Poison Diaries: Nightshade

Poison Diaries: Nightshade
Maryrose Wood

A dark, gothic tale of romance… and murder.Part of the grippingly dark series, The Poison Diaries.Our heroine, Jessamine, has lost her faith in the men she loved, and her innocence as well. She turns to the dark side and plots to kill her father, using his own poisons, before becoming an assassin, a poisoner for hire. Can she recover from her heartache and reunite with her true love, Weed? Find out in this thrilling story where poisons, darkness and horror are a part of everyday life, and love is the only cure.

Dedication

For Ruta Rimas, with deepest thanks

Epigraph

“Weed… fills my head with tales from the ancient forests, tales so old that the trees themselves call them legends. It is as if a veil has been lifted from my eyes, and the world I have lived in all my sixteen years is revealed to be something else entirely, something so

marvellous I could never have imagined it…”

– JESSAMINE LUXTON, The Poison Diaries

Contents

Cover (#ulink_28bbe352-c078-56b4-8948-a1103b4e6478)

Title Page

Dedication

Epigraph

1

I WAKE, AS I usually do, to the sound of…

2

ALL DAY AND LATE into the evening, the fields ring…

3

A STAND OF HEMLOCK water dropwort grows in a sturdy…

4

IT IS LATE AFTERNOON when I return, though the sky…

5

DEEP IN THE FOREST is another world, yet three hours…

6

I AM ROWAN. I tell myself over and over, in…

7

THE JOURNEY SOUTH TAKES on a rhythm of its own.

8

THE NEXT MORNING I awaken early. I have only had…

9

THEY DRAG ME BACK to the King’s Head and sequester…

10

IT HAS TAKEN THE better part of this long sea…

11

THE COURTYARD OF SIGNORA Baglioni’s house is filled with weathered…

12

JESSAMINE LUXTON.

13

SIGNORA BAGLIONI BEGINS EVERY lesson the same way: “What does…

14

BE CHARMING, LOVELY. That was Oleander’s final instruction. These men…

15

THE TREE SIGNORA CALLS the Palm of St. Peter is the…

16

“BELLISSIMO,” SIGNORA BAGLIONI MURMURS, making the final adjustments to my…

17

I AM DYING, DROWNING at the bottom of the Tyne…

18

ARE YOU VERY WEARY, lovely? You must be. Even with…

19