“No, he sprained his ankle last night.”
Eddie blinked rapidly. “What were you doing?”
“Not what you’re thinking.” I clapped him on the shoulder. “Anyway, I’m on my way to the shop to get some bacon for breakfast. Does next weekend work for looking for this gun station thing?”
“Yeah, no worries. It’s not like it’s going anywhere.” He fell into step beside me. “Is Natty okay? How did he sprain his ankle? Was it Sarah Hooper’s rum, because that stuff packs a punch.”
“Nah, just an accident. He’s fine.” We turned off the street that ran along the harbour wall, heading through the tiny village towards Mavis’s shop.
“Morning, Julie!” Eddie called out to a woman sitting in her front garden with a book and a cuppa.
“Morning, Eddie,” she said, and then nodded at me. “Morning.”
“Oooh,” Eddie said when I’d replied and we’d moved on. He elbowed me. “Look at you, melting the hearts of Dauntless Islanders all over, and all it took was one declaration of love—did that count as a declaration of love, or just a declaration of bonking?—from Natty last night!”
“Bonking?” I snorted. “Really?”
The bells above the door of Mavis’s shop jingled as we went inside.
Mavis stared at us from behind the counter. She was framed by display racks of Fruit Tingles, Freddo Frogs, and Cherry Ripes.
“Hi, Mavis!” Eddie said.
“Mr. Hawthorne,” she replied in a tone of voice that made me wonder if she was about to challenge him to a fist fight. She’d win, no doubt. She tilted her chin in my direction.
“Morning,” I said, and made my way to the back of the shop to the fridge to get some bacon. When I got back to the counter, Eddie was making a pile of junk food by the register.
“Anyway, now we have decent internet, you can put in an Eftpos machine,” he was saying. “I’m getting one for the museum. Exciting, right? It’ll make things much easier if we can take cards, right?”
“I only take cash,” Mavis said, folding her arms over her chest. “And I will only ever take cash. If you have a problem with that, Mr. Hawthorne, then you’re free to do your shopping elsewhere.”
“Mavis!” Eddie made a grab for a packet of chips. “I love this shop. You know I need Fruit Tingles to get through the day. I was in no way suggesting that you should change the way you do business. They say cash is king, right? Please don’t cut me off.”
Mavis’s mouth twitched as she held out her hand for his money.
I stepped up to the counter with my bacon and handed over a twenty dollar note.
“That all?” Mavis asked me.
“Yes,” I said. “Thank you.”
She stared at me.
“Um... is there something I should be buying?” I asked, wondering which unspoken rule of Dauntless society that I’d violated now.
Mavis sighed and stomped out from behind the counter, vanishing behind the tightly-packed shelves. I heard a door open and close, and I exchanged a look with Eddie. He shrugged.
I looked down at my bacon, and then at Eddie again. “Is she going to let me buy this bacon?”
“I don’t know,” he whispered, clutching his haul to his chest protectively.
We both shut up as the door squeaked open and Mavis worked her way back through the shelves like a Minotaur through its maze. Hunting her terrified prey. She stomped back in behind the counter and glared at me. Then she set a bottle on the counter.
A glass screw top bottle full of milk.
My jaw dropped.
“First bottle is ten dollars,” Mavis said gruffly. “Wash it up and bring it back when you need it refilled. It’s three dollars for a refill. You break the bottle, you buy a new one.”
