The Gilded Hour by Sara Donati
PRIMARY CHARACTERS
The Quinlan Household on Waverly Place Aunt Quinlan: retired artist; widow of Simon Ballentyne and Harrison Quinlan Anna Savard: physician and surgeon
Sophie Savard: physician; originally of New Orleans Margaret Quinlan Cooper: Aunt Quinlan’s adult stepdaughter Henry and Jane Lee: groundskeeper and housekeeper; in their own residence The Verhoeven/Belmont Households on Park Place and on Madison Avenue Peter (Cap) Verhoeven: attorney
Conrad Belmont: attorney; Cap’s uncle
Bram and Baltus Decker: Cap’s first cousins; twins Eleanor Harrison: housekeeper
The Russo Family
Carmine Russo: Italian factory worker, widowed; Paterson, N.J.
Rosa, Tonino, Lia, and Vittorio Russo: his children The Mezzanotte Family
Massimo and Philomena Mezzanotte: originally of Livorno, Italy; florists; University Place at 13th Street Ercole Mezzanotte and Rachel Bassani Mezzanotte: originally of Livorno, Italy; horticulturalists, apiarists; Greenwood, N.J.; their adult children with families Giancarlo (Jack) Mezzanotte: detective sergeant, NYPD, and his sisters Bambina and Celestina Mezzanotte; 45 East 13th Street Elsewhere
Oscar Maroney: detective sergeant, NYPD; 86 Grove Street Archer Campbell: postal inspector; his wife, Janine Lavoie Campbell, and their children; 19 Charles Street *Anthony Comstock: secretary, New York Society for the Suppression of Vice; postal inspector Sam Reason: printer; his wife, Delilah; Weeksville, Brooklyn Sam Reason: their adult grandson, also a printer Giustiniano (Baldy, or Ned) Nediani: former newsboy Father John McKinnawae: priest and social reformer Sister Francis Xavier: procuratrix, St. Patrick’s Orphan Asylum Sister Mary Augustin (Elise Mercier): nurse, St. Patrick’s Orphan Asylum *Sister Mary Irene: Mother Superior, the Foundling Lorenzo Hawthorn: coroner
Michael Larkin, Hank Sainsbury: detective sergeants, NYPD
Dr. Clara Garrison: Woman’s Medical School *Dr. Abraham Jacobi: Children’s Hospital
*Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi: faculty, Woman’s Medical School Dr. Donald Manderston: Women’s Hospital
Dr. Maude Clarke: Woman’s Medical School
Dr. Nicholas Lambert: forensics specialist, Bellevue Neill Graham: intern, Bellevue
Amelie Savard: daughter of Ben and Hannah Savard; midwife; off Bloomingdale Road *Asterisk indicates historical character
1
1883
EARLY ON A March morning on the cusp of spring, Anna Savard came in from the garden to find a young woman with a message that would test her patience, disrupt her day, and send her off on an unexpected journey: a harbinger of change wearing the nursing habit of the Sisters of Charity, standing in the middle of the kitchen.
Anna passed four eggs, still warm from the nest, into Mrs. Lee’s cupped hands, and then she turned to greet her visitor. The young woman stood with her arms folded at her waist and hands tucked into wide sleeves, all in white, from a severe, unadorned bonnet tied tightly beneath her chin to the wide habit that fell like a tent to the floor. No more than twenty-three by Anna’s estimation, hardly five feet tall and most of that composed of sharp corners: a chin that came to a point and a nose and cheekbones to match, elbows poking out at noncongruent angles. Anna was put in mind of a nervous and underfed chicken wrapped up in a napkin.
“Sister . . .”
“Mary Augustin,” she supplied. She had a clear voice, all polite good manners, and still there was nothing timid in her manner.
Anna said, “Good morning. How can I help you?”
“I was sent to fetch the other Dr. Savard, but it seems she’s not in. Her note said to wait for you.”
People who came so early to the house were almost always looking for Anna’s cousin Sophie, who worked among the poor women and children of the city. For a scant moment Anna thought of lying, but she had never learned the art, and there was the promise she made to Sophie.
“The other Dr. Savard is attending a birth,” Anna said. “She told me you might come and I agreed to take her place.”
The pale forehead creased and then, reluctantly, smoothed. Clearly she had strong opinions, but had been schooled to keep them to herself. She said, “Shall we go?”
“Yes,” Anna said. “But I have to write a note first to say I won’t be in this morning.”
“While you do that,” said Mrs. Lee, “I’m going to feed Sister Mary Augustin. If I don’t, I’ll have to explain myself to Father Graves in confession.” She took in the nun’s hesitance but pointed at a chair. “I know that you wouldn’t want to lead me astray. So sit.”
Fifteen minutes later, finally ready to go, Mrs. Lee took the note to be delivered to the hospital and delivered a statement in return.