Chapter 24
Twenty-Four
There was something agonising about the concept of waiting around.
After Mira had sent off her letter to Rue, there was nothing to do but wait until she heard back, had the water, and could go about finding a way to prove that it had come from the spring.
Until then, it very much felt like all she was doing was sit around twiddling her thumbs, even buried in work as she was.
So naturally, next time Mayor Lloyd had office hours, Mira was waiting on his doorstep the moment he unlocked his office.
“You are. Punctual.” He awkwardly held the door open for her as she brushed past him. “I rarely have people showing up so early.”
“Oh, I just figured I would get it out of the way.” Mira gave him a sweet smile. “That way we can both get back to work quickly.”
“Mhm.” Mayor Lloyd sat down behind his desk and motioned at the chair in front of it that Mira was already sitting down in. “No, please, sit.” He folded his hands in front of him. “So, what matter can I help you with, Miss…?”
“Gardener. Mira Gardener. I own the potion shop.”
“Right.” From his tone, he knew who she was, and he did not particularly like it. “So, Miss Gardener, what seems to be the matter?”
“I’m here to talk about the local water supply.”
“Oh, not you, too.” The bushy moustache vibrated. “Believe me, I am well aware of the problem.”
“So you understand my concerns,” Mira said sweetly. “As a business owner, I do need a reliable water supply to work, and with the way things have been lately-”
“Yes, yes, your business is suffering. I have heard.”
His impatience began to bother Mira. This wasn’t exactly a small matter, was it, so why was he treating it like she was complaining about the local youth causing a ruckus on the village green at night?
“I trust you are doing everything you can to resolve the issue?”
“There’s nothing to resolve. There’s a drought. We will simply have to deal with that until the situation resolves itself.”
“A drought?” Mira repeated, incredulous. “It rained last week.”
“One rainfall does not solve a drought, Miss Gardener.” Mayor Lloyd gave her a pointed look. “You are very new to the town. Once you have lived through some rough weather, you will understand.”
“I understand the concept of a drought just fine, thank you,” Mira said curtly. The sweetness was gone from her voice, and she felt rather like biting now. “The conditions are-”
“The conditions are what they are. So unless you happen to have a potion ready to sprinkle all over our beautiful town to make it rain, we will regrettably have to wait for autumn.”
“Will Golden River stop pumping well water in autumn?”
She saw him freeze. “Excuse me?”
“That’s what seems to be happening. Someone is pumping groundwater that would normally fill our wells, and there really is only one… entity, shall we say, in the area big enough to pump so much water as to dry up ours.”
“What a preposterous notion!” Mayor Lloyd firmly shook his head. “If there was any such operation happening, we would have been informed.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“Of course! Mr. Sheffield is an upstanding businessman, he has been doing everything by the book. To accuse him of this…” He crossed his arms on the table and leaned forward.
“I am keeping an eye on things. Until then, Miss Gardener, I would appreciate it if you did not go around badmouthing your competition with such ridiculous claims. Good day.”
That was definitely a dismissal. For a wild moment, Mira wanted to stay put.
To argue, to convince this stubborn man that she was right, and he needed to figure this out right now.
Instead, she nodded stiffly, stood from her chair, and stalked out of his office without another word.
Of course he refused to believe her. Maybe he knew.
Maybe he didn’t care. Whatever the case, this interaction had made it crystal clear that Harper was right about the mayor, and his inability to steer the town back onto a prosperous course, whether by accident or on purpose.
Outside, on the steps to the town hall, Mira stopped. Harper. Of course. That was where she needed to go. If anyone knew more about this, it would be her. Maybe she knew something that Mira could use to untangle this mess.
More by Moore wasn’t especially busy when Mira entered the shop. In fact, Harper looked a little bored behind the counter, though she perked up when she saw Mira.
“Morning! Got a list for me today?”
“Not exactly.” Mira tried to keep her voice low. “Do you have a minute to talk?”
“Huh. That sounds ominous.” Harper gave the mostly empty shop a quick glance. “Sure.”
