact is unknown to the characters through most of the book however, as Nancy and Gwyn come to look after the cottage for the English family and act as cooks, cleaners and house servants.

Nancy at first was resistant to the idea of ever going back to the cottage where she lost one of her loves, but the large amount of money promised to her and the economic poverty that exists in Wales forced her to accept the job. Whilst she is there she seems angry and upset most of the time, and proceeds to take this resentment out on her son most of the time (perhaps because his father was Huw Halfbacon).

Nancy is a contentious and difficult figure in the narrative, and a force that Gwyn has to find a way to navigate and to be reconciled with if he is to reach a resolution by the end of the story. The way that this happens (with Nancy finally making good on her promises and walking out of the valley on her own) comes as a shocking surprise with a twist towards the end of the book.