Their plans! Where to start? God was opening so many doors for Julia, and the desires He had placed in her heart were being realized. But true to his promises, he was giving her even more than she’d asked for. As she and Michael sat down with David and Corinna to discuss the future, Julia felt great satisfaction to be completing this small family unit that was so fiercely dedicated to one another. To be able to pursue her dreams alongside the man she loved with all her heart was a prospect so rich, so full, it would take a lifetime to explore.
Epilogue
THEY STOOD ARM IN ARM at the ship’s railing, looking over bright blue water toward the land. The north wind had at last died down, and the swells it had caused in the harbor had calmed as well. Rough waters had made landing too dangerous, so they’d had to wait. Now, after two days of being stranded within view of their destination, they were finally going ashore.
Most of La Guaira’s buildings lay close to the harbor due to the mountains rising up sharply behind them. Just off the wharf stood the customs house, a long, nondescript building, and next to it, the harbor master’s house. Beyond these lay the town’s principal streets, lined with shops, taverns, and colorfully painted homes. Was her father somewhere in those buildings? They had come all this way in the hope that he was.
Julia and Michael had been married the Monday morning after the final reading of the banns. It was a quiet ceremony, with Corinna and David as witnesses. Their wedding occurred too late for them to catch the monthly departure of the Royal Mail packet to the West Indies. But by crossing the channel to Le Havre, they were able to board a German steamship that brought them all the way to La Guaira.
Later, in October, they would have a sumptuous wedding feast that included all their family and friends. But on their wedding day, after a simple wedding breakfast with Corinna and David, the newly married couple had taken a train to Southampton and boarded a ship for Le Havre. Because she’d expected to remain single, Julia had never dreamed of her wedding day. But even if she had, she’d never have imagined spending her wedding night drinking champagne with her husband while crossing the Channel. And yet it had been the stuff of dreams, for she was on a grand adventure with the man she loved.
Now, two weeks later, here they were. To be so close and yet unable to close the gap had turned Julia’s heightened anticipation into an agony of waiting. The only thing that made it bearable was having Michael beside her. Together they had wiled away the hours much as they had during their days at sea: sharing memories from their lives and dreaming of the future. When they returned to London, they would live in Michael’s quarters at Gray’s Inn. The space was large enough to accommodate them both, and they agreed this would keep their living situation simple and allow Julia to focus on her studies. It was within easy enough reach of the medical school by walking or omnibus.
What would happen if they found her father, and if they should be able to bring him home, was something they would have to decide if that time came.
“Here it is,” Michael said, as a boat to ferry them to the dock came alongside the ship. He turned to her, smiling. His face was tanned from days spent on the sun-soaked decks, his eyes warm and sparkling like the sea. “Are you ready?”
At last she was about to discover what had happened to her father. Or so she desperately hoped. Julia was suddenly finding it difficult to breathe. She reached up to caress the cheek of the man who had made this possible. “Whatever happens, I will be grateful to you for this journey for the rest of my life.”
He gently kissed her palm, setting Julia’s pulse racing. But he said playfully, “I’ll remember to point that out to you during any future arguments.”
It took another hour to reach land, clear the customs house, and find a cart and driver to take them and their baggage to the hotel. Despite the early hour, for it was just past seven, the wharf and streets were teeming with people. La Guaira was a town of several thousand people, and it seemed all were outside. As a port city, it drew people from around the world, and the air buzzed with a cacophony of different languages. Julia kept scanning the faces of everyone she passed, even though from the description Michael had gotten from Charlie Stains, it was unreasonable to expect any of them to be her father.
The hotel was small and plain, but the proprietor welcomed them cordially. He spoke mostly German and Spanish, and his English was barely intelligible. Fortunately, Michael had studied German at university and had brushed up on it by speaking to the German crew during their voyage. When Michael asked about the tavern where someone named Pablo was a regular, the innkeeper shrugged. He hadn’t heard of such a man.
Julia could interpret the gesture without knowing the language. “Try again,” she urged Michael. “Tell him every detail that Charlie Stains told you.”
Michael began again, using what Julia could only assume was a different tack. This time, the innkeeper’s response was different. He nodded as he replied.
“What does he say?” Julia asked excitedly.
“He said, ‘If you are looking for a place where the sailors go, that would be on the other side of the town. It’s dirty and dangerous, but the rum is cheap.’”
The sun was high overhead now, beating down on them mercilessly. Julia understood why there had been so much activity on the docks earlier today. The laborers had been getting in as much work as they could before the real heat set in. Now it seemed everyone had retreated to whatever shade or other respite they could find until the hot afternoon wore away.
