The Apothecary's Daughter Read Online Free

week?”
    Lilly held her breath.
    “Of course I remember, sir. It was, after all, only last week.” He
stole a glance at Lilly, the plea for help evident in his wide eyes.
    Stepping away from the counter with the cleaning cloth, Lilly said
with as much nonchalance as she could muster, “That one is simple
at least, as it has only three ingredients.”
    “Three, right,” Francis parroted. “Very simple.”
    Lilly felt her father’s gaze on the back of her head as she began
polishing the shopwindow. “I cannot bear to compound Pierquin’s,”
she continued, keeping her eyes focused upon her task. “It is” she
wiggled her fingers dramatically, hoping Francis was watching
“a thousand times worse than any other.”
    Behind her, Francis caught on. “Which of course it would be,
with all those … millipedes.”
    “Exactly,” she replied casually. “Which is why I am so relieved
Father asked you to prepare it.”
    Glancing over her shoulder and seeing that her father was again
facing Francis at the counter, his back to her, she breathed on the
window glass and with her finger wrote berry. “I have not had to do
so since June.” She then held up her little finger, miming the act of
drinking daintily.
    After watching her surreptitiously, Francis announced, “Pierquin’s
Diuretic: macerated millipedes and juniper berries boiled in tea.”
    “In white wine, Mr. Baylor,” Charles Haswell said between
clenched teeth. “Tea, indeed. You had better study harder, young
man, if you want to excel as my pupil.” He threw Lilly a flinty look of two parts irritation to one part paternal pride. “Professor Lilly will
not always be on hand to rescue you.”
     
    “Right. Sorry, sir.”
    Shaking his head, her father left them, taking the day’s post back to
the surgery to do a bit of reading and, she guessed, a bit of napping.
    Francis looked at Lilly, shoulders drooping. “How do you do it? I
must read and reread things ten times over before I remember them.
It all comes so easily to you.”
    She shrugged. “It is in my blood, I suppose.”
    “It is more than that. Is there nothing you cannot remember?”
    She strolled over to the old globe on its stand in the corner. Foregoing the cloth, she ran her fingers over its surface. “Probably a great
many things.”
    “I do not believe it. Quick Godfrey’s Cordial.”
    “Francis. That one is easy. You know it is so popular we must prepare it every week sassafras, aniseed, caraway, opium, sugar…”
    “Stoughton’s Bitters?”
    She traced her finger over the West Indies. “Gentian root, orange
peel, cochineal powder …”
    “On what page in Culpeper’s Herbal would you find, say,
saffron? “
    “I don’t know….” She glanced up. “Maybe, one hundred fortyfour? “
    “And what is listed after saffron?”
    “Do you not wish to check my answer?”
    He shook his head, waiting.
    She sighed. “Well, meadow saffron, of course, then scurvy-grass in
all its varieties, self-heal, sage, saltwort … It is in alphabetical order
for the most part after all.”
    He stared at her, shaking his head. “You should be the apprentice.
Not I.”
    Walking back to the counter, she said, “You know girls cannot
be apothecaries. I can only assist.”
    “Lucky for me, or I’d be out of a post.”
     
    She tossed the dustcloth onto the rear counter. “Never fear. Even
if I could, I should not want to work here all my life.”
    He looked nearly stricken. “But, Lilly, with your abilities “
    She cut him off. “You heard Father even he realizes I shall not
always be here to help.”
    Much to Lilly’s relief, the shop bell rang, putting an end to the
uncomfortable conversation.
    When nearly an hour had passed and her father had still not come
out from his surgery, Lilly grew concerned. His afternoon naps never
lasted for more than half an hour.
    She knocked softly on the surgery door. There was no answer. She
pushed the door open anyway.