by Sara Donati
ANNA GAVE SOME thought to the best way to proceed with Amelie’s day-book, and arrived on Stuyvesant Square accompanied by Mrs. Lee and a picnic hamper. Getting the girls out of the house before Jack and Oscar arrived was the first step, one she managed by seeking out Aunt Quinlan and explaining the situation. Fifteen minutes later all three children were in the carriage with Mrs. Lee, Tonino reclining in a cocoon of blankets. Mr. Lee touched his hat as they set off, and Anna turned to find Sophie and Aunt Quinlan waiting for an explanation.
Anna said, “Amelie was Charlotte Louden’s midwife for all four of her children.”
“Aunt Amelie?” Anna heard the doubt in Sophie’s voice. “That doesn’t make any sense. Did you know this?”
Aunt Quinlan shook her head. “Amelie never talked about her patients. Is this about Mrs. Louden’s disappearance?”
“I’m not sure, but Jack will explain when he gets here. They’re bringing pages from Amelie’s day-book.”
Sophie marched into the parlor and sat down abruptly. “You are making no sense at all. Amelie would never hand over her day-book, not even to Jack and Oscar.”
“That’s what I would have said too, but apparently she did.”
“When did this happen?” Aunt Quinlan asked.
“Soon after we got back from Greenwood,” Anna said. “But we need to wait for—”
“—Jack and Oscar.” Sophie sat up. “I think that must be them at the door. They’ll want lunch.”
* * *
• • •
LAURA LEE HAD Sundays free, but she always prepared a cold lunch big enough to feed eight. “If the Decker twins show up you’ll understand why,” she told Sophie.
Today it was Jack and Oscar, and Sophie was glad of the cold roast beef, the platter of ham, and all the other covered dishes she found in the ice chest. They carried everything out to the terrace and sat there looking at each other for a long moment. Then Oscar’s stomach gave a loud rumble.
He reached for the platter of ham with one hand and the serving fork with the other. While he helped himself he asked about Tonino and the girls, and then he raised his head and looked at Jack.
“Should we send for Nicholas Lambert? He’s probably at home, on a Sunday midday.”
Sophie felt herself jerk in surprise at this suggestion, for no reason she wanted to explain. “No,” she said, quite firmly. “Let’s wait before we do that.”
Oscar’s gaze fixed on her, and she knew he had read something from her tone. Later he would want to know why Sophie was unhappy with Lambert. It was not a question she wanted to hear, much less answer.
“So let us have a look,” she said. “If you like, I’ll read out loud while you all eat.”
“There are some things you should know first,” Jack said. “About our visit with Amelie.”
Jack sometimes reminded Sophie of a physician. He could summarize a case, boiling a lot of what seemed like random facts into a clear picture: what the investigation told them they could be sure of, which questions remained unanswered, what further steps they might take. From his brief explanation Sophie understood that her Aunt Amelie had come to take on the role of midwife for one of the city’s richest women almost accidentally, and that she had been called to treat Charlotte Louden on multiple occasions for some twenty years. More than that, her lady’s maid was a close friend of Amelie’s, someone she spent time with still.
“I did know that Amelie had a friend called Leontine,” Aunt Quinlan said, “but I didn’t realize the connection to the Louden family.”
“The crucial point,” Jack said, “is that Mrs. Reed is safe and knows nothing about Charlotte Louden’s disappearance.”
“So now,” Anna said. “That seems like a place to start. Hand over the pages, Mezzanotte, and let us get to work.”
43
From the Day-book of Amelie Savard, Midwife
30 Jun 1870 Thu
1am
Called to the Widow B______________, delivered at 6 am of a 3rd daughter & 5th child to be called K_______. 5 lb, alert, took to the breast without hesitation, mother comfortable & attended by her sister, Mrs. Q_______.
No fee
7am
3rd call on Mrs. M_________., found her scrubbing floors. In good spirits & health. Son H________. 2 weeks today, fine, sturdy boy, nursing & sleeping well. Umbilical granuloma much improved. Cleaned & dressed. Dispensed Melaleuca Leuc. Counseled on hot weather clothing.
25¢ pd
8:30
Home. Found Davvy at work in the currant bushes. Mrs. J___________ stopped by & brought me a good rye loaf & a quart of rich milk, took two heads of cabbage in trade. Had news of her son’s journey around the Horn to California. Davvy not yet convinced there is such a place. Funny little man.
pd 30¢
9am
To bed if only briefly
11am
Temp 73°, clear skies. Weeding, laundry, baking.
Noon
Mr. H__________ called with sore tooth. Salt water rinse. Will pull it if no better in a week.