Julia and Michael trudged down yet another dusty street. There was little movement around them, save for swarms of flies. Most of the dwellings they passed were low huts made of sun-dried mud and roofed with thatch. Occasionally they heard shouts in Spanish, but these came from women calling out to their wayward children, whose energy had not been diminished by the heat.
“We should go back to the hotel and rest,” Michael said as Julia paused to wipe sweat from her brow.
She was ready to concede. It pained her to waste a single minute of their time here, but even she had to admit she felt weakened by the relentless heat.
“Ha, ha! I win!” cried a man’s voice in English, startling them both.
The reply to this exclamation was a torrent of Spanish, spoken in a joking manner by someone younger than the English speaker.
The conversation was coming from behind a nearby building. It was built with mud walls like the other houses but was noticeably larger.
Julia and Michael followed the sounds around to the back, where they found an outdoor seating area, shaded from the sun’s beating rays by a balding thatched roof. There, at a small, rough table, sat two men playing checkers. The older of the two looked up and caught Julia’s eye.
At long last, she had her answer.
Author’s Note
I love to include real people, places, and events in my novels. This book was no exception. One person that I included was Dr. Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, a pioneer in the field of women in medicine, who co-founded the London School of Medicine for Women. I addressed as accurately as I could the realities of what it took to become a physician in England at that time. Although the lawsuit in this story is fictional, it is partly inspired by an actual libel suit brought against a female medical student in the 1870s.
It may surprise some readers to learn that London’s subway system, known as the Underground, began operations in the 1860s. We tend to think of it as a fairly modern invention. It ran with steam engines until the tracks were electrified around the turn of the twentieth century. Imagine riding in those smoke-filled tunnels!
In the first book in this series, The Captain’s Daughter, I was able to present a picture of Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic operas HMS Pinafore and The Pirates of Penzance. In this novel, we see their follow-up hit, Patience, which was a satirical look at a popular artistic movement called aestheticism. Although Gilbert and Sullivan poked fun at many foibles of their time, their observations about human nature are universal, and their
operas are still popular today.
There actually was a comet in June 1881, as occurs in this story. I based my descriptions on several accounts that appeared in local newspapers at the time. Then, as now, such celestial displays inspired awe and fascination, and huge numbers of people organized comet-watching parties to make the most of a once-in-a-lifetime event.
Julia grew up in George Müller’s orphanage in Bristol. The story of Müller and his orphanage, which cared for thousands of children for about a century and was supported solely by faith and prayer, is well-known to many Christians. For those unfamiliar with this inspiring testament to God’s love and care for His people, I highly recommend Roger Steer’s biography of George Müller, titled Delighted in God!
By pursuing her dream of becoming a physician, Julia joined the ranks of many others who pressed the boundaries of what was acceptable for women to do. With the rapid advances in technology and the changing social norms, it must have seemed to a lot of Victorians that their whole world was in flux. Don’t we often feel that way today, in the twenty-first century? In such times, I’m thankful for the reminder that the one constant in any age is God. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. With God’s help, Julia found her true calling, even though events did not unfold exactly as she’d expected. My prayer is that we can also make the most of our unique, God-given gifts—and, whether at home or abroad, we can share God’s love and the Gospel with a world that surely needs it.
Acknowledgments
My abundant thanks to Dr. Nanette Lavoie-Vaughan, ANP-C, DNP, and to Cathleen W. Hemphill, RN, BSN, for sharing your valuable knowledge with me regarding some of the medical issues in this story. (Any mistakes are mine, of course, and a few of the stranger remedies described in the book reflect practices of the Victorian era rather than the present.)
I’m grateful to the awesome staff at the Wake County Libraries for your assistance, cheerful support, many interlibrary loan books, and for providing the excellent quiet room, where much of this book was written. I know Miss Julia Bernay would approve.
Jennifer Delamere writes tales of the past . . . and new beginnings. Her novels set in Victorian England have won numerous accolades, including a starred review from Publishers Weekly and a nomination for the Romance Writers of America’s RITA Award. Jennifer holds a BA in English from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and has been an editor of educational materials for two decades. She loves reading classics and histories, which she mines for vivid details that bring to life the people and places in her books. Jennifer lives in North Carolina with her husband, and when not writing, she is usually scouting out good day hikes or planning their next travel adventure.
Books by Jennifer Delamere
LONDON BEGINNINGS
The Captain’s Daughter
The Heart’s Appeal
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