Page 83 of The Laudanum Ladies' Society

He paused, hand halfway to his coat and lowered it, frowning.

‘When you see Ruth again it is very likely that she will have been forced to drink something that lowered her inhibitions and muddled her mind. It’s a drug that Mrs Charles has obtained. But apart from what it might have allowed her to do, it will cause her no lasting ill-effects. I can promise you that.’

‘You sound very… certain. Why?’ Danny asked.

Gwen wrapped her arms around herself and wriggled back into the chair, shame heating her cheeks.

Danny’s eyes glinted. ‘Is your husband responsible? He’s a pharmacist.’

‘No!’ Gwen sat up, even amidst the distress, she felt indignant at the assumption that it must be a man who was responsible. ‘I am the person making the mixture that Mrs Charles has been forcing on the girls. Though I didn’t know that was what she was going to do with it. And if I had known, I would never have given her access to it.’

Danny walked to the window. He looked out silently before eventually turning back to face Gwen. He folded his arms tightly. The sunshine was bright behind him, casting him into a silhouette, so Gwen struggled to make out his expression.

‘You are involved in this business?’ he asked incredulously.

She dropped her head and then raised it again. ‘I made the medicine they are using to drug the girls into submission, but I promise you, I had no idea it was being used in that way. I thought it was going to be for willing customers. And not in a brothel at that, but in a public house.’

‘When I first met you in that area you told me you were running an errand, but you never told me what it was. I think it might have been more relevant than I realised.’

He stepped forward, a flash of fury crossing his face. ‘I could have found Ruth weeks ago if you had told me!’

‘I didn’t know she was there!’ Gwen cried. Tears filled her eyes. ‘I promise you, I didn’t know that was what Augusta was using it for, or that she owned a brothel. We didn’t intend for it to be anything other than a diversion for women… a bit of amusement.’

‘We?’ Danny’s face was stone.

‘Miss Rosewood and I.’ Gwen dropped her head and covered her face with her hands. ‘It’s all so dreadful. It got out of control. And we have been trying to do anything we can to stop it,’ she mumbled through her fingers.

‘You had better tell me everything,’ Danny said coldly.

Gwen swallowed, suppressing a flicker of irritation. She had been trying to do just that but he had kept interrupting her. She sat up straighter.

‘It started off as a small venture; I was making our tincture to try and earn enough money for Archibald’s eye operation by selling it to Miss Rosewood’s acquaintances.’

‘What precisely is your concoction?’ Danny asked.

‘Opium. Coca leaf. A few spices that we discovered had an interesting effect when combined.’

He shook his head and raked his hands over his temples before turning around.

‘If I had been asked to picture the evildoers who were behind supplying people with opium and bringing them to ruin, I would never have thought to picture someone like you.’

‘Nor would I,’ Gwen said quietly. ‘But then a friend of Miss Rosewood’s grew interested, and said she had a friend– a businesswoman– who might use it. Augusta Charles. So, we went to see Mrs Charles, and she persuaded us that we could make a lot of money by selling it to her to use with her customers. But we thought it was for the customers to take themselves voluntarily. If we had even suspected what her true purpose was, we would never have agreed.’

A sob swelled up in her throat, stifling her words. ‘It’s such a dreadful mess and I don’t know how to free myself from it. Once we found out what it was really being used for, we planned to stop immediately. And we have a plan to rescue the girls. That’s why I came to you today.’

‘You have a plan?’ Danny’s lip curled. ‘Why not simply go to the police?’

Gwen wrapped her arms around herself. ‘Because I’m scared, Danny.’

‘What are you scared of, exactly?’ His voice was hard. She didn’t expect forgiveness, but it was devastating, nonetheless.

‘Scared of what Mrs Charles will do to us if she discovers our involvement in getting the girls out.’

A chill went through her as Selina’s warning to leave London echoed in her ears. ‘I’m a little scared of what others will think of us, too, if it comes out in the open. I doubt you’ll be the only person to condemn me.’

She took a deep breath and looked him directly in the eye. He remained stone-faced, apart from a slight deepening of the line between his brows.

‘We will get the girls out,’ she said. ‘And once we have, you can do what you like with whatever information Ruth and the other girls give you. See if Augusta can be prosecuted for pimping. Bring the drugging into it, if necessary. I will do anything I can to right the wrongs I’ve been involved in. I have no right to ask you a favour, but if you can keep our names out of it, that might help to keep us safe.’