But that was when her aunt slapped her lightly on the cheek. “Stop thet,” she said, harshly. “Yer frettin’ afore anythin’ has happened. Now y’all listen t’me. Mebbe he knows y’all’s here, mebbe he don’t. He mighta heered somethin’, but he don’t know what y’all looks like, so right now he ain’t innerested. He’s as lazy as a hog with a full belly. So he ain’t gonna come all this way jest t’hev a gander at y’all. As long as he don’ know what a purdy liddle thang y’are, as long as he thinks y’all’s jest as homely as me, he ain’t gonna care ’bout y’all. So stop a-shakin’.”

Anna took several deep, shuddering breaths, which didn’t help as much as she would have liked, but nodded.

“T’other thang—y’all ain’t stronger than him yet, but y’all will be. Iffen I git my way, by th’ time he lays eyes on y’all, there won’t be a thang he c’n do t’ y’all, an’ y’all c’n snap yore fingers in his face. I aim t’make y’all inter a woman what ain’t afeerd of man nor beast.”

Her face took on an expression of icy bitterness. “I’m a-gonna tell y’all a story I ain’t niver told no one but my Granny an’ Old Raven. Them troopers weren’t th’ on’y ones what come a-sniffin’ round our farm in th’ war. We got drifters an’ deserters sneakin’ through, lookin’ fer whatever they could steal. One on ’em caught me all alone i’ th’ woods. I shouldn’t’a been there alone, but—” she shrugged. “I wanted nuts, an’ my brother wouldn’ go with me an account’a he was a workin’. I dunno iffen the rat was Yank or Reb, or jest plain trash—he had a blue coat an’ gray trousers and stunk like a skunk, he caught me off-guard, an’ he had me on th’ ground an’ my skirt up afore I knowed he was even there.”

Her knuckles were white as she clenched her knife, and she looked down as she paused, and slowly put the knife down.

“I weren’t gonna abide thet. He didn’ even git as far as gittin’ his trousers down. An’ I killt him,” she said flatly. “Or, the stag I called did. Ten points through the lungs. He was a long time dyin’, an’ I watched, all of it, t’make sure he was dead. Then I called in the wild pigs, an’ left ’em ettin’ him. Thet is the kinda woman y’all’s gonna be. Y’all c’n do better’n me, iffen y’all have to, once y’all learn enough t’be in yore full power.”

Silence for a very long time, as Anna thought this over. This was a side of her aunt she had never seen—but hadn’t she kind of . . . guessed at it?

Do I want t’be thet kinda woman? One what don’t need a man ter keep her safe?

“How?” she asked, finally.

“Them liddle critters y’all been seein’? They ain’t nothin’. They’s thin’s out there what y’all c’n call thet I cain’t, what makes a bear look like a pup. Once y’all knows ’nuff, an’ y’all makes yore alliances, ain’t nothin’ an’ nobody c’n bring y’all no harm.” She looked down at the remains of her dinner, and ate it. It seemed to settle her, since she looked back up at Anna and nodded. “Mostly I want y’all t’ stay as clear’a thet snake Billie McDaran as y’all possibly kin till y’all knows thet stuff.”