The Apothecary's Poison (Glass and Steele #3)(26)

"Excellent. He's the largest manufacturer of medicines in London with a reputation the rest of us envy. You can see for yourselves, if you like. His factory is located in Hackney Wick. "

Matt approached the counter. "An envious reputation? Do you mean to say his medicines work exceptionally well?"

I approached the counter too, eager to gauge Mr. Pitt's reaction.

He glanced at each of us in turn and cleared his throat. "What are you implying, Mr. Glass?"

Matt pressed his palms on the counter. "Are Oakshot's medicines as good as Dr. Hale's?"

Mr. Pitt leaned away. He glanced past me to the door again then leaned forward. "Are you asking what I think you're asking?" he said, voice low.

"Is Mr. Oakshot a magical apothecary, like Dr. Hale was?"

Mr. Pitt sucked in a breath between his teeth. "H-how do you know? What do you know?"

"We know that Dr. Hale could infuse magic into his medicines, but the magic didn't last for long. He admitted it to us when we spoke to him after that newspaper article appeared in The Weekly Gazette."

"He admitted it to you?" he blurted out. "Was he mad?"

"He trusted us," I said.

Matt shot me a glare and gave a small shake of his head.

"We know about magicians, you see," I said. "The article directed us to him." It was the only response I could think of that didn't give away my magic.

Mr. Pitt pressed his lips together. "I feared it would act as a signpost for anyone hunting out magic. Jonathon didn't care. He was pleased." He shook his head. "Fool. I warned him that it was a bad idea, that people who feared magicians might come after him, but he wouldn't listen."

"We're not those sort of people," I assured him. "We have an interest in magic, but that's only because we want to know more about it. We're curious."

"Much of our work involves magic, one way or another," Matt said. "We're thinking of making it a specialty within our agency."

I blinked at him. He sounded sincere. Then again, he'd proven to be a marvelous actor.

"And you read about Jonathon in the article." Mr. Pitt shook his head. "That reporter has a lot to answer for. His reporting was irresponsible. Have you spoken to him?"

Matt nodded. "Do you know of anyone who would attack Hale because he was magical?"

Mr. Pitt sighed. "Other apothecaries, perhaps, out of jealousy. The guild members, too, for the same reason. The guilds don't like magicians, you see. They're afraid it puts the artless members out of business."

"Artless?" I asked idly.

"A word Jonathon used for those without magic."

"Why would the guild be worried about Dr. Hale if he wasn't a practicing apothecary?" Matt asked. "He posed no threat to any of them."

"I don't know, Mr. Glass. Some of them have an irrational fear, you see, and think any good apothecary is magical. Oakshot himself has had visits from them."

"Do you think he's a magician?"

Mr. Pitt shrugged one shoulder.

"Have you had run-ins with the guild, Mr. Pitt?" I asked.

He indicated the pyramid of Cure-All. "There were rumblings when we released this, and Jonathon and I were questioned by the guild master. Nothing came of it. Jonathon didn't use his magic in it. He said it was rather useless since it didn't last."

"It can last weeks," I said. "Perhaps even months."

"So we've heard," Matt said quickly. "But Miss Steele is right. If Hale put magic in your Cure-All it could work for a brief time afterward. It might be enough to give it a reputation as a wonder medicine."

"I see your point, but there is a flaw in your theory. Jonathon simply put his name to it. He didn't create it. I did. Alone."

The silence that followed thickened, our unspoken question hanging suspended like the curiosities in the jars of fluid.

"No, I am not magical," he finally said. He directed his fierce gaze first at Matt then at me.

I realized that I had a way of telling if he spoke the truth or not. I took a bottle of Cure-All off the pyramid, opened it and smelled. No warmth. I did the same for other bottles, taking random ones off shelves and pretending to smell while actually trying to detect magical warmth. Mr. Pitt watched me for a while then must have dismissed my actions as harmless. He turned back to Matt.

"What concerns me," Mr. Pitt said, "is how did the poison get into Jonathon's Cure-All in the first place?"

"A good question," Matt said. "The thing is, Dr. Hale suffered none of the symptoms from any known poison. It also had no smell or color."

"That is unusual. Are you sure?"

Matt nodded. "We believe a magic poison was added to the bottle."

Mr. Pitt's already pale face whitened further. The blue veins stood out on his forehead and throat, and his mouth worked but no words came out for several seconds. "How do you know?" he muttered.

"We have our methods," Matt said.

Mr. Pitt shook his head. "No, I don't believe it. He wouldn't kill himself."

"We weren't suggesting that," I said.

Mr. Pitt turned sharply to me.

"The question is," Matt said, "do you know any other apothecary magicians?"