The Shadow Palace

by Jane Steen

  “Responsibility? Love, surely.” Elizabeth’s look was quizzical.

  “Love, of course. But they seem to be the same thing, in many ways. And now I have to take Martin’s feelings into consideration as well. And I want to take them into consideration, more than I’d ever realized was possible.”

  “There speaks the new bride.” Elizabeth grinned. “A perfect slave.”

  “No—a partner.” I bent to admire a patch of sky-blue irises, their delicate petals shining under the May sun. “I don’t think Martin treats me any differently as the partner of his private life than he does as a partner in his company. He’s senior in both cases—after all, he’s older than me, and he built up the company in the first place. But we allot ourselves our own tasks on the basis of what we both do best. We did the same years ago when I was his guest in Victory. I should have realized back then how well a marriage between us would work. And you really do need more than romantic love in a marriage, don’t you?” I looked up at Elizabeth, smiling. She and David were due to wed in the summer.

  “We should enjoy the romantic love while we have it though, in my opinion.” Elizabeth rolled her eyes at me. “You seem to be taken enough with your husband. I presume that ‘brief and unsatisfactory’ no longer applies.”

  “It doesn’t, and I’ll thank you to keep your pretty nose out of my personal business. I’m sure Martin and I will argue and bicker and get exasperated with one another from time to time, like all couples do. But we know each other so well that there have been no startling revelations.”

  And yet we discovered new, small things about each other daily. The five years we’d spent apart served to lend a certain spice to our mutual understanding. I found I was grateful for Martin’s previous marriage—in ways I could perhaps discuss with Elizabeth once she was a married woman. Martin and I had found joy in the sharing of each other’s secrets, building an intimate knowledge of our bodies’ needs and responses, so that at times I felt we shared one skin. Yes, there were definitely aspects of marriage that were extremely pleasant.

  We had some secrets still. Martin avoided telling me what happened with the doctors at the University of Vienna, and I never asked him. And I held the story of the night of the fire locked in my memories. Perhaps I would tell it years later, when it was far too late to seek any kind of recourse against Alex Gambarelli. Without the knowledge I held, Martin was safe. That was worth a small patch of burned skin.

  “I’ve convinced David to become an ardent supporter of the Feminist cause and women’s suffrage. That’s one great advantage of romantic love,” Elizabeth said with a toss of her head. “His only request is that I behave ‘sensibly,’ whatever that means. I always behave sensibly. And I can depend on you and Martin for a subscription or two, I hope?”

  I watched the distant figures of Sarah, Tess, and Miss Baker as they rounded a corner. Sarah, I had no doubt, would be reading a picture book as she walked, probably munching on an apple at the same time. She would not appear to be listening to Tess and Miss Baker, but would be absorbing their conversation like a sponge. Miss Baker was probably lecturing Tess on the need for better working conditions for Chicago’s poor and the justification for the strikes that were sweeping the country.

  “I suppose Martin must take an interest in the rights of women now that he has a daughter,” I said. “Especially one who shows every sign of growing into a complete bluestocking. Miss Baker’s already telling her she must go to university, and she’s only six.”

  “And she sees her mother working, which must have some effect on her,” Elizabeth mused. “She will grow up with every advantage, including the society of active, intellectual women—and that does mean you, my dear. You may not care to talk about literature, but I’ve heard you holding forth on business matters. David says your grasp of your own investments is becoming quite respectable.”

  “Papa’s home!”

  I heard the shout from across the square, and turned to see Martin ride through the gates on Gentleman, his dappled gray. Sarah passed us in a blur of movement. I could see I’d been right about the apple—she clutched the core in one hand, eager to give it to the horse.

  Every advantage, I thought, watching Sarah slow to a walk as Martin drew near. He swung one long leg over the saddle and dropped easily to the ground, bending down to kiss Sarah on the cheek as she put her hand up to caress Gentleman’s soft gray nose. I too, it seemed, had ended up with every advantage, because ultimately I had been able to choose each of my ties freely. And they were bonds from which I did not wish to escape.

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  < < < < < > > > > >

  The Scott-De Quincy Mysteries

  A Victorian mystery series from Jane Steen

  begins with

  * * *

  Lady Helena Investigates

  Sussex, 1881. A reluctant lady sleuth finds she’s investigating her own family.

