Read Online Sour Apples by Sheila Connolly - Free Book Online Page A

had made a lot of friends around here, mainly because they were so busy. I’d guess he doesn’t have a lot of people to turn to.”
    Meg poured him some more coffee. Seth nodded his thanks, then resumed. “Like I told you, he’s the one who found Joyce, and that hit him hard. He hasn’t had time to think about what he’s going to do with the dairy operation, but if he wants to sell the place, he’d still have to have this problem with the sick cows sorted out, especially now that it’s public knowledge—if I count as the public. But he still hasn’t received the results of the soil tests. In any case, he’s keeping the pressure up on me and the town, and I can’t say that I blame him. I’m sorry if he startled you, showing up at your door like that.”
    Would Nicky know more? Meg wondered. When they’d talked at the Spring Fling, it had sounded as though Nicky and Joyce had spent some time together. “Seth, the man is clearly hurting. What’re you going to do?”
    “As I said, turn the problem over to the town attorney and find the rest of the files when I have a chance.” He looked at his watch. “Shoot, I’ve got to get going. Thanks for the coffee, Meg. When is Lauren coming back?”
    “Sometime later today, but I don’t know what time. Are you asking because you want to see her or to avoid her?”
    “I like her fine, as long as she doesn’t talk about Rick Sainsbury.”
    “It’s her new big thing, so it may be hard to separate the two right now. You know, she did pick up on your hostility toward him. What should I tell her if she asks me about it?”
    “That it’s personal, not political. I have no idea what his qualifications for office might be, and I don’t particularly want to find out. Just please tell her not to try to win me over, will you?”
    Meg nodded. “Understood. And thanks again for offering to let me use your land—Bree and I’ll get moving on that. I think she’s already got a timeline laid out for it.”
    “Maybe I should reserve naming rights as part of the deal. Chapin’s Acres? Seth’s Parcel? Seriously, I’m happy to help out. I want to see you succeed.”
    “I’m working on it.” Meg ducked in for a quick kiss, then shoved him toward the door.
    As she cleaned up the last of the breakfast dishes, Meg reflected that what Seth had reported about the sickened cows was troubling. It never would have occurred to her to wonder if the very soil under her feet was safe, but she had to admit she knew little about the history of her own land. Luckily, she had good records for the last twenty years or so, when the university had been managing the orchard, and she knew that they had been careful to avoid using toxic chemicals; she had just assumed that they had done any necessary testing. After all, she was sure Christopher Ramsdell, the agricultural studies professor who had overseen her orchard, had been a conscientious steward of the land. Of course, there had been an orchard in the corner of the property for centuries. Who knew what previous generations had used, and how long the substances lingered? Should she have her land tested? Should she have Seth’s land tested, before she committed time and effort to using it?
    Luckily a quick Internet search showed that the UMass Cooperative Extension Service had its own soil-testing lab—
That must be the one that Joyce had mentioned,
Meg noted—and their services were very affordable. While she was at the computer, Meg thought she should check a few more things, like the specific location of Joyce and Ethan Truesdell’s farm. Since their purchase of the dairy farm was relatively recent, therecord should still be online, in the county deeds. She found the website for the registry of deeds, but after working her way through several pages, she realized that she would have to pay for access to the information and decided it would be easier simply to ask someone—like Seth, but she didn’t want to bother him about it right