The Astrologer's Daughter by Paula Marshall

Author:Paula Marshall [Marshall, Paula]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical Romance
ISBN: 9780263788617
Google: mAiaAAAACAAJ
Amazon: 026378861X
Barnesnoble: 026378861X
Goodreads: 2789683
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 1994-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

“

So there was another link with the past gone. Would Willem come in and say that now Master Adam had gone, he too wished to leave? He did not, instead he came to her saying, his honest face troubled, “I thought it best to tell thee, Mistress, that I count my home here with you. You will need a strong arm to protect you and, though I grow old, I count myself a man who can still defend those whom I serve. Master Adam was troubled that he was leaving you alone and defenceless and now that Master Renwick hath cast you off … Yes, mistress, I know of what is said of you, and I do not believe it, whatever that double-dealing peacock thinks. You would not betray yourself with any man and if you said you did, the which I have been taunted with, then I do not believe you. Everything about you says otherwise. I am proud to serve thee.” He fell on his knees before her and kissed her hand.

“I know thee as a woman who knew thee as a babe. You are the daughter I lost when this same plague took my wife and children many years agone and Master Antiquis saved me from the sin of self murder and thus from falling into the pit. In serving you, I pay my debt to him.”

All was not lost. Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days, the Bible had said. Adam had cast his bread and it was returning to Celia at a time when it was most needed. With Willem by her side she would brave the sneers and the sly laughter which followed her when she went abroad and in time the gossips would find another target for their mockery. Her story would become an old one and forgotten.

The thought buoyed her up in the early days after Adam’s death. She did not hire another housekeeper. She and Willem between them would be able to do all that was necessary and the work would keep her busy and prevent her from falling into the pit of self-pity.

Mock they might, but Adam’s clients came to her and, as she had hoped, on her first day a child came to call her to the bed of a woman sick after childbirth, and she was able to ease her pain. Some came to her for nostrums to help them withstand the plague but although she made up pouches of herbs for them to wear or place among their clothes, she always told them what Adam had done in similar case: “These might help, or they might net, but at least there can be no harm in trying.” She recommended cleanliness as Adam had done, but most scoffed at this advice.

She sent for Willem one evening and said to him, “The house is too large, Willem, and I would have a smaller, but it is for you to advise me whether that is a good decision or a bad.

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