The Secret of Isobel Key (9 page)

Sitting down, Lou was uncomfortably aware that Brian was leaning against her seat; the warmth from his body radiated toward her, and she suppressed a shiver of delight at their closeness. Nervously, she focused on Tammy, but the conversation had died down. Lou watched the darkened landscape sail past the windows while Tammy buried herself in her
guidebook.
Losing herself in a pleasant daydream involving Brian and a field of wildflowers, Lou would have missed their stop if he hadn't tapped her shoulder lightly.

“Leuchars, that's our stop. Come on, ladies.” He swung his large hiking pack over his shoulder and headed determinedly for the door. Her mind still hazy from the dream, Lou just stared after him for a moment. Finally waking up, she struggled to get her bag un-wedged from the shelf where it was half-buried under other people's luggage, and she rushed to follow Brian and Tammy off the train into the city of St. Andrews.

Isobel did not like the new doctor, not at all. Her first meeting with him was in the home of her sister, and the doctor was downright rude to her. When Margaret eagerly introduced them, she had gone on and on about the wonder of their shared medical professions. Embarrassed, Isobel tried to engage the doctor in a more natural vein of conversation, but he had cut her off abruptly to inform her that he wouldn't stand for his patient being treated with her brand of foolishness. Shocked, Isobel was unable to respond while the man proceeded to tell her that medicine as a practice was far too scientific for a woman to understand, and he trusted he would not be forced to endure her presence again. Fuming, Isobel left the house after bidding her sister a curt farewell.

Why her brother-in-law had sent for the man was beyond her; surely there were medical professionals with a kinder demeanor in Edinburgh, people better suited to setting their clients at ease while curing their ills, but that did not seem to trouble Alexander. Isobel tried to share her feelings with Margaret during their next visit but Margaret laughed at her worries and told her that the man was an excellent doctor and a dear friend of her husband, so she was sure it would all be quite alright. Isobel fell silent, for she deeply wanted her sister to be correct, but all her instincts screamed that this man was not fit for his profession, and she was worried about her sister.

It seemed strange to her that a man would willingly leave a successful practice in a booming city like Edinburgh to come to St. Andrews. For all the prestige of the university and the scholars it attracted, the village was still small, and Isobel thought that the size of St. Andrews compared to Edinburgh might be causing the doctor to adjust in many ways.

She still visited Margaret whenever she could, and each time she brought with her mixtures for teas that she urged her to drink throughout her pregnancy. Margaret did so, always having a cup while Isobel was there, and she claimed she hid the tea to drink later, when her husband was not around to complain. Isobel was not afraid of her brother-in-law's protestations, for she knew from her years of helping her mother, and her own experience as a midwife that there was much to be said for the healing powers of the herbal concoctions she prepared. Many a time, she reasoned, she had seen a difficult pregnancy turn to a happy, healthy birth through constant consumption of raspberry leaf tea.

Isobel had no reason to doubt her own methods, and she laughed aloud at the precautions her sister insisted on taking to hide her medicines from her husband, but inside, she was frightened of the powerful influence Alexander seemed to exert over her sister. True, Margaret had been young when the wed, only fifteen, but as she grew, Isobel would have thought her sister would have grown the strength to speak to her husband about what she herself believed and wanted. In actuality, however, Margaret was meek and mild with her husband, and did not dare to speak against him in any matter, large or small. Isobel worried that her sister might allow the doctor to mishandle her body, and urged Margaret to trust her own intuition about her health and the health of the babe growing inside her. Women, she reminded her, had been bringing forth babies since Eve first bit the apple, and a woman, Isobel suggested, was a better judge of her own body than any man. Margaret agreed readily enough with her sister, but still, Isobel felt a gnawing fear in her belly as her sister's pregnancy progressed.

