the Creation Of Eve (2010) by Cullen Lynn

Author:Cullen, Lynn [Lynn, Cullen,]
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin USA, Inc.
Published: 2011-01-14T19:18:04.734000+00:00

ITEM: While extracting the tooth is the most efficacious cure for toothache, it has been suggested that one might hold a candle close to the offending tooth so that the smoke might flush out the worm causing the pain. A cure might also be found in touching a dead man's tooth.

4 MAY 1562

The Palace, Aranjuez

I shall not mince words. The trip to Madrid was a disaster. The blow to Don Carlos's head has altered him completely. While he is not the cruel beast of Don Alessandro's jest, forcing cobblers to eat their boots, he is completely Unpredictable. It is as if his injury has robbed him of his self-control. At dinner that night in Madrid, he spit his soup all over his page when he deemed it too hot. The next day, he threw an apple (which hit the condesa) at a bullfight, after he had taken a bite and found a worm. He shouted something vulgar during a play. These were but a few of his eruptions. In the space of three days, there were too many, and it is too painful to recount them all here. The King deals with his son's aberrant behavior by determinedly pretending the problem doesn't exist; the Queen is tense and watchful. It tears my heart to pieces.

This is why I was particularly susceptible to Upset when I arrived back in Aranjuez this afternoon and Francesca wasn't there to greet me. I searched the palace only to find her outside, pacing in the stable yard.

"What are you doing here?" I asked tiredly. "I looked everywhere for you. I would have never found you if madame's woman had not told me you'd gone out-of-doors."

She kept walking, her head down. Next to the stable yard, horses cropped grass in the pasture. The place smelled of straw and manure.

"At least you could say hello."

"Buongiorno."

I trudged toward the palace. A horse nickered from the pasture.

I stopped and looked behind me. "Are you not coming?"

"Go. I catch Up."

"What is the matter with you?"

"Tooth."

I stopped to frown at her.

She touched her left jaw and winced.

"Francesca!" I rushed to her side. "Why did you not tell me? How long have you been suffering?"

"Six day. Today, yesterday--the worst."

"Oh, dear Francesca! I am so sorry. What have you done for it?"

"I put the clove on the tooth, but it no good. Then I try holding the candle to it. The worms, they no fall out."

Tenderly, I turned her sallow face by her chin. "Your left side is swollen. Why don't you go back to bed?"

"No. Grazie. I want to walk."

I had no choice but to leave her to stump along in the stable yard, a sturdy bowed figure with her hands knotted at her chest, her hair scraped into an iron-gray bun. The Queen expected my attendance as soon as I could manage, for I'd left her in the care of the condesa and madame de Clermont. The two fared worse than ever of late, with the condesa's condescending pity only fueling madame 's distaste for her rival.

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