The Apothecary's Secret

by Johanna Geiges

  She doubted that she could solve this riddle, the more so since she could not even dream of entering Heisterbach monastery ever again. And what happened to her parents? Did they really burn to death in their own house? Anna could not allow herself to think of that, for the grief in her heart was too much. Why on the day before the fateful events when her parents visited Father Urban did her mother hint that there was something, some secret, that she, Anna, was better off not knowing? Did this have anything to do with the archbishop? She hoped not. Or were her parents in possession of some kind of knowledge which might lead to the downfall of some great nobles? There were questions upon questions that she could not answer. Anna’s head was spinning with all the conjectures. She chewed her bread thoughtfully and drank from a water bottle from Medicus Aaron’s supplies.

  A massive blow against the right front wheel of the covered wagon brought her back to the present. A big stone at the side of the road had nearly made their vehicle tip over. Medicus Aaron jumped off the coach box and examined the wheel. Fortunately the iron rim was undamaged except for a dent, and so they continued their journey. Anna was grateful to the Medicus for not speaking a word since their hasty departure. He, too, seemed to be lost in thought and only looked around from time to time to see whether the robbers were on their trail. But there was not a soul to be seen.

  At a fork in the road the medicus stopped the wagon and turned to Anna for the first time. He took out his knife and handed it to her.

  ‘Do you know what – would you do us a great favour and cut off those damn little bells. They are slowly driving me demented.’

  While the medicus got the horses moving again taking the road to the right which joined a wider country road, Anna took the knife and cut off one little bell after another and tossed them by the roadside. Then she handed the knife back to Aaron.

  ‘Better already?’ she enquired. Aaron nodded and happily put his knife away. ‘And now,’ said he, ‘might you tell me your story?’

  Anna hesitated. She had neither a plan nor a place to go nor anybody on whom she could rely. Or maybe she had? She looked sideways at the medicus. Should she trust him? What did she have to lose? She could at least tell him the monastic part of her story.

  ‘I was cast out of the monastery because of my leprosy and am not really supposed to be seen anywhere any more. At least as long as I do not have a dispensation from the Church stating that I am completely healthy, I am forbidden to go among people and continue to be outlawed.’

  ‘I have just given you a dispensation,’ Aaron said firmly.

  ‘You are mocking me, sir!’ Anna contradicted.

  ‘That was not my intention. Of course you can think about getting a dispensation once you are full recovered. But then they will examine you very carefully.’

  Anna sighed. ‘Yes, I fear so, too.’

  ‘And do you want that?’

  She swallowed and then shook her head firmly. ‘No, I don’t think so.’

  ‘That seems very reasonable to me. For no matter how a Church commission decides, there would be quite a fuss made about your person. Either they would ascribe your sudden recovery to witchcraft or declare it a miracle and the news would spread like wildfire through the country. You would become a living relic whom everybody wants to see and touch.’

  Anna stared at Aaron horrified. He held her gaze until she lowered her eyes and nodded. She had to accept his conclusions. This medicus had a mind as sharp as a barber’s knife. And he would not give up his questioning.

  ‘Isn’t it about time, Brother Marian, that you told me who you are, where you come from and what your plans are?’

  ‘These are many questions all at once,’ Anna answered after some hesitation.

  ‘Of course, it is up to you whether you want to answer them,’ said the Medicus. ‘But I have a feeling that something is bothering you and you would like to talk about it.’

  Anna grew increasingly fearful. Her new companion seemed to be able to read her like a book.

  ‘Is it written on my forehead?’ she asked uncertainly.

  Aaron looked sideways at her with a faint smile around the corners of his mouth.

  ‘Mind you,’ he said. ‘It seems to me a strange coincidence that a young monk with little leper’s bells and sad eyes should cross my path and save my life, with eyes moreover that I noticed immediately. Different colours: that I have never seen before – an extraordinary anomaly.’

  ‘You call it an anomaly. Most people call it the evil eye.’

  Aaron sniggered to himself. ‘Indeed, that’s because most people are as thick as two short planks and believe everything the Church tells them.’

