The Herbwitch's Apprentice Ireen Chau (best life changing books txt) 📖

boy. I cannot have my first visitors in fifteen years call me ‘sir’.”

I gawked at the old man, wondering if he had been trapped down here for that long.

Erasmus caught my eye. “Who are you, missy?”

“Amarante Flora, s—er, Erasmus,” I said, deciding to hold off on curtsying lest I offend him.

He snorted again. His eyes flicked to my dirty sleeves. “And here I thought they finally allow women to do something useful,” he said. “Fetch me a pair of gloves, will you?”

“Actually, I’m a witness,” I said.

“And also a servant, aren’t you?”

“She’s a debutante,” Ash intervened. “I’ll fetch the gloves.”

He disappeared around the corner, leaving me and the inspector in the cramped room. My determination dwindled as he bustled about his desk with clear authority despite his advanced age. How was I ever going to tell him about my theory if he thought I was a servant at first glance?

“That one fancies you, doesn’t he?” Erasmus said.

I had enough teasing from Tori and Genevieve. The last thing I needed was the royal inspector teasing me too. “A platonic friendship between a young man and woman is very possible, sir,” I said.

“Not during the Season, little flower.”

“What did you call me?”

“You’re named after the amaranth flower. Love-lies-bleeding, if you’re poetic. Or depressed. I see very little difference between the two.”

The old man was off his rocker. I glanced at the door, wishing Ash would come back so I didn’t have to reply. Thankfully, the door swung open and he returned with a thick pair of gloves. I could’ve kissed him. Platonically, of course.

“Took you long enough,” Erasmus said, pulling on the gloves. He shuffled to the table where a sample of the tea and the poison found in Captain Greenwood’s chambers lay. “You want me to find out what these poisons are?”

“Yes. And if they’re the same.”

I shifted on my feet. “It’s arsenic!” I wanted to say, but I didn’t. So I sat on a barrel at the corner of the room, leg bouncing, as Erasmus tinkered with his contraptions. Ash leaned over the table, watching the inspector’s process with clear interest.

Erasmus made a low noise and held up a needle. The tip was black. “Arsenic,” he grumbled. “How original.”

Ash’s face paled. “Will my mother be alright?” he said.

“It depends on how much she’s had and for how long,” Erasmus said. “I’d say the damage is done.”

“Is there a remedy?”

“I don’t get paid to answer stupid questions, boy. That’s the physicians’ job.”

Ash did not look pleased.

“We don’t know if the queen is poisoned with arsenic,” I said, standing before he could say anything rude.

Erasmus raised a bushy gray brow. “And why is that?”

I told him of what I had seen at the Debutante Ball and our suspicions of another culprit. I did not mention the duchess’s name. “Can you detect what was in Her Majesty’s goblet at the ball?” I said.

The inspector stared. “How do you expect me to detect something that is long gone?”

Blood crept involuntarily to my cheeks. Ash was staring at me too. “W-well, er, I have a theory,” I said, almost sounding like Olivia.

Lana wouldn’t take well to me claiming her teachings as my theories, but the witch wasn’t here to scold me. I relayed to Erasmus the idea of all things leaving a trace. Surely that rule applied to both magic and non-magic things. There simply had to be some way to draw out the poison without an extracting potion.

“So,” I said. “If you could find a way to separate the lingering poison, I’m sure you could figure something out.”

The inspector laughed. It sounded more like wheezing than anything. “What ideas you have! It’s like you’ve learned from a witch.”

“Amarante does not associate with witches,” Ash said, frowning.

“What do you know?” Erasmus said, removing his gloves. “Fetch me another pair of gloves. And bring the queen’s goblet while you’re at it.”

I would’ve found the exchange funny if I weren’t sweating so much. I eased a little when Ash exited.

“So. Have you learned from a witch?” the inspector asked.

“Not at all,” I said, trying my best to appear nonchalant.

Erasmus narrowed his eyes. “Humph. You think like one. Fifty years ago, this room was full of witches. They made up the bulk of the investigation team.”

“Witches worked in the palace?” I said, aghast.

He nodded. “Elsewhere, too, but in the palace they held the most important positions. Inspectors and physicians. I was a mere youngster when I worked alongside them.”

“But,” I said in a small voice, “didn’t everyone think magic was dangerous?”

Erasmus scoffed. “Magic? Dangerous? I forget what ignorance the youth grow up with these days. Magic is knowledge, girl. Those witches knew more about medicine and alchemy than every human physician combined.”

My face was still hot, but for a different reason entirely. “Did they?”

“I knew an old witch, Navierre. Yes, the Navierre, whose trial started the blasted Non-Magic Age. He was the one who discovered the contagious nature of the common cold. And his wife was the most talented herbwitch in her day. She could whip up antidotes in minutes.” Erasmus obtained a faraway gaze and then shook his head. “Bah. It’s all over, thanks to that cursed old King Humphrey. The inspection team dissolved and now all the royals want from me is an occasional sleeping draught! I’m bloody tired of it.”

I suspected the inspector wouldn’t have spoken so liberally if he weren’t on the verge of retirement.

Erasmus leaned over, a sparkle glinting in his heavy-lidded eyes. “Did you know how Humphrey died?”

I shook my head.

“The old boy choked on candied pineapple.” He guffawed. “Can you believe it? What a way to go! Served him right for banishing those poor witches.”

I let out a giggle as Ash came in with another pair of gloves and something wrapped in brown paper.

“What’s so funny?”

Telling him that we were making fun of his late grandfather choking on candy did not seem appropriate, so I remained silent and Erasmus gestured for the gloves. Ash unwrapped the parcel and gingerly placed the