Brat, Beetle, Alyce

The main character in the novel The Midwife's Apprentice is a young girl of about 13 years old with no home or family of her own. Called Brat at the beginning of the novel, then Beetle after she is discovered sleeping in a dung heap, the girl eventually winds up with the name Alyce, after choosing it for herself.

Alyce arrives in a small village with no desire other than to find a warm place to sleep and a bit to eat. When Alyce is discovered sleeping in the dung heap by Jane, the midwife, her life begins changing in ways that she could not have imagined.

Alyce asks for food and when the midwife tells her that no one gets food without work, she offers to work for her food. Pleased at having eaten, Alyce works again the next day and finds that, for the first...