  Anna shot him a sceptical glance. ‘You are a Jew, aren’t you?’

  ‘Yes, from the day of my birth and until the day I die,’ Aaron answered earnestly. He reached behind him and held up a strange-looking object which he examined thoughtfully while turning it in his hand. It was a wide-brimmed conical hat with a knob on the crown. ‘Did you see my hat?’ he asked.

  Anna nodded.

  ‘Perhaps I should wear it again. We are slowly but surely getting closer to the city,’ Aaron sighed.

  ‘Which city?’

  ‘Oppenheim.’ Aaron put the hat on his head. Anna noticed that the bandage beneath had slightly bloodied again. Suddenly Aaron tensed and said sharply, ‘Better pull up your hood. An old Jew with a young tonsured monk together on a coach box does seem a bit daring to me.’

  Anna immediately pulled the hood well over her forehead, for Aaron would not have advised this without reason.

  Meanwhile it must have been about noon as the sun stood high in the sky. A cloud of dust appeared on the horizon from which gradually half a dozen armed riders appeared with their leader, a knight. As they came nearer, Aaron reined in the horses and stopped while the mounted troops came galloping towards them and blocked their way. The leader, a bearded giant of a man, raised a hand in greeting.

  ‘Don’t say anything. Let me speak!’ Aaron furtively whispered to Anna before returning the greeting.

  ‘Who are you and where are you headed?’ the leader asked gruffly.

  ‘My name is Aaron. I am a medicus and have been to Cologne to buy medicines. We are on our way home to Oppenheim. This here is my famulus. He is dumb and a bit retarded.’ Aaron pointed to Anna who shot an angry glance at him and lowered her eyes before the distinguished gentleman.

  Aaron left the huge rider on the enormous war horse no time to ponder his words but continued cheerfully, ‘You are the city mayor’s men, as I can see from your coat of arms. I have a charter from him in my doublet. If you come close, I can show it to you.’

  The leader steered his horse closer to the coach box. Aaron rummaged about in his doublet awkwardly and waited until the leader and his horse stood in front of him in such a way as to hide him from his followers one of whom had already ridden around the wagon and had lifted the rear cover to look inside. Anna remembered with a start that they had the dead servant lying in the back of the wagon. Thank God he was covered, but if they searched the wagon inevitably they would find the body. After that she doubted if the men would believe Aaron’s story. They would be arrested and imprisoned until the case came to court, and that might take time. Then her story would come to light after all. Anna already thought of flight as she had developed a desperate escape reflex ever since her expulsion from the monastery. Just then the leader quickly and unobtrusively pocketed something that Aaron had given to him and simultaneously reined his horse around to speak to his men.

  ‘Everything is in order. Let us go on,’ he commanded and turned back to Aaron. ‘See to it that you get home as quickly as possible. Several gangs have been operating around here in the last while. They would make quick work of the likes of you, travelling without protection.’

  ‘Thank you for your advice. We will heed it,’ Aaron answered in an all-too-friendly tone, looking after the soldiers as they galloped away behind their leader. The one who had
checked the back of the wagon spurred on his mount to rejoin his comrades. Only when they were out of sight did Aaron and Anna take a deep breath and wipe the sweat from their brows.

  ‘That was close,’ Anna said.

  ‘Indeed. It doesn’t bear thinking what the consequences would have been had they discovered my dead servant.’

  ‘Do you really have a charter from the city mayor?’ Anna asked with curiosity.

  ‘This is my charter,’ Aaron said laconically giving Anna a glance of a well-filled purse before deftly making it disappear again in his doublet. ‘And it always has the desired effect.’

  Anna could not hide her somewhat mixed admiration for Aaron’s tricks.

  ‘You certainly are equipped for every contingency,’ she remarked.

  Aaron jumped off the coach box. ‘Rubbish, but I can read greed on people’s faces.’

  ‘And also spot someone who is dumb and a bit retarded,’ Anna added, unable to resist a mild rebuke which Aaron ignored as he opened a compartment on the side of the wagon.

