Page 92 of A Devilish Element
“Not glowing intestines,” Bell finished for her. “I’ve seen victims of all of those.”
“I suppose there’s arsenic and strychnine to consider.”
“Do you intend to list every poison you can think of Miss Wakefield? For the record, I don’t think it either of those. The latter especially we can rule out. There’s many a cheap tavern that uses strychnine in their watered beer. Even fools aplenty who are happy to suffer its ill effects for the kick to the head and visions it brings on. I am well acquainted with strychnine poisoning.”
She raised a hand to her throat. “Fools.”
“Probably no worse for them than the gin.”
“Cyanide?” Jem suggested.
“What’s that?” Eliza and Bell both asked.
“Something my cousin Pip has mentioned a time or two. I assume it a recent discovery since neither of you appear familiar with it. Transmutation is his passion, not mine. The more dangerous the better. I only dabble. Numbers are infinitely less volatile. But there must be chemicals, medicines that phosphoresce, surely.”
“Like phosphorous, you mean,” Eliza said, brows raised. She also was no chemist, but she was familiar with Robert Kerr’s translation of Lavoisier’s work describing the elements. How her sisters had decried her over the purchase of that volume in place ofThe Castle of Wolfenbach, which they had to wait on the travelling library to provide.
“You’ll not find that on my shelves,” Bell insisted, as both Eliza and Jem scurried in that direction. “Fools. I’m an anatomist, not a chemist. Phosphorous is of no practical use to me.”
“Mayhaps not, Ludlow, but your shelves are as well stocked as any apothecary’s.”
Also, he was wrong.
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Eliza
Doctor Bell could claim there was no phosphorus on his shelves all he liked, but Eliza knew differently. She hurriedly searched along the rows of bottles and tightly packed drawers in Bell’s surgery, with Jem beside her, trying to lend a hand, but seeming bewildered over what precisely they were looking for.
“Kunckel’s pills,” she informed him. “I swear they were here. They’re usually prescribed for colic or gout, not that they work, but nor do half the things most quacks recommend.”
“I heard that.”
Despite his spurious use of leeches, she was prepared to accept Bell wasn’t a typical quacksalver. He mostly knew what he was talking about and endeavoured to back up his practice with evidence. This matter clearly had him shaken though.
“Where are you?” Eliza tore several bottles from the shelves in case the jar had been jostled to the back. “I know it was here. You definitely had some,” she called to Bell. “I remember seeing them, and they’re phosphorous based. Coated in something. Silver, I think.”
“If they’re not there, I’m sure I haven’t the faintest idea,” he called back, before following them both through, with what she thought might be a kidney still in his hands. “I think it’s worth noting that our poisoner must be in possession of some degree of specialised knowledge and intelligence if they’re apprised of the composition of various medicines and remedies.”
“That rules Cluett out, he’s a fool,” Jem huffed. “His mother too. Have you considered it might be Jane behind this, Eliza?”
She had, but a handful of minutes gone. “It is not unless she has become a particularly adept actress. Besides she was always a mediocre herbalist, and I’m sure she didn’t set her own bed alight.” Nor did it make sense for her to have done so. Linfield’s death had left her in a pickle. Although, she hadn’t known George Cluett was going to assault her with the possibility of her marriage being unsound.
“It weren’t Lady Linfield who I was thinking of,” Bell remarked, his gaunt features pulled into a thoughtful pucker. “It’s interesting how familiar you are with the contents of my shelves, Miss Wakefield.”
“Ludlow!”
“I’m observant, and Mrs Honeyfield needed a remedy, which is why I’m acquainted with your shelves. Yes, I came in here and mixed it. A fact I’m sure you already knew. Besides, what motive have I? I’ve only known him a handful of days.”
Bell gave her a tight smile. “Perhaps he was annoying enough that a few days were more than plenty? And as to reasons, there are two rather obvious ones. Perhaps you felt you needed to protect Lady Linfield. He was beastly to her, and you don’t believe for a moment those attacks on her were caused by a ghost. And secondly, one could certainly argue that jealousy might prompt your hand. Anger at being played for a fool, not to mention that he was blackmailing your beloved into fornicating with him.”
The doctor had obviously overheard every damned word of their earlier conversation while he’d been at work on Mrs Honeyfield’s tooth.
“Perhaps you thought that if you removed Linfield, it would free Jem of his burden of protecting you.”
“Ludlow!” Jem snapped, ahead of burying his head in his hands.
“What? Are we pretending you weren’t going to bugger the bastard to preserve her reputation?”
