Weak Woman Hanna
The downtrodden woman image can be twisted to fit any story where domestic females are happy in their role. However, Hanna featured first in Gordon’s Pride is traumatized, abused, and domestic by nature. She is not a dominant loud character. Instead she is quiet, enormously talented in many domestic arts, and because of her past she is insecure. As she gains confidence and strength from her bond with Gordon, she finds her own power. In subsequent books she gains more and more stature and recognition for her many amazing contributions.
We all know women who have been so abused they hide their strengths, they mask their weaknesses and they try to disappear. That is Hanna in the beginning. She was the sacrifice her family was willing to make to atone for their theft of someone else’s gold. They left her in the wilderness to die. Instead she survived, then met Gordon and learned to thrive being what she had always been. Only Gordon appreciates what she can do and who she is, and so do his friends.
Of course, making friends with Grabon helped her gain confidence, but she did not understand what an amazing feat that was. Aside from Heron, Grabon had not revealed his true self to any other human until Hanna motivated him to cross that line and claim his territory, in part for her protection. As a central character motivating the story, she is not flashy or bold, but she is a survivor of extraordinary skill and strength.