Chapter 15
Fifteen
For the following few weeks, things became a strange kind of blur.
Mira spent most of her days in the shop, either out front with customers or in the back trying to expand her stock.
Time went by fast, and it took forever at the same time.
At night, she diligently logged her numbers.
Had bought a brand new ledger, even, though she still kept Uncle Lochlin’s close to compare.
Things were looking… Hopeful. A little. She was not operating in the red, at least, but she was also a far cry from making this a living.
At the very least, if the shop carried itself and then some, she could stretch her savings a little further.
Didn’t have to stress so much about spending her weekends writing to cash another cheque for groceries and a fresh block of ice.
Which was good, because by the end of week four, Mira was having her morning tea while working through a full month’s worth of numbers, had slept somewhere around six hours a night the week prior if she was being generous, and after failing to do a simple addition for the third time, she tossed down her pen with a grunt of frustration.
“Oh, sod it! I need a break!”
She ran her hands through her hair, tugging at the roots.
She probably badly needed a good hair wash day, too.
Her curls were a right mess, but you couldn’t tell with the way she wore them in the shop, and at night she was too tired to spend an hour in the bath trying to fix the problem.
She lifted her head and glanced out the window, into a sunny, slightly breezy day.
Right now, though, a nice walk sounded much more appealing.
Mira put away her ledgers, changed into her sensible boots and a hat, and decided that it would probably be smart to bring some water and a snack.
Thusly supplied, she left the house – and her work – for a much needed break.
At first, she wasn’t quite sure where she wanted to go.
The forest was probably a solid bet. She’d explored little enough of the fabled Honeywood so far, between settling in, the weather, and then preparing to re-open the potion shop.
Maybe today would finally be her chance to see the famous Sweetwater Spring for herself.
She ventured up the street and soon turned onto the path leading into the woods.
It was nice in the shade under the trees, with the lush green foliage catching the breeze in a gentle rustle.
The ground to both sides of the path was now covered in small white flowers, so dense in some places that they almost looked like fresh snow.
Mira squatted next to a patch and pulled out her notebook to take some notes and make a sketch to look them up later, when she found the time to visit the library in Heartfield again.
The town hall had a tiny corner stocked with reading material to borrow, but it consisted mostly of a rotation of weekly and monthly magazines and two forlorn-looking shelves of battered novels.
A science section was unfortunately nowhere to be found.
With the notebook back in her pocket and a spring in her step, Mira carried on.
Oh, she had missed this, and only now did she truly feel how badly she had needed a break.
Now she knew why Harper paid one of the town’s pensioners to man the shop every once in a while.
Nobody could work that much without going insane.
A few hundred yards deep into the woods, Mira came to a crossroads of trails, lorded over by a post of weathered wooden signs.
Craning her neck, she tried to find the right one.
Surely, the spring would be clearly signposted?
Of course it was, Kayden had mentioned that to the tourists.
But which way had he said to go again? The red bird, or the blueish blob?
Mira squinted and got on her toes, but neither made the faded writing next to the symbols more legible.
“What are you doing that for?”
Mira abruptly rocked back on her heels and turned to find Yoni approaching from the way she’d just come herself.
She was dressed in what Mira now knew to be her work attire, sturdy shoes, often-mended trousers with large pockets, and a beaten linen hat on her head.
She was carrying a basket that was empty except for a trowel, a gardening knife, and a bottle wrapped in a chequered tea towel.
Currently, she was looking between Mira and the signs.
“Do you need binoculars or just directions?”
Mira held back a burst of laughter, albeit poorly. “Directions, and a letter to the mayor to refresh the darn signs.”
“Oh, we’ve written those,” Yoni said. “He says the signs are fine.” She indicated the post with her chin. “Where are you going?”
“I was looking for the trail to the spring,” Mira replied. “I think it was something about fruit, but I don’t remember, and I can’t read any of this.”
“Blackberry Bramble.” Yoni pointed at the sign with the blue. “That one.”
“Blackberry?” Mira stared at the blob. It was a little purple. Sort of. “I thought that was a ball.”
“A ball?”
“You know, maybe it leads to some sort of sports field?”
Yoni raised an eyebrow. “That’s what the village green is for, and it’s in the exact opposite direction.”
