The Rose of Provence (3 page)

Amrita cleared her throat.

“
If you don’t need me, I would leave you alone
now.”

“
Of course, just leave,” waved the princess, and it was
obvious that she was still thinking about the earl.

Chapter 4

Ruby of Provence

Arles, Provence – 4-7 April 1543

Amrita’s carriage departed before daybreak, at four o’clock
in the morning, and after a complete day of travel, she arrived in
Lyon when the night was just about to give way to the dawn.
Although she was dozing off a bit during the jolting ride, the
coachman and the horses needed to rest as well, so they stopped at
the first inn. They still had a lengthy way to go, so they didn’t
stay for long. They woke up the innkeeper, had something to eat,
and then slept for a few hours. They continued their journey before
sunrise, so they arrived in Arles at twilight.

The carriage stopped in front of an ashlared house, the high
stone wall of which was surrounded by lavender fields stretching
into the distance. White rambler roses were climbing up to the
wrought-iron gate, and on the windows, painted blue wooden panels
were inviting the weary sunbeams.

“
Thank you, Charles! Now go, have a rest and come for me
tomorrow at dawn,” Amrita told the coachman who nodded, slapped
between the haggard horses, and drove away towards the
town.

She peeped in between the grids of the gate as much as the
prolific leaves allowed, but she only saw a black cat lying lazily
on the bench under the old lime tree. She pulled the chain of the
tinkler. The little bell started tinkling, and the cat slowly
opened its yellowish-green eyes. Then, the ding-dong died away,
only the buzzing of the bees and the doves’ cooing could be heard.
Long minutes passed before a slender woman appeared from behind the
oleander bushes, in the depth of the garden.

“
I’m sorry darling for making you wait, but I’m just preparing
jam from the yellow tea rose, and I had to stir it once again. You
know how sensitive these flowers are! If you don’t treat them as
they want it, you can whistle for the delicacies.”

“
No problem Marie, I can wait, but the tea roses really
can’t,” she smiled sympathetically. “Illustrious, pampered
crowd!”

The woman opened the gate with a wide motion.

“
Jérome kept guard on the bench all day long today; he can see
the entrance from there,” she waved towards the fair-sized tomcat.
“I was sure that a welcome guest would arrive.”

She swept aside a silver-colored tuft on her forehead and
accompanied Amrita to the bench. She also sat down, placed the
black cat in her lap, and let her describe the reason for her
visit.

“
We haven’t seen each other for ten years, since I moved to
Limoges,” started Amrita as she took a deep breath from the floral
fragranced air.

“
My heart still aches when I think about those years in
Provence; I loved living here. But you know I couldn’t stay any
longer because people would have found out that I don’t get older.
How come you weren’t forced to leave?”

“
After I resigned at the La Fontaines, I didn’t go to work as
a housekeeper again in town. Since then, I’ve been living here in
privacy, I don’t mingle with people. Everything I need grows in my
garden: the succulent tomatoes and potatoes, my goat provides milk,
of which I make cheese. My bees supply me with honey, and I haven’t
even mentioned these wonderful roses. I make jams, syrup, wine and
cakes from them, and then I sell these, so I can buy flour and salt
from the money. If my customers come, the flange of my hat casts a
shadow on my face, and they see my peepy hair only,” she pointed to
her hoary curls, smiling.

“
When I left, you had dark-brown hair. And just like me, you
don’t age, so you cannot go grey either…”

“
No, I can’t! I prepare the brew from jasmine flower and
ground oyster shell, and I stain my hair with that.”

“
It’s funny that the noble ladies are trying to hide their
graying curls with lampblack and other things, and you do exactly
the opposite!” Amrita laughed, then after a short pause, she
continued: “But let me tell you the purpose of my arrival… I’ve
been living in the royal court for a while; I’m the companion of
Catherine, the spouse of the crown prince, and a serious problem
oppresses my mistress. She has been the wife of the prince for ten
years, but she can’t get pregnant, and if she is not going to
conceive soon, she has to leave the castle and the country as well.
I promised to help her, so I came here to prepare rose
nectar.”

“
Yes, the nectar of the Rosa gallica is extremely effective in
the case of such troubles. But you obviously know that the
strongest potion can only be made at the time of the full moon, and
it’s almost two weeks ahead.”

“
I know! That is also why I need your help. Because the more
people cook the rose nectar, the more effective the potion will be
the next time. I’ve made it roughly ten times only, but you have
done it several hundred times! We substitute the power of the full
moon with this.”

“
You’re right,” nodded Marie. “How long will you
stay?”

“
I have to leave tomorrow at dawn.”

“
We cannot idle then! If we prepare the nectar by midnight and
let it stand until the break of day among the bushes and in the
fragrance of the living roses, then one phial will be enough for
your mistress to give birth to a baby boy by the middle of
winter.”

She put Jérome in the girl’s hands, sprang up from the bench
swiftly, and hurried into the house. After a short while, she
returned with a book.

“
My recipes,” she held out the linen-covered volume towards
Amrita.

“
What happened to the yellowed parchment bundle?”

“
It’s necessary to follow the latest trends! One of my
customers is a binder, so I asked for an empty book of him, and
then I copied the recipes from the parchment.”

Amrita took the purple linen-covered book in her hand, and
turned some pages.

“
Why is it so fragrant?” She sniffed the air with her eyes
closed.

“
I soaked the linen in lavender water; it got the color from
that too. Then, I covered the binder with it.”

The girl glanced at the sheets; the book was left open
exactly at the recipe of the rose nectar.

“
Even if I woke up in the middle of the night, I know it by
heart,” she murmured, but it was good to absorb the words
again.

Fecundating Rose Nectar

First of all, prepare rose honey for the rose nectar: make a
thick syrup of the freshly picked petals from the noblest tea roses
and sugar until the petals are completely cooked. The rose honey is
particularly effective against women’s problems.

