Finally, a decision, dragged from me along a path of anticipated loss so intense it took my breath away, and bringing as much pain as it did resolution. Could I really leave Julia? Yet I wanted to go. I wanted to be with Evan. With him, I was truly myself. A self that was better. I could not give that up—or him. And if that meant leaving England, then so be it.

Then I realized my announcement had been met with silence.

He was looking at me, but there was no glad smile upon his face, or even a smile at all. “That is, if you wish me to accompany you,” I said. Good God, did he not want me to go?

“Tell me—” he began.

I braced myself.

“Did the HMS Triumph and HMS Phipps make the newspapers here two years ago?”

Not the direction I was expecting.

“The Triumph?” I echoed. Why was he talking of ships? Yet the name was familiar. I searched my memory. “They were involved in an accident, were they not?”

“Not as such,” he said. “Both ships salvaged a cargo of elemental mercury in kidskin bladders from a wrecked Spanish ship near Cádiz. However, when the bladders were taken on board, they ruptured and the mercury spread around the ships as both quicksilver and vapor. The sailors were struck down with tremors, nervous agitations, heart complaints, tooth loss, and even paralysis.”

“How awful.”

“Indeed. I read a medical article by the Triumph’s surgeon and it concluded that it was the mercury vapor that caused the crew to fall ill. Not many subscribe to that conclusion, mind you. Mercury is the most popular cure for…” He stopped. “Well, for the French disease. For me, however, it sounds a warning bell.”

“Indeed,” I said. “Most interesting, but why are you telling me this?”

“Because your sister is taking blue mass pills, and they are made of mercury.”

For a second, I did not quite take his meaning. “But they are not vapor or quicksilver.”

“Even so, it is still the same element.”

The full import of his words finally landed upon me. “You think the pills are poisoning her?”

“If just breathing in mercury or touching it causes such illness, then what would ingesting it do?”

“Dear God.” I looked over my shoulder at the road we had just traveled, every impulse in me to turn and gallop back to Davenport Hall. “I must tell her.”

“You must. Thankfully she is only taking a tiny amount, but I think we have both already noticed changes in her demeanor: agitation and irritability.”

“Headaches and faintness too. Dear God, she has already taken today’s dose.” The knowledge clenched my innards.

“I know. Tell her when we return—she may listen to you, and I know young Dr. McLeod refuses to prescribe blue mass, so he may be able to add another voice.”