Catherine Chadwick: "I took the liberty of bringing our brandies up, Laura," said Catherine, her voice husky and low. "Because I don't know about you, but I can't sleep. And I might even take up smoking."
Augur Lazenby: "Catherine, you're everything I want and everything I need. I could not ask for more, but I do have one request. I hope you will not think less of me if I do not take your virginity from you until we are man and wife. It would be a gift to me."
Rachel Delacourt: Rachel took her other hand and with one of her fingers, wiped the last vestige of oil off Laura's lips. She raised the finger to her own mouth and ran her tongue over it. Then she let go of Laura's wrist. "All right, then, let's try the eggplant spread," Rachel said. Laura looked at her and blinked. Twice.
Laura Hastings: Her greatest virtue was her persistence, and her greatest flaw was her persistence. She would pursue problems until she solved them or until they brought her to her knees. Catherine Chadwick, Augur Lazenby and Rachel Delacourt would bring her to her knees...but only one of them would help her up.
The Blondness of Honey is the story of two women bound by an uncommon love, of one another and life, at a time when the Victorian notions of love and women called for more disciplined and rigorous adherence to traditional relationships. At least publicly.
Set mainly in the San Francisco Bay area, including the nearly inaccessible, rugged and hauntingly beautiful Pt. Reyes Peninsula, this is a story of women who came into their own sense of themselves with little historical antecedent referent on which they might pattern their love and their lives. As the dictates of society and their own misunderstandings threaten to derail their impassioned love, Laura Hastings and Catherine Chadwick's relationship plays out against the uniquely American saga of survival, adventure and accomplishment that reached an apex of frenzy in 1893. Two historical events in America informed the narrative of everyday lives during this time: the impending financial crash of 1893 that followed on the heels of the most extraordinary world's fair, The Columbian Exposition, which opened in Chicago in May of that year.
Follow Laura, Catherine and a colorful and memorable cast of friends, lovers, families and enemies as they try to make sense of a world where women were both adored and restricted. Follow them into a world where extravagant displays of wealth and acquisition settled in gorgeous mansions on tree-lined streets adjacent to the most poverty-stricken neighborhoods of tenements and hovels. And watch as these American born women discover something the throngs of proud immigrants already knew--that the lingua franca of freedom is that most elusive, non-denominational, non-ethnic value of all human endeavors: tolerance.
