Husbands & Lovers

Mallory gets an email from the convent of St. Hilda’s in Galway, Ireland, explaining that they cannot share confidential records without identification and a copy of her mother’s adoption certificate. A week ago, Monk asked if he could text Sam, and she gave permission, telling Monk about Sam’s condition and what caused it. Monk asked about Sam’s medical bills and whether he could give Sam his kidney. Mallory realizes that, if Monk had been part of Sam’s life, she probably wouldn’t have sent him to summer camp because he’d have gone to Winthrop Island instead. Monk promises to pay for the best possible care for Sam going forward.

Later, Paige says that Jake must work over the Fourth of July weekend. Mallory mentions her friend, Luca, who does appraisals for Sotheby’s. They meet for lunch, and she asks him about her cobra bracelet. He guesses that it’s from Egypt, around the 1930s. He takes pictures and promises to get back to her. When Mallory returns to Paige’s house, Monk and Sam are playing catch. Monk asks her permission to take Sam to Winthrop Island for the holiday weekend; it’d be just the two of them, though he will hire a nurse to administer Sam’s dialysis. Monk presents Mallory with a paternity agreement that details child support of $25,000 a month. He proposes to place $4 million—what he would have paid for the first 12 years of Sam’s life—in an escrow account for Sam. He also asks for visitation rights. After he leaves, Paige suggests that she and Mallory go to Ireland for a few days.

Hannah feels little guilt about her affair with Lucien, though she believes that Alistair suspects it. Alistair goes to Rome for some meetings, so Hannah and Lucien travel to Alexandria, checking into a hotel as Mr. and Mrs. Beck. Lucien wants to know what Hannah wants from their relationship, besides a baby. He loves her, and he eventually realizes that she does love him. The next morning, Hannah notes her tender breasts and slightly swollen belly. When she goes to the dining room for breakfast, a woman calls out, “Why, Countess Vécsey!” speaking to Hannah in Hungarian (286). She says that she believed that Hannah was dead, but Hannah tells the woman that she has mistaken Hannah for someone else.

Later, Lucien asks Hannah about the woman. She lies, but he overheard them speaking Hungarian, so she tells him that the woman was an old friend. He asks what Alistair is doing in Rome, and she offers to find out if it will help the Egyptians get their country back. That afternoon, Lucien introduces Hannah to his mother, Madame Suarez, and Hannah is shocked to learn that the woman’s family were Jews, forced to leave Spain during the Inquisition. When Hannah and Lucien return to Cairo two days later, he asks again if she’s willing to report on her husband’s work in Rome, and she is. Lucien warns her that it might be dangerous, but she reminds him of her pistol. He asks if she’s ever killed someone before, and she admits that she has.

Hannah recalls the winter of 1941, when she lived in Hungary with János and their son, Mìklos. János insisted that Hannah learn how to load and fire a gun because he would leave soon to fight the Germans. That night, their daughter, Lèna, was born. Now, when Hannah enters her apartment, Alistair is back. She asks him about Rome, and they have sex.

Mallory drives Monk and Barbara back after Mo’s. As Mallory heads upstairs, Mr. Adams calls to her from the terrace. He offers her a joint, and she takes it. Becca, he says, wants him to fire Mallory, but he won’t. Instead, he offers to be like a godfather to her, mentioning that he’s shown some of her work to colleagues at a Boston art museum. After they talk, Mallory finds Monk in the guest house, and they have sex again. The next morning, Monk asks when her last day of work is, revealing his concern that their relationship will end with summer. He says, “It hurts, Pink. Like a pain in my chest, like it’s too much to hold. Like I might lose you” (316). Mallory feels that being apart will be “bleak,” but she promises that they’ll see one another on breaks. He suggests that they go away together when she’s finished with work, before they must leave for school. They agree to leave Winthrop Island in one week, on August 15.

Mallory and Paige drive to the convent where their mother was born. On the way, Paige reveals that she found a $7,000 charge from Cartier on Jake’s credit card, and she thinks that he’s having an affair. When they arrive, one nun gives them a tour, and she tells them that the women who gave birth here were given chloroform and told that their babies had died. American families paid a lot of money for healthy babies. Mallory and Paige meet the aged Mother Superior, Bernadette, who delivered their mother. The woman recognizes Mallory’s bracelet. She tells them that their grandmother was dropped off by a man, and he told them that she was in a fire; her hair was burned very short. The woman’s name was Hannah Ainsworth, and Bernadette only heard Hannah speak once, when her daughter was born; “She has his eyes” (339), she said. Bernadette always believed that it was the husband’s wish to give the child up, not Hannah’s. Hannah screamed when they took her baby, and she gave Bernadette the cobra bracelet, begging her to give it to the parents for her little girl. Then, the day before her husband was to come, a woman collected Hannah. That night, in the hotel, Mallory thinks about how her eyes are the same green as her mother’s. While Paige takes a shower, Monk texts, saying that Jake is on the news.

Hannah dines with Alistair and the Beverleys, and she is definitely pregnant. Lillian whispers to her that the Egyptians “want to burn it all down […]. To make us leave” (348). Hannah goes outside to get some air, and Lucien finds her, telling her she must leave Egypt because it is no longer safe. She returns to Alistair, and he suggests that they return to England. When Hannah asks if the rising tensions have anything to do with the man he shot, Alistair speaks harshly to her, telling her to shut her “silly mouth” and “[k]eep to [her] bloody gossip and frocks” (353). That night, Hannah sees Lucien embracing Lillian.

Hannah remembers when János came home, nearly two months after the defeat at Stalingrad. She assumed that he was dead, and she didn’t recognize him at first because he was so emaciated. It took months for his health to recover, and when it did, he asked about their kids. Hannah told him that they had all got typhoid, and Mìkos and Lèna had not survived.

Paige is on the phone with her lawyers about Jake’s affair. She and Mallory are staying on Monk’s estate. Mallory thanks Monk for letting them stay with him, and he’s glad because he gets to spend more time with Sam. They are eating dinner together when Lennox Lassiter arrives. Mallory’s throat gets dry and Lennox—who goes by Lee—embraces Sam and tells him that she’s going to be his stepmom. Lee tries to ingratiate herself with Mallory, asking if they can be friends. She describes how she got Monk in therapy after his dad died, and that’s when she learned about Mallory. Lee and Monk met when they were 10 years old, then reconnected in college, and then again when his dad got sick. Later, Mallory finds Grace crying, and Grace asks if her cooking is “too old-fashioned,” but Grace won’t say who made this harsh comment to her.

Mallory mentions to Monk that she didn’t realize that Lee was a former girlfriend. He says that she was there for him when his dad got sick, and she helped him work through his feelings. He always blamed his dad for Mallory leaving, assuming that he had “talked [her] out of it or something” (379). He explains that Lee loved him before he got famous, so he felt that he could trust her; his dad loved her, too. Monk leaves to take a phone call, and Paige watches the kids at the pool while Mallory investigates the 1952 fire in Cairo known as “Black Saturday.” She overhears Lee speaking very imperiously and rudely to someone on the phone. When Lee realizes that Mallory overheard, she’s embarrassed and renews her wish that she and Mallory become “like sisters.”

That night, Paige tells Mallory that Lola is happy to host them again. Paige thinks that it’s too hard for Mallory to be here with Lee. Paige doesn’t like Lee because she is fake and exploitative. Mallory agrees that they should go back to Lola’s tomorrow. Before leaving, Paige shows her the DNA profile she had done, and Mallory learns that they are one-quarter Jewish.