The Apothecary’s Apprentice 42
The Apothecary's Apprentice
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- 1. The Apothecary’s Apprentice 42
“FATHER, he knows!”
Breathless, Jennet had made a hasty ascent of the outside steps to inform her father of Henry Gryce’s warning.
Ned Parry, immersed in a mine workers’ pamphlet, looked up with a frown.
“What’s that you say?”
“The master knows about the Tuesday meetings!”
Alarm blazed in his eyes.
“How so?”
“He could have overheard something Mother said by mistake.
“Father, we shall have to stop holding the meetings here. Next week’s session must be cancelled.”
Jennet glanced around the kitchen.
“Where is Mother?”
“Gone shopping,” Ned replied. “She left early to catch the eel seller.”
“Then you must hail a lad to take a message, or ’twill be the worst for us.”
Ned was already reaching for his crutches.
“Thomas will know what to do. I shall try to get in touch with him.”
Fraught with anxiety for the future of all three of them, Jennet hurried down to the stillroom.
Here, the familiar aromas and tasks were soothing and she was able to think more logically.
With the problem of the meetings hopefully dealt with, the family’s position here was secured for now.
There remained, however, the harrowing question of wedlock with Henry Gryce.
“I cannot do it!”
But how could she not? Her hands were tied.
She must wed the master or see them all turned out to fend for themselves.
She reached for the essence of rose geranium. Measuring and blending, she tried to think of a solution to her dilemma.
Nothing occurred to her.
Totally at a loss, she concluded that she would have to stave off Henry’s attentions and trust that something would turn up.
It was a slender thread on which to pin one’s hopes.
The next days dragged by, with no word from Thomas to put their minds at rest over a halt to the following week’s meeting.
Out on nightly rounds to visit an increasing number of her late grandmother’s patients, Jennet looked in at the yard of the Crown and Sceptre to see if he was there.
Worryingly, there was no sign of him. and it was not until the following Monday that the inn’s flaring torches revealed Thomas’s solitary figure.
He was wielding a broom over the cobblestones of the yard.
Standing in the shadow of the carriage-arch, she hailed him.
“Thomas, did you hear from Father?”
“To tell the men to abandon tomorrow’s meeting? Aye, and I have done so.
“We are all mystified. We have been so careful.” He shrugged. “There was always a risk with Gryce.”
“That is not all that is bothering me,” Jennet admitted.
“I gathered as much. I’ve been tied up here, what with extra coaches passing through. Otherwise I would have come.”
For a heart-stopping moment Jennet thought he was going to take her into his arms.
But then he was brisk.
“Explain.”
“Henry Gryce wants me to wed him. He’s used threats and he’ll carry them out if I don’t agree to it.”
Thomas snorted.
“Wed Gryce? That is utterly absurd.”
“He means it, Thomas.”
She tried to put into words what Gryce had said, but panic fogged her mind and the account was garbled and unclear.
“He’ll turn us out if I refuse him. He said I’d be reported to the guild that governs the apothecary trade.
“They’ll put a black mark against my name and –”
“He’s trying to frighten you,” Thomas replied. “Did he mention any names?
“He wouldn’t go to such lengths himself. Who was he likely to turn to in the circumstances?”
Jennet shrugged.
“A regular? Someone with power? I delivered a remedy to Venables House. Maybe the master had been there.”
“Venables! I vow he is behind all this. It will be to do with his confounded mine.
“He’s had his spies out, watching the house.
“Leave it with me, Jennet,” Thomas told her. “Let me think what to do.”
Jennet wanted to enquire if anything had come of the scheme to bring Humphrey Maynard to account, but voices from the quarters where the outside staff were housed indicated activity.
Thomas stiffened.
“Go now. Tell your papa that arrangements are being made to hold the meetings elsewhere.
“We shall vary the venues to throw any spies off track.”
“What about Father?” Jennet returned. “He’ll not be able to attend.”
“Bates suggested you come in his place, but given what you’ve just said . . .”
“I’ll do it for Father’s sake. I get about the town on my rounds. Who is to know where I am bound?”
“Then have a care, Jennet. I’ll be in touch.”
With that he melted into the shadows as a trio of inn workers appeared, hollering for Thomas, since there was work to be done.