Page 60 of Violet Thistlewaite Is Not a Villain Anymore
“Sedgwick,no,” Nathaniel disagreed. “He’s blatantly stealing business from us. And besides, Violet thinks he might be behind the blight.”
“What?” Pru reared back. “Really?”
“He has some kind of reputation. It sounds like she knows him from before she came to Dragon’s Rest.”
His sister’s expression flattened to stony solemnity. “That’s serious, then. Who else knows?”
“I’m not sure. We don’t know anything for certain yet.” Not that Nathaniel would be upset if, say, word got out to Quinn and spread through Dragon’s Rest until Sedgwick was forced to leave town. His vehement dislike had only grown with Violet’s suspicion that Sedgwick might be the one causing the blight, not to mention with every one of his customers who’d stopped coming into Marsh’s. And if those reasons weren’t valid enough, the man hadmade Violet cry. He had to go.
One good thing had come of it all, he supposed. The Sweet Dreams Elixir that he’d made for Violet would spoil after a month. He’d resolved already to brew her more whenever she had need of it, but even the smallest batch would leave him with more than she could use in that time. So Nathaniel had taken to heart the ideas that had sprung in Violet’s kitchen and bottled the rest for sale. He’d placed it on display this morning…and already sold four bottles at a significant price point.
A few more days like this, he thought with something dangerously like hope, and they might be able to make their first monthly payment to the bank.
The Sweet Dreams Elixir wasn’t volatile, he reasoned with himself. Even in its early experimental days, he’d never seen any sort of adverse reaction—no explosions, not even a bad smell—and even before he perfected the balance of ingredients and the precise details of the method, he’d never experienced any side effects.
“What do you think about offering a few other alchemical medicines?” he slowly asked his sister now. He’d started working on several this morning, inventions from his days in the Crucible, but had resisted floating the idea to Pru. Now that one of themwas not only on their shelves but doing well, however, it was time to ask. “Nothing big, mind, and certainly nothing dangerous.”
He was still resolved not to experiment on anything brand new without a proper work setup, especially now that he shared the space with Violet. Nathaniel would never put the people in his life at risk for his own ambitions again—but he did have alchemical solutions for some of the regular problems of folks in Dragon’s Rest that were tested, safe, and effective. He could sell them in the shop without risking fire, injury, or death upon the people closest to him.
And maybe keep his business afloat in the process.
“Yes,” said Pru before he’d even finished talking. “Nathaniel,yes.”
He could feel his cheeks growing warm. “It’s just that the Sweet Dreams Elixir is doing so well already, and I thought—”
“I already agreed, you silly bat!” She flung her arms around him. “It’s a wonderful idea, brother. Exactly what the shop needs.”
“Well,” he said again, feeling sheepishly pleased. “We’ll need to buy some specialty ingredients, and it won’t be cheap, but I think with the markup on the inventory once it’s ready for sale, we can—”
“Still yes. You’re not going to talk me out of it, and I certainly won’t let you talk yourself out of it.” Prudence looked feverish with excitement. “I’m thrilled, Nathaniel. Thrilled.”
“But are youthrilled?”
She slapped his shoulder, grinning. “Thrilled!”
He felt his own smile grow as he watched his twin walk away from him and scoop Daisy into her arms. She stopped at the bottom of the stairs. “Thrilled, Nathaniel!”
It was settled, then. Marsh’s would start selling his inventions. Nathaniel would officially be an alchemist once more.
Guy—Regular Guy, that was, not Big Bad Evil Guy—watched with an approving smile from over by the window display. The old man held a bottle of Sweet Dreams Elixir in his gnarled hands.
“You heard all of that, then?” Nathaniel asked, scratching at the back of his neck self-consciously. Guy had been close with his father and grandfather and had been a regular fixture at Marsh’s all of Nathaniel’s life.
Guy nodded.
“And what do you think? Am I setting myself up for disaster?”
Guy ambled over to the counter and set the bottle down. Slowly, so that even Nathaniel with his extremely basic knowledge of sign language could understand, he spelled out the wordproud.
“Well then,” said Nathaniel, feeling unendurably pleased. “If you say so.”
Guy paid for the elixir and left the store, leaving Nathaniel behind the counter with entirely too much emotional energy for a person to safely contain. Pru was thrilled. Guy was proud. He’d spent so long being ashamed and horrified about what he’d done, he’d assumed everyone else in Dragon’s Rest felt the same. When he’d packed away his alchemy gear and vowed to keep the apothecary as it was, he thought everyone else must have been relieved. No risk of anyone else being hurt by his actions; no chance that more of his experiments would go wrong in other, even more disastrous ways.
But both Guy and Pru had known him his whole life. Was it possible they’d seen the way it had affected him, not being able to do the thing he loved most? Was it possible they didn’t hold him responsible for his parents’ deaths? Was it possible there were others in town who felt the same?
When Nathaniel had worked for the Crucible, he feltswallowed up by the big city, secure in his own anonymity. Coming back to Dragon’s Rest had made him feel uncomfortably on display. But perhaps there was safety to be found even in a space where everyone could see him. Perhaps Violet was right—these people knew him, flaws and all, and they would not let him fall.
As a child, Dragon’s Rest had felt stifling—everyone knew everyone’s business and made it their own, and for an anxious, introverted boy finding his own way, that was more of an imposition than anything. But a community, he was finding since his return, was about much more than a lack of privacy. It was about help, and support, and family. Nathaniel still didn’t look forward to surprise visits from neighbors and the way Quinn inserted herself into gossip—but he loved the way Jerome pretended to be reluctant and grumpy while simultaneously offering to be everyone’s handyman, and how Guy gave away leftover pastries at the end of the day, and how Nathaniel could easily remember his customers’ names and regular orders. He even loved sharing the greenhouse with Violet.
