Page 46 of A Light in the Dark
Joel sniffed and nodded. “It was terrible. I can understand. The silk was ordered for a very elaborate wedding for some shifters in Westburrow.”
One day, I wanted to go to Westburrow. Like Stonecreek, it was a mountainous region, but their primary revenue came from their mining operations rather than general trade, tourism from our menagerie, and forestry. Like Moonriver, it had a decent population of shapeshifters, with strong numbers of wolves, weasels, and other forest and mountain animals. Their lake supposedly boasted aquatic shifters, resulting in a fishing ban, one that was enforced with an iron fist. “That’s a good cause, though.”
“That’s why I limited my complaining to disheartened wails. The wedding has already happened, but it can take a while for the shifters to produce sufficient silk unless they spend a lot of time as a moth.”
“Please explain that to me. Mundane luna moths don’t have mouths, and they just run out of steam and die. How do shifters produce silk?”
Chuckling, Joel opened the door and gestured for me to go inside. “I’ll explain after we get lunch and dinner and get back in the SUV, else we’ll loiter outside of Jolena’s place all day while she gets irritated we’re not buying her wares.”
“Damn straight,” the woman in the floral dress said, and she grinned at us. “Where’d you find a pretty little thing like her, Joel?”
“Next door,” Joel replied with a grin of his own. “She’s originally from the town of gossiping menaces along the way, but she escaped to Stonecreek and moved in down the street from me. She’s the sensible one I told you about last time I was here.”
“Oh, you’re the sweet little peacekeeper? Nice to meet you, ma’am. I’m Jolena.”
I juggled my purchases to free a hand and shook with the woman, offering a smile. “Valerie. This town has a Joel and a Jolena?”
Jolena snickered. “Joel’s one of my cousins, and he’s older than me by a year. My pappy thought Joel was the sweetest little baby and hoped I’d turn out half as sweet. It turns out Joel was actually a devil in disguise and my pappy made mistakes, because I’m just as much trouble as he is. We’re well named. Aunty called with her dinner order, and I’ve already got it ready. I hear you raided the shop?”
“They had the bolts in. I’m poor now.”
“Like hell you’re poor. You can’t lie to me, Mr. Stonecreek. Don’t you listen to his lies, Valerie. He could buy out that entire shop and not miss a penny because he’s rude.”
“Jolena,” Joel complained.
Interesting. Joel had made it rich going to Stonecreek, had he? I had suspected as much, aware of how muchshoring cost. I’d gotten lucky, and I bet he had too, in more ways than one. “Heisrude. He tried to stop me from buying my own camera.” I turned and showed her my pretty backpack. “Isn’t it gorgeous? The bag came with the camera. He did get a little film camera each for us. We’re going to take pictures of the moths at sunset.”
“That color is great. It looks like a canvas version of his bag. Did your new lens come in, Joel?” The butcher eyed my neighbor.
“I picked it up this morning.”
“Well, we’re never seeing Joel again. He’s going to spend the rest of his life photographing wildlife. Oh, well. At least the shifters you bought silk from will be happy with their cut. Since all hope is lost for my cousin, I guess I’ll have to work with you, Valerie. What can I do you for?”
I turned my attention to the steak, hunted for the thickest one with good marbling and a bone I could gnaw on, and pointed at it. “I want that one.”
The butcher looked at my choice, busted a gut laughing, and grabbed it from the case for me. “I love when a woman knows what she wants, and what she wants is one of my best cuts. Joel, you want the other one. It’s not quite as beautiful as this cut, but it’s still good. She’s decided she’s going big before going home to get fed properly.”
“I guess I’m getting the slightly inferior one of the same cut, then. I should probably feed Mom and Dad, so give me two similar cuts to ours but not as good.”
“Alas, their cuts will be of similar quality to yours. You will need to let these rest with salt for a minimum of thirty minutes before throwing these beauties on the grill, so don’t you be forgetting that, Joel. I know you. You’ll just toss themon without any salt. And you pat that meat dry and use a hot grill. Don’t ruin these steaks with your impatience.”
“I will take good care of the steaks, and I will mandate that they rest at least an hour with their salt rub before they go on their grill adventure,” I promised. “As he sounds like a heathen, do you sell a good salt?”
“I sure do.” After wrapping the meat, taking care to mark our names onto each package, she went and got out a small sack of salt, which she thumped onto the counter. “Aunty’ll need a whole bag by the time she’s done with the stock she just bought. Joel, tell her to just buy the damned prime next time and to stop trying to save five dollars. I did not give her what she wanted and packaged the prime.”
“Actually, can you package the lower cut? I want to do some for roasting for lunches, and I don’t want to waste a prime on that.”
“As you know an appropriate reason to buy the lesser cut, I will sell it to you, but tell Aunty she has to stop trying to save five bucks when she’s got a pretty guest.”
“Thank you for sparing me from the fight and having to come back to get the prime, Jolena.”
“You’re welcome. So, what bolts did Yolana get in?”
I narrowed my eyes and considered the woman. “Is Yolana your sister?”
Jolena clapped her hands. “Sheis. How did you guess?”
“Naming scheme,” I admitted. “Yolana sounds mighty similar to Jolena, which sounds mighty similar to Joel. Is she just a little younger than you?”
