“I had a broad and liberal education, and beyond that, we have family friends who are Jewish. I have students and colleagues who are Jewish. Sophie’s mentor is Jewish.”
“I still don’t see the comparison.” Her expression was chilly.
“Have you ever seen your mother being cut or openly insulted because of her religion?”
“No. Should I have?”
“And that’s why your parents decided to leave Italy, so you wouldn’t experience what it’s like to have someone you love insulted or demeaned openly,” Anna said. “But I would hope you could imagine a thing even if you haven’t experienced it personally.”
There was a moment of fraught silence, and then Celestina came into the room, breathless.
“They all want to meet you,” she said. “But they don’t want to come into the house in their work clothes. Aunt Philomena wants us to walk down to their house, at the end of the block.”
Anna stood and smoothed her skirts. “Well, then, that’s easy enough.” She smiled at Bambina. “Will you come along?”
But Bambina disappeared down the hall toward the kitchen, without another word.
19
THE NEXT DAY Anna explained it to Sophie in simple terms. The daughter of a well-to-do and prominent Jewish family and the son of Livorno’s biggest landowner fell in love, defied their parents, and married.
“Bambina made an excuse to get away from me and disappeared upstairs,” Anna said. “But Celestina told me the whole story. The key point is, Rachel Bassani became Rachel Mezzanotte, and her father disowned her. But her mother didn’t.
“Her mother refused to be cut off from Rachel. She was their best ally and support. On Ercole’s side things were a little better. He had five brothers and they all supported the marriage. The two oldest of the brothers were already here and the other three followed. The Mezzanottes have been busy populating New York and New Jersey ever since.”
“And how did this subject come up?” Sophie wanted to know. Her expression said she had certain ideas, but she wanted Anna to confirm them.
“Jack thought I should talk to her.”
“Ah. Do you think it did any good?”
“It gave her something to think about.”
“It gave you a lot to think about too,” Sophie observed.
“It does make sense,” Anna said. “If he had grown up in a traditional Italian family with strong ties to the Catholic Church—”
“We wouldn’t be sitting here talking about him.”
There were a dozen other issues that hung in the air, unvoiced, unanswered. But Sophie was yawning in the helpless way of the truly exhausted, and she was still planning on going to see Cap today, though she had been out most of the previous night treating a seven-year-old with meningitis. When Anna asked her about it she woke up a little, as if it was something she needed to share.
“On the Bend,” she said.
Mulberry Bend was the very worst of the tenements. Hundreds of rooms, airless, lightless, no larger than closets, overrun with vermin, where whole families slept in shifts. The place where the most desperate and violent kept each other warm.
“Seven children in the same room. The hardest part was convincing the parents that the boy was contagious and had to be isolated. I finally sent for an ambulance and admitted him to Women and Children’s. Jenny Fairclough agreed to put him on her patient list, though I would guess he has already died.”
It was on Anna’s tongue to ask Sophie why she was still taking calls. She had already resigned from the hospitals and dispensaries where she saw patients, precisely because all her time was taken up with the preparations for a wedding and a long journey. And with Cap, who didn’t want to let her out of his sight, now that he finally had his way.
“You have done so much, Sophie. You have nothing to feel guilty about.”
Sophie made a low humming sound, one that said very clearly that she did not agree and did not care to argue this subject they had gone over so many times.
From out in the hall came the sound of Lia climbing the stairs, singing to herself in time to the thump of her doll’s head as it met each step. Then a small face appeared around the edge of the door frame, eyes wide with anticipation.
Anna got up. “Lia, is it time to go?”
“To Lilliput,” Lia told Sophie. “To eat ice cream.”
“Errands first,” Anna said. “And then if you are not too tired after errands, Lilliput. And ice cream.” She reached toward Lia, who jumped away, giggling.
“Cap’s sent the carriage,” Sophie said. “And I’m running late, but I can take you as far as Madison Square.”
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