Content Warning: This section of the guide depicts animal cruelty, difficult childbirth experiences, and pregnancy loss.

Prior to adopting the name Alyce, the protagonist thinks of herself as Brat. Brat—who isn’t sure of her age but is around 13—has lived on her own as long as she can remember, stealing what she needs and running from village to village before the people catch on. This night, Brat sleeps in a dung heap and wakes to a “sharp” and “important-looking” woman telling her to be off. Hungry and desperate, Brat offers to work for food, and the woman agrees, giving her stale bread and ale so good that Brat “slept in the dung heap another night, hoping for more work and more bread on the morrow” (4). The woman is a midwife named Jane, and soon Brat—whom the midwife calls “Beetle”—is apprenticed to her.

Beetle likes to watch the cat that lives in the village, sometimes leaving food scraps out for it. The village boys torment the animal, and one morning, Beetle finds them stuffing the cat in a bag with an eel and throwing the animals into a pond.