

At the dinner, Angelica attacked Alex for having no money and no name. Gertrude hosted another dinner for all of the Schuyler sisters and all of their suitors. When she got home, she admitted her feelings to her sisters. Looking for comfort, he went to Eliza and asked her to accompany him to the infirmary. When Alex’s friend Laurens left to Charleston, where the British army was headed, Alex was afraid that he might lose him. Angelica declared that she intended to marry John Church, even if she had to elope. Peggy declared that she intended to marry Stephen, the richest bachelor in America. After the dinner, the Schuyler girls discussed their relationships. Alex and Eliza bonded over their hatred of slavery and their support of abolition.

Gertrude decided to host a dinner for the girls, and she invited Alex and his army friends. They helped Eliza inoculate the high ranking officers at Washington’s headquarters. Peggy and Angelica arrived in Morristown because their parents’ finances were worsening. But, she did not thaw until Alex came to get inoculated by her. But, when he asked her about the note, and she realized he had believed her capable of such harlotry, she became furious. When her carriage broke down, he was there to give her a ride into town. After Alex heard of Eliza's impending arrival, he took to patrolling the road into town looking for her. Two years later, Eliza went to Morristown to live with her aunt, Gertrude, to help inoculate soldiers against smallpox. Of course, she never came, and Alex is disappointed. Then, as a trick, a mean drunk got hold of the handkerchief and sent it to Alex with a forged note from Eliza that asked him to meet her in the hayloft. As a joke, he surrendered his handkerchief to her.

Because he was the messenger of such horrible news, and because she found him attractive, Eliza spent the night making him miserable. Eliza first saw him in the staircase, as he was delivering news of a court-martial to her father. The first seven chapters are set at the Schuyler’s estate in Albany on the day that Eliza Schuyler and Alexander Hamilton first met. Because of this, they needed to marry off their three eldest daughters: Angelica, Eliza, and Peggy. The parents, Catherine and Philip, had recently lost a fortune when the British torched their estate in Saratoga. The novel starts in 1777 with a prologue that introduces the Schuylers. The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: De La Cruz, Melissa.
