Desdemona de Winter

Desdemona de Winter is the divorced wife of Earl Rufus de Winter, and the mother of Darcy de Winter. Darcy claims that she is dead, but he may have meant that she had died figuratively ("My mother died after Papa cast her aside.")

Passage from The Dragon Whisperer
"Quenelda reeled back from him, hurt and bafflement on her face. Everyone knew her father had made a love-less, political marriage to Darcy's mother that had ended in bitterness and divorce. She had heard stories about Desdemona de Winter: her dazzling beauty, her extravagant life at court, her shallow, selfish behaviour and her contempt for her husband. It was the fabled de Winter wealth she wanted, not the young heir to Dragonsdome. When she betrayed Quenelda's father, young Rufus de Winter had no choice but to banish her from his life and from Dragonsdome."