Like a Flower in Bloom
Page 31
Botany gave birth to a handful of dynastic families who often intermarried. The upbringing of members of those families was, much like Charlotte’s, eccentric in the extreme. But if you grew up with botanists and socialized with botanists and married a botanist, how would you have known what was expected of you in society at large?
Victorians were known for their enthusiasms. They created stumperies and ferneries and all sorts of other overblown collections of objects both living and dead. And sometimes field clubs did come to blows over jurisdictions! It was not uncommon for a field club to sweep over a piece of property and leave nothing behind in its wake. Victorian collectors didn’t look far enough ahead to think of preserving the very things they were trying to collect. Many species nearly went extinct before conservationism came into vogue in the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. But that, as they say, is a whole other story.
The Ranunculaceae family includes over a thousand species of plants, like ranunculus, clematis, larkspur, delphinium, and hellebore. The Orchidaceae family is the largest family of flora, numbering over 20,000 species. Some of them, like those Charlotte sought, grow as wild flowers in England and are treated as weeds. One gardener’s nuisance can be a botanist’s treasure.
Miss Templeton’s extreme fear of childbirth may seem odd in our era of modern medicine, but in the nineteenth century the maternal mortality rate was 50 of 1000 births. If Victorians generally had five or six children, then the chance of dying during childbirth can be calculated at 20 to 25 percent. The monogram is often thought of as a symbol of status and wealth, but its origin is actually quite chilling. A woman would take care to place her monogram on items she brought to her marriage. After she died, were her husband to remarry, she could then be assured that her possessions would be passed on through the line of her own children instead of being given to her successor’s.
The first Opium War took place from 1839 to 1842, as a reaction to an international trade imbalance. As the popularity of Chinese tea, silk, and porcelain grew in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Chinese found little of interest to import from Britain. That forced the British to pay for their imports with silver. By the early 1800s about 40 percent of the world’s silver supply had been shipped to China.
By the 1830s, however, the British found something the Chinese were willing to pay for: opium. With the relatively cheap cost of opium and its highly addictive nature, the trade imbalance reversed to such an extent that Chinese silver was soon pouring into Britain. But the opium trade exacted heavy social losses, and it quickly grew too lucrative for the emperor to contain. From a single, approved port in Guangdong, the opium trade soon jumped official boundaries and was overtaken by corrupt officials, local merchants, and smugglers as it worked itself into the rhythms of daily life. Even missionaries came to rely upon opium smugglers for the delivery and posting of their letters and packages. The emperor was an opium addict, and so were nearly 30 percent of his officials.
Merchants and local officials supported legalization of opium and, therefore, taxation as a method of control. Opponents of the drug and those worried about the trade imbalance, however, argued for outright prohibition.
The emperor, deciding for prohibition, seized all opium in China and in international waters and burned it. British merchants, who were left with heavy losses, appealed to Parliament to reimburse them. When the conflict burst into war, although its basis was in the struggle to release trade from the emperor’s authoritarian control, in effect British soldiers fought for the right to supply millions of Chinese opium addicts with the drug. As the Admiral himself stated, it was both the best thing and worst thing to happen to international trade.
At least a third of the world’s population are introverts. While they can pretend to be extroverts for a while, frankly, the task is exhausting. I hope Charlotte accurately portrayed the complexities of this personality. Contrary to common belief, introverts are not necessarily shy. They are not misanthropists. Though they gain energy from solitude and quiet, they don’t always like to be by themselves. They are, however, wonderful observers of the world around them, are quite self-aware, and prefer deep conversations to small talk. They are also inclined to think that there’s something seriously wrong with them. Many times they desperately hope that if they just try hard enough, they’ll be able to be like everyone else. I should know. I am one. Perhaps my novels always speak to questions of worth because so often I doubt my own.
As Mr. Trimble suggested to Charlotte, Eve’s designation in the Bible as a helper should not consign women to a fate of eternal servitude. That word, ezer, is used only twenty-one times throughout the Bible. The first two are in reference to Eve. The other specific references are used when God refers to himself. Perhaps you are familiar with this one: “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help [ezer] come? My help [ezer]comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth” (Psalm 121:1–2 ESV). It’s a shame that the vitality and strength of that descriptor has been lost in translation. It lends a different slant to the idea of Woman to think that God gave that trait, that strength of His, specifically to the female of our species.
In the Victorian era, when you could be a man-scientist-professional or a woman-wife-mother, or was a safe though limiting word. It still is. And is much more dangerous because it requires more complexity.
Grace and mercy, faith and works, love and wrath.
Illustrator and female. Botanist and wife.
You and all the talents and abilities you were born with.
In the writing of this book, I’ve come to believe that God is much bigger than we often give Him credit for, just as people are so much more than their gender. In a world filled with questions, we shouldn’t be afraid to articulate them. When we look for answers, I don’t think it possible that we can find any less of God when there’s so much more of Him to be discovered.
Acknowledgments
To my agent, Natasha Kern, for loving Charlotte just as much as I do and for understanding her even better than I did! To my editors, Dave Long and Karen Schurrer, for their wise advice and their generous encouragement. To Maureen Lang, who made me feel a lot less insecure about the grade I earned in high school biology when she said she loved this story.
To my street team members for their enthusiastic support of this book: Jamie Lapeyrolerie, Denise Harmer, Jaquelyn Scroggie, Kathleen E. Belongia, Amy Putney, Brenda Veinotte, Kelsey Shade, Debbie Wilder, Beth Bulow, Lindsey Zimpel, Melissa Tharp, Julianna Rowe, Lorraine Hauger, Martha Artyomenko, Nancy McLeroy, and Pattie Reitz read my sample chapters and provided feedback on the cover. Several of them even slogged through the manuscript. Thank you, ladies! It’s been such a pleasure creating this book with you.
And to Tony. Thanks for seeing me. For looking beyond what’s supposed to be to what, in fact, actually is. I love you.
Siri Mitchell is the author of over a dozen novels, three of which were named Christy Award finalists. A graduate of the University of Washington with a degree in business, she has worked in many different levels of government and lived on three continents. She and her family currently reside in the D.C. metro area. Visit her at www.sirimitchell.com.
Books by Siri Mitchell
* * *
A Constant Heart
Love’s Pursuit
She Walks in Beauty
A Heart Most Worthy
The Messenger
Unrivaled
Love Comes Calling
Like a Flower in Bloom
Resources: bethanyhouse.com/AnOpenBook
Website: www.bethanyhouse.com
Facebook: Bethany House
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