A Highland Duchess Page 31

  Since poisoning cases were often reported by the press, and contained those elements that made for reader interest (love, betrayal, and rage), public perception was that the Victorian era was associated with a poisoning epidemic, and that poisoning was a fashionable crime. The truth was that the actual numbers of criminal cases involving poison remained constant throughout the century.

  In Victorian England murder by poison was proven mainly by circumstantial evidence, since most forensic tools had not yet been developed. The Reinsch test is one exception. This test was a method to detect arsenic poisoning and was developed in 1841. In the book, Ian performed the test on the remaining contents of the wine bottles. In actuality, the test was performed on bodily fluids.

  People were expected to sign the Poison Book when purchasing arsenic in 1866, but it was a common enough occurrence, since arsenic was used for a variety of purposes: to kill rats, as a complexion enhancer, and even as a food dye. (A coloring agent—Scheele’s Green—was made from adding copper sulfate to a solution of arsenic and used as a food dye in sweets.)

  The treatment for arsenic poisoning was as I described it in the book. However, there are no definitive statistics on survivors, so it’s uncertain if the treatment was efficacious.

  About the Author

  KAREN RANNEY wanted to be a writer from the time she was five years old and filled her Big Chief tablet with stories. People in stories did amazing things and she was too shy to do anything amazing. Years spent in Japan, Paris, and Italy, however, not only fueled her imagination, but proved that she wasn’t that shy after all. Yet she prefers to keep her current adventures between the covers of her books. Karen lives in San Antonio, Texas, and loves to hear from her readers at www.karenranney.com.

  By Karen Ranney

  A Highland Duchess

  Sold to a Laird

  A Scotsman in Love

  The Devil Wears Tartan

  The Scottish Companion

  Autumn in Scotland

  An Unlikely Governess

  Till Next We Meet

  So In Love

  To Love a Scottish Lord

  The Irresistible MacRae

  When the Laird Returns

  One Man’s Love

  After the Kiss

  My True Love

  My Beloved

  Upon a Wicked Time

  My Wicked Fantasy

  Coming Soon

  A Borrowed Scot

  Copyright

  This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  A HIGHLAND DUCHESS. Copyright © 2010 by Karen Ranney. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  EPub Edition August 2010 ISBN: 9780062005328

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  About the Publisher

  Australia

  HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.

  25 Ryde Road (P.O. Box 321)

  Pymble, NSW 2073, Australia

  http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com.au

  Canada

  HarperCollins Canada

  2 Bloor Street East - 20th Floor

  Toronto, ON, M4W, 1A8, Canada

  http://www.harpercollinsebooks.ca

  New Zealand

  HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand) Limited

  P.O. Box 1

  Auckland, New Zealand

  http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.nz

  United Kingdom

  HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

  77-85 Fulham Palace Road

  London, W6 8JB, UK

  http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.uk

  United States

  HarperCollins Publishers Inc.

  10 East 53rd Street

  New York, NY 10022

  http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com