The Rose of Provence Read Online Free Page A

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,