Isabel: Taking Wing

The Plague Mask

Each morning, Isabel trains her hawk, whom she named Nicolette. They work on slowly getting it to trust her, and soon they begin to let the leash out a little more to give it room to fly. Soon, it’ll be time to let Nicolette fly without a leash, just hoping she’ll choose to come back home.

In the afternoon, Isabel joins Olivia for lessons, where Aunt de Vere teaches the girls Greek, Latin, mathematics, and astronomy. In addition, Aunt de Vere tells them lovely stories like Master Hart.

And twice a week, the girls join Aunt de Vere volunteering at the clinic. She teaches them about the four humors, leeches, and how ailments can be affected by the positions of the sun and moon in the sky.

Isabel has become less squeamish over the weeks, both with handling the raw meat to feed Nicolette, and with helping clinic patients. She’s proud to know someday she’ll become a medic like her aunt.

One day, Aunt de Vere leaves Olivia and Isabel alone while she travels to Northampton on business. Isabel is excited to try out her new skills. The girls treat a man with ague and a boy who pushed a bean up his nose. When a mother comes in with her little baby, Isabel recognizes the symptoms of asthma right away. She looks up dosage in the herbal book, and gives them a remedy of bryony.

As they’re closing up the clinic, Olivia stops Isabel. She asks if she gave the baby the same dosage as the book states. Isabel says yes. Olivia immediately explains that dosage is for an adult. If fed to a baby, the child will die!

Olivia and Isabel ride to the mother’s house, and are relieved to find she hasn’t yet fed her baby the remedy. Olivia says that Isabel thought of a new remedy that will be far more effective, and she hands over the correct dosage for a child.

Isabel is ashamed of her mistake. She knows she must tell Aunt de Vere she almost killed a baby! To her surprise, Aunt de Vere doesn’t seem angry. Instead, Aunt de Vere lectures Isabel how we must always remember to keep our feet firmly on the ground. If we let ourselves get carried away, we can cause harm. Isabel promises to never make such a mistake again.

The next morning, a man comes riding up and tells Aunt de Vere that a townsman’s wife got sick with a fever on their way back from London, and they fear it’s the plague. Isabel and Aunt de Vere ride to their house. Isabel knows she can’t fear for her life, but if it is the plague, just being in the same room could get them sick, too.

When they arrive, they find the doctor already looking at the wife. He’s wearing a large, hollow mask that makes him look like a beaked devil, and he carries a long stick to use to poke and prod the patient. Isabel wonders how the patients don’t die of fright seeing doctors in their plague masks. Aunt de Vere calmly explains that medics must actually see the patient to discern whether it’s the plague. She walks over and inspects the woman, paying special attention to her skin on her armpits, groin, and neck.

At last, Aunt de Vere stands up. She says it is not the plague, since she has no blisters, but most likely just severe quinsy. For the next few hours, Aunt de Vere and Isabel work to bring down the woman’s fever, until she’s conscious and placid again.

When they return home, they find Olivia waiting with a letter. Isabel immediately recognizes the handwriting as Sabine’s. Sabine writes to explain how since Father is away traveling, Aunt Elinor has been left in charge of the house. Apparently since Aunt Elinor has been so afraid of the plague, she’s let all the servants go except Alice. And now baby Hope is sick, and Sabine fears Alice and Aunt Elinor cannot take care of her well enough to get Hope better.

Isabel immediately knows she must go help her sister. If Hope contracted the plague, she could be dead already, but Isabel must try. Aunt de Vere explains that they hear no street in London is unaffected by the plague. Isabel understands the risks, but her family needs her.