The Chesil Apothecary
By Kathy Sharp
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About this ebook
Inspired by the stark beauty and wild flowers of the Chesil Beach, this is a story of a wandering 'plant whisperer' - andthe startling magical secrets that follow him along the shingle ...
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The Chesil Apothecary - Kathy Sharp
All rights reserved, no part of this publication may be either reproduced or transmitted by any means whatsoever without the prior permission of the publisher.
Text & Illustrations © Kathy Sharp 2019
Editing by Veneficia Publications and Fi Woods
VENEFICIA PUBLICATIONS UK veneficiapublications.com
Typesetting © Veneficia Publications
October 2020
A Magical Tale
Written & Illustrated
By
Kathy Sharp
Contents Part One
The Plant Whisperer 1
Plants have their Secrets 6
Reaching the Crossroads 10
Dr Thrift’s First Story: Stronger than the Stars 12
A Predatory Daisy 16
Stone and Bone 19
Dr Thrift’s Second Story: Ill-gotten Gains 21
Love and Parsnips 24
Dr Thrift’s Third Story: The Devil-Bird 28
Essence of Storksbill 31
The Benefit of Cures 33
Dr Thrift’s Fourth Story: A Singular Ringlet 36
Colic and Garlic 39
The Plant Whisperer
Inspired by the sea-thrift (Armeria maritima), a tough little plant that thrives in inhospitable places – like Chesil Beach.
He trudged along the top of the great beach, the sound of shifting pebbles following him at a respectful distance.
The close-woven fish basket he carried was clearly empty, its weight not pulling him off balance in the least.
The fishermen tending their boats far below, at the water’s edge cocked an eye at him.
Not one of ours by no means.
Not any kind of fisherperson, for that matter, despite the basket. This was a man of a very different kidney, obviously seeking something. Some regarded him with pure curiosity, glancing up as they worked, some with an edge of hostility.
Who was he to be trudging along their beach?
But when one of the boys, picking up on these mixed reactions, took aim at the man with a catapult laden with a large pebble, his father caught the lad’s eye and shook his head.
‘But he’s a foreigner,’ said the boy, ready to argue it out.
Foreigners were fair game, weren’t they?
‘No,’ said his father, eyeing the man’s progress along the beach-top with interest, ‘leave him be. He’s a foreigner, but he’s a friendly one I reckon.’
Meanwhile, the basket-carrier had stopped and was shading his eyes, peering down the far side of the beach. A moment later he disappeared from view with a great slithering of shingle, heading downwards.
While the boy regretted his lost target-practice, his father had the feeling that something new was about to begin.
On the landward side of the beach, the man had settled his basket upright and was industriously gathering leaves.
‘Not quite right,’ he murmured, peering at them short-sightedly. ‘Close, but not quite the true thing. You, however,’ he added, addressing a small pale- flowered plant with obvious affection and familiarity, ‘you are the very bees-knees. You will forgive me if I borrow a few fragments from your person.’
He plucked the leaves and stems thoughtfully, careful not to uproot the plant. ‘There,’ he said at last, ‘that leaves you plenty to grow with and gives me plenty to work with, and no harm done. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.’
The plant, a little lopsided and bald at the edges now, made no reply. It had secret buds ready to launch into action under these kinds of depredations. The man thanked it kindly again and moved on.
On such a still day the sound of his footsteps through the shingle carried up and over the beach and down to the fishermen.
‘On the move again, then,’ someone said.
But he didn’t move very far, and soon everyone knew that the stranger was an apothecary.
‘An apothe-what?’ asked Jemmy Herring, fisherman of the Chesil, and a chap with an enquiring mind, as he tended his nets.
‘Don’t ee know what a ’pothecary is then, Jem?’ said his neighbour, Robert Pierson, scornfully.
‘No, I don’t. But you can ’lighten me, Robin, I expect,’ said Jem, calling his bluff.
‘I … well … it’s …’ Mr Pierson was floundering.
‘It’s a gent what deals in herbs and cures, o’course.’ This was Jemmy’s nine-year-old sibling,