Page 4 of A Potion for Passion

Her knees were particularly affected.

When he handed her a corked bottle with another wink, her heart started misbehaving, too, so by the time she’d tucked the medicine into her reticule and rejoined the Daniells, she felt like a quivering wreck.

“Well, really!” uttered Mrs. Daniell with a gasp of outrage. “That man has made a spectacle of you. I’d have stopped you going up there, had I thought of it. Mrs. Allston would never approve of you speaking to such a fellow.”

“And yet my sister doesn’t mind me speaking to Mr. Embury. Is not a traveling physician more respectable than a drunkard?” Flora surprised herself. It was, of course, high time she stood up to Lucinda, and to Mrs. Daniell, but she’d never expected it to be in defense of Dr. Campaign. As she watched that lady suck in what looked like a pre-tirade breath, she quickly reached for the nerve tonic, covered over the label, and took a sip.

Surprise furrowed her brow. Did it taste of…brandy?

“What’s that?” Thea asked.

“A remedy for those who suffer sneezing fits,” Flora fibbed, not wanting to draw attention to her anxious disposition. She took another sip. The taste was not unpleasant, with the brandy masking the bitterness of whatever herbs were in the mixture. “Unfortunately, I can’t remember what the dose was meant to be.”

She took another, somewhat bigger sip, then corked the bottle and tucked it away.

“What would your sister say if you poisoned yourself?” Mrs. Daniell asked crossly.

It wouldn’t matter,thought Flora, because I’d be too ill to care.

“I must agree,” said Reverend Daniell. “And even if some of these remedies work, their cost is extortionate. People should stick to tried and tested remedies. Then they’d have money left on a Sunday for the collection.”

Flora bit her lip. If she were very unlucky, the reverend would devote his next sermon to lambasting those who squandered their coin on unsanctioned medicines.

Thea took her arm. “It must be nearly time for luncheon,” the young woman said. “Had we not better be getting home?”

That sounded like a splendid idea. Or it would be, if Flora didn’t have to walk all the way to Fortuneswell in the company of the Daniells.

It was kind of Campaign to try to rescue her, but, in effect, he’d just made things worse. She now had so many bottles in her reticule it clinked at every step, prompting the reverend to offer to carry them in his pockets for her. He’d relieved her of her reticule before she had time to blink and began placing the bottles in his coat. This action allowed Mrs. Daniell to read the labels.

Which meant Lucinda would soon know every detail of what Flora had been buying. And that she’d lied about the nerve tonic. Oh, how desperately she longed to escape her Daniell family spies! They were making her life a complete misery.

When Mrs. Daniell scoffed that the free hair tonic would probably make Flora’s hair fall out, she very nearly lost her temper. “I have every intention of using it this afternoon,” she announced stiffly. “You’ll see the results on the morrow. I’m confident you’ll be pleasantly surprised.”

True to her vow, the moment the Daniells deposited her at the front door of the cottage, she went upstairs to try out the hair tonic.

But half an hour later, when she looked at her freshly washed hair in her tiny mirror, she almost expired on the spot. Mrs. Daniell was right, after all.

It was an absolute disaster!