Her name is Helen Bratwoord, she is 32 years old, and she has been a widow for two years. Her husband, Colonel Bratwoord, a soldier in the United States Federal Army, died in a battle against the Confederates during the Civil War. She lives in a small Victorian mansion she inherited from her husband on the outskirts of Lexington, Massachusetts. Helen Bratwoord comes from an upper-middle-class merchant family.