5¢ pd
1pm
Summoned to G___________ P________, to see Mrs. L__________, found her in severe distress. She delivered dead male child of abt 20 weeks just as I arrived. No abnormalities apparent. Bleeding w/in bounds. Counseled abstinence min. 3 mo. Her spirits very low. Rx. Hypericum Perf. L. & Actaea Rac. tea t.i.d. Will call tomorrow. Short visit w/ L_________, who will attend, as ever.
$5 pd
2:30
On the way home called in to see A_________ & found her in decline, confused and in pain. Asked me about her S_________, gone now more than ten years. Sat w/her for an hour. She took some comfort in my singing to her. She may rally again for her granddaughter’s sake. The girl tends her with great care and devotion.
3:30
Stopped by Aunt Lily’s but found her out. Girls in garden trying to read, distracted by Cap’s antics. Jane Lee’s mint ice tea a treat. Henry Lee sent me home w/ a basket of cabbage roses as sweet as honey.
5pm
Weeding with Davvy.
7pm
Mrs. C_________ due any time so I am early to bed.
10pm
Called to Mrs. N_________. Another miscarriage imminent.
27 Jan 1871 Fri
5am
5° at sunrise. Snow before sunset. Called to Mrs. S________’s Disorderly House to deliver Z_____ of a stillborn daughter, severe deformations. Her 3rd loss in 2 years. Still refuses Rx for fear of confessor. Examined all girls & dispensed to each 3 oz healing salve Mel Dep., Apis Mel., Lavan., Berberis vulg., Melaleuca Quin. B______ showing first canker. She will be put out to face her fate w/out a penny in her pocket.
$12 pd
10am
Home. Two calls out in 12 hours; retired to bed.
2pm
Dispensed Urtica Urens salve to Mr. J_________ for a burn. Mr. West brought wood.
15¢ pd
pd
$1.75
3pm
G_________ P_________ to attend Mrs. L_________ Procedure uneventful. Left her comfortable & visibly relieved. L_________ attending, truest of hearts.
$10 pd
7pm
Davvy brought a note from Mrs. D_________ who suffers greatly w/ morning sickness. Sent him back w/ Raspberry Leaf & Ginger Root tea & asked her to come see me.
15¢ oa
7:30
Called to attend dear A_________ as she departed this life for the Shadowlands. Laid her out with N_________ help. May she rest in peace, for she had none in life.
11pm
Bed
Midn
Called to Mrs. J_________ to deliver her 5th, a healthy son, 7 lbs. at 5:15am. Mother and son faring well. Mr. J_________ walked me home.
$2.50 pd
5 Jul 1871 Wed
5am
61° at sunrise! No calls last night. Housework. Weeded. Sorry crop of parsnips this year but enough for my needs. Radishes by the bushel to make up for it. Dosed Beau for worms.
9am
Market. Settled accounts Mr. West, Mr. Magnus
Pd $8
10am
A letter from Ma to brighten the day. Aunt Martha & Uncle Daniel intend to come stay for a few weeks in September, how fine that will be. Did laundry. Blacked the stove. Will write to Ma to say she should come too. How I miss her.
Noon
Tomatoes, cucumbers, butter & rye bread for my lunch. Hung herbs to dry.
1pm
Rousing storm, thunder & lightning. Trees down.
2pm
New Patient Notes
N______ G_________ aged 22. Fever, chills, onset of jaundice in the sclera, pelvic & lumbar pain, swollen tender abdomen, tachypnea, confusion. Heavy flow w/ clotting x three days. Refused internal examination. Denied pregnancy, responding “Of course not, I’m not married.”
Patient then recalls recent bouts of nausea & dyspepsia for which her grandfather gave her a tea that tasted of alcohol and mint. Three hours later the onset of cramping was “worse than ever before” w/ heavy flow. Almost certainly she was given some combination of pennyroyal and blue cohosh w/out her knowledge or permission. For three days he has let her suffer.
After an hour in extreme distress she asked if she was to die. Plain words did their work. Morphia necessary to make internal exam possible. Sent for Jane Lee to assist.
Findings: incomplete abortion & onset of puerperal endometritis. Dilation & curettage produced 7 oz tissue & effluvia. Uterus boggy.
6pm
Pt. in considerable distress. Tinc. Opii.
11pm
Pt. resting. Mr. Y_________ called to say his wife is in labor. Sent him to Mrs. Mayhew as I must attend here.
6 Jul 1871 Thu
6am
Pt. survived the night. Jaundice diminished but condition remains guarded. Wrote a note to Seth Channing referring pt. for further evaluation & treatment. Tried to impress upon her the importance of further treatment with plain talk of septicemia & liver failure.
