Chapter 18
That afternoon, Hero drove across the river to listen to Herr Friedrich Accum present a lecture at Blackfriars Rotunda on the harmful substances regularly added to British foods, drinks, beauty products, and medicines.
Still wearing her sedate navy carriage gown and plain hat, Hero took her place on one of the Rotunda’s long benches, then listened in growing horror to the German chemist’s presentation.
“There is death in our pots!” thundered Accum in his heavily accented but precise English.
“Much of ze food ve eat no longer comes from farmers but from merchants, and far too many of those merchants use dangerous, newly discovered chemicals to ‘improve’ ze taste or appearance of their products. They use arsenic for everything from food coloring to vallpaper paste; there is alum in much of our bread; lead chromate is added to mustard to improve its color; there is even sulfate of copper in pickles! These merchants are poisoning us, and ve have no laws to stop them. Robbers and murderers are hanged for their crimes, but unscrupulous food producers take our money and kill us, then laugh all ze vay to ze bank. Something must be done!”
Afterward, Hero waited patiently to one side while Accum accepted the thanks of various members of his audience. But he soon made his way through the dispersing crowd to her.
“Lady Devlin!” he said with a deep, formal bow. Now in his early forties, he was a plump-faced man with an aquiline nose, full lips, and thick dark hair. Normally the German was cheerful and expansive, but today there was a nervous edge to his smile. “This is an honor—a great honor, indeed.”
“Your lecture was both sobering and frightening,” said Hero as they turned to walk together toward the front of the building.
“It is frightening. And ze men doing it von’t stop unless they are forced to do so. If you can believe it, I have received death threats. Death threats, for trying to save people’s lives! They vant me to shut up so they can keep on poisoning people for profit.”
“Have you reported these threats to Bow Street?”
“I have. But far too many of ze men doing this are extraordinarily vealthy and powerful.” He fixed her with a thoughtful, steady gaze and said, “But you did not come here today simply to listen to my lecture, did you, my lady? Do I take it you’re here because of ze recent deaths of those three young gentlemen? ”
“I won’t deny it’s a contributing factor. According to Lady Keebles, you recently sued her son and his friends for nearly burning down your house.”
“Ya, I did—for all ze good it did me.”
“When was this?”
“Ze explosion? Last September.” They had reached the building’s wide double doors, and he paused at the top of the curving steps, his gaze on the gray, sullen river spreading out before them.
“They had made arrangements ahead of time for one of my private chemistry lessons, you see. But as soon as they arrived, I could tell they’d been drinking heavily.
I gently suggested it might be better if ve vere to reschedule, but they vould have none of it.
I vas afraid they’d become belligerent if I attempted to turn them avay, so I decided ze visest course vould be to simply go ahead vith things.
” He sighed. “A mistake, obviously. They refused to listen to my instructions and set about mixing chemicals together all higgledy-piggledy. That is the English expression, is it not? ‘Higgledy-piggledy’?”
“It is, yes. And that caused an explosion?”
“It did. And started a fire. They thought it hilarious and became angry vith me for trying to interfere vith their ‘fun’ by putting it out. One of them—Keebles—vent so far as to physically restrain me vhile his friends set about throwing things on ze fire, chanting, ‘Burn it down! Burn it down!’ They even tore ze curtains from ze vindows and tossed them on ze fire. Fortunately, ze heavy cloth smothered ze flames.”
“How did you get rid of them?”
Accum cleared his throat. “By that time, Keebles had relaxed his grip on me to ze point I vas able to free myself from his grasp. I then chased ze lot of them out ze house vith a poker. Vhen I first snatched it up and threatened them vith it, they laughed at me. So I set about svinging it. Gave one a good whack across ze back of ze shoulders and brought it down on another one’s forearm vhen he tried to use one of my chairs to shift the curtains off ze fire. That’s vhen they ran.”
“Let me guess: When you tried to sue them for the damage they’d done to your house, they then sued you for assault?”
Accum nodded sadly. “In ze end, ze magistrate convinced both parties to drop our suits. Except those—those—” He muttered something, something she didn’t quite catch, then sucked in a deep, steadying breath and said more calmly, “They vere left vith a few bruises, vhile I had over a thousand pounds’ worth of damages. A thousand pounds!”
“I’m so sorry,” said Hero.
“It’s ze vay of our vorld.” He paused, his forehead wrinkling with a nervous frown. “Do I need to vorry? Because they destroyed my house and now someone has killed three of them? Am I a suspect?”
“I don’t think so,” said Hero. “They seem to have done this sort of thing with alarming regularity.”
Accum nodded again. “I’ve met their kind before, in Hanover. Vealthy, pampered young men raised with a dangerous belief in their own innate superiority and no regard for others. I probably shouldn’t say it, but frankly, those men got vhat they deserved.”
Hero met his troubled gaze. “That seems to be a common sentiment.”