“Just an old herbal remedy,” Kiela said.
Joyful, Larran played with Sian in the waves, while Radane watched and Kiela tried to convince herself that she’d done the right thing, not made an irreversible mistake.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The morning after she’d saved the merhorse, Kiela resolved to have a quiet, unexciting day. She flipped the shop sign to “Open” and hoped that no customers came, which she knew wasn’t exactly the entrepreneurial attitude.
“Let’s make more pine cone remedies,” Caz said.
They’d stored all the ingredients delivered by the forest spirits, but Kiela and Caz hadn’t had time to assemble them. She thought of Eadie and how pleased she’d been with her cherry tree. And then she thought of Radane and how close she’d been standing when Kiela had cast the spell on Sian. “Maybe we should take a break from remedies. Just for a little while.”
“But we’ve barely begun.”
“I don’t want to draw more suspicion.”
“I really don’t think that woman heard anything. The waves were loud, and your back was to her. And Larran was too far away. Besides, all he cares about is that Sian recovered. You could have stripped naked, cast the spell with blood, and he wouldn’t have cared.”
He could be right. Still . . . “You think he wouldn’t have cared if I was naked?”
“Okay, that’s not—Hey, customers!”
Ugh.
Not ugh, “yay,”she corrected herself. The plan was to sell jam, not hide hermitlike with her books, so she should be happy to have customers.I should have come up with a better plan.
Maybe she should have established a delivery-only shop and hired Bryn’s nephew to deliver the jam so she wouldn’t ever have to deal with visitors. Except that she couldn’t afford to hire anyone yet. First, she had to sell more jam.
Kiela opened the window with the counter as three figures emerged from the greenery. She recognized them instantly: Bryn, Eadie, and the harpist with multiple arms.
On the plus side, it wasn’t Fenerer. Or Radane. Or a stranger. Or the emperor’s guards come to arrest her for unauthorized magic use. She tried to be happy that it was Bryn and Eadie, but she couldn’t help thinking,So much for my no-people day.
Quickly, Kiela scanned the shop and cottage: the bedroom door was closed, the books were under quilts, the cactus was in the back garden with the chicken, and the jam jars were neatly displayed on the shelves. She had peonies and larkspur in a pitcher on the kitchen counter and daisies in little glasses between the jam jars. Dried herbs, tied with ribbons, hung from the rafters in between copper pots. After the storm, she’d washed the gauzy curtains on the windows, and Caz and Meep had mopped the wood floor just this morning.
Caz climbed onto the shelves and plopped himself on an empty spot so he’d be eye level with the new arrivals, while Kiela checked her clothes for any jam stains or dirt. Since she’d planned to spend the day in the garden, she hadn’t worn anything particularly nice. This was one of her handle-dusty-manuscripts outfits. It had a tea stain on the neckline, as well as a rip in the left elbow. Her three visitors were all neat and lovely: Bryn in a red plaid pinafore dress that was fancier than her usual bakery garb, Eadie in bright green with a matching hat, and the harpist in white pants with a yellow blouse with four sleeves for her four arms. Oh well, it was too late to change now.
Plastering a smile on her face, Kiela swung the door open wide.
“Thanks for coming to Kiela and Caz’s Jam Shop. Lovely to see you all.”
“Kiela! Caz!” Bryn waved cheerfully to both of them. “I think you’ve met Eadie. Let me introduce you to our friend Ulina.”
Ulina waved with both of her right hands, as if they were connected by a string. Imagining how useful an extra pair of hands would be for shelving books, Kiela tried not to be jealous. She didn’t have bookshelves right now anyway. Just jam shelves. “We almost met outside the bakery. Nice to officially meet you, Ulina.”
Closer, Ulina elbowed Eadie with one of her arms. “You’re right. I see it now. Just like Binna. It’s the eyes. Plus the freckles.”
Since she’d come to Caltrey and spent so much time outside in the garden, instead of within the library stacks, a scattering of magenta freckles had appeared on the bridge of her nose, and her hair had tinted different shades of blue, some strands lighter and some still a dark sapphire, a rainbow of blues.
“Also, the smile,” Eadie said. To Kiela, she said, “You have your mother’s smile.”
Kiela wasn’t sure how hearing that made her feel. Jumbled inside, really. She liked that her smile sparked memories—it made it feel a little like her mother was still here to be able to smile, but then her mother wouldn’t have been happy to be back on Caltrey. Her mother had loved Alyssium—loved all the shops and the bustle, loved the flowers that draped from every window box. She’d been so excited to get her own window box full of flowers. She’d nursed those seeds into sprouts, and every spring, she would proudly report on every blossom that appeared. Given how much she loved flowers, Kiela wondered if she’d ever missed her island garden. “She liked to smile.”
“We went to school together,” Ulina said. “She always had her nose in a book, while I was always showing off how well I could walk on rooftops. I was a bit of a daredevil back in the day.”
Eadie snorted. “Binna used to dare you tonotdo dangerous things, just to make sure you made it out of your childhood alive.”
Kiela felt herself smile. That did sound like something her mother would do. And her mother had always loved to read. She’d taught Kiela at a very young age, and on their very first day in Alyssium, her mother had brought her to the Great Library. Without an imperial pass, they’d only been allowed in the public foyer, but Kiela had glimpsed the stacks up the spiral staircase and the reading rooms through the occasionally opened doors. She’d fallen in love with the place that day, and her mother had encouraged her. She’d been so proud when Kiela was accepted into the librarian program at the university. She’d told everyone in her book club and her gardening club and everyone at her favorite tea shop about her daughter the librarian-to-be. Kiela hadn’t thought about that in years. She was surprised at how nice it was to remember. She would’ve expected it to hurt more. Somehow, being here in her family’s old house, with people who’d known her parents . . . It was nice.
It took her an extra second to realize they were waiting for her to respond.
