Magic and Molemen by S. Usher Evans

Author:S. Usher Evans
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sun's Golden Ray Publishing

Chapter Thirteen

As she cleaned up after dinner, Bev couldn't help but agree with Etheldra. It was hard to be in two places at once, let alone two places that were so far apart. It wasn't like when mischief happened in Upper Pigsend, and Bev could spend most of her time at the inn and still tend to customers. Not that she was in dire straits financially, but too many days turning away paying customers was terrible for business. The local diners paid monthly, but the amount of food Bev made always cost more than they paid, as she always anticipated a guest or two joining them. She was going to have to dip into the stash of gold coins she kept under the floorboard if she didn't figure out a way to rent rooms to guests while she wasn't here. Not to mention magically make dinner appear.

"It's a good thing Merv is such a dear friend," Bev said as she wiped down the tables in the front room.

But perhaps her motivation had shifted, especially after speaking with Percival. She couldn't believe the people of the town hadn't noticed his current state, yet they continued to queue up, seeming not to care at all about how their requests affected him.

"Percival will fix it!" Gerry had said, as if it were a foregone conclusion. Did he know Percival could barely carry on a conversation?

But who Bev could bring this to in Lower Pigsend was another matter. Nog seemed more concerned with lording over the townsfolk, destroying perfectly good cake and the like. Bev doubted he was even looking for the missing talisman. And Shamus, too, stood in front of the queue, shuffling people inside. When was the last time he'd spoken to his master?

"And I thought we had problems up here," Bev said to Biscuit.

Biscuit, unsurprisingly, didn't respond.

She finished sweeping the front room and headed into the kitchen to clean in there. The leftover bread dough sat on the counter, ready to be put to bed until morning. But Bev watched it for a moment, chewing her lip. Lillie had said it was possible to proof it overnight, especially if Bev had a cold place like a root cellar. She did have that, and the nights weren't yet so warm.

"Well, maybe we give it a go," Bev said. "Couldn't be worse than tonight's performance, I'd say."

She gathered her ingredients—flour, water, barm, salt, rosemary. She'd used the last of what she had in the canister she kept in the kitchen, and said a small prayer there was more in the root cellar. Typically, she wouldn't combine her ingredients until the morning, and doing it so soon seemed somewhat wrong, especially since she wasn't planning on baking until tomorrow afternoon at the usual time.

But as she combined everything in a bowl, she found herself genuinely curious what would happen. Obviously, experimenting for the Harvest Festival needed to take a backseat, but if she could save herself the trouble of needing to make bread in the morning, it was worth a try.

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