The Alchemist's Daughter Read Online Free PDF Page A

name the parts of the mushroom, Emilie, as if you cared nothing for them. Now tell me how even the study of a fungus illustrates the existence of an intelligent and powerful God.”
    I looked at the mushroom. It was . . . a mushroom—but I remembered a time not long ago when a mushroom would have filled me with wonder, because I knew that God permeated everything, every inch of space, each particle, water drop, or spark. I chanted, “Because the mushroom perfectly performs its function.”
    “You sound irritated. You think you know everything, but you are only at the beginning of knowledge. We must never rest, Emilie, until we have understood it all. A mushroom is easy to study—we can cut it up and look at it under our microscope, and if it withers we can pick another the next day. But the essential secrets of life—fire, air, water—still elude us, despite the astounding efforts of Sir Isaac.”
    I had stopped listening because there was a commotion of cracking twigs, and then Reverend Shales appeared, muffled in a vast topcoat, the lower part of his face hidden in its high collar, a sack slung over his shoulder and his fingertips white with cold. “Forgive me,” he said, removing his hat. “I heard your voices.”
    This was the first time I could remember that my father and I had been disturbed on our walk, although we sometimes came across village children or heard the rustle of hastily retreating footsteps. Father was bound to resent the intrusion, but when I looked into Shales’s face I was startled. Although he was smiling, there was a look of desolation in the back of his eyes. He needed us to talk to him.
    “What’s in your bag?” I asked.
    He fumbled with the rope. Inside was the scent of newly cut wood, curls of bark and specimens sliced from fallen branches. “I have been studying bark,” he said, “and its purpose in the respiration of plants. Since coming to Selden, I have found great riches in these woods.”
    “I’m relieved to hear it,” said my father. “I tell Emilie that there is a lifetime’s study within a mile’s radius of Selden.” Then he set off, leaning heavily on his staff to steady himself on the frozen ground.
    The path was too narrow to walk side by side, but Shales kept close to my shoulder and at one point reached forward to lift a bramble out of the way. “I read your book,” I said. “The detail of your observations into plant respiration is extraordinary. And the illustrations—are they your own?”
    “All my own. I’m afraid those drawings were a distraction. I spent so long on them that I neglected my research.”
    “They are very clear. Delicate.”
    “Plants have such complicated arrangements of leaves that a great deal of simplification is needed. Do you draw, Mistress Selden?”
    My father, a few steps ahead, would be listening hawkishly. “I do draw, but not well. I haven’t much patience.”
    “Your father tells me that you have been assisting him in his investigations into the nature of fire. Will you publish your findings?”
    I stopped so suddenly that he put his hand on my elbow to prevent himself from colliding with me. His eyes were the greenish gray of still water, but his face was alight with interest. He really did think I might be capable of writing a paper on the nature of fire.
    My father turned back and peeked at us from under his wig. “Our ideas are half formed, so we are in no position to publish.” Then he pointed among the trees with his staff. “This is our way home, Shales.”
    Shales bowed. I tried to find words that would keep him with us a little longer, but Father was already moving away. All I could do was offer my gloved hand. The light had faded, and when I glanced back Shales was already just a shadow among the trees.
    My father didn’t speak to me all the way home. I had no idea what I’d done to annoy him, and in any case I was too preoccupied to care. I longed to run after Shales, to invite him to Selden and