Chemistry of Magic: Unexpected Magic Book Five (Unexpected Magic #5)(62)
“Remember what Pascoe said, if it comes down to a lawsuit to save your land, we will need plump pockets. Your father is no longer responsible for you. I am. And when I’m gone, you must look after yourself. It’s time you gain a little practical experience.”
The look she sent him was so sad, it nearly broke his heart, and he was the damned one dying.
Chapter 18
A few days later, Emilia proudly stored the last of her draft pages in the box under the infirmary counter. “It is done,” she told Bridey with satisfaction. “Have you heard from the duke?”
Bridey beamed. “He is most eager to see your book. But Pascoe says we cannot go alone, and he and Dare are all wrapped up in the railroad business. Has Dare given any indication how the negotiations are going?”
“Lord Erran has sent the documents to Dare’s investors for approval. I think the next step is dealing with the northern railroad with which they wish to connect. Have you seen any more trespassing surveyors lately?” Behind the counter, where she could reach the wall of shelves that had been added just for her, Emilia pressed her pestle into her mortar to grind the peppermint Dare had dried so quickly. The sweet scent of mint filled the small office.
“Will is training the deerhounds to be guard dogs, so he’s patrolling the back fields. He says he’s seen no sign of trespassers. With any luck, our worries were for naught. And your lovely ginger has worked wonders with my morning sickness! Have you determined where your gardener is growing it?” At the desk by the door, Bridey signed her name to a document Tess presented her.
“I cannot find my gardener,” Emilia said in frustration. “I’ve asked all the servants, and they claim not to know where he lives. I’ve studied the hot spring, and there are several places where ginger might be kept warm in winter. So I’ve decided that once the rhizomes are ready for dividing, I will experiment with planting them in pots and carrying them down there. It’s the only thing close to tropical anywhere around, although a glass enclosure would be ideal.”
“Once your book starts making money, perhaps you can build one!”
“I doubt my entrepreneurial ability,” Emilia admitted. “I need Dare for that. I would rather look for cures for consumption.” Thinking of the dynamic man who had so much to offer the world, she prayed his disease was in remission. Perhaps miracles happened and someone would find a cure soon.
Bridey gave her a sympathetic squeeze that only caused warning prickles. Of course, other than being enceinte, Bridey was quite healthy. “I think you are prolonging his life with your gift. He could have many, many more years.”
Emilia fought a weepy smile and simply turned back to her grinding. She’d left Dare enthusiastically working on some new process for detecting arsenic. She had no notion what one did with such information but she was certain he would. She had ordered him to leave the door and windows open so he’d at least be breathing fresh air.
“Would you mind reading through my instruction manual while I talk to the workmen?” Bridey placed a stack of loose pages on the counter. “I know you’ve never assisted in childbirth, but the women who will be reading the manual will most likely not have much instruction either. You can tell me if I need to simplify more.”
Emilia nodded. “Of course. Just leave them there. I’ll finish this up and take the manual home with me to study.”
After Bridey bustled off, Emilia tried to find the stillness she usually experienced when she was working with her herbs. She often used the steady beat of the mortar as a form of meditation, where she sought new ideas or perfected old ones. But somehow, she couldn’t find that tranquility now.
Perhaps it was her uneasiness over Dare’s health. She knew better than to weep over what couldn’t be changed.
Even the scritch-scratch of Tess’s pen irritated. Tess was silent, but she seemed permanently tense. She wrote each word as if it were her last.
Unable to make the kind of casual small talk that might draw out the girl, Emilia finished crushing the mint and poured it into the container she’d brought for it. She had the gig. She’d go home and read the manual and try to restore her strangely rattled nerves.
She turned off the counter lamp, leaving just Tess’s desk lamp for illumination. Since the room was little more than a nun’s cell, it had no windows, only the door to provide light, which was fine for storing herbs. She crouched down behind the counter to gather her gloves, umbrella, and the basket she used for transporting her plants. Deciding to add Bridey’s manual pages to the basket, she reached to pick them up, but managed to drop them all over the floor. With the light off, she was literally in the dark as she scrambled about on her knees hunting for pages scattering in the breeze from the open door.
A shadow darkened the chamber even more, and Emilia froze.
“So, this is where you’ve been hiding,” a male voice said in such detached tones that her blood curdled. “Your father sent me to fetch you and the book.”
A chair scraped. Skirts rustled. Emilia was torn between listening and letting the intruder know she was present.
“Crenshaw,” Tess whispered in what sounded like fear.
Crenshaw? Emilia chose to stay hidden. This was not the gouty old Crenshaw she’d met. This man sounded young, and from the shadow blocking the door, he wasn’t small or crippled.