Character problems--Hannah

I think one of my problems with this story is that I can't get into Hannah's head. She's not my character. Yet.

How could she run off and leave her kids to be burned at the stake?

"If Jack & Carrie were already dead" is a possibility. It's not historically accurate. But Jack is certainly asking for it with his resistance. What of Carrie?

Secondly, of course, maybe the only child Hannah had was the baby. I've arbitrarily given her Jack and Carrie as children, but if they weren't hers?

But why would she have no feelings for Polly and her kids? Is she so recently married? Or married elsewhere and just moved in? I have no historical basis for such an assumption. But even so, even if they were nearly strangers, it doesn't work for me. I don't see her able to desert them.

What if she had been separated from the other captives? It's easier to escape if you are isolated in a place and can't see or hear the others. If you get the chance, you may be out of there!

Is Polly a "make the best of it" person, while Hannah is not? Is Hannah a resister, like I've made Jack? Is Polly in such despair she can't respond? Is Hannah beyond the point of thinking straight--"crazy with grief"?


And then I got another thought: Did Hannah think the rescuers were close and that she could get help? This makes the most sense to me. She knows they nearly were rescued. She saw the men go by the hiding place. She wouldn't know they had turned back. And when she saw the firelight, she assumed it was their fire.