Opening
On Blackfriars Bridge in 1791, Nella Clavinger prepares to end her life—until Eliza Fanning stages a shocking “death” to save her. In the present, Caroline Parcewell follows the paper trail of the apothecary killer and finds the truth that rewrites history—and her own future. As past and present converge, both women reclaim agency, while James Parcewell forces a final reckoning.
What Happens
Chapter 31: Nella (February 11, 1791)
Cornered by constables on Blackfriars Bridge, Nella steels herself to jump. Instead, Eliza climbs over the railing first, drinks from the tiny blue vial she once pressed into Nella’s hand, whispers, “It will save me,” and lets the River Thames take her. The crowd erupts; Nella, stunned and furious, can only watch the water swallow the girl she meant to protect.
Constables Putnam and Craw seize on the chaos. Putnam is certain Nella is the accomplice; Craw doubts a frail woman could orchestrate such a scene. A third officer returns from 3 Back Alley to report only a rotting-grain storage cellar—no hidden apothecary uncovered. With no evidence and Craw’s skepticism, Putnam spits at Nella and snarls, “get out of my face.” Alone at the railing, Nella reels between relief and despair. Eliza has given her life to save Nella’s; to throw that away feels unthinkable. Yet the “hungry black waves” still call.
Chapter 32: Caroline (Present day, Wednesday)
In James’s hospital room, Caroline studies a 200-year-old article about the “apothecary killer” who jumped from Blackfriars Bridge, knowing the police never found the real shop behind the decoy cellar. When James wakes, the air turns brittle. He plans to fly home; she will stay. In a decisive act of Self-Discovery and Identity, she says she’s quitting her job and filing for separation—she has lost herself and refuses to keep living for his ambitions.
Sensing something off, Caroline asks if he drank the eucalyptus oil on purpose. His silence tells the truth. Recognizing a manipulative bid for pity—an act of Betrayal—Caroline holds her ground. After a stiff goodbye, James leaves. Back at her hotel, she pores over photos of Nella’s register: Lord Clarence’s intended victim isn’t him but his mistress, Miss Berkwell; the purchaser is his wife, Lady Clarence, matching the mysterious 1816 hospital note. Then the shocker: the final entry is dated 12 Feb 1791—the day after the apothecary supposedly died. Someone returns to the shop alive.
Chapter 33: Nella (February 11–12, 1791)
Nella steps away from the bridge. Eliza’s sacrifice must not be wasted. She returns to the hidden room and finds one last plea for poison—a betrayed wife asking for revenge. In a quiet, radical renunciation of her work of Revenge and Justice, Nella burns the letter: “no more death would go forth from this room.”
Her health collapses. Coughing blood, she uses her remaining strength to brew a skullcap tincture for Mrs. Amwell, intending to ease the woman’s grief, and writes a note explaining Eliza’s fate. Before leaving for the last time, she opens the register. With a shaking hand, she writes a final, smudged testament—not a poison sold, but a life lost: “Eliza Fanning, London. Ingr. unknown. 12 Feb 1791.”
Chapter 34: Caroline (Present day, Wednesday–Thursday)
Caroline puzzles over the final entry—the posthumous date, the shaky writing, the “Ingr. unknown.” The next morning she and James part for good. She gives him the ten-year anniversary gift, a tin box once meant to symbolize their bond; now it stands for their individual strength. Relief floods in as he leaves. She realizes the apothecary mystery is hers alone—she has told no one.
A text from Gaynor confirms it: Lady Bea Clarence dies at St. Thomas’ Hospital on October 23, 1816. The hospital note is a deathbed confession. Caroline calls to share the mistress connection and the botched murder plot; Gaynor jokes she should join the British Library research crew, a reminder of the Cambridge history dream Caroline shelved years ago. The encouragement lands—“if you want something different, the only person holding you back is you”—and with it, a new purpose. The artifacts she’s interpreting become a force of The Power of the Past and History, guiding her present.
Chapter 35: Nella (February 12, 1791)
Dying, Nella staggers to the Amwell estate with the skullcap tincture and letter. The world tilts, as if she walks a threshold where the living and dead blur. She means only to leave the package at the door before crawling away to the river.
Then she looks up. A figure fills a dormer window. Not a servant—Eliza. Convinced it’s an apparition, Nella collapses. The “ghost” bursts from the house, cheeks flushed, eyes bright, very real. Eliza uncorks a small, seashell-pink vial as she races to Nella, the promise of life in her hands.
Character Development
Both narrative lines crest into irreversible change: one woman renounces death-dealing; the other claims a life that’s hers alone.
- Nella: Turns from fatalism to purpose. She ends her apothecary of poison by burning the final request and reframes the register as a record of memory, not murder. Her body fails as her moral clarity sharpens.
- Caroline: Claims independence. She ends her marriage, walks away from a misaligned career, and trusts her skills as a researcher to build a new path.
- Eliza: Evolves from apprentice to strategist. Her staged “death” saves Nella and proves her cunning and courage, recasting her as a survivor rather than a martyr.
- James: Exposed as manipulative. His self-poisoning gambit to secure pity backfires, and his exit marks the end of his influence over Caroline.
Themes & Symbols
Female bonds become engines of survival and transformation. Through Female Solidarity and Empowerment, Eliza shields Nella with a daring ruse, while Gaynor’s support helps Caroline reclaim the future she set aside. Meanwhile, the relentless pull of The Power of the Past and History is not passive: newspapers, a register, and a hospital note don’t just reveal truth—they reshape lives.
Layers of Secrets and Deception drive both plots: Lady Clarence’s hidden crime, James’s feigned illness, the decoy cellar, and Eliza’s faked death. Caroline’s arc of self-discovery and identity and Nella’s renunciation of revenge and justice show how truth, once surfaced, frees women to choose differently.
Symbols:
- The vials: The blue vial enables a simulated death—knowledge used not to kill but to protect. The seashell-pink vial symbolizes healing and a new beginning, reversing Nella’s legacy.
- Blackfriars Bridge: A threshold between despair and hope; for Nella, a turn toward life, and for Eliza, a stage for lifesaving deception.
Key Quotes
“It will save me.” Eliza names her own salvation. The line reframes the vial not as an instrument of death but as protective knowledge, foreshadowing her survival and redefining the apothecary’s craft.
“Get out of my face.” Putnam’s contempt signals how quickly male authority dismisses women’s complexity, even as Craw’s doubt hints at cracks in the case that leave Nella free.
“No more death would go forth from this room.” Nella’s renunciation transforms the apothecary from a site of vengeance into a place of memory and care, preparing the ground for Eliza’s pink vial of life.
“Eliza Fanning, London. Ingr. unknown. 12 Feb 1791.” A register built to document poison becomes a memorial. The posthumous date destabilizes the official story and invites the truth: someone survives.
“If you want something different, the only person holding you back is you.” Gaynor’s words catalyze Caroline’s break from fear and inertia, linking present courage to the historical women whose choices she uncovers.
Why This Matters and Section Significance
These chapters form the novel’s emotional and narrative peak. The historical storyline overturns tragedy with cunning survival, while the modern one converts research into self-liberation. Caroline’s choice to leave James and pursue her own work mirrors Nella’s choice to end her trade in death—two refusals that reorient their lives.
The final twist—Eliza alive—recasts the “apothecary killer” legend and underscores the novel’s core claim: women’s knowledge, shared in trust, can repurpose danger into protection. With the timelines now aligned, the remaining question shifts from who died to how they lived, setting up the resolution of Nella and Eliza’s fates and the legacy Caroline will carry forward.