Character Analysis
When Dunstan Thorn is a teenager, Bridget's around the same age as he is, and "widely regarded as the most beautiful pot-girl in living memory" (1.26). She works for Mr. Bromios and is apparently something of a flirt, though when a fight breaks out over her, she sounds kind of upset, asking for people to stop it while "she tossed her head, prettily, so that the light of the oil lamps caught her perfect golden curls" (1.33).
When Tommy Forester gets thrown to the ground in the fight, Bridget rushes over to him, "and mopped the mud from his face with her apron and called him all manner of endearments" (1.38). And what do you know? Later that year, she marries the guy. Victoria is their daughter.
When Victoria turns seventeen and wants to work for Mr. Bromios just like good old mom did, though, Bridget refuses, saying it's "'a most improper occupation for a young lady'" (2.13). You know, even though it was what she did when she was younger.
Bridget gets her way, which surprises no one in the town since "she had a tongue that could, the villagers said, blister the paint from a barn door and tear the bark from an oak. There was no one in the village who would have wanted to get on the wrong side of Bridget Forester" (2.14). Okay then, we get it: She's headstrong. Seems like her daughter inherited at least a little of that.