Total pages in book: 27
Estimated words: 25371 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 127(@200wpm)___ 101(@250wpm)___ 85(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 25371 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 127(@200wpm)___ 101(@250wpm)___ 85(@300wpm)
She was lying.
I could tell.
She was just telling me what I wanted to hear, trying to get me to trust her.
Turning my back on her, I gathered up the papers and held them close to my chest. “As I’ve said, there has been a mistake. I do not require an assistant.”
Catherine’s shoulders slumped. She neatly refolded the paper and tucked it into her purse. “Thank you for your time, Dr. Jekyll. I’m sorry to have disturbed your work.”
Without another word of protest, she turned and left.
The floral scent of her perfume lingered long after she was gone.
CHAPTER 3
DR. HENRY JEKYLL PERSONAL RESEARCH JOURNAL
ENTRY 4589-3B
Bl88dX5 formula proved inconclusive. Modified molecular structure of dihydroxyl-alpha-methylbenzyl alcohol insufficient to achieve necessary results. Need to increase dosage to break the amino ethyl side chain for more methylated nitrogen.
For Bl88dX6 formula, I am increasing the concentration of racemic mixture of d-epinephrine and l-epinephrine.
University is attempting to sabotage my results by introducing a spy into my lab. It is now necessary to take matters into my own hands. They have left me no choice.
Human Trial of Bl88dX6 to commence.
Subject: Dr. Henry Jekyll
Time is 17:00.
I printed out what I had just written and tucked it into my leather-bound journal. I then picked up the glass vial of Bl88dX6. I stared at the crimson liquid for several seconds. I was taking a great risk by testing the formula on my own body, but I knew throughout history great strides in medical science had only been achieved by those who were willing to put their own lives on the line for their research. This formula was to be my legacy. I couldn’t let the university pull my funding and shut down my lab. Not now. Not when I was so close…
Closing my eyes, I raised the vial to my lips and drank.
CHAPTER 4
CATHERINE
Iwas being followed. I could feel it.
I glanced over my shoulder for the hundredth time but saw no one there. It was a cold night. A mist hung in the air, tiny raindrops frozen in time, obscuring my view and giving an otherworldly feel to the atmosphere. The historic gas lamps, a throwback to Victorian times, flickered but gave out only a sparse halo of yellow light. The gray stone walls of the surrounding buildings seemed to loom in judgment over the gloomy lane, echoing its dark past.
I hastened my steps down Commercial Street toward my Whitechapel flat.
It was probably just nerves. Today had obviously been stressful. The university had not prepared me for Dr. Jekyll’s heated resistance to my employment in his lab. I had been told I would be a welcomed relief given the enormity of his research and the deadlines he was facing. To have to grovel and practically beg for a job I thought I already had was annoying to say the least. Not to mention, I had turned down another, far more lucrative job for the chance to work with the celebrated, if rather odd, Dr. Jekyll.
I had heard rumors about his increasingly paranoid behavior regarding his work but had dismissed them. In my experience, all scientists were a bit quirky. Myself included.
What I hadn’t been prepared for was how young and handsome he would be. There were no photos of him online since a man of his genius would hardly be posting status updates on his Facebook page, so I was unprepared. In my mind, I had pictured him as a cranky old man with an unkempt white beard, wearing tweed head to toe. There was lots of tweed in my imagination. And maybe even smoking a pipe while he drank whiskey out of a glass beaker.
That wasn’t the case.
Dr. Henry Jekyll was tall and definitely in his early thirties. I was surprised to see a hint of defined arm muscles through his white linen shirt when he picked up that pile of dropped files. He had short, if slightly ruffled brown hair and striking blue eyes. The only bit of tweed on him was a short vest he wore over his dress shirt, which was tucked into a pair of worn-out denim trousers.
My cheeks heated thinking about how he almost caught me checking out his ass as he bent over to retrieve a memo that had slid across the linoleum out of his reach. I had even sniffed the spicy scent of his cologne. There was just something so sexy and masculine about a man who wore cologne. And then there were his hands. They weren’t soft and pale like many men who worked all day under artificial light in some basement lab. They were large and tan with a silver watch around his left wrist.
I took a deep breath to cool my thoughts.
Perhaps it was a good thing he had turned me down flat. It wouldn’t do to start a new job with a crush on my boss.