Decided to try and throw something together for Mercy Street Anniversary week. Ten years past 1863 puts us in the middle of another show I'm into at the moment, so I thought a little crossover was in order.
It was an absolutely splendid building.
No one would even think to suggest otherwise, seeing it for the first time. No expense spared in any aspect - the outside ornamentation, the proportions of the windows and the stairwells, the terrazzo floors and whitewash of the walls - to say nothing of the laboratory space in which Mary was now standing, high tall windows open to admit the sunlight, glistening across the large masses of gleaming new slate counter. It was well and truly a palace to medicine and modern science - a far hue and cry from the cramped, made-over offices of the old university hospital, with sloping floors and doors that caught drafts from ancient windows.
Why wouldn't you want this, Mary? Her husband's voice was ringing in her ears - an echo from some six months back, when the idea had first been floated.
"Have you some sudden objection to alcohol?" Jed was the picture of confusion. "Has my wife turned traitor to the… trolls shouting for temperance?"
"I've no objection whatsoever to liquor of any kind, or to its consumption, as you well know, Jed."
"But you've some objection to this money, or the way that it was got, or you wouldn't be making such a fuss. It's a full laboratory, Mary - and in a hospital that's fully funded and will be so for a long time to come."
"Dublin is …such long way from Boston, Jed."
"That's rather the appeal," Jed said strongly, before he realized what he'd really said. "Ah."
"It's not a complicated reason, Jed. Who will we know there? The children will need friends and playfellows and I will need -" She pulled herself up short and reframed her thoughts. "I have been the stranger in a strange land more years than I care to count, Jedediah, and I can… manage, as I must. But the children do not have the same reserves."
"I'm sure there will be colleagues at the hospital with …wives and families. And I've been given assurances that I may have my choice of assistants, as I desire. Carte blanche."
"You think the brother of the Conservative MP for Dublin City will have little objection to a married woman working in a laboratory?"
"I'm told he's rather open-minded in his views. If it was good enough for Lavoisier.." Jed was fishing, and he knew it. He knelt by Mary's chair and took both of her hands in his own. "I'll write to him. Confirm the terms, as it were. Will that be good enough for you?"
"Tell him your plans exactly - none of your half-mirrored truth. I'd rather he knew what he was agreeing to before we move the whole family half-way across the world only to be told Sir Edward Guinness objects to women who work."
Mary sighed, and opened her eyes again to look around again at the gleaming newness of the place. Well, they were here now, for good or ill. And she would make the most of it.
"Are you finding everything you need?"
Mary looked up from her inspection of the glassware and tried not to look annoyed by the interruption. The visitor was a woman in grayish blue, a smart little confection of a hat perched on her head. One of the hospital auxiliary, no doubt. A doctor's wife would hardly be here in the middle of the day. "Yes, thank you," Mary said, trying to keep the conversation as short as possible, moving a little closer to the notebook and pencil she'd laid out on the center counter. "I have everything well in hand."
"You're Dr. Foster's wife - I had no idea you'd be coming with him today. The staff is all thrilled that he's accepted the research appointment. A real honor for the hospital. Are you here today just to see the place?"
"Rather more than that," Mary said, still trying to curb her annoyance. She had no idea how long Jed's meeting would be and there was still so much to inspect. "I oversee his laboratory and his research - I'm here to make notes for what will be required to bring the space up to operational standards."
"Really?" the woman said with an almost impressed smile, "I'd heard that but didn't quite believe it. Such things aren't usually done in Dublin."
"He has an assurance from Sir Edward himself that it will be allowed," Mary said, thinly. "It was part of their agreement, and is written in the contract so. I was myself a nurse for many years and have always assisted him in his work - both in and out of theatre."
The young woman looked impressed. "You have a very rare marriage, Mrs. Foster."
Why is that any business of yours? Mary thought to herself. "I pity anyone who has otherwise."
