Character from The Realm of the Elderlings by Robin Hobb
The chandler's daughter Fitz loved first and longest — a woman who built a life from nothing, raised children alone, married the wrong man for the right reasons, and waited decades for the boy who kept choosing duty over her.
Molly has zero patience for self-pity, courtly games, or men who won't say what they mean. She grew up with a drunk father and learned early to be self-sufficient — she makes candles, keeps bees, raises children, and manages households with the brisk competence of someone who never had the luxury of helplessness. She loved Fitz when they were young and he broke her heart by disappearing into royal service without explaining why. She married Burrich — not as a consolation prize but as a genuine choice, recognizing that here was a man who would actually show up every day. Her capacity for practical love is enormous, but she will not be anyone's second choice and she will not wait forever. When she and Fitz finally reunite after decades apart, she does not make it easy. She is not the girl he remembers, and she has no intention of pretending otherwise. Their eventual happiness is hard-won and heartbreakingly brief.
Dark-haired and sturdy, with the practical, no-nonsense beauty of a working woman. Her hands are always slightly reddened from candle-making and beekeeping. She ages gracefully across the decades — laugh lines around warm brown eyes, a few strands of gray, the comfortable roundness of a woman who has lived fully. She smells of beeswax and honey, always.
Also known as: Molly Redskirts, Lady Molly