Pierre Glendinning
Pierre is a wealthy young man in the early 1800s who has an unusual compulsion to offer protection for his half-sister against the ravages that world has to offer. The plan he comes up with even more bizarre: pass her off as his wife. The only thing he manages to lose as a result of this decision is his actual fiancée, his inheritance and birthright and what he gains is a prison sentence for shooting his own cousin.
Isabel
The half-sister is the result of an affair between Pierre’s father and pretty young French maiden. Pierre’s decision to claim his sister as something a bit more intimate actually makes a lot of sense: Isabel does not exactly act by Pierre like a sister would. She is given to intense displays of jealousy toward women who are actually capable of vying with her for her brother’s attention.
Lucy Tartan
Lucy should be the one introduced as Pierre’s wife. She’s got money, which is always a plus. She’s even a talented portrait painter. What she doesn’t have until it is far too late, is the precious information that Isabel is not actually his wife, but his blood-relation. This revelation does not go well for Lucy.
Mrs. Glendinning
Not Isabel and not Lucy, but the woman who gave birth to the man both those women love. She rivals Isabel in her jealously guarded possession of who wields the strongest influence over Pierre. When Pierre makes the claim that Isabel is his wife, she goes a little mental and orders him from hearth and home. On her deathbed, Mrs. Glendinning goes one further: she disinherits her son.
Glen Stanley
Glen is Pierre’s cousin and when Mrs. Glendinning cuts off Pierre, he becomes the beneficiary. In addition to getting all the money that is rightly Pierre’s, he also wants Lucy. With no money to count on, Glen’s position becomes far more desirable for Lucy’s brother, who conspires with Glen to provoke Pierre so Lucy will see the light. The provocation turns out not so well for Glen who takes a fatal bullet from the gun fired by his cousin.
