The Lost Apothecary

In London on February 3, 1791, Nella Clavinger sits in her apothecary shop, which doubles as her home, on 3 Back Alley (her shop is very near Bear Alley, which causes many characters in the novel to associate the two locations; they both, essentially, reference her store). She reviews a letter from a client who will come at daybreak to purchase poison on the behalf of her mistress. The letter also notes that the poison will be served to the husband at breakfast. This woman is the latest customer who will purchase such a tonic from Nella’s shop, a store that, in her late mother’s possession, was only an “apothecary shop for women’s maladies” (12) and dispensed no poison. Nella records the names of all her clients in her calfskin register, and she has disguised her shop behind a false wall to avoid detection. Though Nella still offers benign remedies to women for their ailments, she began offering fatal toxins after the death of a man named Frederick, the one victim whose name is missing from the register and defaces “only [her] sullen heart, [her] scarred womb” (13). By her own assessment, Nella believes her shop is too disguised to be found by constables or any civilian men.