The Apothecary's Daughter Read Online Free Page A

“Father?”
    Her father sat at his desk, head in his hands.
    “Father, what is it? Are you all right?”
    “No. I don’t believe I am.”
    Alarmed, Lilly stepped inside the small room, closing the door
behind her. “What has happened?”
    He lifted his head. “I’ve had a letter.”
    Lilly regarded the fine piece of stationery upon his desk. “So I
see.” She swallowed. “From … Mother?”
    The look he gave her held equal measures of surprise, incredulity,
and pain. “No.”
    She bit her lip and waited.
    He sighed. “It is from Mr. Jonathan and Ruth Elliott.”
    “Elliott?” None of their acquaintances bore that name.
    “Your aunt and uncle Elliott. Your mother’s brother.”
    She almost blurted, Have they seen her? but thought the better of
it. She did not want to conjure that look upon her father’s face again.
    Instead she said, “I do not remember an aunt and uncle Elliott.”
    “How could you? You have never laid eyes on them. But you shall.
They are coming all the way from London to pay a call this Friday
whether I like it or not.”
    “Why should you not like it? They are family, are they not?”
    He looked away, toward the surgery window. “I suppose that
depends upon your definition of the term.”
     
    “But you have met them? “
    “Yes, many years ago.” He frowned. “It was not a happy
occasion.
    “Do they know … ?” There was no need to spell out the painful
subject her father habitually avoided.
    “Yes. I wrote to them some time afterward.”
    “What do you think they want?”
    Her father’s features were pinched. “I shudder to think.”
    Seeing his distress, she laid a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
“Perhaps they merely wish to reestablish bonds with us.”
    He looked up at her, his blue eyes glinting in the late afternoon
sun slanting through the window. “I admire your hopeful outlook,
my dear. But I would caution you against it. Mark my words, Lilly.
We will rue this visit for years to come.”
     
    When [Jane’s brother] Edward was 16,
the Knights adopted him as their heir.
It was not uncommon for wealthy relatives to take in a child
from a less fortunate branch of the family.
    JANE AUSTEN SOCIETY OF NORTH AMERICA

CHAPTER 2

    illy watched from an upstairs window as a post chaise pulled by
—J two matched bays came to a halt before the shop. When the postillion clambered down from his mount and opened the carriage door, a
tall, portly man in hat and greatcoat stepped out. He then turned and
assisted a dainty woman in fur-trimmed cloak and hat. Lilly hurried
down the stairs and peeked through the door of the laboratory-kitchen
as Father opened the shop door.
    “Elliott. Ruth,” he said. “Welcome.”
    The man took her father’s measure. “Haswell. You are looking
fit, I must say.”
    “Benefit of the profession, I suppose. Do come in.” He took their
coats and gestured them inside.
    Taking in her surroundings, Ruth Elliott asked tentatively, “You
live here, in your shop?”
    “Why, yes behind and above it.”
     
    “Is that common with men of your trade?” she asked.
    “Yes. I believe it is common with men of most professions. Now,
please, come into the sitting room.”
    Taking her cue, Lilly hurried to precede them up the stairs. Straightening her mother’s miniature portrait on the end table, she stood nervously behind the settee as her father escorted their guests inside.
    “Here we are. Do be seated anywhere you like. Oh, there you
are, my dear. May I introduce my daughter, Lilly. Lilly, this is your
aunt and uncle Elliott.”
    Lilly curtsied. “How do you do. I am pleased to meet you both.”
    “Lilly?” Ruth Elliott repeated skeptically, arranging herself in
an armchair.
    “Yes,” Lilly said. “Short for Lillian.”
    “Ali, yes, after Mother,” Jonathan Elliott said, taking a seat. “That
is, your grandmother.”
    Lilly smiled. She had not known. “But almost nobody calls me
that.”
    “Lillian,