Mother Hildegarde

Mother Hildegarde runs L'Hôpital des Anges in Paris with the brisk authority of a woman who has seen every kind of suffering and refuses to be precious about it. Formidable, sharp-tongued, and devoutly practical, she takes an immediate interest in Claire's unusual medical skill, testing her with blunt questions and expecting nothing less than competence in return.

Frances de la Tour plays her with a dry, theatrical relish that turns exposition into performance — she delivers diagnoses like verdicts and jokes like scalpel strokes. The writing gives her genuine authority in a world run by men, and de la Tour makes her intelligence feel lived-in, amused, and entirely unimpressed by rank or nonsense.