The Rose of Provence by Susanna Lehner Read Free Book Online

her in.
    “ The princess sent me,” Amrita started her story, but the man
interrupted.
    “ What about going for a walk in the park, and you tell me what
you want there? I start every day with a substantial walk, but I
haven’t completed my task for today yet.”
    “ Why not?” The girl nodded, and she was glad that in this
case, she did not have to stay alone with the man in his own suite,
within four walls.
    The foliage of old lime trees cast a beneficent shadow over
the promenade traversing the castle park. While they were walking
under their interlocking branches, Amrita told him how long the
princess has wanted to have a child, and maybe her dreams will come
true finally, but she does not want to be beset by doubts until the
symptoms appear. That is why she would like the doctor to glance at
the sheets of her future and tell her what you see among the lines.
Nostradame promised her to pay his respects in the ducal suite
right before lunch, then he stepped up to the carefully pruned rose
bush, tore off a palm-full of crimson red flower and handed it to
her.
    “ Rose for the rose, as the sign of my homage.”
    “ Oh, thank you! This is beautiful!” Amrita leaned over the
velvety petals. “And its smell is heavenly! I hope the king’s
gardener will not find out; he is remarkably sensitive about his
roses,” she giggled confused.
    “ It is a really nice-looking flower, but it cannot come near
to your beauty,” said Michel, as he looked into her eyes
meaningfully.
    Nostradame tried to conceal the volcano, which was about to
erupt in his soul, with moderate courtship. The love that has been
buried under petrified lava for fifteen years, came to a boil
again, and was burning at the same temperature as at that time in
Provence. Together with passion, hope revived in Michel’s heart:
perhaps now, he can have Amrita, because by being a mature, but
still youngish man, a famous and wealthy doctor, he can offer her a
luxurious life. And by now, earl d’Angerville who took use of the
girl’s naivety, has also disappeared into thin air…
    Amrita felt that a destructive storm rages inside the doctor,
but she tried to shoo away the sinister thoughts.
    “ Monsieur de Nostradame, without questioning your sincerity, I
must say that you’re exaggerating!” She cast her eyes
down.
    “ No, no way!” The doctor protested. “Believe me, I was in
every corner of the world, I met several beautiful ladies, but
their beauty cannot come close to yours.”
    Amrita could not really say anything to this, so she
veritably felt relieved when she heard that someone was shouting
her name from the other end of the path.
    “ Amrita!” The metallic voice of earl de la Roux resounded
under the foliage of the sleepy lime trees.
    Amrita and the Doctor turned around simultaneously, and they
were watching the figure that was approaching fast, so Amrita did
not notice that Nostradame’s face became increasingly darker when
he could detect the other man’s features.
    “ I wanted to say good-bye to you before I go back to Langeais,
and they told me that I can find you here,” sputtered the earl to
Amrita at one go, and only after that he glanced at the man
standing next to her. “Morgan de la Roux,” he offered his
hand.
    The world crashed down around the doctor. A world that never
really existed anywhere else, but in his imagination.
    “ Michel de Nostradame,” he returned the greeting, and he could
not decide what upsets him more: the fact that the man who sours
his life appeared again near Amrita, or that he did not age a
single day, just like the girl. A terrible presentiment squeezed
his heart with an icy hand, but for the time being, he was unable
to think what this could mean. He knew, however, that the time,
which irresistibly streams towards decay, is never so gracious to
mortal human beings.

Chapter 8
    Glance behind the Veil
    Louvre, Paris – 29 April 1543

    By the time Nostradame arrived to the ducal suite, Catherine
was