use, was stuffed in the back. Just enough for her needs. Next, she discovered an empty brown bottle that could serve to contain the tonic and was rising to stand when the kitchen door swung open. She turned to smile a greeting, expecting Mrs. Mainprice. Instead, Molly entered.
“Molly!” The bottle skittered from Rachel’s grasp. She caught it before it crashed to the tiles.
Molly’s eyes were red and puffy as fresh pastry. She had been crying. “Mrs. Mainprice told me to come look for you. She said I’m to take some potion you’ve made.”
“I have yet to gather all the ingredients.” Rachel was clutching the bottle so tightly, she feared it might shatter in her hands. Carefully, she set it on the table. “And it is a tonic, not a potion.”
“Tonic, then.” Molly glanced curiously at the empty bottle and the contents of the basket. “It cures the dyspepsia?”
“It might help you.”
“You only want to help me because you’re scared I’ll show your letter to Dr. Edmunds.”
“You should return the letter, Molly. It is mine. You should not have taken it.”
“I don’t think I’ll be returning your precious letter just yet.” Molly’s eyes narrowed. “A trial, eh? Whose, yours?”
“You do not understand.” Thank heavens Mother’s letter hadn’t mentioned the specifics of the trial, but Rachel was not naive enough to think that any sensible person wouldn’t surmise the worst from what she had written. “It is not what you think.”
“The doctor might believe exactly what I think, though, and you know it. The chance he will is the only reason you’d help me.”
“That is not true. I want to help you because . . .” it is the right thing to do. Because the urge to cure is in my bones. She fought to keep her voice calm and confident. “I want to help because it is what I can do, not because I am guilty of anything.”
“Humph.” Molly’s lips pinched into a thin pink line as she frowned at Rachel. “What other medicines can you make up?”
“I know several recipes for poultices, tisanes, and infusions,” Rachel answered, trying to follow the new direction of the conversation.
“Do you have one to help womanly complaints?” Molly asked, lowering her voice though they were completely alone in the kitchen.
Rachel followed suit. “Is that what is bothering you? Are your monthlies so painful they are making you ill?”
“It’s not pain.” Molly rubbed the palm of her hand over the back of the other in an irritated, sawing motion. “You know I need help with them.”
“I don’t follow you . . .”
Just then, the servants’ bell from Dr. Edmunds’s office sounded a harsh, insistent clang. Molly huffed her annoyance. “You’re awfully thick, then. I’ll go find help elsewhere. I should’ve figured you’d be no use.”
“Molly, I am not trying to be difficult. I honestly am willing to provide whatever assistance you need. The tonic, anything.”
“Your tonic won’t cure what’s wrong with me.” She spun on her heel and rushed off, black skirts slapping against a broom propped up near the door, knocking it over.
Rachel sighed with frustration and went to straighten the broom. Her hand paused on the handle as realization struck. Heavens, she was dense. The vague stomach illness, the talk about her monthly courses . . . Molly’s troubles were indeed more than her mother’s tonic would cure.
The girl was pregnant.
CHAPTER 15
James!” Sophia’s voice boomed down the hallway, followed by the crisp rustle of her heavy skirts drawing near the office. Flustered, Peg scrambled to get ahead of her so that she could be properly announced. “I must speak with you immediately.”
James stuffed his pen back into its holder and rose, tugging his waistcoat flat. It was not a good sign that Sophia was in such a rush she was willingly ignoring customary manners.
He waved off the maid. “To what do I owe the pleasure of a visit, Sophia? I would offer you dinner, but I have a previously arranged engagement with Dr. Calvert in an hour and can’t—”
“I am not here to be fed, James.” With a huff, she dropped onto the settee tucked against the wall. “Miss Castleton came to visit me. She informed me that she is leaving town. Not that I care to know her whereabouts, frankly, but she was rather distressed. It seems her brother has told her there are fresh cases of the cholera, near St. George’s,” said Sophia, naming a church a few short blocks from her house. Her hands clenched at the waist of her