The Bloodletter's Daughter (50 page)

The sun warmed the scalp of the young doctor, her shortcropped hair glistening in the brilliant light of a late summer morning. A thick book lay across her lap, open to a wildly colorful page of medicinal herbs and potions. She looked up every now and then at His Majesty’s botanical gardens as her fingertips moved gracefully just above the words on the pages, a ghostly caress of the strange text.

Her fingers were stained all the colors of the rainbow from herbal potions and distillations to cure the sick. Though she never personally attended the king, one of her potions this year had cured him of a disease of the liver, and in gratitude he never inquired from whence she had come. It was simply understood that she was the loving wife of Jakub Horcicky de Tenepec, and worked at his side creating potent medicines that cured the ill, both rich and poor.

The young woman contemplated her tinted hands, hands that could at last heal the sick. She felt the warmth of the sun on her skin and looked with gratitude at her surroundings.

In the August sunshine, the drone of bees in the wisteria competed with the call of the nightingale and the chirping
songbirds in the garden. The butterflies flitted from one exotic flower to another in an explosion of color no painter could capture. In the coolness of the deep pond, multicolored carp swam slowly under the lavender and white blossoms of the lily pads, making gentle ripples on the surface of the water.

The doctor stretched her arms, breathing in the fragrant air. When she lowered her arms again, she brushed the scar on her cheek that disappeared into the thicket of her short hair. The fingers of her hand lingered there, tracing the raised flesh of the old wound. She closed her eyes, her mouth twitching with a memory.

A throaty call from the gates made the woman’s eyes fly open, and her mouth broadened in a smile. She set the book down on the bench and ran toward a woman with flame-red hair, accompanying a child perhaps two years of age, an exquisite pale-skinned girl with dark auburn hair and glowing green eyes.

The women greeted each other with kisses and an embrace that lasted far longer than any casual greeting. They stared into each other’s eyes and wept. Then together they looked down at the book on the bench and the tears dried, their mouths drawing up once more into smiles.

The red-haired child begged to see the book, and the doctor spread its pages wide so the toddler could examine it.

The little girl stared open-mouthed at the women sliding down chutes of green water, splashing into the deep pools below. Then she suddenly laughed, the sun gleaming off the white of her baby teeth.

A tall man came out of the garden house with a flowering plant in his hands. Seeing the visitors, he set the plant down carefully and strode slowly but urgently across the tall grass, one hip swinging broadly in a limp. He embraced the red-haired woman and kissed her wrist. Then he bent down and swept the toddler up in his arms.

The little girl whispered “Papa” to him shyly, and he kissed her twice on her pale cheeks.

The short-haired woman carefully closed the book and took a deep sigh as she tipped her chin toward the blue sky, her lips moving in a silent prayer. The red-haired mother nodded and clasped her friend’s hand.

Together the four walked into the house.

History records that the scandalous butchery of the bathmaid Marketa Pichlerova rocked the European royal courts in 1608. Rudolf II fell into a deep melancholy and dismissed his advisers and ministers, leaving his valet, Philip Lang, in charge of state affairs. In June 1608, Matthias and his allies marched toward Prague and forced Rudolf II to yield the kingdoms of Moravia, Hungary, and Austria. In 1611, Matthias seized Bohemia and left Rudolf with only the titular crown of Holy Roman emperor.

Rudolf II lived out the remainder of his life in seclusion surrounded by his personal servants. He became a recluse who puttered about his botanical gardens and his beloved Belvedere. His heart broke at the death of his beloved lion, Mohammed, and the king himself died two days later, on January 20, 1612.

The subsequent Thirty Years’ War, involving most of Europe in the struggle between Catholics and Protestants, devastated Bohemia. In the course of the battles of religion, Doctor Jakub Horcicky de Tenepec, a Catholic prisoner, was exchanged for a Protestant prisoner, Doctor Jan Jesenius. Jan Jesenius was later shot along with twenty-six other Protestants in Prague’s Old Town Square in 1621 after the Battle of White Mountain.

Doctor Horcicky, taking the Catholic side of the war, wrote a pamphlet entitled “Catholic Confession, or Description of the Right Common Christian Confession, about Hope, Credence and Love.” He was quite successful professionally, creating a medicine from the distillation of plants called “aqua sinapii” that proved quite profitable. He held the title of imperial chemist both under Rudolf II and Emperor Matthias.

A curious discovery was made in Rozmberk Castle, in the year following Don Julius’s death. Among his possessions was a copy of the
Malleus Maleficarum
, a two-tome book explaining sorcery and witchcraft. This is explained in H.C. Erik Midelfort’s
Mad Princes of Renaissance Germany
:

“Surely this was the well-known
Malleus Maleficarum
which we can surmise was purchased not to amuse Don Julius, but on the suspicion that he, like his father, was bewitched and perhaps some further steps toward locating the witch needed to be taken.”

The Coded Book, which plays an important role in this novel, is known as the Voynich manuscript and is housed in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University. The mysterious tome, written in an indecipherable text, somehow passed into the hands of King Rudolf’s personal physician and director of his exquisite botanical gardens after the Hapsburg’s death.

The name Jakub Horcicky de Tenepec, botanist and personal physician to Rudolf II, was inscribed on the first page of the manuscript.

1. What inspired you to write
The Bloodletter’s Daughter
?

My husband and I hiked through the Czech Republic on a self-guided tour with Greenways Travel Club in 2005. We spent a couple days at Cesky Krumlov, a picture-perfect village in Bohemia. Rozmberk Castle, rising from the Vltava River, looked like an illustration from
Grimms’ Fairy Tales
. We took a tour and learned the legend of the Lady in White, a Rozmberk ghost who walks the halls at night.

