Deadly Affair: A Georgian Historical Mystery (Alec Halsey Crimance) Read Online Free PDF

only that morning; another generous gift from his lordship, as was the dispensary and all its contents.
    Lord Halsey had given Tam the use of the small room beside the butler’s pantry as a preparation room. It was the sort of room every student of pharmacy dreamed of having at the end of a seven-year apprenticeship. It was fitted out with shelves, cabinets, a worktable and a small stove for the brewing kettles, and it was next to the kitchen and the herb garden beyond. It was Tam’s alone. He had the only key to the door leading onto the passage; the back door he could bolt from the inside. Not even the butler was permitted to trespass.
    Tam fingered the key and its chain that was attached to a button inside his plain cloth waistcoat pocket and grinned. He considered himself the luckiest lad alive and daily thanked God for his good fortune. Valet to a wealthy nobleman, who was not only the best master a youth could hope for, but one who encouraged his servants to better themselves.
    Unlike his lordship’s butler, who was forever looking over his shoulder trying to catch Tam out for attending on the poor wretches who often called at the garden gate in search of free medicinals and advice. And making house calls on Blackwell’s sick and miserable parishioners was, in the butler’s opinion, the height of wastefulness.
    The butler’s familiar short, sharp rap on the outer door interrupted Tam’s thoughts and he reluctantly went in answer to it, wiping his eyes on the back of a sleeve.
    Wantage stood in the doorway, scowling. He disapproved of Tam and he certainly did not approve of his hocus-pocus. He considered it beneath the dignity of a Marquess’s valet to get his hands soiled with garden filth. He tried to take a look into the room but Tam stood firmly in the doorway.
    All that study of botanical mumbo jumbo had made the boy’s eyes red.
    Tam pulled the door on his back and made a point of taking his time to turn the key in the latch. The butler stood so close Tam could smell the cheroots on his breath.
    “You’re wanted,” Wantage sniffed, itching to snatch the key that dangled from its long chain in the boy’s hand. “No. Not upstairs. In there,” he said, a jerk of his thumb over his shoulder at the library door. “Tie your hair back, Thomas Fisher.”
    Tam abruptly stopped swinging the key and shot a hand to his red curls. Where was that damn riband? He turned out his pockets, found the scrap of black silk, scraped back his curly hair from his forehead, and carelessly tied it up at the nape of his neck. All this under the reproachful gaze of the butler, who took it upon himself to inspect Tam’s handiwork before allowing him to pass.
    Tam gritted his teeth and let the butler have his moment. It didn’t do to upset Wantage. He had a way of making those he disliked pay, regardless of their closeness to the master.
    He slipped into the library and waited, only coming out of the shadows when Plantagenet Halsey slowly crossed the room on his nephew’s arm. He could tell the old man’s arthritis was bothering him, particularly this cold day, and offered to help him to his room. His offer was greeted with a grunt but was not rejected. When Tam returned he found Lord Halsey had put on his eyeglasses and was seated at his desk, writing. Tam smiled. There was a time when his master had refused to acknowledge his failing eyesight. Finally, necessity had conquered vanity.
    Alec looked over his gold rims. “Were you by the door while Mr. Halsey was with me?”
    “Long enough, sir,” Tam answered honestly.
    “Then I won’t need to repeat myself about your nocturnal wanderings. Do I make myself understood?”
    Tam nodded.
    “Very well. I should like to know if you think Blackwell had any enemies.”
    “None, sir,” Tam answered without hesitation. “He was liked by all. No one had a bad word to say about him. Why should they? He was a very decent gentleman.”
    “The times you were with him, visiting his