“And the pope, Benedict XIII, declared St. Andrews a university on August 28th, 1413.” Tammy was excitedly reading aloud from her guidebook as she, Lou, and Brian wandered about the sprawling university buildings in St. Andrews. They had started sightseeing early in the morning, despite arriving close to midnight the night before, and they had already been walking around the university campus for two hours now. Brian had given up his role as tour guide, and he seemed to enjoy listening to Tammy read from her book. Now and again he chimed in with an obscure fact or two, but he seemed at ease, his hands shoved deep in his pockets, his smile broad and genuine.

Lou sighed, eyeing Brian from underneath her ridiculous hat. She felt awkward in it, but she was grateful for the warmth; the wind was sharper here on the coast than it had been in the highlands. She would have been even more thankful if her warmth were coming from Brian taking her hand in his and holding it while they walked, or putting an arm across her shoulders and drawing her in close to his body. Her fantasies helped keep her blood flowing, especially into her flushed cheeks, but Brian hadn't made any kind of romantic move on her or Tammy. Probably his grand plan for romancing Tammy couldn't start until he was certain that Lou was buried up to her eyeballs in moldy research in some library carrel. Lou sighed bitterly at the thought, and Brian and Tammy both turned toward her.

“Not cold, are you, Louisa?” Brian asked with concern.

Before Lou could answer, Tammy laughed and said, “No, Lou's never cold. She must just be bored of listening to me talk. I've been talking her ear off with guidebooks this whole trip, and the poor thing is tired of me.” When Lou tried to protest, Tammy waved off her statements as if she were flicking a fly. “Don't worry, Lou. I'm done expounding on the history of this place. Maybe when you've done a bit of research on those witches, you'll have some things to tell me. Brian,” she said as she turned her full attention on their handsome escort, “when are we hitting up the archives? I think I'd like to research some of the folk traditions, too. Since you said that's what you'll be doing, too, I'm sure I won't get lost once we get there.” She smiled at him flirtatiously, and Lou felt her stomach turn sour.

Brian glanced at Tammy, and turned to Lou. “The archives are scattered,” he started to say, “and the papers you'll be interested in aren't in the same building as the ones I am after, but I'll walk you girls over there first and drop you off.”

That's strange, Lou thought, he's not jumping at Tammy's suggestion that the two of them go do research together. Thinking quickly, Lou tugged on Tammy's arm. “Couldn't you stay with me, at least today? I could really use your help with this little project.” Lou wondered if she could find the courage to confess her growing attraction to their Scottish companion once the two girls were alone. If she didn't, she'd have to stand by and watch Tammy flirt with him for the rest of the trip, and Lou didn't think she could stand that.

Tammy pouted for a moment, thinking, but then her smile brightened. “Okay,” she chirped, “today I'll help Lou, and maybe tomorrow I can help Brian!” She linked her left arm through Lou's and grabbed Brian's arm with her free hand. “Lead me to the library!”

Margaret's pregnancy progressed well, and Isobel visited frequently, each time bringing another mixture of herbs to be taken as tea. The time passed quickly, and although Isobel was not called to attend the birth, her fears about the doctor seemed unfounded, for he had done his job and done it well.

Isobel was thrilled to hear the news that whatever her misgivings about the doctor, he had delivered her sister of a healthy little girl. When Isobel went to visit her new niece, she was touched to learn that her sister had named the little child Isobel Anne, after her older sister. Alexander, however, insisted on calling his daughter Nan, and the nickname stuck. Isobel was not offended; it was enough for her to know that her beloved niece shared her own Christian name. Isobel doted on the child, and she was even more often seen in the village of St. Andrews, walking the path to her sister's home.

Alexander was most insistent that Margaret wean the girl quickly so that they could try for another child. He made no secret of the fact that this time he hoped for a boy to carry on the family name, and he railed at Isobel when she cautioned him not to rush his wife back into the childbed. Alexander spoke with his friend the physician, and triumphantly informed his wife and her sister that any resistance to an immediate pregnancy was nothing more than womanly fancy. Quietly, Margaret acquiesced to her husband's wishes, and there was nothing Isobel could say that would sway her sister's mind.

