Quintspinner - A Pirate's Quest

Chapter Five

CHAPTER FIVE

The child would live. At least for now. The fate of his newly post-partum wife was not so certain, but in his experience, the doctor knew that she stood a chance if the bleeding could be controlled.

In tending to his wife's hemorrhage, Dr. Willoughby immediately demanded that Tess and Cassie chew copious amounts of tobacco leaves, spitting the soggy cuds out into a bowl, while the bulk of the noxious stuff simmered in a cauldron over the room's fire. Mixing the tobacco with fresh cotton, he packed the bundle into his wife's birth canal, and added more steeped tobacco juice and leaves as they cooled, to the vaginal poultice.

"Broken tobacco slows the bleed and the cotton clots any blood that does escape," he explained. Both girls felt nauseous and in an effort to ward off the impending headache that would surely follow their own absorption of the tobacco juices, they sipped a warm cup of tea laced with laudanum. Light headed then, and full of silliness, they took to their beds early, each giggling at the other's brown stained teeth and lips.

"We look like the old corner Crone!" Cassie exclaimed, smirking at her reflection in a silver-backed looking glass. Tess smiled too, although the mention of the old woman gave her the shivers.

The corner Crone was a beggar woman renowned for her eerily accurate prophesies and gift of second sight. It was said that she had not been burned as a witch because her advice was frequently but confidentially sought by high ranking city officials and men of power. Dr. Willoughby, however, had only open contempt for the woman and her herbal potions.

"Have you actually seen her, Cassie?" Tess asked.

"Oh yes, I was on an errand and had to go almost down to the waterfront, when I turned a corner and there she was, all dressed in a shabby brown robe, her hood all up and around her head and face," Cassie recalled and pulled her nightshirt up over her head, clasping it under her chin, to simulate just such a hood. "Her hand was all gnarled and fingers all curled, but there was a ring on one of her fingers. It caught my eye because it sparkled as though it had some gems or the like in it catching the sun."

Cassie's eyes widened as she recalled the details, then her eyebrows knitted together in a frown. "Come to think of it, that ring actually didn't sparkle so much as it glowed, just like the glow of a fire's ember, only it was as pure a blue as I've ever seen. I remember wondering how a beggar would come to have such a thing, let alone keep it from being stolen off her ...."

"Did she say anything?" Tess pressed.

"No. Mind, I'd not gotten close to her, but I knew when I saw her, who she was."

"Let's seek her out one day. Soon."

Cassie turned to look at Tess in amazement. "Are you mad? Why would you want to?"

"I don't know. I just want to. Maybe she'll tell our fortunes. Wouldn't that be exciting?" Tess flopped back onto her soft mattress.

"Tess, your father would whip you if he ever found out you went to her, let alone to that part of town. It wouldn't be good for his reputation as a doctor and respectable citizen to have his daughter consorting with the like."

"Well then," Tess retorted with a conspiratorial smile, "he mustn't ever know."

A faint high pitched squeal that ricocheted off the walls and echoed down the hallway abruptly interrupted their conversation.

"Charles the Third bellows, Madam, and I must go" Cassie groaned and gave a tired smile.

Tess held up a hand towards Cassie. "You go to bed." The squeal was more insistent. Tess rolled her eyes and sighed. "I'll tend to the little monster."