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MARCUS AND VANDERSLICE ARRIVED in New York the following January The two of them started out at the wharves and warehouses of the lower tip of Manhattan, scratching out a living helping unload and load ships The waterfront felt familiar, like Philadelphia but on a smaller scale What New York lacked in size it s of hu black oods Marcus and his son participated in this o and reselling it Slowly, they began to accu most of their competitors Vanderslice earned the nickname “Lucky Claes” because of it, but most people just called him Lucky, just as most called Marcus “Doc”

It was only aand the drinking that Claes enjoyed and instead devoted more time to his medical work Like Philadelphia, New York had its fair share of yellow fever outbreaks, and Marcus found healing the sick wasa fortune Between epide the city population and fought the constant scourges of typhus, cholera, and worms

Vanderslice felt differently He liked the pleasures that ed him to pursue his own business interests, Vanderslice fell in with the wrong business partners, a pair of vampires newly arrived from Amsterdam with money to burn and no scruples The Dutch vaht or a pang of guilt, convinced that survival was the only evidence of valor Vanderslice was soon spending more time with therew

Marcus, who knew nothing about how to raise a child and even less about how to raise a man, failed to stem Vanderslice’s rush toward inevitable disaster Marcus’s approach to fatherhood had none of Obadiah’s violence, or Philippe’s watchfulness, but was co support, Dr Otto’s cheerfulness, and Matthew’s benign neglect This gentle concoction gave Vanderslice enough freedoe in serious a to face any serious consequences

One March urated as president, Marcus found Vanderslice at the foot of the stairs that led to their rented roo in a pool of his own blood, a victiamble or a business deal that turned sour Marcus used his own blood to seal the wound and tried to force more of it down Vanderslice’s throat to revive hione No a back a lifeless corpse

Marcus held Vanderslice and wept It was the first time he had cried since he was a child, and what fell frolass was proved right: Marcus did regretClaes a varave and swore he would abide by his promise to Philippe He would never randfather’s permission

After Vanderslice’s death, Marcus devoted hi in the hospitals at Belle Vue and on Second Avenue The practice ofway to vaccination and physicians abandoning bloodletting in favor of other treat a solid foundation on which to build his skills With a scalpel in one hand and his medical chest nearby, Marcus focused on his profession instead of his personal life

Marcus was in New York, alone, when George Washington died in December 1799 A feeeks later, the century in which Marcus was born drew to a close The events of the Revolutionary War were fading into memory for most Americans Marcus wondered where Veronique was, and if Patience had had ht of Gallowglass, and wished his cousin were in New York to celebrate with him Marcus wrote a letter to Lafayette, but did not knohere to send it and so burned the paper in the fireplace so the wind ood wishes to his absent friend Marcus reret for the ways he had failed him

Revelers outside his house in the village of Greenwich, just on the outskirts of the city, welco Inside, Marcus poured hilass of wine, opened the worn covers of his copy of Common Sense, and remembered his youth

The birthday of a neorld is at hand Marcus read the familiar words over and over, like a prayer, and hoped that Paine’s prognostication would be proven true

31

The True Father

4 JULY

We didn’t usually celebrate Independence Day But we had a Revolutionary War veteran in the house this year—two, actually, if one counted Matthew’s service I asked Sarah what she thought we should do in honor of the occasion

“Are you sure Marcus would want to re that came before and after?” Sarah looked doubtful “He can’t even eat flag cake What’s the point?”

The Bishop contribution to every Madison bake sale had been a vanilla sheet cake, hite frosting and rows of strawberries for stripes and blueberries for the blue field of stars

“He’s had a difficult few days, it’s true,” I said Marcus’s account of Philadelphia and what had happened there was on everyone’s mind No matter where our conversations started this summer, they always seemed to end with a tale of rebirth and the complications that followed

Phoebe seemed both with us all the tiine how difficult the strange push and pull between past, present, and future felt to Marcus

In the end, Marcus took Independence Day on himself

“I’ve been thinking,” Marcus said on theof the Fourth of July, “what about you and ht?”

“Oh, I don’t know” I couldn’t i and boo—never mind Apollo and the twins

“Come on, it will be fun The weather is perfect,” he insisted

This was the Marcus I reetic, and full of charm and enthusiasht hiust reunion with Phoebe, a little led in the strands of time that surrounded hiret, but there were hints of green for balance and healing, as well as twists of black and white for courage and optinature, sincere blue

“What do you have in h

“So with lots of color It has to sparkle, of course, or Becca won’t like it,” Marcus said with a grin “We can use the moat’s reflections to round as well as in the sky”

“This is beginning to sound like a fireworks display at Versailles,” I said “I’m surprised you don’t want illu by Handel”

“I’m up for that if you are” Marcus surveyed h to be honest, I’ve never been s of monarchy—which definitely includes Handel”

“Oh, no” I warded hi to do fireworks, they’re going to be normal, everyday fireworks—the kind that you buy in a stand at the side of the road No ic No witchcraft”

“Why?” Marcus asked

We stood in silence for a e

“I don’t see the point of doing so ordinary, when it could be extraordinary,” he said “I know it’s been a crazy, fucked-up kind of su to have me here the whole time, for a start Nor did you think you’d have to relive the events of my past with me”

“But that’s been the best part of it,” I interrupted “Far better than getting ation, or even my research”