  ‘That was a white lie to prevent those men of even thinking of asking you questions. When it is a question of avoiding one of the city mayor’s jails, you cannot afford to be scrupulous. Had it come to the worst, I would have trotted out the story of you being a leper. Now climb down and give me a hand.’

  Anna jumped off the coach box and took the shovel that Aaron had taken from a side compartment of the wagon. He himself grabbed a pickaxe and was already looking around for a suitable place.

  Anna still stood there undecided, shovel in hand.

  ‘You have an answer for everything, haven’t you?’

  ‘Well, like every human being I am subject to the will of Yahweh, our Lord. But God has also given me reason, and I try to use it to my own advantage.’

  He scratched his beard thoughtfully. ‘And presently God has put me to the test because I had the foolish idea of bringing the body of my servant with me. That was stupid. Of course, he would have deserved a burial in sacred ground, as his faith required. But it is probably better . . .’ he said walking towards the edge of the forest where he found a shady spot with a view of the hilly countryside, ‘. . . if we bury him here and now.’

  Anna did not ask any more questions and soon they were absorbed in their sweaty work digging a hole big enough for the servant’s corpse.

  ‘That should do,’ Aaron said finally and wiped the sweat off his forehead with a cloth. The bandage around his head had become bloodied again. ‘Let’s go and fetch him.’

  ‘You are bleeding again from your wound!’ Anna said.

  ‘There is no time to tend it now. I will look after it at home,’ Aaron replied.

  They pulled the wrapped corpse from the wagon, carried it to the pit and lowered it in as gently as possible. Then they filled the hole with soil.

  When they had finished, a small mound marked the spot. Anna fixed a simple cross from two branches bound together with a piece of string and stuck it into the earth at the head of the grave.

  Now they stood silently beside the burial place, and Aaron addressed a few words to the soul of the poor deceased: ‘Nicolas, you have been a faithful servant and bodyguard to me. You defended me at the risk of your own life, as you had promised. We do not have a relative or a friend here who could recite the Kaddish for you, but I have a young Christian man beside me. He will say a prayer for you. May God rest your soul.’

  Aaron took a step back and looked at Anna expectantly. Anna cleared her throat and began to chant the Lord’s Prayer in a high, bright voice as she had learned in the monk’s choir at Heisterbach.

  Pater noster, qui es in caelis:

  sanctificetur nomen tuum.

  Adveniat regnum tuum.

  Fiat voluntas tua,

  sicut in caelo, et in terra.

  Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie.

  Et dimitte nobis debita nostra,

  sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris.

  Et ne nos inducas in tentationem.

  Sed libera nos a malo.

  Amen.

  When he joined in the ‘Amen’, Aaron was visibly impressed with Anna’s angelic voice and the fervour with which she prayed. Anna had a feeling that he was watching her with furtive sidelong glances, but eventually she made the sign of the cross and Aaron packed away the shovel and pickaxe in the side of the covered wagon without saying a word. They both climbed onto the coach box. But before driving off, Aaron turned to her and asked: ‘Tell me – how old are you?’

  Anna with her chin held high replied, ‘I am well past sixteen.’

  ‘How well past?’ he asked and could not help repressing a smile.

  ‘Ten weeks almost. Why?’

  Aaron shrugged his shoulders.

  ‘No reason,’ he said and as he shook the reins and clicked his tongue, the horses set off.

  Chapter II

  They had travelled in silence for some time when Aaron began to speak.

  ‘I will make a suggestion to you, Brother Marian.’ He pronounced the words ‘Brother Marian’ with a slightly mocking undertone. ‘You may come with me. I am deeply indebted to you. I own a house outside the town, a privilege granted by the emperor for my services. Even though Frederick II has not too much support in these parts because he spends all his time in Apulia, this privilege is respected. I am also under the protection of the Count of Landskron.’ He sighed. ‘How long this is to last is written in the stars. But if you wish, you can live with us for a while, the house is big enough. With us – that is, with my sister who helps me with the patients and who is also my cook and housekeeper, my maidservant and myself. Once you have recovered from your rash, you might lend me a hand. I have noticed how skilful you were with my injuries. Did you learn about medicine at the monastery?’

