Page 207 of Feathers in the Wind
‘Good night, Dame Alice,’ I said at the door.
‘Good night, Mistress Shepherd.’
I left her standing in the middle of the room, a small, still figure in a black dress.
Chapter 7 - MAGIC AND MODERN MEDICINE
When I finally make my way to Jessie, I find she has been crying and I am angry with Alice. I do not understand why she has brought Jessie with me.
As I slip into the bed and take her in my arms, I can hear Alice tapping at the corners of my mind. I ignore her. Tonight Jessie needs me and I need her. We have so little time left. Perhaps tomorrow it will all make more sense.
* * *
Iwoke alone to the sounds of voices in the courtyard, mingled with farmyard sounds of lowing cattle and squawking fowls. A knock on the door startled me and I barely had time to retrieve my borrowed nightdress before a maid entered the room with a bowl and a jug.
‘The master said you would like water for washing.’
She set the bowl and jug on the table with a pile of cloths beside it. Toothpaste would have been good, I thought, running my tongue over my furry teeth.
‘Do you wish me to help you to dress?’
I agreed that would be a good idea. It had taken the girl some time to get me out of my clothes the previous night. If she had noticed my strange footwear and unconventional underwear, she had known it was not her place to make a comment. I just hoped she had the discretion not to spread the story through the kitchen.
As the maid tightened the laces on the bodice, the noise outside the window changed. Trailing the long suffering maid behind me, I crossed the room to look down on the courtyard.
For a moment, I thought I could have been at one of Alan’s musters. Below me, soldiers in seventeenth-century clothing were forming in ranks. I almost expected Alan in his green coat to come striding self-importantly from the house. But this was real, this was war.
At first I couldn’t see Nat until I realized he wore a wide brimmed hat with a curling red feather. He looked up at the window, as if he sensed I was watching. I raised my hand and he smiled, his fingers going to the brim of his hat in an informal salute.
The maid coaxed me back from the window and sat me on a stool while she attacked my hair. She proved more adept than the twentieth-century camp followers the previous day, and managed to coax it into some sort of bun-like arrangement coiled at my nape with long, curling strands framing my face. I quite liked the effect, or what I could see of it, in my tiny mirror.
When she was finished and had excused herself, I pulled the stool to the window and sat with my chin on my hand, watching the activity in the courtyard.
‘Nathaniel will see you later this morning.’ Dame Alice’s voice made me jump.
I stood and turned to face her. ‘Is that another prognostication?’ I inquired.
She smiled. ‘No, he gave me the message. He said there is something he wishes to show you. Until then, perhaps you would care to come with me? You may be interested in my potions and herbs. I really do have some skills in healing and you, as a practitioner of the healing art, may find my receipt book of some interest.’
‘Receipt book?’
Alice frowned. ‘The book where I record the ingredients and the method of making my unguents.’
‘Oh…a recipe book.’
Alice just gave me a puzzled glance.
‘Are you going to tell me how you know who I am?’ I asked as I followed her through the maze of stairs and corridors.
‘In good time, Mistress Shepherd,’ she replied, stopping to unlock and throw open the door to what she called her still-room.
She stood back to allow me to enter first. Bunches of drying herbs hung from hooks and little round clay pots crammed the shelves between stoppered flagons. My nose twitched. The room smelled of sage and rosemary with the tinge of something sweet, such as honey.
We had touched on the history of medicine in my studies and here was an opportunity to study it at firsthand. My professional curiosity overcame any reservations I may have had about Dame Alice.
‘This is extraordinary,’ I said.
She shut the door behind her and indicated a heavy, leather bound volume on the table.
