Two Wars and a Wedding

Contents Cover Title Page Dedication Contents Maps Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Chapter Sixteen Chapter Seventeen Chapter Eighteen Chapter Nineteen Chapter Twenty Chapter Twenty-One Chapter Twenty-Two Chapter Twenty-Three Chapter Twenty-Four Chapter Twenty-Five Chapter Twenty-Six Chapter Twenty-Seven Chapter Twenty-Eight Epilogue Historical Note Acknowledgments About the Author Also by Lauren Willig Copyright About the Publisher iii v vi viii 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 374 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 Dedication To all the librarians, past, present, and yet to be. But most especially to my Angel of the Bibliography, Vicki Parsons, without whom this book would not be here. Maps Chapter One Betsy, I had thought it best you hear from me before you read it in the Smith College Monthly. Now that our country has officially declared war on Spain (yes, I know you never read the papers: we’re at war with Spain, in case you haven’t noticed, which you probably haven’t), the New York Red Cross has put out a call for volunteer nurses. I have volunteered. We are to undertake a training course at the Red Cross Hospital in New York and all those who pass the course will then take ship for Florida, and from there to Cuba to serve in the coming conflict. I will be trained—properly trained—and we are to be paid for our services. I’m not saying what you said in Athens is right. But there might have been something in it. Now you won’t be able to tell me I didn’t try. Yours, Ava —From Miss Ava Saltonstall, Smith College ’96, to Miss Betsy Hayes ’96 Tampa, Florida June 2, 1898 Betsy Hayes arrived in Florida with a single carpetbag and sick on her skirt. The sick wasn’t hers. It was courtesy of a three-year-old who’d been in her compartment since Savannah. The one benefit to her noxious state, as far as she could see, was that the other passengers tended to give her a wide berth. Betsy’s dress felt stiff with sick and her legs felt stiff with sitting and her brain felt stiff with trying to make sense of a situation that didn’t make sense at all. Betsy wasn’t supposed to be in Florida, barreling toward a war she knew nothing about. She was supposed to be in Greece, digging up antiquities and showing the Harvard boys how it should be done. One minute, there she had been, a newly minted graduate of Smith College, one of only two women at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, all prepared to batter down the prejudices of the male establishment—but then it had all gone so very wrong and now here she was, on a train in the middle of nowhere, covered with someone else’s vomit, trying to stop her best friend from making the same mistakes she had made. She had to find Ava and stop her from sailing to Cuba. We’re at war with Spain, in case you haven’t noticed, which you probably haven’t, Ava had written, and, of course, Ava was right, as Ava so often was. From the chatter on the train from New York to Florida, Betsy gathered the war was something to do with the Spanish oppressing the Cubans. Or possibly something to do with the Spanish blowing up