Before departing for her cottage, Isobel offered one more thing to her sister—if Margaret was determined to rush her body into pregnancy again, at the very least Isobel could take little Nan to her own cottage for a week or two, to give the Nairns time to go about making another baby in private. Isobel understood from her work that the demands of motherhood could often stand in the way of the continued procreation of a family, and she made her offer in good faith.

Alexander would have nothing to do with this plan, however, and Isobel parted from the family in a huff, offended that her brother-in-law did not trust her to offer good care to her darling niece. Their animosity deepened, and although Isobel continued to visit her sister and her niece, she now departed immediately when her brother-in-law appeared. He, in turn, refused to allow Margaret to travel to Isobel's home to see her sister, limiting their visits to the days when Isobel could make the journey in to town and back again before nightfall.

Isobel stayed away from her brother-in-law after that, and stuck close to her cottage on the outskirts of the village. Despite her growing desire to be left alone, she continued to practice her trade. Her herbal knowledge and skilled hands eased many a birth in the area around St. Andrews. Children loved Isobel, and to their parents she appeared as a kind of strange, isolated guardian angel, protecting young and old with her tinctures and care. No one was frightened of her, then.

The basement of the main library was as dark and mysterious as Lou could have imagined, and Brian led them into the murky depths in search of court records and some of the rarer documents pertaining to the history of Scotland. Once he had deposited them in the dungeon-like space, Brian looked uncertainly at the girls. He hesitated, as if he wanted to say something, but then he closed his mouth.

Desperate to keep him around, Lou forced herself to speak. “Thanks for your help. Will we see you later?” She tried unsuccessfully to sound nonchalant, but felt her heart drop through the floor when Brian shook his head.

His next words surprised her. “I thought I might stay and help you look. If that's alright with you, Louisa?”

Lou's heart soared back into her body, and she hastily assured Brian that she would love his help. Tammy watched the whole exchange with interest, and when she caught Lou's eye behind Brian's back, she winked conspiratorially. Lou shrugged, but she could feel herself turning red. Had she been too obvious?

Tammy settled herself on the floor with a box of papers, while Lou and Brian each spread out at one of the large, low tables in the center of the room. There weren't chairs to rest on, and Lou's back was screaming in pain from being hunched over the table after less than an hour had passed, but for some reason, she was determined to make a go of this excursion. She still wasn't sure why she was compelled to learn more about the witches; maybe it was her new faith, or maybe she was just curious. Either way, something had captivated her attention, and she wanted to see it through.

There were hundreds, no, thousands of old judicial records, written in scrawling script on broken paper, the faded ink making it awfully hard to decipher any of the information they found. Lou wasn't even sure exactly what information she was looking for, but Brian's words about her having the chance to tell the stories of some of the women and men echoed in her mind as they worked. The three of them worked in relative silence, punctuated only by exclamations from Tammy as she discovered a particularly gruesome case record.

Wouldn't it be amazing to do something that really mattered?
Lou glanced up from the stack of papers in her lap. She'd never done research like this before, but there was something strangely exhilarating about the feel of the old documents in her hands. She inhaled deeply, not minding the stale smell of old leather and dust that surrounded her. Old or new, books and paper carried their own distinct smell, and Lou breathed it in with a smile. She'd always loved the smell of books, and that had been one of the reasons she'd been so happy to land a job at a bookstore in college.
It might have been better
, Lou thought,
if I'd worked in an antique bookstore.
Tammy was rifling through a box of her own with grim determination. Lou shifted her eyes to the left, where Brian was slowly and methodically reading the pages and sorting them in stacks in front of him. Lou's eyes lingered on the handsome tour guide.

Taking in his strong features, his brilliant red hair, and the bulk of his shoulders, Lou felt her cheeks heating up. Back at Lesley, it had always been a joke among the undergrads that hooking up in the library stacks was a rite of passage. Lou had never had any firsthand experience with that, but now, here in the musty archives, she found herself daydreaming about Brian. Maybe he'd pull her around a dark corner and --