A Good Woman

A Good Woman by Danielle Steel

Nineteen year old Annabelle's life seems great. She is the daughter of a blue blood banker from New York. She has just made her debut into society.
Annabelle falls ill and isn't well enough to travel abroad with her family. On the way home from Europe they make their passage on the Titanic. Annabelle's father and brother go down with the ship. Her mother, Consuelo makes it home alive. Both mother and daughter go into mourning for a year. Consuelo is concerned what this will do for Annabelle's marriage prospects considering that everyone else that debuted at the same time is now engaged. The rules of mourning say that Annabelle cannot go out socially for a year.
Josiah worked for Annabelle's father at the bank. He is thirty eight. He begins a friendship with Consuelo and Annabelle. Both women think that he is interested in the other one. Finally Josiah asks Consuelo for permission to pursue marriage with Annabelle once the year of mourning is over. Consuelo is so happy for her daughter and gives her blessing. Annabelle and Josiah become best friends. He supports her keen interest in medicine even though it is considered unseemly because she is a woman and because of her blue blood status. At the end of the mourning period Josiah and Annabelle become engaged. They are married shortly thereafter.
Annabelle's best friend Hortie has just married and is pregnant. She gives birth to a huge baby boy. The labor was horrible and she nearly died.
Annabelle volunteers at Ellis Island. She helps care for the disease ridden immigrants. Josiah is supportive. He and Annabelle never consummate their marriage. He keeps saying they have time and he doesn't want to rush having children. She agrees for awhile after learning of the horror Hortie had to endure just for the fun of sex.
Consuelo takes ill and has no desire to keep living since her husband is dead. She dies.
After two years of marriage Josiah finally tells Annabelle that he wants a divorce because he is gay and has been in love with the man that has been the third wheel in their marriage........okay, Annabelle felt like he was a replacement brother to her so she let him hang around, having no idea what was going on. Josiah divorces Annabelle. The only way he can legally do that in New York is to claim their was adultery. Since Annabelle wants to remain in her sexless marriage because of her deep love for Josiah, he must be the one to file. Everyone finds out. But by this time Josiah and his lover have run away to Mexico to die of syphilis together. Annabelle doesn't want to sully his name so she lets everyone think she is an adulteress. She is shunned.
Annabelle flees the country and goes to France to help in the field hospitals of WWI. She is given the chance to become a doctor, something she has always wanted. After a short time working as a volunteer in a hospital she goes to med school in the South of France. She is there for a year before the war and the loss of lives is so intense that all medically trained are pressed to give their service in hospitals. Annabelle goes to a hospital fifteen miles from the front. She works as a medic on an ambulance. One night she is raped by a British soldier. Her virginity is stolen and she becomes pregnant. The soldier dies in combat. She stays at the hospital for as long as she can. Then rents a house, has a baby, gets a nanny and goes back to med school.
After five more years of med school, when she is thirty, she graduates. Annabelle buys a house where she can have her daughter Consuelo, nanny, and medical practice. Consuelo wonders about not having any grandmothers. Annabelle writes to the mother of the soldier that raped her. He was a lord before he died. The mother comes to visit and decides that Annabelle is a good woman and her son was a very bad man. The Lourdes gives Consuelo her last name because she is the only heir.
Annabelle meets a French doctor. They fall in love. They become engaged. She feels she must tell him the truth of her past. She has been leading everyone to believe that she was married to the soldier that raped her so that the public will think she is a widow instead of a divorcee that was raped as a virgin and then impregnated by a jerk. The new fiance is enraged. He doesn't believe Annabelle and accuses her of also having syphilis and putting his life in danger if they were ever intimate. He thinks she is a whore trying to cover up her ugly past.
Annabelle is heart broken. She takes Consuelo to America to visit her old home. They have a lovely summer and Annabelle realizes that she is a good woman and that anyone that doesn't think so isn't worth her time. On the ship home Annabelle meets a journalist. He is American but has been living overseas since the war. They get friendly. It seems like it might go somewhere. The end............

Not too shabby Steel. I usually can't say that because I think her characters are shallow and self consumed. I really liked Annabelle. Even Josiah, although he ruined her life, was a nice guy. There were a lot of token Steel markers such as 'discreet, perfection, enormous'. I just like to point those out because it gives me a kick. She always writes the same things.......just with new character names.

Rating 4 I liked that Annabelle was a good woman, caring, smart, kind and lovely. I loved that she became a doctor in the early 1900's.
Rating PG rape