Nella is an apothecary in 1791 London. Long ago, she took over her mother's apothecary business.
While her mother was purely a healer, Nella's own path has led her to be a dispenser of poisons. She sells these only to women who are in dire need. Her shop is well hidden in a back alley. Where the front of her mother's shop used to be, there's only an empty room with a grain barrel in which the desperate place a letter asking for help.
Each customer is entered in her register, name, prescription and amount, and who the medicine is for. Nella feels she is preserving the lives of the women who come to her who would otherwise be nameless in history.
One day she receives a curious note in tidy hand requesting her services. Something about the note causes her to worry and be cautious.
The next day, twelve year old Eliza, a household servant, comes to collect the poison. She admits she wrote the note and is getting the medicine for her mistress and herself. Completely self-possessed, she answers Nella's questions and listens to her instructions for administering the poison, which she will do herself.
From Eliza's chapters, we learn the truth of her situation, and how though the poison was successful, things fall apart at the manor with the demise of the master of the house. Left on her own while the mistress retires to a country estate, Eliza goes to Nella's and asks to stay there and learn something of the apothecary business while her mistress is away.
Nella, horrified, sees what the dispensing of poisons has done to her own body and soul, and refuses. Though she tries to push Eliza away, the child becomes involved with Nella's next customer, to the ruination of all of them.
In the present day, Caroline is on vacation alone in London unexpectedly. She was to celebrate her tenth anniversary with her husband on this trip. Learning that he's been having an affair with a co-worker shatters all she was hoping for and she comes to London alone and to sort things out.
On a mudlarking expedition with a chance group of people, she finds an apothecary jar in the mud with an etching of a bear on it. Trying to re-connect with the student of history she once was, and keep her mind busy, she researches the jar and tries to find its history with the help of a new friend at the British Library.
Through Caroline's research we find out what happened to Nella and Eliza in the past. Her own story echoes that of many of the women in the apothecary's register.
I loved the parts of the story in old London. Nella and Eliza are so wonderful together despite Nella's reluctance to let Eliza into her life.
Things are messier in the present day, and while I wished Caroline well, I was ready to hear more about Nella and Eliza.
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