May 10, 1813
The air this night is grim.
As a lady’s life hangs upon a limb.
She, too, is a duke’s daughter presented this season,
she too far unreasoned.
Even stricken ill, she was adorned with diamonds and pearls,
seeking to dance like the other girls,
the only chance for romance or a change in circumstance.
My lady, triumph to you in this fight,
Wisdom upon your knight,
For mightier you are in the sunlight.
Closing the book, I opened my jewelry box, lifted a vial to my lips, and drank it all. I was confident that this time, there would be no disturbance; I was already so exhausted. I barely managed to change, put my things away, and enter my bed before sleep carried me off.
Theodore
It took all my strength not to yell as the rage poured into me from every direction. I held the brown glass vial in my left hand and the prescribed order in my right one, a list of ingredients including everything from mercury and laudanum to onion juice, among a host of other nonsense, all with the purpose of treating…height?
“How much of this has she taken?” I asked Her Grace, the Duchess of Imbert, who was still covered in diamonds as she sat beside her weakened daughter, her husband on the opposite side of the bed on his knees. That is how dire this situation was.
“I do not recall but it cannot be more than three weeks now, once at night and then every other morning with fruit, as she detests the taste,” she said.
“Give me all of it,” I snapped at the maid before snatching the box that was filled with more vials. I marched to the open window and tossed it from the room to shatter across the ground below.
“What on earth are you doing?” the duke hollered, rising to his feet.
“One could ask you both the same, since you have been feeding your daughter poison.” I bit my tongue for a moment to calm down.
“Poison!” The duchess arose from her chair. “We have done nothing of the sort, how dare you accuse us of such a thing! As I explained to you, this was to help—”
“Your Grace, there is no cure for one’s height,” I said and lifted the list for her to see. “Consuming mercury on its own daily is enough to kill someone, let alone mixed with everything else here. It is by God’s grace alone she did not succumb weeks ago.”
“I do not understand this at all. And I will not have you blame my wife,” the duke snapped as he marched over to me. “We were prescribed this by a most reputable doctor, which cannot be said of you. Who are you anyway to—”
“Clementina? Clementina? She’s not breathing!” The duchess screamed once, grabbing on to her daughter who did not move.
“What are you doing? For God’s sake treat her!” the duke hollered at me as I listened to her chest. “Forget this madman, someone call for Sir Grisham at once. It is his medicine, he will surely—”
“With all due respect, Your Grace, I ask for you to be silent!” I hollered at him before listening again. “She is breathing, but barely. The laudanum in the medicine she took is slowing her heart.”
Rising, I moved to the basin of vinegar, peppermint, and herb-soaked napkins I had been working on before they showed me the prescription. I turned down her sheets and lifted her arm.
“What are you doing?” the duchess asked, staring at me with tears in her eyes. It reminded me once more why I ought to calm down. She was a mother who had made a mistake.
“The antidote I have is working. This is merely to help ease the toxins through the pores of her skin.” I took the clear jar from the maid. “It will need to be changed every hour. I shall stay and do so.”
“Or the best case would be leeches.” An older gentleman stood at the door, stern-faced and grim-looking, wearing a short gray wig that was pulled into a ponytail at the back, and dressed in a deep violet overcoat. With one hand he held on to a black cane and with the other his professional bag. He bowed his head to the duke and duchess. “Forgive me, Your Graces, I had only just arrived this evening into town after seeing to another patient when I received word.”
His blue eyes shifted to me. “And who may this be?”
“Ah, Sir Grisham, this is Dr. Darrington,” the duke replied. “He was the first to see Clementina, since he attended the concert.”
“And whatever are you doing to my patient, Dr. Darrington?” he all but sneered at me.
“Your tonic caused great harm, sir, so I am saving her life,” I replied, wrapping her arm carefully.
“By making her a mummy?” he questioned. “I thank you, but as I am here there is no more need for your services. I can assure you that it must have been something else, maybe she ate food disagreeable to her.”
“What do you believe she could have eaten?” The duke quickly looked to him. “This doctor has gone on and on about poison. I knew it could not be so. Clementina can be a bit of a glutton sometimes and will eat whatever looks the sweetest. She used to have stomachaches all the time as child.”
The instant deference and respect the duke gave to Sir Grisham did not go unnoticed. I waited for him to ask me to step away from his daughter, but instead it was his wife who spoke.
“I wish for Dr. Darrington to stay,” she said sternly.
“But dear, Sir Grisham—”
She turned to them both, her head high as she held on to her daughter’s arm. “I know my daughter. I know what it looks like when she has a stomachache and this is not that. She told me many times she felt ill after taking your tonic, Sir Grisham, but I trusted your wisdom to be greater than hers. Now see where we are.”
“Your Graces, I assure you—”
“Thank you for coming all this way, Sir Grisham, do please take care on your journey home!” She squeezed her daughter’s hand even tighter and turned back to me. “Dr. Darrington, I shall have no excuses from you later either.”
“Yes, Your Grace.” I nodded and did not look back at the duke or Sir Grisham.
What a night this was.
Verity
“My lady?
“My lady!”
“Ugh!” I gasped out, all of me shivering as my eyes snapped open.
“My lady?”