The Serpent's Shadow Read Online Free PDF Page A

Fat is very hard for a delicate appetite. Fish, on the other hand is excellent.”
    â€œLobster?” Miss Smith ventured, hopefully. “Oysters?”
    To accompany all that champagne? “All very well, but avoid rich sauces. They are often used to mask shellfish that are no longer wholesome, and can you afford a month of wretchedness for the sake of a lobster bisque?” Maya asked shrewdly. “A case of food poisoning would keep you off the stage for at least that long. Miss Smith, this is advice unsolicited, but it pays one to know precisely what transpires in one’s kitchen. There are much worse things that could come from that domain than merely being cheated by the cook.”
    This time Miss Smith nodded knowingly. “My cook lives in terror of me,” she replied with a real smile this time. “What of the shortness of breath?”
    Don’t lace your corsets so tightly and exercise, my dear.
    â€œAs you are in the theater, I venture to guess you might find a Shakespearean coach who would give you fencing lessons; loosen your corsets or do without altogether for that hour, and put the same effort into it that he does. You might be surprised at how flexible fencing lessons can make one,” Maya told her instantly. “You might also consider dancing lessons every day; good, brisk ones, perhaps with the ballet. The same lessons that make them so graceful will do the same for you—”
    â€œFencing lessons are quite fashionable, are they not?” the young woman said, after a moment staring off into space in thought. “The theater director might be pleased to find I’m taking them, and he’s mentioned dancing class once or twice as well.”
    Ah. Music hall, operetta, or popular theater, I think. She is probably playing the “ Ingenue ” and the “ Innocent Maid .” And she wants to stay the Ingenue for as long as she can.
    â€œQuite,” Maya reassured her. “Now wait one moment; I will go and fetch a prescription I think will please you better than any pill or patent medicine to ensure a perfect complexion.”
    She rose and went to a very special cupboard which stood in the surgery office in place of one of the bookcases. From it, she brought out a carved sandalwood box, which she took to the desk, opening it to Miss Smith’s curious gaze. It contained six carved stone jars.
    â€œThese are from India, are they not?” Miss Smith asked, newly aroused interest causing her intense blue eyes to shine in a way that must have been irresistible to any man. “Like ...” she began, then flushed, and put her hand in its red-silk glove to her lips.
    â€œLike me, you were about to say?” Maya laughed. “Miss Smith, I cannot conceal my parentage, so I do not trouble to try. But because of my parentage ...” She lowered her voice, and Miss Smith leaned forward eagerly. “Because my mother was of great learning in the ancient ways of her people, I have knowledge that is not accessible to those of this land. My mother’s people believe that female beauty is a thing to be cultivated and made to flourish, then preserved for as long as she lives. They do not believe that it is a sin to be lovely. I do not only supply physic internally, Miss Smith, I am prepared to supply it externally as well.”
    Great good heavens, I sound like a patent medicine man! But Miss Smith took in the words with parted lips and shining eyes, and Maya continued in the same vein. “Here are my special balms and lotions, meant to enhance and preserve against the threats of cruel weather and the hand of time. I have an apothecary at my disposal. He compounds them under my strict supervision.”
    She wrote down the name and address of the apothecary at the end of the street with whom she had set up her arrangement. She supplied the herbs, after a little preparation of her own, and he did the rest. There was more in those jars