Beth Bettencourt–The Idea

I discovered this painting (left) while working on my manuscript, working title: Beth Bettencourt. (I added the name next to it.) The book is set in 1962, during our time of Camelot, in my fictional Southern town of Bynum, Georgia. Bynum is not a real town but is based on my hometown of Sylvania, Georgia.

Beth is elegant, nearly 28 years old, and deeply wounded. She protects her heart with an armor only few understand. She owns a kindergarten, and the children love her as do their parents. She is also adored and coveted by the town’s District Attorney, a man named Harold who she feels for only as a “brother.”

Beth is also loved by her parents who have recently, after a family tragedy, taken a European vacation, leaving Beth to the “care” of the family domestic, Molly, who Beth calls Molly Mae. Beth doesn’t stand on the dictates of the era; she loves Molly as much as she loves her own mother and doesn’t care who knows it.

In early November 1962, while her parents are still away, Beth says goodbye to Molly for the day, then locks up for the night. Or, at least, she thinks she does. When the front doorbell rings (Western Union telegram), Beth unknowingly leaves the back door unlocked. After watching a few of her favorite TV shows (The Huntley-Brinkley Report and Laramie), she goes upstairs, bathes, then goes to bed.

She wakes a few hours later to the sound of a man snoring from a guest bedroom.

What happens next is not only a shock to the townspeople, but to Beth. The stranger–a man named Marty–turns Beth’s world upside down as he chips away at the wall she has built around her heart.

But is Marty the man he says he is? Or, as Harold suspects, is he an imposter?

So where did the idea come from? About 40 years ago I read a Dear Abby column which included a letter from a woman who wakes in the middle of the night to hear a man snoring in the bed beside her. She slips out of bed, crawls to the living room, and calls local law enforcement. As it turns out, the man, after consuming too much alcohol at a party, had simply gone into the wrong house (this won’t be the case in my story). On the day set for court, the man doesn’t show up, which has unnerved the woman. “Abby” suggests “looking in other courtrooms.”

Then, about 20 years ago, I created a scenario in my imagination of twin sisters who are identical in looks but polar opposites in every other way. In the created story I added an emerald ring and a dashing off in the middle of the night. These two stories came together about three years ago to form what I now call Beth Bettencourt.

After a lot of writing, re-writing, editing, and praying over, Beth has found a home with Kregel Publications. More on that in my next blog!