In the fog-bound slums of Victorian Bermondsey, Hannah Bly heals the poor with nothing but her mother's remedy book and a pair of green-stained hands.
She has no license, no letters after her name, and no protection under the law. She has only a promise, made at her dying mother's bedside: we go where we are fetched.
So when a rich man's carriage comes for her in the dark, Hannah goes. Maria Venn has been wasting for months under the finest doctors money can buy, and she is certain someone in her own grand house is killing her by inches.
When Maria dies, the parish turns like weather. A powerful druggist who has long wanted Hannah gone spreads the word with tears in his eyes. By Sunday she is no longer their healer. She is their poisoner.
Now Hannah stands accused of murder, with a coroner's jury of respectable men between her and the gallows. Only one man believes her, a haunted dispensary doctor with nothing left to lose.
Can a courtyard herb wife prove the truth before the rope, when the whole weight of money and law is arranged to see her hang?
Wrongly accused heroine, Herbal healer in peril, Only he believes her, Haunted doctor hero, Victorian class injustice
Genre: Romantic Suspense
She has no license, no letters after her name, and no protection under the law. She has only a promise, made at her dying mother's bedside: we go where we are fetched.
So when a rich man's carriage comes for her in the dark, Hannah goes. Maria Venn has been wasting for months under the finest doctors money can buy, and she is certain someone in her own grand house is killing her by inches.
When Maria dies, the parish turns like weather. A powerful druggist who has long wanted Hannah gone spreads the word with tears in his eyes. By Sunday she is no longer their healer. She is their poisoner.
Now Hannah stands accused of murder, with a coroner's jury of respectable men between her and the gallows. Only one man believes her, a haunted dispensary doctor with nothing left to lose.
Can a courtyard herb wife prove the truth before the rope, when the whole weight of money and law is arranged to see her hang?
Wrongly accused heroine, Herbal healer in peril, Only he believes her, Haunted doctor hero, Victorian class injustice
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Used availability for Sybil Cook's The Apothecary's Promise