The Apothecary's Daughter by Betts Charlotte

Author:Betts, Charlotte [Betts, Charlotte]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780748124954
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Published: 2011-08-04T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

Susannah had lit the candles and almost finished her supper by the time William arrived home. Her spirits rose unaccountably as she heard his boots coming up the stairs but when he pushed open the door she saw that he was in one of his morose moods.

‘I didn’t wait for you,’ she said, passing him a platter of cold meat and cheese. ‘And Agnes’s joints were paining her so I helped her to bed earlier on.’

William pulled up a chair and sat down without saying a word. Hunched over the table he began to pick at the piece of cheese on his trencher.

Susannah waited for him to break the silence. ‘Did you visit the apothecary shop?’ she asked at last.

He glanced up. ‘What?’

‘I asked if you would visit my father’s shop and bring me some herbs to make a poultice for Agnes.’

‘I don’t remember that.’

‘William! It was only this morning, just as you were going out!’

He picked up an apple and began to peel it in silence.

Susannah watched candlelight glinting on the knife as the skin fell into a long red ribbon on his plate. Had he even heard her? ‘Agnes is in a great deal of pain.’

William looked up at her and she was shocked to see how drawn and white he was. ‘I lost a patient in Long Acre today,’ he said. ‘The plague again.’

Susannah tensed, suddenly fearful for him. For all of them. ‘Were you exposed to it?’

He shook his head. ‘I could do nothing but stand helplessly by while the watchman shut up the rest of the family. It’s an almost certain death sentence for them.’

‘I hoped the long freeze would end the infection. I can hardly bear the thought of the coming summer, being trapped in the city, never knowing which one of our friends and neighbours might succumb next.’ For a moment she remembered how fractious Arabella had been during her pregnancy the previous summer and almost felt sympathy for her.

‘All my knowledge and training counts for nothing,’ said William, slicing his apple into pieces with brutal precision. ‘I can do no more than make the sick comfortable until they die. I’ve tried cutting the buboes to allow the putrefaction to escape, fumigating the sickroom and administering every combination of herbs known to man but in the end it’s still God’s will as to whether a patient survives.’

Pushing her plate away, Susannah stood up so abruptly that her chair tipped over. ‘I thought you didn’t expose yourself to infection?’

‘Most doctors and apothecaries have decamped and the sick need me.’

‘But you might bring the sickness home with you! William, you must be careful. What would Agnes do if you sickened? It would break her heart. Aren’t you afraid?’

‘Of course I’m afraid! I lie awake in a cold sweat worrying about it but what else can I do? Not one of us is safe.’

‘Don’t say that!’ Her breath was tight in her throat. ‘I dream of escaping to the country before something dreadful happens to us all.

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