When the honey is ready, collect two cups of Rosa gallica,
but only from the blood-red type. Add four cups of boiled spring
water and let it stand in a glass bowl. Stir often so the petals
always stay under water. If the liquid is fragrant enough, strain
it, then add the nectar of the tea rose and three pinches of dried
verbena. Finally, pour the potion into a phial, which can be locked
well.

The person who drinks it every morning for twenty-one days,
will conceive a boy, and who sips it in the evenings, will give
birth to a baby girl.

“
Come, have something to eat!” Marie invited her before the
girl could say anything else. “There’s baked fish left from lunch;
it was caught in the Rhône River this morning. For dessert, I’ll
give you some donuts with rose jam; I know it’s your
favorite.”

Amrita had a hearty dinner. The zander, which was crispy on
the outside and soft on the inside, almost melted in her mouth. And
the fresh donut, bathing in the sweet jam, was just as succulent as
in her memories.

After dinner, they started to cook: they prepared the honey,
then the rose water and finally mixed the two into a balmy nectar.
They locked it in a crystal phial and lay it among the rose bushes
for the night.

At dawn, when the rattling carriage arrived, Amrita was
already waiting for it. She said good-bye to Marie and set out
again on the two-day journey. As she left behind the light purple
lavender fields, looming in the dim light of the dawn, and the
golden vineyards, her heart was filled with pain. However, by the
time she arrived in Paris in the evening on the following day, she
had already buried the homesickness deep in her soul.

She hurried to the princess’ suite to hand over the phial,
which was filled to the brim with the ruby potion, but she didn’t
find Catherine alone: her maid was rambling there as
well.

“
Oh, I’m sorry for rushing in like this; I’ll come back
later.” She excused herself, but the mistress waved her
down.

“
No problem, moreover, it’s good you came. At least you can
report to us what you found in the south where you visited your
relatives,” she looked at Amrita, meaningfully.

“
Thank you for your question, everything is perfectly fine at
home,” answered the girl carefully.

“
I'm interrogating you, because news arrived that the plague
reared its head again in Marseille.”

“
I don’t know anything about that,” responded the girl,
flabbergasted. “It means that the contagion hasn’t reached Arles
yet.”

Catherine waved the maid to leave. After they were alone,
Amrita pulled out the crystal phial from the hidden pocket of her
skirt.

“
Here is the nectar, I promised.”

The princess snatched the bottle out of her hands and tried
to free the tiny cork, but Amrita stopped her.

“
Wait! Drink at this time, after sunset, only if you want to
call the baby girl’s soul coming from the empire of the Moon. If
you would like to have a baby boy, just sip it when the Sun has
already risen. If you do this for twenty-one mornings and sleep
with your husband on the night of the twenty-first day, the desired
successor is conceived.”

“
I believe it but also don’t know what you’re saying…,”
Catherine looked at her trustingly.

At this moment, there was a knock on the door, and Henri
entered with another man behind him.

“
Let me introduce Doctor Nostradame, who has recently arrived
home from Sicily, and he is paying his respects to our court,” said
the prince, but he did not take his eyes off Amrita. “We’ll ask for
his advice how we can avoid the spread of the epidemic. After all,
he earned the name ‘plague doctor’ because of his undying merits
during the great plagues of the 1520s.”

“
Welcome, Michel! I’ve heard so many good things about you,”
the princess stepped up to the fortyish man with a strong angular
jaw.

The doctor politely returned the greeting, but when he caught
sight of Amrita, he recoiled like someone who has seen a ghost. The
prince thought that the girl’s flaming red hair and unearthly
beauty mesmerized the guest as well, but there was something more
than that. Michel de Nostradame recognized his juvenile love in the
girl.

Chapter 5

The Plague Doctor

Montpellier, Provence – 1528 summer

Though the doctor stood riveted to the ground in the middle
of the pompous room of the Louvre palace, his memories took him on
their wings and sent him back to the summer of 1528, to the sunlit
Provence.

There was no doubt: the Creator blessed Michel de Nostradame
with brilliant talent. By the time he was twenty-five, he had
already left behind his philosophical, astronomical and
astrological studies, and after he completed five years at the
famous medical university of Montpellier, he received a lower-level
doctoral degree and the certificate justifying the licentiate.
However, he had to postpone the acquisition of the higher level
doctoral degree because of the outbreak of the serious plague
epidemic. He took the role of the plague doctor that demanded great
courage and use of all his efforts to restrain the epidemic. The
disease proved to be incurable, so the doctor’s primary task was to
strengthen the patients’ immune system, give advice to the
magistrates of the town, and maintain the observance of hygiene
measures. He used balms, volatile oils, garlic leaves, rosemary and
other herbs against the spreading of the infection, and he himself
was dressed from head to toe, even in the greatest heat, wearing
hood, broad-brimmed hat, gloves, mid-calf boots and a mask covering
the eyes with glass to protect against the infection, walking among
the patients. Despite the ceaseless heart and soul demanding job,
the uncomfortable costume and the constant presence of danger, he
did not fall ill thanks to his strong body and persistence, but it
was rumored that perhaps the protection of the heavens also
contributed to this. The people were grateful for his efforts, and
with his efforts, he gained fame at a very young age. Many even
called him a doctor prodigy.

After the passing of the epidemic, he returned to the
university to obtain the real doctoral title. In the summer of
1528, he was within a hair’s breadth from the degree, so he
dedicated all his time to studying. And if he did not attend
lectures, he participated in autopsies, because the medical
university of Montpellier had a special privilege: the local medics
could anatomize the corps of executed murderers, so they could
acquire a higher level of knowledge in the field of anatomy than
any other students in the country, who get only theoretical
education.