"Soil's sour," he said.
So she hadn't imagined it. "You can smell that?"
"Bear." He said it simply, like that explained everything. Which, in Hollow Oak, it probably did. "When did it start?"
"I'm not sure. I noticed last week, but it might have been earlier. The freeze made everything look stressed." She stopped herself. She was rambling.
Corin rose, brushing dirt from his palms. "My orchard beds are the same. Some of them."
"Really?"
He nodded, that steady gaze holding hers. "Thought it was runoff from the cold. But it doesn't feel right."
Freya had come to stand beside them, her mug forgotten. "What do you mean, doesn't feel right?"
Corin's jaw tightened almost imperceptibly. "I'm not sure yet. Just…off."
Off. Such a small word for the wrongness Chloe felt when she pressed her hands to the earth.
"Could be a drainage issue," Freya offered. "The thaw and freeze cycles have been brutal this year."
"Could be." Corin didn't sound convinced.
A gust of wind cut through the garden, sharp enough to make Chloe shiver despite her layers. Corin's eyes flicked to her, then away.
"I should get back," he said. "Got frames to check before the temperature drops again." He turned to Freya. "Let me know if the sage turns too. It shouldn't."
"I'll watch it," Freya promised.
He nodded once, then looked at Chloe again. "If you want to compare notes on the soil, you know where to find me."
"The orchard?"
"Usually." That almost-smile again, softening the hard lines of his face. "Or ask Twyla. She always knows where everyone is."
"Everyone knows that's true," Chloe said, and was rewarded with a low huff that might have been a laugh before he left.
Chloe stared at the spot where he'd crouched, at the earth he'd studied with such quiet intensity.
"He's worried," Freya said quietly.
"I know."
"Corin doesn't worry easily. He's…" Freya paused, searching for the word. "Steady. Like the mountain."
"I've noticed."
Freya's gaze turned knowing in a way that made Chloe want to busy herself with the calendula immediately. "Have you?"
"Don't."
"I didn't say anything."
"You were about to."
Freya laughed, the sound bright against the gray morning. "Come inside before you freeze. We can check on the beds again tomorrow."
Chloe took one last look at the wilting savory, and the still and silent soil that should have been humming with the first whispers of spring.
