Page 68 of Of Potions and Honey
Mr. Sheffield raised his chin. “Naturally. The springs in the region have a remarkably similar mineral composition, of course they taste the same.”
“Yes, but…”
“Please. You can see what this is, can’t you? This young lady clearly has business troubles, and she thinks smearing our good reputation will help with that.”
Mira’s cheeks grew hot. “My business is just fine, thank you very much. It would be even better though if you stopped stealing our water!”
For a moment, there was a strange silence, the kind that hung in the air like a thread pulled taut, and you just knew it was going to snap. Someone coughed. Somewhere behind and to her left, Mira heard someone mutter about shrivelled tomatoes. She didn’t dare turn around to look, but judging by the accent, the penny had finally dropped for Sabir Ata that the water shortage really wasn’t Cassia and Eren’s fault.
“That is a baseless accusation!” Mr. Sheffield snapped. He fiddled with his cravat. “I will pretend none of this ever happened, but if you keep going like this, young lady, then you will be hearing from my company’s solicitors.”
For the span of a few heartbeats, Mira froze. Of course he’d make that threat. He would be right, if she really was making unfounded accusations. She wasn’t, she knew that, but could she prove it? Mira felt her stomach twist. They’d given away the game now. If this didn’t go anywhere today, Golden River would have all the time in the world to make any evidence disappear. They’d get away with it, Emberglen would still suffer from the drought they had caused, and she herself…
“Perhaps we should all calm down down a little.” Mayor Lloyd sounded dubious. “Discuss this in my office later.”
That sent the life back into Mira. “Like last time? When you refused to listen to a word I was saying?” She knew her voicebecame brittle, but found it impossible to do anything about it. Why would he notlisten?“Look at this! This is spring water. If you wanted to, you could go to the spring itself right now and dump some lavender into the pool, it would turn the whole thing pink.”
The mayor sighed deeply. “I don’t think we will be doing that right now.”
“But-”
“Miss Gardener, if you do not want this to escalate, I suggest-”
“Milton!”
The call from somewhere in the crowd made them all turn around. Roughly fifteen feet away, on the edge of the fountain, stood Harper, holding a small bottle aloft. Next to her in the crowd, Mira saw a familiar shock of black hair, and Yoni’s face peeking out above the rest.
“Harper, what are you doing?” The Mayor scowled. “Get down before you break a bone.”
“In a second!” Harper said cheerfully. “Just for the record, the fountain is fed with spring water, isn’t it?”
From the corner of her eye, Mira saw Mr. Sheffield flinch.
“Milton, this is ridiculous!”
But as per usual, the mayor wasn’t listening. At least he was equal-opportunity apathetic. “It is. What does that have to do with anything?”
Harper grinned and waved the bottle. “Oh, nothing. It’s just that I have some lavender essence right here, and I think perhaps my hand is slipping, and- Oh no!”
She made a show of turning the bottle upside down. Mira watched as the essence drained into the fountain. When the bottle was empty, Harper handed it off to Yoni.
“Oops. So sorry about that. But we should be fine, right? If Mira played a prank on poor Mumford here and just dyed thatwater to make a scene, then nothing is going to happen, right? We can all put this misunderstanding behind us.”
“Are you mad?” The mayor tossed his hands in the air. “What is wrong with all of you? We have a perfectly legitimate business just trying to do good in our town, and you all are-”
He abruptly fell silent, and in a wave moving out from the fountain, a hush fell over the crowd – before it exploded in surprised chatter.
The whole fountain had turned bright pink.
“Well, goodness gracious!” Harper put her hands to the sides of her face. “Milton, would you look at that! It’s pink!”
“What-” The mayor’s wide-eyed gaze wandered from the fountain to the bottle Mira was holding, to Mira’s face and finally to Mr. Sheffield. “Mumford, what is the meaning of this?”
“I-” He swallowed audibly. “I don’t know. Listen, Milton, this is very clearly a smear campaign, you cannot possibly believe-”
“We all have eyes!” came a call from the crowd. Cassia, flanked by Eren and Kian, who both looked exceedingly angry. “That water is so pink it might as well be strawberry lemonade!”
Mr. Sheffield opened his mouth, then closed it again before he turned primly back to the mayor. “Well, obviously there has to be another reason.” More tugging on the ridiculous cravat. “We talked about this, you and I.”
