Mr. Betsy
Names: Mr. BetsyMerton HudspethQueen Elizabeth IBetsDr. HudspethFlight Instructor Royalol' Bets
First appears in Book 3: The Nonborn King, chapter 33 (6)
Appearances
What you know
Book 3: The Nonborn King
- Ch 33Mr. Betsy, formerly Merton Hudspeth, a Boeing senior research engineer, adopts the persona of Queen Elizabeth I and is a pilot-engineer in the Bastards.
- Ch 38Betsy is an engineer who dresses as an Elizabethan woman, in farthingale gowns and wigs, and repairs the exotic flyers with great skill.
- Ch 38Betsy suspected that Basil used watchdogs on the crews, and he stunned and captured the Baroness and Aldo during their attempted theft.
Book 4: The Adversary
- Ch 8A former rhocraft engineer who wears an Elizabethan costume with wig, ruff and farthingale; he loathes the spiders and hides dead mice in his petticoats.
- Ch 9Mr. Betsy is Dr. Hudspeth, an Elizabethan-dressed former Boeing rhocraft researcher and test pilot who prefers to stay in the Pliocene.
- Ch 22A dapper, goateed man who wears a pink knitted balaclava; he is competent at mountain gear and bluntly steers the reluctant Thongsa into going on.
- Ch 25Mr. Betsy complains constantly and despises the mountains but shows great stamina; he winches Basil's rope to haul the fallen climbers up.
- Ch 30A flamboyant counterfeit Elizabethan who serves as Flight Instructor Royal and is pessimistic about the eighteen pilot recruits' readiness for aerial combat by Tourney time.
Connections
- friend ofOokpik
- ally ofAiken Drumflight instructor to the King
Key moments
- Book 3 · Ch 38Number Two-Niner flight test
Betsy and Ookpik finish repairing the last flyer; the Baroness test-flies it successfully, and the Bastards celebrate. Betsy hints that Basil suspects the Baroness of wanting to steal it.
- Book 3 · Ch 38Aldo's treachery foiled
Before dawn Aldo and the Baroness try to steal Number One, injuring Nazir. Betsy stuns them, and Basil sentences them to be hanged from the aircraft's belly-hatch.
- Book 4 · Ch 8Spider fight and release
Betsy panics at a spider, sparking a dungeon-wide battle with the spiders. Ochal the Harper then frees the Bastards and announces they will go to Calamosk to meet King Aiken-Lugonn.
- Book 4 · Ch 22Pre-dawn briefing
Climbers learn the Firvulag split into two forces, one unseen northern force of about seventy that may ambush the climbers. Bleyn conveys the King's command to begin the climb at once; Thongsa's resignation is overruled.
- Book 4 · Ch 22Ambush at the Gresson Icefall
Near the supply dump, a premature Firvulag shot kills Thongsa. The party shelters behind an ice ridge, then fires and uses Tanu psychokinesis to topple a sérac, burying the Firvulag redoubt and the supply tents.
- Book 4 · Ch 25Storm and the Col crossing
After a storm, Basil's party traverses the icy slope above the West Col. Aronn, weakened by altitude sickness, drags Bleyn off; Basil's rope holds them and Betsy winches them up.
- Book 4 · Ch 30King's air show over Roniah
Twenty-seven rhocraft led by the King's emblazoned ship dropped candy balloons over the Roniah Fair and shot them down as a show of strength before vanishing.
- Book 4 · Ch 30Survey of the Seine
Aiken, Dougal and Betsy scanned the Seine from high altitude seeking Marc's hiding place and found only a hopping anomaly, which Aiken chose not to probe.
- Book 4 · Ch 34Evacuation of Black Crag
After the children are healed, Black Crag is evacuated. Minanonn, Creyn, Anatoly and Basil plan to fly to Nionel to find Remillard and appeal to him.