Isabel: Taking Wing

City of Ghosts

The first thing Isabel notices when she arrives back to London is the stream of running water. In the past, the city would be hustling and bustling with movement. Merchants yelling out their wares, carts and horses along the streets, screaming of children running down the streets. But now, things are quiet. The whole city is smokey. The smoke from the fires hangs over the city, muting all the colors. Isabel can see the crudely painted red crosses on the doors, which indicate where somebody from the plague has died.

A weary voice calls out to the streets for people to bring out their dead. The cart he pushes carries all the dead bodies of those who died of plague. He’ll take the bodies to a fire to be burned, along with the dead’s clothing and other possessions.

When Isabel arrives at her house, she can’t believe there is no cross painted on her door. She knocks quietly, and Alice lets her into the house, grateful to see her. Alice shows her into the room where Aunt Elinor and Hope are. They’ve set Hope’s bed up by the fire. Isabel can see that her Aunt, who she’s never seen cry in her life, has finally broken. Aunt Elinor fears Hope won’t live through the night.

Isabel assures Aunt Elinor that Hope doesn’t have the plague—she has flushed, but otherwise flawless skin. No boils, blisters, or discoloring of the skin. But Hope is very sick. Isabel sits with her the whole night. She bathes her face and body with cooling flower water to try to bring down fever. She lights scents in the room to try to clear out the bad smells and infection. She sings and tells stories to the child, trying to coax out her spirit. She tries to feed Hope minute quantities of porridge to help her regain strength. Slowly, both Alice and Isabel’s eyes start to droop from exhaustion.

The next morning, Isabel is awoken by birds singing outside. She looks down, to find Hope sleeping peacefully in her bed. By a miracle, Hope is still alive!

A few days later, Isabel leaves the house to run some errands. She suggested that Aunt Elinor sew a new dress for Hope to try to lift her spirits. So Isabel’s run out to get supplies. She visits a few merchant stalls and purchases some thread, frankincense, and myrrh. She almost stops to look at a book at a bookseller’s, but she refrains, for it might be contaminated with the plague.

Suddenly Isabel hears a familiar voice behind her. She turns and sees none other than Kit! They run to each other, but immediately Isabel senses something wrong behind Kit’s eyes. He blurts out that Meg has died. Apparently a woman next-door to them got sick with the plague. When her husband realized, he abandoned her and their children. Meg went over to help take care of the kids. After the woman died, the city came and boarded up their house for six weeks, as is the law. By the time six weeks were over, everybody inside had perished.

Isabel can hardly comprehend what Kit told her. How is it possible for someone as saucy and rosy-cheeked as Meg to be dead, when Isabel’s frail little sister is still alive? Suddenly, Isabel realizes Hope may have gotten worse since Isabel’s been gone. She tells Kit she must hurry home to take care of her little sister. Kit promises to come find Isabel at the end of the plague, if they both survive. And on that promise, Isabel goes straight home.

When Isabel gets home, she’s intent on cleaning the entire house, which has fell by the wayside since Aunt Elinor let go of all the staff. Isabel sweeps and scrubs the flagstones. She polishes the furniture with beeswax. She strips sheets from the beds, boils them, and hangs them out to dry. And she prepares simple soups and porridges to help them all keep up their health.

Aunt Elinor questions what they’ll do if Isabel gets sick. Fed up with Aunt Elinor’s worries and questions, she curtly tells Aunt Elinor that she is strong and smart, and she’ll do everything in her power to keep all of them alive. That seems to do the trick, and Aunt Elinor, out of her slump, insists on helping Isabel.

That evening, Isabel’s father comes home. Isabel is grateful to see him again, and after a small reunion, he urges her to sing on her lute. At the end of “Lullay My Liking,” a small voice starts to sing with Isabel. They look down to see little Hope, sitting up in her bed with her eyes open, singing merrily as a blackbird.