Charlotte Betts [Apothecary's The Painter's Apprentice (epub)

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.Susannah stood before a large table, an apron tied around her slim waist as she ground dried parsley roots in a great pestle and mortar.She glanced up and flashed a brief smile.Beth noticed that she was unusually pale.‘Good morning!’ said Susannah.‘I hope you slept well, Noah?’‘Very well, thank you.It’s so quiet here in the country after London.’He looked around, unashamedly staring at the walls lined with gallypots and neatly labelled wooden drawers, the set of balance scales and the glass dome of leeches on the counter and the stuffed crocodile hanging from the ceiling.‘Oh!’ he said, his face breaking into a smile.‘My father told me about the crocodile!’‘Sadly, it isn’t the same one that Tom knew,’ said Susannah.‘That burned in the Great Fire.William searched high and low for a replacement because he said I would never feel like a real apothecary without one.But this pestle and mortar was your grandfather’s.’‘I do wish my father could see all this!’ Noah reached up to pinch a bunch of dried rosemary suspended from the ceiling, sniffing the clean, resinous scent upon his fingers.‘Oh, what have you done?’ exclaimed Beth.She took Noah’s hand and pulled back the lace from his wrist, exposing a purple bruise.Noah gave a wry smile.‘Emmanuel doesn’t know his own strength.He and Joseph lifted me clear of the ground when they found me climbing over the gates last night.’Susannah took an earthenware pot off a shelf.‘Try this,’ she said.‘Comfrey and neat’s-foot oil with elder.It’s good for bruises.’He sniffed at the pot.‘Thank you,’ he said, rubbing a little of the salve on to his wrist.‘Mama, Johannes needs some more linseed oil and pigments.Shall I help myself?’Susannah hesitated.‘Some of the gallypots are empty.You may need to wait until we can buy more supplies.’‘But …’ Suddenly Beth remembered that the supplier had said he wouldn’t deliver more goods until his account had been settled.‘Aunt Susannah,’ said Noah, ‘I wondered if you’ve had time to consider my father’s letter?’‘Of course,’ she said.‘The contents kept me awake for half the night.’‘I suspected they might.’Beth raised an enquiring eyebrow at her mother.Susannah pushed away the pestle and mortar and wearily smoothed back a loose strand of hair.‘I almost wish you’d never come to see us, Noah.’‘Mama!’ Beth was shocked to hear her mother speak in such a way to a guest.‘It’s all right, Beth,’ said Noah.‘I perfectly understand Aunt Susannah’s meaning.’‘Tom’s letter asks if one of your brothers would like to go to Virginia.Since Noah doesn’t wish to step into his father’s shoes, Tom thought one of my sons might do so instead.’‘Kit or John go to Virginia?’ Beth faltered.‘But they can’t! We’d never see them again.’‘Hence my sleepless night,’ said Susannah.She sighed.‘But have I the right to deny them such an opportunity?Beth was lost for words.The thought of one of her brothers sailing away to Virginia and never setting eyes on him again was too painful to imagine.‘Why, it would be as if they were dead to us!’Susannah’s chin trembled.Too moved to speak, she bent over the pestle and mortar again, grinding the parsley roots vigorously, as if to obliterate her unhappy thoughts.‘Beth, it’s not for me to bring any pressure to bear on either of your brothers,’ said Noah.‘I am merely the messenger.’‘But you cannot deny that it would assuage your own guilt at forsaking your father’s dreams!’A muscle flickered in Noah’s jaw and he reddened.‘No, I cannot deny it.’There was a sudden pounding of footsteps along the corridor and Cecily, Kit and John tumbled through the doorway, breathless with laughter.‘There you are, Beth!’ said Kit.‘We’ve been looking all over for you.’‘How could you be so mean,’ pouted Cecily.‘You knew I wanted to come with you when you showed Noah around Merryfields.’ She gave Noah a beatific smile.‘Beth didn’t want to watch you m-m-mooning over Noah,’ teased John.Beth looked at her siblings and her heart ached with love for them.It would be unbearable if any one of them left Merryfields.She turned to Noah.‘Mama is right,’ she said, her voice breaking.‘I wish you’d never come!’ She saw John’s eyes widen with astonishment as she pushed past Cecily and ran from the room.Chapter 3The only sounds to be heard in the studio were the creaking of Johannes’s shoes as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other in front of his easel and the faint cawing of the rooks outside as they wheeled through a pale sky above the frosted elms.Beth touched the vellum twice with the tip of the brush as lightly as a butterfly settling on a leaf.Slowly, she let out her breath and studied her watercolour through half-closed eyes.Should she add a few more tiny brush strokes to the sprig of holly? Perhaps the leaves needed a little more shadow to make the glistening frost appear to sparkle more brightly in contrast? She dipped the brush into the paint again, wiping surplus pigment against the rim of the pot [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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