Misfit Trials

Chapter 43

It has been years, YEARS since Mother Gothel had lived on the outskirts of this awful little village. By the Moon Mother, this is the worst placement that she could think of. The people are so closed minded, no one ever visits from outside of the area, the doctor still uses leeches, and they all treated women that were single as a witch.

Granted that they weren't wrong. Mother Gothel was a witch, but not for the reasons that they thought. Sometimes, a single woman is just a single woman.

Regardless, she took care of her garden and the young women that often needed her help in such a small town. The spices, herbs, flowers, and berries that she grew within her high walls were the things that helped her make a living. Women from all over would seek her for maladies and remedies.

Periods, menopause, pregnancies, abortions, Mother Gothel could take care of it all. And because the doctors in their villages rarely knew more than how to set a broken bone, she was well cared for by the women.

However, because she was seen as a witch, they had to come to her by the cover of darkness.

It added to the perception of her being a witch, but needs must and that is got the women what they needed.

Men rarely crossed her threshold, though when they did, it was because they were in desperate need of caring for the women in their lives.

That was how she met Andreas and Elsa.

They were a young couple, in their mid-teens, when Andreas brought Elsa to Mother Gothel's gates. Mother Gothel had thought that the young woman was in the family way, but that wasn't the case.

"Mother Gothel, we need your help," Andreas said, carrying Elsa in his arms.

On a quick inspection, Mother Gothel was easily able to see that the young woman was pale and sweating, though frost had started to cover the ground during the night.

"Hurry, bring her in," Mother Gothel urged the young man, closing and locking her gate behind him. "Into the house and the bed beside the fire."

Once Elsa was settled on the straw bed in the kitchen, Mother Gothel begins removing the layers that cover her body.

Andreas tried to leave the room, but Mother Gothel's stern voice stops him. "I am sure that you have seen her naked on more than one occasion. And even if you have not, I need your help. Come back and help with her shoes and leggings."

Andreas seemed extremely uncomfortable with being in this situation, but he did exactly as Mother Gothel said.

"Finish undressing her and then grab those blankets from the corner and bring them here. And throw more logs on the fire. She is trying to sweat out this fever, but she is freezing. We have to warm her until the fever breaks," Mother Gothel directs Andreas.

He does as she says as the witch examines the girl. She is shivering, her eyes rolled to the back of her head with the fever that is ravaging her body. And as she checks the young woman's eyes, mouth, chest, breathing, and skin, she peppers Andreas with questions.

When did this start?

What were the first symptoms?

Has she lost weight?

How is her appetite?

Is she coughing up anything?

How much blood is she coughing up?

As soon as she is finished with her examination, Mother Gothel moves to a table set against the wall laden with various stopped bottles of powders, potions, and mixtures, leaving Andreas to finish the tasks that she set for him.

After several minutes of mixing, talking to herself, and measuring items, she turns back to Elsa. "Hold her up. She needs to drink this tonic to bring her fever down."

Andreas immediately scoops Elsa up, sitting behind her and cradling her against his chest.

Mother Gothel croons to the nearly unconscious girl, telling her to drink each spoonful of the tonic that she gives her, praising her for drinking it down and telling her that she only has a little more to go.

Once the tonic is drunk, Mother Gothel has Andreas put Elsa down and waves him to follow her to her table. "Your woman is very sick. She is consumptive. I can treat the symptoms, slow the progress of the disease, but I cannot stop it."

"Anything. Anything that you can do, I will obey," Andreas says, desperate for Elsa to be ok. She was to be his wife, their wedding set to take place the following spring. He loved her deeply and needed her to be ok.

"I need you to go out to the northeast corner of the garden and find this plant." Mother Gothel holds a purple flower in the shape of a star. "Even in the snow, this plant will be flowering, for it very powerful."

"What is it?" Andreas asked, in awe that Mother Gothel would have such a plant in her garden, one that could help his Elsa.

"Rapunzel. It will dramatically slow down the progress of the consumption. But I need you to be absolutely sure that your woman isn't pregnant. For if she is, the consequences could be very dire. I can do other things until the babe is born to keep her safe, but the rapunzel plant with an unborn babe is not a good mix," Mother Gothel explains.

"No, she isn't pregnant," Andreas assures the witch. Elsa couldn't be. The last time that they had had sex was two weeks ago.

"Good," Mother Gothel says. "Gather as much rapunzel as you can. I'll stand watch over your woman."