Page 59 of Of Potions and Honey
Yoni exhaled sharply. “I just did the dishes. Mine’s fine.” Now she did step back and opened the door fully. “You can get some.”
Mira quickly stepped inside before Yoni could change her mind. “Thank you. I’ll be quick.”
Yoni didn’t respond, just led her into the kitchen, where Mira put her bucket in the empty stone basin and began to pump. And stopped when Marigold jumped on the counter and nearly stuck her head under the stream.
“Oh, no you don’t!” Mira gently pushed the cat aside, who meowed indignantly until Mira scratched her underneath her chin. “I don’t think Yoni wants a wet beast inside her kitchen today.”
There was an odd noise from behind Mira. “You can stop cosying up to my cat, you know, that won’t work.”
Mira stopped and turned to find Yoni sulking by the door. “Sorry. That’s not what I’m doing.” She turned back and resumed pumping. “It’s fine. I understand why you’re angry. We don’t have to talk again, if you don’t-”
“Oh, don’t you be like that!”
Yoni’s voice cracked through the small kitchen like a whip. Startled, Mira let go of the pump. Even Marigold’s ears twitched. Yoni had her arms crossed and was glaring daggers at Mira.
“You know, Iwantedto keep talking. Iwantedthis to go somewhere, before you hit me over the head with this selling and moving nonsense! Ilikeyou, and quite frankly not a lot of people can claim that.” She took a step closer. “But you tell me what the point of that would be if all that’s going to happen is that I’ll go through the exact same thing again? Have to deal with the exact same crap I did from Alexander? Why should I bother? Why didyoubother?”
Baffled, Mira stared at her. “Do you think I planned for any of this? That I intended to find myself up to my neck in debt and having to sell the only house I’ll ever have a chance at owning? Because I can assure that I very much did not.”
Yoni scoffed. “Oh, of course not, don’t be ridiculous. You did not seem very fussed about it though when you mentioned it.”
“I didn’t seem fussed because I didn’t want to have a breakdown in public!” Mira raked a hand through her hair. “I’m pretty sure Emilia wouldn’t have appreciated having a sobbing mess in her inn, and honestly, that’s where that would have gone if I had tried to be even remotely honest about the whole thing.”
After a moment of tense silence, Yoni’s expression softened almost imperceptibly. “Is that so.”
“Are you-” Mira threw her hands in the air. “Do you want me to recreate my reaction to that letter? Would that help?” She leaned against the counter, where Marigold promptly shoved her head into the crook of Mira’s elbow. “Oh, for the love of-” She tried her best to ignore the purring cat. “I don’t want to leave, Yoni. I don’t want to sell and hope that the money is enough, and then go back home where I’ll never be hearing the end of it. There will be I told you so’s, and I’ll probably be sleeping on someone’s couch while I find a new job, which will be exactly as miserable as my old one. Does that sound like something that wouldn’t fuss me? Because I’m pretty sure it doesn’t.”
“Mira…”
“Mrow.”
Mira scowled at the cat, but finally gave in and began scratching again. “I love it here. I didn’t know that when I moved here, but Emberglen is everything I wanted. I thought I was a little bit crazy when I decided to do what Uncle Lochlin asked me to do and re-open the shop, but it worked! I was happy and doing things that actually made a difference! But now I have a loan to pay off, which I have no earthly clue how to do if Golden River keeps slurping up the water left and right, and Mayor Lloyd is either too lazy or too deep in their pocket to do anything about it!”
Yoni pinched the bridge of her nose. “And you couldn’t be bothered to tell me any of that sooner?”
“How, pray tell? You seemed pretty intent on avoiding me this whole time.”
“Fine, maybe I was, but-” Yoni abruptly stopped. “Wait. Hold on. Can we go back a few sentences? What do you mean, Golden River isslurping up the water?”
“Oh. That.” Mira chewed on her lip. “Maybe we should sit down for that?”
Seated at Yoni’s kitchen table, Mira recounted for the third time that day what she had put together about the water shortage, and this time, she left nothing out, including a few choice obscenities that made Marigold’s ears flicker, and Yoni look like she was struggling with laughter. At the end, Mira was fiddling with a rogue tea spoon that seemed to have been forgotten on the table, wondering what the point of this even was.
“So that’s pretty much it. I’m fairly sure they’re causing all of those problems, but I can’t prove any of it, and Mayor Lloyd refused to even entertain the idea. I have no idea what else I’m supposed to do here, but if we can’t fix this, that for sure won’t make staying any easier.” She made a vague gesture with the spoon. “Never mind everyone else’s problems.”
“You really think someone is doing this deliberately?” Yoni grabbed the spoon and put it on the counter. “Give me that, you’re making me jumpy.”
“I don’t see how else this would be happening,” Mira said darkly. “We’ve had rain, there’s nothing wrong with the spring, what else could it be?”
“I don’t know,” Yoni admitted. “I might think of something. But suppose you’re right, and this is what’s happening…” She exhaled sharply. “How do we fix this? Weneedto fix this, before they dry up the whole town.”
“I’ve asked a friend in Willow Harbour to send me some of that water,” Mira said. “Once we have it, there has to be a wayto figure out where it’s from. I’ve checked the library in the town hall, but there’s not much there. Maybe the library in Heartfield has some scientific works I could consult for a method.”
“Hm.” Yoni stared out the window. “Possibly. I’ll see if I have anything stashed away. My parents left me some of their books when they moved, I haven’t really looked at them much since then, but my father knows a lot about water quality and soil composition, he might have something on the topic.” She looked at Mira. “And once we do know?”
Mira grinned crookedly. “Cross that bridge when we get to it?” She shook her head. “Wish I knew. Maybe that’ll convince the mayor, though.”
“Right. Maybe.” Yoni traced some of the scratches on the table. “Just out of curiosity, if we fix this… Could you… With the shop? Would that be enough?”
