Bettina's day part 2

Mary and Bettina went over to the kitchen bench and Bettina took out a small mortar and handed it to Mary. Then she started taking out herbs and adding to the mortar, she told Mary what they were as she added them.

“Please grind those together, but not to finely” Bettina told Mary. Mary ground the herbs and she could feel the scent of them.

“Is this okay?” Mary asked.

“Perfect, now, carefully transfer them to this pouch” Bettina told her, and Mary did as she was told. After washing the mortar thoroughly, they repeated the process two more times. Bettina wrote small notes and tied to each of the pouches and then they returned to sit at the table.

“This is a tea that you should drink each morning. It will help reduce the episodes. You still need to do the things that you and Dr Genict have talked about, but this will help.” Bettina said, sliding over one of the pouches.

“This is a powder, when you feel nauseated, sprinkle a teaspoon of it on some easy to eat food like porridge or soured milk. Wait five minutes and the nausea should go away” Bettina continued, sliding the next pouch over.

“The last one is another tea, as soon as you start to feel an episode come on you should drink a cup. It may make you a bit drowsy, but it will take away most of the pain. The sooner you drink it during an episode, the better it will help”

“The instructions are inside each pouch. My time is paid by the good doctor, so you don’t have to worry about that. I will just charge you for the herbs” Bettina said and went on to discuss the prices with Mrs Waske who handed over the money to Bettina.

“Mary and I will stop by in a week or two to check up on you and talk about how these have been working for you. We can always adjust them a bit if needed. If you run out of them or are about to. Just send me a message, I have logs on what you need so just tell me what you are running low on, and I will send you a new batch” Bettina concluded.

“Thank you, I am appreciative that you took time to help me” Mrs. Waske told Bettina with a weak smile.

“It’s no problem, my friend. Mary and I are happy to be of service. If there is any questions or if you feel any side-effects that you are worried by, please let me know and we will come right over” Bettina smiled.

They said their goodbyes and soon the three of them were walking back towards the bridge again. The doctor was in a good mood and his flirtatious behaviour was more obvious. Mary noticed Bettina becoming uneasy.

“Doctor, could you please tell me if the symptoms that Mrs. Waske experienced are the usual symptoms of, migraine?” Mary asked, hesitating on the name of the disease. She was surprised that she had been able to follow along the conversation during the day as it had been in Salamis.

“Yes, it’s the classical symptoms, easy to diagnose in this case” he responded.

“I have a friend with similar symptoms that several doctors diagnosed it as woman’s issues” it wasn’t a question, Mary just wanted to take the focus of Bettina.

“Your friend must live in one of the remote villages, the doctors out there can be more traditional in their thinking” Dr Genict said with a condescending snort. “No doctor worth their name would ever diagnose anyone with woman’s issues” he added.

Mary tried to continue to ask him questions and when she saw the bridge, she was quite relived. She had run out of ideas on what to ask him. Bettina and Mary said goodbye to the doctor and continued their walk home.

“Thank you for your help, Mary” Bettina said as they had crossed the bridge.

“I just mixed the herbs, I don’t know if that was so much help” Mary replied.

“I wasn’t talking about back at Mrs. Waske's, I was talking about your help with Dr Genict” Bettina clarified.

“Oh, no worries, I just didn’t like that he made you feel uncomfortable”

“You picked up on that? Well, I guess you would, you have a sharp eye for things, when you are not involved” Bettina said with a little laugh that Mary didn’t understand.

“Is he always like that?”

“He is. He’s a good doctor and I don’t think he would cross any lines, but I do confess that I don’t like him being so open about admiring me. We have a history that affect us both”

“Do you want to talk about it? You always tell me I can talk to you about things, but it works the other way around as well” Mary said, looking worried.

“When we both were young Dr Genict and I were somewhat of an item. I had the biggest crush on him, and he asked me out. We were going out for a couple of months, and I thought he was the one, that he would ask me to marry him, that we would settle down and all of that” Bettina started to tell Mary as the walked down the streets.

“But a couple of months after we started seeing each other, he met someone else. The daughter of the man that owned the practice that he had been delegated to after finishing medical training. He broke it off with me and was married to her within two months.”

Mary looked at Bettina and she could relate to the pain she had gone through. It reminded her of Zerden, although Zerden had never shown interest in Mary. On instinct, she grabbed Bettina’s hand to comfort her and to let her know that Mary was there. She got a smile in return.

“We didn’t see each other for several years. I got over my broken heart and became a midwife and an herbalist. Then we crossed path in our professions. I needed to call a doctor to one of the women that was giving birth. I was surprised when it was him that came” Bettina sighed.

“After that he started to consult me and I we became, well friends, I guess. He confessed that he was unhappy in his marriage. Around the time I meet Kopa, his wife died in an accident and Dr Genict wanted to court me. But I was seeing Kopa and the feelings I had for him outweighed any feeling I had ever had towards Dr Genict. So I turned him down” she continued.

“How did he take it?” Mary asked.

“As well as to be expected I guess, he asked if we still could be friends. I was fine with it, and we have always worked well together in our professions. But he has started to openly be more and more friendly with me” Bettina said, frowning.

“He’s flirting with you” Mary said in a disapproving voice. In her mind Kopa and Bettina belonged together, everyone could see that, and anyone that didn’t respect that was out of line in her book.

“He is. I just don’t know how to approach the subject with him” Bettina confessed.

“Have you told Kopa?”

“About the flirting? No. He knows about our past. You have seen how protective he is, I’m afraid he’ll do something stupid”

“I think you should tell him. We can do it together if you want, I can help you calm him down if he goes all protective man on us” Mary offered.

“Maybe you are right. Let me think on it” Bettina nodded. The continued walking in silence, still holding hands.

When they got home, they started to unpack Bettina’s bag and she took out a logbook to enter the mix of herbs that she had given Mrs Waske. Bettina also told Mary why she had used the different herbs, what their properties was and how they worked together.

Mary listened fascinated with all the things that you needed to considerate when using herbs. She asked a couple of questions as they were preparing lunch for both of them.