  Anna pulled her hood back over her head as they passed a peasant family on their way into town with a few bits of earthenware.

  Once they were out of earshot, she replied: ‘I was the famulus of the infirmarius. And Father Urban was an excellent infirmarius. He taught me everything he knew,’ she said, not without pride. ‘And I was always an eager student. My greatest wish is to help the sick and to heal them.’

  ‘It sounds like a perfect arrangement. Well – will we shake hands on it?’

  The medicus held out his hand as if he were a dealer at a horse fair.

  ‘It is my pleasure and honour,’ she said seriously, and really meant it.

  ‘Wonderful. A Jewish medicus and a monastic famulus. That is a good combination,’ Aaron said with a smile and tried to get the horses to go faster by clicking his tongue and vigorously shaking the reins. But the draft horses continued their easy trot which Aaron accepted as calmly as everything else that had happened on their journey.

  Gradually they approached a large city. More and more people were in the streets. Laden wagons, beggars in rags, men on horseback, traders with carts, barefoot children, craftsmen with their tools – half the world seemed to be heading for the same destination: Oppenheim.

  As they neared the city walls and Landskron Castle appeared on the skyline above the city, Anna and Aaron were delayed in a long procession of wagons and people that was moving at walking pace towards the great gate of the city. Further ahead, a wagon with sandstone blocks had overturned and cut off almost the entire road. The sandstone blocks were destined for the construction of St Catherine’s Church, where work was in full swing and attracted stonemasons, bricklayers, carpenters and handymen in great numbers. At last, after the long, hard winter, people could hope for bread and work, but they also had to find lodgings and provisions. This in turn filled the inns and hostels and drove up the price of accommodation, bread and beer. Oppenheim had turned into a flourishing city, and if St Catherine’s Church also had a holy relic to exhibit, the city would become a place of pilgrimage. That would greatly please the nobles at Landskron castle, because the flocks of pilgrims visiting the sacred relic would add greatly to their tax coff
ers. At the laying of the foundation stone of the church, Archbishop Konrad von Hochstaden had announced that by using his connections at the Holy See, he hoped to acquire for Oppenheim a relic of Saint Catherine that had been found at the foot of Mount Sinai. However, generous endowments and donations to the Holy Mother Church would be called for.

  The wagon with the sandstone had overturned so awkwardly that the oxen pulling it had to be destroyed. Helpers and onlookers had blocked the road completely and panic spread among humans and animals unable to move either forwards or backwards. When cavalry from the Gautor gate arrived at a gallop to investigate the cause of the growing crowd, the tumult increased. Fists flew and a few ragged individuals used the opportunity to filch a piece of fresh ox meat, ignoring the despairing wagon-driver as they hacked at the slain animals with their knives. When the mounted soldiers finally reached the scene of the accident, they lashed out indiscriminately at the blood-stained meat thieves with the flats of their sabres, creating total chaos.

  While Anna could not take her eyes off the apocalyptic scene, made even more dramatic by a fast-approaching thunderstorm, Aaron managed to move their wagon off the road. Driving over a hill top, they lurched and bumped till they reached another road that led along the city walls well away from the hurly-burly. Anna kept looking back over her shoulder to where even the torrential rain did not manage to cool down people’s tempers. On the contrary, the howls of those fighting and the roaring soldiers now doggedly cutting and thrusting merged into a cacophony of mindless violence.

  But when the sheets of rain darkened the scene and dimmed her view, she looked ahead again. As the downpour continued, Aaron urged on his horses with shouts, reins and whip, and the animals responded, probably sensing the closeness of their stables. Anna sincerely hoped that the horses and their master knew where they were going, for she couldn’t see a thing through the grey wall of rain as she clung to the coach box with all her strength. The nightmarish journey led along a wall, which was hardly recognisable until Aaron took a sharp turn left and the covered wagon lurched and almost overturned.