Page 20 of The Unseen Hour

Now it was Dr. Stephans’s turn to bristle. He sputtered as he tried to recover from the maid’s tirade. No doubt it wasn’t the usual level of respect he was shown. I had no idea whether Marie was acting out of thanks toward me, or whether her nerves had caught up to her, but I liked the more assertive attitude she was displaying.

“Of course I shall assist the young lady. I’ll begin putting together a remedy for the pain immediately and⁠—”

“And I am feeling rather off. My stomach is rolling. I fear I may be ill.” I clutched a hand over my mouth.

Dr. Stephans sighed, looking past me and at the darkened street, no doubt thinking of all the sleep he wouldn’t be getting.

“Yes, and I’ll give her something for the nausea as well.”

He spent a few minutes shuffling around the front of the apothecary, pulling things off of shelves.

“This is most unfortunate. I’m out of one of the herbs needed. We sold it all just a few days ago, and I haven’t had the opportunity to collect more. Is the medication for nausea truly necessary?”

I lurched forward, and made an incredibly unseemly retching noise.

“Truly I think it is,” Charlotte insisted. “Is there none in the gardens?”

The apothecary kept its own gardens for some of its ingredients, in a space just outside the town walls of Fox Haven. They had an enclosed greenhouse and made use of the fields closest to the town gates.

Dr. Stephans sighed again.

“I’ll go retrieve what I need. If this had happened during the day, I’d have an apprentice available.” He grumbled the last bit to himself.

Dr. Stephans retrieved his coat.

“Oh Marie, Charlotte, I don’t know that I can handle these lights. Surely we can find somewhere darker?”

“Is there nowhere else she could wait without the lanterns?” Charlotte asked.

“It’s quite irregular, but she could utilize the sleeping quarters in back, with her chaperone of course.” Dr. Stephans sounded uncomfortable, but I felt a thrill zip through me. One step closer.

He left for the gardens, and Marie accompanied me to the back room.

“My, it is gloomy in here,” Marie commented in the darkened room as she felt around for the cot and lowered me onto it.

“Truly, Marie, you don’t have to wait in here. There’s no other way in but through the shop. You shouldn’t have to sit in the dark.”

“Well, I⁠—”

“And even the slightest noise is hurting my head. With no one else in here it will be quieter,” I insisted.

Marie didn’t need too much convincing and soon swept out the door.

“I will be just out front,” the maid promised.

I counted a full minute in my head and then swung off the cot. I felt my way along the wall and out of the room. The apothecary was small in the back. There was a doorway leading to the front of the shop, and one on the opposite side of the hall. I pushed it open and was just able, as my eyes adjusted, to make out a desk and several sets of shelves and drawers pressed against the walls.

“Day and Death be praised,” I whispered.

I’d need more light to find what I was after, though. Thankfully a lantern hung off a hook inside the door, and it lit when I twisted a small mechanism on the side that felt like a key. I’d gotten lucky. Not all homes and shops had lamps like this that could be lit without a ready source of flame. It made sense for the apothecary to have one, with the need for light at all hours and the urgency of their work, but I was thankful all the same. Otherwise I’d have been toting papers to and from the hall where a bit of the shop’s light lingered, and that would have been riskier by far.

After a few false starts, I discerned the organizational system. Various cures and ingredients were listed based on malady. The most dangerous substances were on shelves back here, along with warning labels. I found the shelf with Thipp’s quickly and shoved a stoppered glass container of the stuff into my dress pocket. Then I searched for the paperwork that would tell me how much I needed to take.

I rifled through a drawer until I found a file for Thipp’s root.

There was a shuffling outside, and I froze.

“—should check on her,” Marie’s voice sounded. I dropped the file, prepared to hurry into the hall and state that I’d gotten up to be sick.