  “I recommend Lady Helena Investigates highly for anyone who loves historical mysteries, Victorian manor house settings, and a smart, well written period piece novel.”—View from the Birdhouse book blog

  From the author

  Dear Reader,

  * * *

  I hope you enjoyed reading The Shadow Palace as much as I enjoyed writing it. I’m an indie author paying bills by doing what I love the most—creating entertainment for other people. So my most important assets are YOU, the readers, without whom I’d just be talking to myself. Again.

  My promise to you is that I’ll do my best. I’ll research to make the historical background to my stories as accurate as I can. I’ll edit and polish until the book’s up to my (high) standards. I’ll give you a great-looking cover to look at, and I’ll make sure my books are available in as many formats and in as many places as possible. I’ll keep my prices as low as is compatible with keeping my publishing business going.

  What can you do for me? If you’ve loved this book, there are several ways you can help me out.

  Let me know what you think. If you go to www.janesteen.com, you’ll see a little envelope icon near the bottom of the page. That’s how you contact me by email. I’d love to hear what you thought of the book. Or find me on Facebook, Twitter, or Goodreads.

  Leave a review. An honest review—even if you just want to say you didn’t like the book—is a huge help. Leave it on the site where you bought the book, or on a reader site like Goodreads.

  Tell a friend. I love it when sales come through word of mouth. Better still, mention my book on social media and amplify your power to help my career.

  Sign up for my newsletter at www.janesteen.com/insider. That’s a win-win: my newsletter is where I offer free copies, unpublished extras, insider info, and let you know when a new book’s coming out.

  And thanks again for reading.

  * * *

  Jane xx

  Author’s Note

  The Shadow Palace is set in 1876 and 1877, pivotal—and yet often overlooked—years in American history. Reconstruction, the post-Civil War process aimed at building a slavery-free South, came to an end in ways that set the stage for future racial segregation. Big business boomed, and growing inequality between the workers and their masters prepared the way for the social unrest of the late 1800s. It was a time of religious revivalism, and heightened calls for the repression of alcoholic consumption eventually led to Prohibition.

  Over the century since the founding of America women had suffered a loss of rights and increasing pressure to conform to a Victorian ideal of the “little wifie” so loved by writers like Charles Dickens. By 1876-1877 the Feminists* and related groups were fighting back with calls for the right to vote, a place in the nation’s political life, even the abolition of marriage in favor of a looser union that would allow them to retain control over their property and decision-making. Their granddaughters would see universal women’s suffrage in 1920—but many of their ideals including free love, reproductive rights, and equal rights in the workplace didn’t even begin to make real
headway until almost a hundred years later. Many view the battle as far from won 130 years later.

  In essence, then, those years after the Civil War saw the beginning of the America we know now, and I wish I could have put more of the historical context into The Shadow Palace. But my aim is to entertain you, and I can only hope that Nell’s struggle to reconcile her biology with her ambitions will pique your interest over the historical background of the story. Between them, The Year of the Century: 1876 by Dee Brown and 1877: America’s Year of Living Violently by Michael Bellesiles will give you a taste of the times.

  The first two novels in the House of Closed Doors series were set in imaginary locations, which allowed me some leeway for invention. Chicago, on the other hand, is a very real place. And yet there’s a dearth of information about the Reconstruction years in Chicago—historians have a tendency to leap from the Chicago Fire in 1871 to the giddy years of the 1880s and 1890s, when many of the city’s iconic buildings and institutions first arose. In the latter half of the 1870s, Chicago was still suffering from the combined effect of the fire and the financial panic of 1873. Around half of its inhabitants were recent immigrants to the United States, and its society was far more fluid than that of the older Eastern cities. It was an important hub for commodities arriving from the West, including hundreds of thousands of head of livestock, which were butchered and packed in the Union Stockyards. It was a city where fortunes could be rapidly amassed by legal or illegal means. In addition to its immigrants, it drew in the young and ambitious from the old cities of the East coast and the rural Midwest. In short, it was on its way to becoming the Second City of the US—but it wasn’t there yet.

  If the brief glimpse I’ve given you of 1876-1877 Chicago fascinates you (or you want to correct a mistake I’ve made—I’m a storyteller, not a historian) then I’d suggest Challenging Chicago by Perry R. Duis for a great overview of daily life in the growing city. The Robber Barons by Matthew Josephson is a lucid account of how big business was carried on during and after the Civil War, often with little regard to ethics. Herbert Asbury’s classic The Gangs of Chicago will help you understand the Chicago underworld, with which Nell only has a minor brush.