Mira quickly recounted her suspicions that someone was siphoning from the groundwater without permission, though she did not specify who she thought that might be, and how her meeting with the mayor about it had gone. When she was done, Harper barked out a laugh.
“Ha! Yes, that sounds like Milton. Of course he’d rather wait it out than go out of his way to do anything.”
“So he knows that something’s seriously wrong, and chooses not to even try and fix it?” It was a little hard to believe. “He’s the mayor.”
“Yes, primarily for the nice chair in a fancy office, and the generous retirement payments.” Harper blew out a breath. “You’re not the first to mention the water thing.”
Mira chuckled. “See, that’s why I asked you. You know everything that’s going on in this town.”
“Of course I am well-informed,” Harper said primly.
“Someone has to be.” She leaned on the counter.
“I’ve had people mention it. Sabir’s even talked about the same thing you did.
That he thinks someone’s pumping more than their fair share.
He initially thought it might be Cassia and Eren, for all those trees, but now that they’ve got problems, too, I’m pretty sure he knows better. ”
“And there have been no official inquiries at all?”
Harper shrugged. “Who’s supposed to make those? The only way to get something like that looked at is if it comes from the mayor’s office, and Milton’s not going to create all of that work for himself.”
“Amazing,” Mira muttered. “Say, out of curiosity, when’s the next election?”
Harper cackled. “Not for another year and change, unfortunately. Believe me, I’ll be running, but until then, we’ve got to handle things as best we can around Milton.”
“So we’re stuck with unreliable water until who knows when?”
“Afraid so.” Harper shook her head. “I’m sorry, I wish I had better news for you, and for everyone else.”
“I know, I know. Thanks anyway.”
“Hm.” Harper reached under the counter. “Listen, while I have you here, take a look at this? I got the new autumn catalogue from Darwin, that sales rep who comes by from Heartfield? There are some newfangled doodahs in here that might be interesting for your shop…”
The day had started with a defeat, and it did not get much better from there.
With the shop officially closed, Mira had a generous amount of time on her hands to keep brewing, but even that didn’t work the way she wanted.
She’d run out of honey again and had to make do with half a batch of her most popular human-safe potion, a remedy for general fatigue.
After that, she went to try her hand on one of the new recipes again, though when she went to fill the pot with water, the pump decided to reward her with the thinnest trickle.
Unwilling to spend an hour filling a single vessel, Mira allowed herself a hearty curse, put the pot back on the shelf, tossed her apron on the counter, and went to sit on her front steps to cool off a little.
“Does this count as credit towards the rest of the week?” she muttered, glancing skyward. “That’s all my bad luck until next Monday, right?”
She understandably did not receive a reply.
Frustrated, she kicked a pile of dirt off the steps, which only served to remind her that she really needed to sweep and mop said steps, and probably the shop floor too, while she was at it.
With everything that had happened in the past few weeks, she’d really been neglecting a lot of basic tasks.
Though this, too, required water, which she currently did not have.
“Aurgh!”
No use. She needed to get things done, things needing to get done required materials, and she’d have to get those from somewhere. So she grabbed a large bucket and went to ask Hamish and Clara if their pump perhaps happened to work.
They were not home. Of course they had chosen today to go out…
somewhere. Mira didn’t know. Maybe she would, if she hadn’t shut herself off the way she had.
And of course, Mr. What Was His Name Again wasn’t home, either.
Frustrated, and more than a little reluctant, she turned to the only other currently inhabited house on the street.
Maybe a simple request for water would be fine?
On her first knock, the door remained firmly closed. There was no sign telling her to check the greenhouse though, so Mira knocked again. They couldn’t all be out, could they?
She was almost turning around to leave and find something else to pass the time when the door opened. Mira flinched when Yoni peered through the gap, and immediately a scowl appeared on her face.
“What are you doing here?”
“Nothing personal!” Mira was quick to reassure her. She held the bucket aloft. “My pump is having issues. Does yours work? I just need something to clean up the shop.”
Yoni did not open the door, but she also did not slam it shut in a huff, which was good, as far as that went these days.
“I don’t know. Why is yours not working?”
“It’s working, but it’s more of a drip than a stream.”
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.”