“I know. I’ve seen it. So many children on a Friday afternoon.” Mira touched the brim of her hat. “Thanks. I’ll get going now.”
“Mhm.” A sudden, awkward expression settled on Yoni’s face, and she shifted the basket from one hand to the other. “I’m going there, too.” She didn’t quite meet Mira’s eyes. “We can go together, I suppose.”
“Really?” Mira beamed at her. “I’d like that.” When Yoni’s expression didn’t change, she tried to rein herself in a little, as well as the looming disappointment. “Just if you really want to. I wouldn’t want to impose.”
“You’re not.” It came out strangely quickly. “I just thought it would be weird if I followed you all the way there and never said a thing.”
“Not in Willow Harbour, it’s not,” Mira replied lightly. Well, if Yoni wanted to be so vague, she’d just have to grab the bull by the horns. If she never talked to Mira again after today, at least she’d given it a good try. “Let’s go together, then!”
They set off on what was – hopefully – the Blackberry Bramble trail leading to the spring. Mira simply had to trust Yoni on that one. At least the first sign they passed, discreetly nailed to a tree next to the trail, featured the same blue blob, which was promising, in a manner of speaking.
“How far is it to the spring?” Mira watched a critter too fast to make out features scurry underneath a bush. “I know I’ve been before, when I was little, but I barely remember anything.”
“An hour, give or take.” Yoni was quiet for a moment. “Give, I think.”
Mira grimaced. “I’ve been working on my stamina, I promise. I’ve never done so much walking in life as I’ve done since I moved here, and I worked in an emporium with four floors before that!”
“That’s not what I meant.” Yoni looked down at her. “Your legs are short.”
“Oh.” As if to confirm, Mira looked at her feet. She was a little shorter than Yoni, though not that much. “Listen, we can’t all be tall, dark and handsome.”
There was an oddly pregnant pause. “No, I suppose not.” Another brief silence. “The world does need variety though.”
Mira liked to think that, during their admittedly sparse interactions, she had gained a bit of a read on Yoni. Right now, she was fairly certain that Yoni was, in fact, amused.
“Sometimes variety is exhausting,” she replied. “I’ve come to appreciate the steady things in life, I think.” She chuckled weakly. “Steady incomes, for once.”
“Is the shop not going well?”
“Oh, no! I think it’s going amazing for what it is.
” Which was a barely coordinated venture by someone with no training and slightly more than no experience in the subject.
That was to say, it was going splendidly as long as she sold anything at all.
“It’ll just be a while until things… even out, I suppose.
” She stuck her hands in her pockets and studied the splotches of sunlight filtering through the canopy, dotting the path ahead.
“I’ll just have to be patient. And if I keep telling myself that, maybe it’ll be easier at some point. ”
“It will,” Yoni said. “Took me maybe a year to get comfortable after I took over the greenhouse from my parents.”
“A year!” Mira sputtered a little before she found her voice again. “Oh. All right. I suppose I can work with that.”
A year sounded… daunting. Scary, even, if she tried to reconcile that prospect with her ever-dwindling savings and slow to grow income. Could she even afford a year of fumbling around at this rate?
“You know what, it’s fine. I’ll deal with that later.” Mira pointedly gestured ahead. “I’m here for a break from all of that.”
Yoni laughed, a deep, melodious sound. “You take a break, I get some work done, and we’ll call it balanced.”
Mira glanced sideways at her, and for a moment admired the way the light under the trees highlighted Yoni’s eyes. Among all the green, they were almost the same unnatural shade as Poppy’s.
“Are you out here for work?”
“I am.”
After a moment of silence, Mira prompted: “What kind of work do you do out here? I thought you grow everything yourself.”
“Almost,” Yoni said. “There are some plants that are highly sought after, but they’re hard to cultivate. Some people do, if they don’t live near a natural source, but the area around the spring is full of them, so I just go and harvest what I need every now and again.”
Mira thought back to all the times she’d gone to restock her honey, and how much she had learned about said honey against her will.
“Is it the spring water? I heard that’s the reason why the local honey is so good.”
“Kian still likes to lecture, huh.” Yoni smiled. “Yes, it is. The water is… special.”
“Special how?”