‘There Came a Contagion’–Chapter Three: An Excerpt From the Book by Local Author Doug Ingold Serialized Here for the Next Seven Days

THE STORY OF AGNES is excerpted from THERE CAME A CONTAGION, a new literary-historical novel by Doug Ingold, a resident of Humboldt County whose book has just been released by Wolfenden. The novel is set in a farming village near Trier, Germany in the latter half of the sixteenth century.

THE STORY OF AGNES consists of nine chapters excerpted from the first-half of the novel and is serialized here over nine successive days. At the time of this story Agnes is twenty-two and has been working as a serving girl at the village inn. Her cousin Elsebett is thirteen. Elsebett is the student of Frau Rachel Mueller, the village midwife and an herbal healer. Elsebett lives with Frau Mueller but visits her family home regularly.

Read the first chapter here: Chapter One

CHAPTER THREE

It had started to snow again, and a strong wind had come up blowing the accumulation into drifts. As Agnes and her mother trudged back toward their house, everyone they met was hunched over, bent by the wind. Winter had stripped the scattered trees of leaves. Their trunks, their exposed limbs and twisted branches looked black and tormented against the gray sky.

There was much to think about and Frau Mueller had insisted that no decision be made before the remainder of the day and night had passed. But Agnes recognized one thing. She was trapped like an animal. No, it was worse than that; even a trapped animal could hunker down and cower before its captors, while she, however much she cowered, the fetus would continue to grow.

The bells in their tower rang news of the midday. Hearing them, her mother insisted they go straight to the church. They would find the priest, she said, and Agnes would make confession. “It is not just your life, but your soul, child, that is in danger!”

Her mother’s sudden demand destroyed the fantasy Agnes had been concocting, a fantasy somewhat delicious in its horror, in which she would find a precipice along the river’s edge from which to fling herself. She imagined the pain her death would inflict on her severe father. Her insistent mother. Even on the cold midwife and the village itself with its shaking heads and wagging tongues.

But, no, her mother was right. There was no escape. Even her own dramatic death would fail to provide it. The Devil would delight in her suicide. As her crushed and broken body was dropped into a grave unmarked and outside of sanctified ground, her soul would be flung from heaven’s gate and into the waiting arms of Lucifer, the Devil himself.

The priest was not available, the sexton informed them. He had gone to a neighboring village, and given the weather, who knew when he would return. As the sexton departed, Anna pulled her daughter toward the altar. The church was empty and the lumps of snow they stomped loose from their pattens followed them a few feet into the sanctuary, having no cause to melt. To the young woman, the church felt hollowed out, devoid of promise. It was shivering cold within and without, the bricks, the air, the cruel judgment hanging over her. What had been a place of solace became now one of condemnation; even the cross-hung Jesus glared down on her. Her mother was sobbing audibly as the two of them knelt on the cold stone.

Her mother being occupied with prayer, Agnes was forced again to face her predicament. Crying now herself, she experienced an explosion of extraordinary thoughts and emotions. Her life was ruined, that was certain. Not one good option was open to her. The idea of entering a convent appalled her. Besides, how could that be accomplished without alerting her father? And more than anything she feared his condemnation. Frau Mueller’s vivid description of how the medicine would attack her body had terrified her. She detested all forms of illness, always had. She had a healthy body and a bright disposition; all sicknesses seemed insulting to her. To voluntarily ingest something knowing it would cause such horrors—her imagination now was insisting that it would disfigure her, leave her marked for life if it did not kill her outright—well, it was simply too ghastly to contemplate.

That left Heinrich, the wine merchant. They were all wrong about him: her mother, Aunt Gisele, Frau Mueller. Her aunt Gisele, the only one who had actually met him, had no understanding. Trifles in the hallways? How silly. He brought her honied delights from Lucca, stories from other worlds, a small blue-colored stone that he swore had come from across the sea, that she had secreted into her hope chest. He was funny, charming, attentive, patient, but steady, forceful, and he was endowed with the eyes of a forest stag that looked out at you from beneath sweeping lashes.

Heinrich! In the past six months Agnes had thought of little else. Their love was over now, as was her life. But if there was one consolation in all of this, she could honestly say that in the last half year, she had lived life as she had always imagined it was supposed to be lived.

So, how old was he really? Seven years, ten? He was certainly older than she was, but not old, young but not immature. Had he lied to her? Possibly. It made sense that he would, and she saw now how that could be. Was he married? Though he swore not, his very attractiveness suggested otherwise. Even assuming, as he claimed, he was but seven years older, it was difficult to imagine that some attractive woman with means and designs had not previously captured his heart. Surely, every woman he had ever met desired him. In Agnes’s imagination, it was clear that he loved her more than that scheming other woman who had become his wife. He had lied because he had to. Because he loved her so, wanted her so. To be true to their love, he had been obliged to speak falsely to her.

But should she now confront him with her situation, what would happen? How then would he react? How could he? There were children probably as well. Yes, he would have no choice. Circumstances would require that he denounce her in the terrible ways that her mother and Frau Mueller had described. And then, that denunciation would destroy him as well. Having betrayed their love, he would by honor be required to end his own life. And this recognition fit with her deepest understanding. She had somehow betrayed him by becoming pregnant. Her body had betrayed her, causing her to betray their love. Thus it was obvious; if she truly loved him—and she did—then she could not burden him with this news. There was truly no escape.

Shivering with cold and dread, Agnes reached out and gripped her mother’s arm. “Mother, let’s go home. I have made a decision.”

Tomorrow, Chapter 4. Ready to get your own copy? Check it out on Amazon by clicking here.

Or, to get your hands on the book in Humboldt County, the book is available at Blue Moon in Garberville, Eureka Books and Booklegger in Eureka, Northtown Books in Arcata and Blake’s Books in McKinleyville.