Another tale, which was absolutely true and quite disturbing, was the story of Don Julius, bastard son of Rudolf II. He was imprisoned for his unsavory conduct and for stabbing his servant. This mad prince became obsessed with Marketa, a Bohemian bathmaid and the daughter of the local barber-bloodletter.

I couldn’t wait to get home to write!

I subsequently learned that King Rudolf II, Holy Roman emperor, had among his treasures an illuminated manuscript in a secret code. It is called today the Voynich manuscript.

Now I
really
had a novel.

2. How long did it take you to write?

About three years total. This was including many rewrites. The initial draft took about a year.

3. What’s your writing process like (Do you dive in? Do you carefully plot? Do you need music or silence? Do you write at night or in the morning?

I always look for an intriguing story, a fascinating character. Once I have that character (or characters) I start out with a conflict, and see how the person reveals his or her character through thoughts or actions. For example, with Marketa—I knew she was a bathmaid. How would my Marketa react to bathing stinking bodies and performing sexual favors?

I tend to write in the morning, but when I really get going, that stretches into the afternoon and even editing in the evening. When I work on a book, I try for one thousand words a day, but sometimes it is more. A good day is four to five hours of solid writing, and then a few hours of research and editing.

I write all year long, but I especially love to write in the winter. My schedule is to write for four hours in the morning and then take my dog on an hour to hour-and-a-half cross-country ski. I usually cross-country ski four or five days a week and downhill ski on weekends.

I have found the repetitive motion and solitary experience of cross-country skiing is one of the best ways to find inspiration. There are places over the hill where I have come up with flashes of clarity, seen a new plot point, or figured out the motives of a character.

4. What’s your favorite part of being a writer? What’s the most difficult part?

My favorite part of being a writer is the actual writing. I love the “deep zone” when the story takes off, when I hear the characters’ voices, and especially when the language is flowing.

The most difficult part of writing? Ah, that is easy...nearly three decades without being published!

5. What was your favorite scene or character to write? Did you have any difficulty with a particular scene or character? If so, what made it difficult, and how did you overcome it?

The most difficult scene in the book to write was the chapter where Marketa cuts Don Julius’s ropes. I had to show how she was truly falling in love with this madman, and convince the reader (and myself) that she really thought she knew what she was doing. Marketa cut his ropes because Don Julius had found a way into her heart. Yes, it was foolish, but haven’t we all done crazy things in our lives?

I particularly like writing scenes with magic and folklore. And, curiously, I loved writing the historical scenes with Matthias. Great fun!

6. What sort of research did you do for
The Bloodletter’s Daughter
?

I spent a great deal of time researching the Hapsburg reign of Rudolf II, the history of Don Julius, and Marketa Pichlerova. I traveled back to Cesky Krumlov and walked the streets for days in the middle of February. I was accompanied by my Krumlov guide, Jiri Vaclavicek, who had done a great deal of research himself and could point out landmarks—the market, Annabella’s house, Marketa’s house, Barber’s Bridge, the cemetery, the old Jesuit monastery. He also told me the sordid name—Musle—that was Marketa’s curse in the novel.

Jiri dared me to use the epithet in my book, saying, “You Americans are too prudish. Don’t make this the Disneyland version!”

I also worked with Zuzana Petraskova, a guide and at the time a graduate student in Prague. She had access to the University of
Prague’s library and brought me lots of historical records to help me with my research. (Both guides also translated for me.) I contacted Prague’s television station for a copy of a special on Don Julius. A Czech friend in Aspen helped me translate the contents. (By the way, the one portrait of Don Julius shown on the show made him look very handsome.)

7. What sort of advice would you give to aspiring authors?

Enjoy the process of writing. Thrive on it, rejoice! No one can take this joy away from you. That passion is what we live on as writers, what feeds us. (Otherwise I would never have lasted twenty-seven years as an unpublished writer.)

8. What are you working on now?

I am working on a story of Virginia Tacci, the fourteen-year-old girl who rode the Palio horse race in Siena in 1581—bareback! She is Siena’s heroine to this day.

1. In
   The Bloodletter’s Daughter
   , which character did you find most compelling? Most loathsome? Most sympathetic?
   
    
   
2. Marketa has two very strong, very different friendships: one with Katarina and one with Annabella. Which character would you gravitate toward as a best friend, and why?
   
    
   
3. Was Annabella right to take Jakub to her bed, knowing her friend loved him? How is Marketa able to trust her, especially when Annabella and Jakub hold Marketa’s life in their hands in the attempt to liberate her from Don Julius?
   
    
   
4. Don Julius was brought up in the castles of his father, Rudolf II, while Marketa was born into a Bohemian bathhouse. Who would you say had a more difficult childhood, and why?
   
    
   
5. Would you have freed Don Julius from his ropes?
   
    
   
6. In the historical record, Lucie Pichlerova actually did accompany her daughter Marketa to the gates of Rozmberk Castle, in order to exchange her daughter for her husband. How do you think a mother could reconcile such an act? As a reader, do you feel any sympathy for her?
   
    
   
7. Rudolf and his brother Matthias engage in an epic battle for the throne. Who would you have wanted as king and emperor, given their individual strengths and faults?
   
    
   
8. Is there anything that has ever fascinated you or enraptured you like the Coded Book of Wonder did Don Julius?
   
    
   
9. Czech folklore plays a role in the story. What did you think about Krumlov legends, such as the White Lady, being included?
   
    
   
10. What did you think about the ending, both in the final showdown with Don Julius and the epilogue? Were you surprised?