But she did not have time for anything more - Jed had appeared in the doorway, accompanied by a younger man with dark hair and a rather severely cut suit coat. "Ah, Mary, my darling. Just the woman. Sir Edward, my wife, Mrs. Foster. Mary, this is Sir Edward Guinness, our new employer and benefactor."
"A pleasure to finally meet you, Sir Edward," Mary said, stretching her hand out to shake the businessman's hand, focusing her attention on the man in front of her rather than her random interloper. If she was a member of the auxiliary, doubtless she was already known to the hospital's founder and chief benefactor.
"And you, Mrs. Foster. A day long in coming. I trust the space is to your liking? I was told you have the word of final approval, since it is to be your home away from home, so to speak."
Mary looked around at the tall windows, the cabinets and the slate counters. "There are some minor alterations to be made but on the whole it is quite satisfying, Sir Edward, yes. I see that you've spared no expense."
"I confess it was a rather novel request," Sir Edward said with a hint of smile. "Most of our researcher's wives ask for their pick of houses and wall papers, rather than beakers and gas fittings."
"You will find that Mary is not like most wives, Sir Edward," Jed said with a little-hidden smile.
"I must confess, Sir Edward, I am curious as to why you agreed to the arrangement," Mary said, watching him closely. "Most men of your standing would say they've staked enough on a research program without allowing any ..unorthodox staffing along with it."
This time it was Sir Edward's turn to smile - something she got the impression he did not do very often at all, his pleasure only hinted at by the slight upturn of his lips. "Well, I'm afraid you'll have to thank my wife for that, Mrs. Foster. She wouldn't let me say no."
"Then I will certainly thank her when I see her," Mary assured him.
More of the smile. "I'm afraid you already have." Sir Edward dipped his head towards the door and Mary, turning, realized that the woman from earlier was still there. "Mrs. Foster, Lady Adelaide Guinness. My wife."
Mary felt her face fall. "Lady Adelaide."
"Mrs. Foster was rather engaged when I came in," Adelaide said with a smile, taking Mary's half-hearted hand with a surprising warmth. "I confess introductions may have been missed."
"I don't mind saying that Dodo was most anxious to meet you, Mrs. Foster." Sir Edward revealed, smiling at his wife with a mixture of appreciation and fondness that Mary had often seen on Jed's face. "She has a keen interest in the sciences - as well as their social applications. And I think she is selfishly hopeful that you will not be too busy here and she may persuade you into some of her own projects."
"And here were you thinking you wouldn't have a friend in the world," Jed said quietly, with a nudge to her ribs.
Mary looked at Adelaide, eyes twinkling and smile evident, and let herself relax a little out of her surprise. "Lady Adelaide, does your husband tease you incessantly when he's been proven right?"
Adelaide's smile was wide and knowing. "Tragically, he does."
Mary looked at Jed, practically silently crowing with delight, and saw at once a kindred spirit and fellow sufferer. "I think we're going to get along just fine."
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First sentence: This may be the most stubborn man Mary had ever met, and given the places she had lived in, and the people she had met, that was saying a lot about the character of this particular doctor.
This may be the most stubborn man Mary had ever met, and given the places she had lived in, and the people she had met, that was saying a lot about the character of this particular doctor. Still, she did not have it, whatever vice or virtue it might be, in her to argue with him any further, when he insisted he cared not a whit for Hale’s opinion and he’d take the responsibility upon himself for the use of the chloroform and the suture for the surgery. She’d only argued that he must not operate alone and he’d had the wisdom not to challenge her on that score. It had taken him nearly six hours to do the work, a terrible waste if the boy did not survive, a necessary victory if he did.
“I had to give him a chance, Mary, you must see that—” Jed said, laying down the scalpel on the tray and she nodded, for she herself had scoured Manchester for some tonic for Gustav, though everyone else had called it hopeless. She’d lost him but not herself and that, she understood, drove Jedediah, more than the needle or his intellect or his pride.