  Talking of the underworld, The Shadow Palace—unlike the other Nell books—features a couple of real-life characters. They are Lizzie Allen, a successful prostitute and brothel-keeper, and Christopher Columbus Crabb, who was Lizzie’s “solid man” in 1878 and who pops up in later Chicago histories as a property owner. I have built a story for Crabb on these slender references, but pretty much everything about him in The Shadow Palace is fictional.

  I also mention Marshall Field and Potter Palmer, two of Chicago‘s merchant princes of the era and pioneers of department stores in Chicago. Department stores, of course, were around earlier in the 19th century, especially in Europe. Yet they were still regarded as a new and innovative way of doing business. For women in particular, department stores offered a place to work and a place to shop unchaperoned. Their most startling innovations, in 19th-century eyes, were their fixed prices—no haggling—and the abundance of ready-made goods, regularly discounted to make room for new stock. The excitement of this new form of shopping was captured by French writer Emile Zola in 1883, and I recommend reading Au Bonheur des Dames (The Ladies’ Delight or The Ladies’ Paradise) to get a flavor of early department store life. Martin‘s store and the Gambarelli store are fictional, but State Street was where the major Chicago stores of the era were located.

  Please visit my Pinterest board for The Shadow Palace (www.pinterest.com/janesteen/the-shadow-palace/) to see scenes and ideas that inspired my story. And if you want to keep up with my news, please subscribe to my newsletter at www.janesteen.com/insider.

  * I have deliberately capitalized the word in the novel. For one thing, Nell’s contemporaries would have done so. For another, I wanted to make a distinction between these early Feminists and their 20th-century descendants.

  Acknowledgments

  I wrote The Shadow Palace far more quickly and efficiently than the first two books in the series. This achievement was partly due to my growing experience as an author, but it also owes much to a wonderful team of people. First and foremost, as always for this series, I would like to thank Katharine Grubb, author and critique partner extraordinaire. Nobody is better at telling me which characters stink and are best removed.

  Then there are Maureen Lang and Judy Knox, fellow authors who weighed in on later drafts with frank advice and endless encouragement. Mary Walter was there to check the formatted version of the ebook, saving me another round of reading.

  I couldn’t produce any of these books without a team of partners whose skills contribute hugely to the final product. Jenny Quinlan, my editor, contributes a layer of polish and consistency I couldn’t do without. Steve Ledell, photographer, and Derek Moore, graphic designer par excellence, turn a manuscript and a few ideas into a book. And Elizabeth Klett gives Nell a voice, adding a whole new dimension to my stories for an increasingly multimedia-conscious readership.

  And there’s family—Bob especially—and friends who cheer me on, come to my author events, buy my books for their friends and generally make me feel supported and loved.

  And finally, all those fans I’ve never met who read my books, review them online, send me emails and subscribe to my newsletter. I try to read everything they write, positive or negative, and learn from their wisdom. Thank you all.

  About the Author

  The most important fact you need to know about me is that I was (according to my mother, at least) named after Jane Eyre, which to this day remains one of my favorite books. I was clearly doomed to love all things Victorian, and ended up studying both English and French nineteenth-century writers in depth.

  This was a pretty good grounding for launching myself into writing novels set in the nineteenth century. I was living in the Chicago suburbs when I began writing the House of Closed Doors series, inspired by a photograph of the long-vanished County Poor Farm in my area.

  Now back in my native England, I have the good fortune to live in an idyllic ancient town close to the sea. This location has sparked a new series about an aristocratic family with more secrets than most: The Scott-De Quincy Mysteries.

  I write for readers who want a series you can’t put down. I love to blend saga, mystery, adventure, and a touch of romance, set against the background of the real-life issues facing women in the late nineteenth century.

  I am a member of the Alliance of Independent Authors, the Historical Novel Society, Novelists, Inc., and the Society of Authors.

  * * *

  To find out more about my books, join my insider list at www.janesteen.com/insider

  Published by Aspidistra Press

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  Copyright © 2016 by Jane Steen

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  To Susan,

  For helping me move back to England.