I would gladly take a horse-whip to her grandfather, the sanctimonious hypocrite. A_________ used to wish him dead. I see now what she feared most.
Noon
Pt. insisted on walking home alone. Her pride sustains her, or so she believes. Cannot pay treatment or board.
$7 oa
1pm
To bed.
4pm
Cleaned house, set bed linen to soak. Market. Compounding.
6pm
Supper w/ Aunt Lily & the girls in the garden, as ever the best balm. Mae there w/ Cap, talk of the German Chancellor or the Odious Prussian, as Mae calls him. Cap wonders if the man plays chess; Anna wants to know if Cap would challenge Bismarck to a game were he to come through the door. The two bicker like brother & sister, Sophie is the peacemaker.
9pm
Home. Should have liked to call on N_________ but she forbade me. Bed.
1 Dec 1871 Fri
6am
Heavy snowfall overnight. 28°. Barometer still dropping. Davvy slept in front of my hearth. Mrs. R_____________ stopped in complaining of headache. Dispensed Feverfew & Ginger Root tea.
5¢ pd
7am
Note from G_________ P_________. I am to call on Mrs. L_________ tomorrow.
Noon
Spent the morning compounding.
1pm
Dispensed fever tea to Mrs. D_________ for her 2 year old, the same to Mr. W_________ for his wife.
2x 5¢ oa
2pm
Mrs. N_________ called with abscess R. breast. Evacuated and cleansed. Called in at Smithson’s to settle account for Nov.
50¢ oa
pd $6.25
3pm
N_________ G_________ stopped by to ask what she owed for my services of last July. Paid fee w/out question or complaint, & then sat & stared at her hands. Refused tea. I thought she might leave w/out another word, but in the end she gathered up her courage to say had gone to Dr. Channing as advised. She asked after his reputation, why I sent her to him in particular & whether she had to believe him w/ he said she would never be able to bear children. We talked for a quarter hour. She left as cold & calm as the winter afternoon, but I will not sleep this night. She accuses me of performing an illegal operation on her & damaging her womb in the process rendering her barren. She denies that she took a tea made for her by her grandfather. Tomorrow they will go to Comstock to ask his assistance in swearing a crime against me. I have sent Davvy to fetch Oscar Maroney, whose counsel I need if I am to survive.
7pm
Oscar to call tomorrow early. Wrote notes to Ma and Aunt Lily. Will ask Mrs. Mayhew to take on my patients and Davvy to care for the house and my garden. I will miss it.
44
OSCAR WANTED TO start by trying to identify the names Amelie had blacked out.
“We think we know some of them,” he said. “But it’s better if you come to your own conclusions.”
Anna frowned, already uncomfortable with this conversation. She leaned into Sophie, her eyes running over Amelie’s small, neat handwriting. “Some names we don’t need to know. The first entry is about a simple birth, and so is the second.”
“We can’t know if there’s a connection until and unless we’ve identified everybody,” Oscar said.
Jack watched Anna think this through. Then she nodded, reluctantly.
Sophie read those entries aloud and then turned to her aunt. “Do either of these births sound familiar to you?”
Aunt Quinlan wore a wide-brimmed sunhat. In its depths Jack saw the flash of bri
ght blue eyes and the grim set of her mouth.
She said, “I would think the first entry is probably Harriet Brinkman. She was widowed about that time, and she had a sister who married one of Tom Quincy’s boys. I don’t know about the second birth. She might not have been from the Jefferson Market neighborhood.”
Jack made notations and they went on, discussing Emma Johnson, whose son left for California but was never heard from again and the sore tooth of a Mr. H they could not identify. They talked about Davvy for a few minutes and debated whether he might be able to shed any light on the entries.
Sophie came to the last entry for the first date and read aloud.
Summoned to G___________ P___________, to see Mrs. L___________, found her in severe distress. She delivered dead male child of abt 20 weeks just as I arrived. No abnormalities apparent. Bleeding w/in bounds. Counseled abstinence min. 3 mo. Her spirits very low. Rx. Hypericum Perf. L. & Actaea Rac. tea t.i.d. Will call tomorrow. Short visit w/ L___________, who will attend, as ever.
“That has to be Mrs. Louden on Gramercy Park,” Anna said.
Jack nodded. “That’s what we thought. The L is for Leontine. So what can you tell us about the visit from the notes?”
Sophie kept her gaze on the day-book page, but Anna folded her hands in front of herself.
“A late miscarriage,” she said, her tone quite formal. “Not uncommon, but potentially dangerous. Amelie prescribed appropriate medications.”
“She wrote ‘spirits very low,’” Oscar said, crossing his fork across his emptied plate. “Is that important?”
