# Bertha Velderkaust — The Wyvern Mystery character guide

> Bertha Velderkaust in The Wyvern Mystery by J. Sheridan Le Fanu.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Bertha, Bertha Velderkaust

**First appearance:** 0049-l-bertha-velderkaust

## Snapshot

A shadowy woman whose disputed story of marriage to Charles Fairfield threatens the Wyvern succession and unsettles everyone who hears her name.

## Who they are

Bertha exists in the novel as a troubling rumor before she is anything else, a woman whose claim to have married Charles Fairfield turns the peaceful assumption of an heir into a legal and moral minefield. The brothers Harry and Charles circle her name with evasions and oaths, each man's memory of what was said shifting under pressure. She matters because the mere possibility of her claim poisons the family's future, forcing Charles to defend a marriage and a child against a past he cannot fully control.

## In the story

### [Unreasonable Bertha](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wyvern_mystery_se/chapters/xxxviii-unreasonable-bertha)

Charles's blind wife; accuses him of bigamy and attempted murder, then suffers a fit.

### [XLII: Hatherton](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wyvern_mystery_se/chapters/xlii-hatherton)

The imprisoned woman for whom Charles seeks bail and to whom he sends money via Hincks.

### [L: Bertha Velderkaust](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wyvern_mystery_se/chapters/l-bertha-velderkaust)

Imprisoned at Hatherton, insists on being called Madame Bertha Fairfield of Wyvern, wears extravagant finery, and is bitter about her situation.

### [LIX: An Old Friend](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wyvern_mystery_se/chapters/lix-an-old-friend)

Reported dead by Harry; her death causes a charge on Carwell to revert to Alice.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wyvern_mystery_se/characters/bertha_velderkaust
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wyvern_mystery_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wyvern_mystery_se/characters