We Are The Cure : The Plague Doctor's Tale.

Chapter 24

Doctor and Giovanni appeared in no time in the kitchen and were looking at the person who was trying to calm Rosalynn down. Giovanni came closer to them holding a candelabrum in his hand and shed some light at the invader. As it turned out, it was the housemaid sent by Mr Button.

"I'm so sorry for scarring you, Miss!" She was leaning towards Rosalynn speaking with soft voice and with her hand placed on Rosalynn's shoulder. The woman could have been in her late twenties. At first glance in the darkness, she truly looked like a dark shadow of a woman dressed in long black dress with her dark hair imitating a black veil. 

"Don't be sorry, Miss. Rosalynn is very skittish at night." Answered Giovanni helping Rosalynn to get up from the floor as she nearly fainted from such amount of stress.

"My name's Annabelle, it's a pleasure to serve you." The woman curtsied lifting her dress up a little. All the three quickly introduced themselves shortly and soon all of them were sitting in the living room in the weak light of candles from Giovanni's candelabrum. 

"As I assume, you must be our housemaid." Doctor summed up all the information he has gathered so far. 

"That's correct, Sir." With some light it was visible that Annablle's apparition was kind of pleasing to an eye. She was a beautiful young woman although very skinny. She had dark brown eyes and brown long wavy hair which wasn't hidden under a head scarf like Rosalynn's. She was wearing a long dark dress and a pair of white gloves.

"Why didn't you bring any candle to light your way here?" Asked Giovanni and Annabelle looked at him surprised.

"Oh. The moon outside is shining so brightly that the streets are almost as bright as during the day. I haven't thought of bringing it here." She admitted and Giovanni nodded. "And you?" He looked at Rosalynn. 

"Uhm... I thought I didn't need any candles as I only wanted to drink some water."

"Next time bring a candle whenever you leave your room." Rosalynn nodded ashamed that she woke up her companions and caused such fuss.

"This house has only three bedrooms, where are you going to sleep then?" Asked Doctor suddenly changing the subject matter of the conversation.

"Oh, please Sir, worry not. I live nearby so I will be sleeping in my home. I just wanted to introduce myself tonight. To be honest, I didn't expect you to go to sleep so early." Annabelle explained herself and after some other apologies for scaring Rosalynn, they managed to agree on the dishes Annabelle would cook for them. Additionally, Doctor asked her to not enter his room while cleaning. He promised to keep it clean by himself. Before leaving, Annabelle gave Giovanni some envelopes addressed particularly for him. He seemed to expect them as he grabbed them happily.

When everything was settled, Annabelle wished all of them a good night and came back home. The three quickly shared their personal first impressions about their new housemaid and soon went to sleep as well. Before doing so Doctor divided the task of visiting the sick between himself and Giovanni. Rosalynn was assigned to help Giovanni and supervise his work to know how much he had learnt from Doctor during their three-month journey. 

As they were disappearing in their rooms, Rosalynn noticed that Giovanni's desk was paved with pieces of paper. He was exchanging letters with Jyne ever since they left Edinburgh. And even the letters he recently got must have been from Jyne as well. She must knew where to send the letters as Giovanni told her where were they going and which town would they pass. 

Being finally alone in her room, Rosalynn felt lonely. During the journey, they often slept together in one room or under bare sky. It was so dark in here and strange and quiet. Quite hesitantly she left her room and knocked on Doctor's room's door. He opened it quickly and asked her what was the matter.

"You cannot fall asleep, Rosalynn?" He asked kindly with a candle in his hand. Assessing by the tone of his voice he was about to fall asleep. The candle lit his mask in a strange why that it looked like it was a face of a very scary crow-like creature. 

"Unfortunately." She admitted reluctantly and, without any other questions, he closed the door of his room and the two entered Rosalynn's bedroom. 

"Come, my dear. I will tell you about some interesting cases I have read about in medical records until you fall asleep." He already situated himself on the chair by her bed. She smiled and crawled into her bed. She didn't even notice when she fell asleep and Doctor disappeared from her room. 

...

In the morning, all the three were woken up with the scent of scrambled eggs. When they entered the kitchen, they were greeted by Annabelle who was preparing breakfast.  All of them were wearing their plague doctor clothes and the new housemaid was very surprised to see them dressed like that. She asked few questions about their profession and what exactly were they doing. Rosalynn told Annabelle about her brewing skills and recommended her a facial cream made of daisies. Giovanni tried to impress her with his vast medical knowledge but was soon eclipsed by Doctor's acquaintance with medical records and first hand experiences. 

"Why are you wearing your mask, Sir?" Asked Annabelle surprised by Doctor's look. He was the only one in the room wearing his mask on. He sighed tired of hearing that question and patiently answered. 

"It is to preserve the highest level of sterility. I will eat my plate in my room." Annabelle nodded her head confused and was about to ask another question but both Rosalynn and Giovanni shook their heads to sway her from doing that. 

Initially, they thought of Annabelle as calm and well-mannered person but soon she turned out to be pretty talkative when it came to talking about townspeople and the details of their lives. She told them about her aunt Wilma who used to be a nurse but due to her shaking disease she must retired. Doctor became suddenly interested in her case and wanted to know more about her strange illness. Annabelle said that her aunt's hands are often shaking and sometimes her legs hurt without any injury. He asked Annabelle to introduce him to her aunt as he wanted to describe her case. Rosalynn was surprised because she thought Doctor was interested in plague or plague-related diseases only. 

When they ate breakfast and put their masks on, they left to see the sick. Doctor chose to head north and Giovanni with Rosalynn had to visit houses located on the south of Launceston. On their way they noticed a young boy who looked quite depressed. He had dark circles under his eyes and was almost as pale as chalk. He seemed to be extremely tired or sad. They didn't have much time to reflect upon his life as the world was full of people of similar kind.

They entered the first marked door they saw on the very end of the town. Inside, there was a family with two small children. Surprisingly, the mother wasn't sick so she was asked to bring them few important things. Giovanni started the procedure from assessing the sick and their condition. The father had only a fever, the eldest child was heavily sick with plague and gangrene symptoms, and the youngest suffered from plague only. 

Giovanni decided that the eldest child had no chances to survive so he focused on curing the youngest and the father. He placed them in one room and the heavily sick one in separate room. First, he washed the father's body and told Rosalynn to wash the youngest child's body. She gladly helped him and she assessed the boy's body. 

To her surprise, the youngest also had early gangrene symptoms. She informed Giovanni about this fact and he examined the child again and agreed with her. He handed her a small bottle with dark purple liquid.

"What is that?" Asked Rosalynn surprised as she has never seen that bottle. She opened it and smelled. A very strong sweet scent nearly knocked her down.

"Don't smell that, it's..." He warned her but she already knew exactly what it was.

"It's a deadly nightshade." Rosalynn whispered terrified.