There must have been two dozen of them, scurrying around the basket, bringing neatly cut-off stems of the plants she had been asked to gather, carrying them in their mouths, dropping them in the basket, and scurrying off again. They were beautiful little things, with scales that glimmered like polished gems and copper-colored eyes. She’d never seen lizards like these before in her entire life.

And she had certainly never seen lizards working together like this.

As she raised her eyes to Jolene’s amused face, she knew without asking that this was Jolene’s doing. “Don’t think to summon these, ever,” Jolene admonished her, with a lizard on each shoulder and one being stroked by those beautiful, white hands. “These are mine, and mine alone.”

“I niver would!” Anna promised. “How did y’all know I was worritin’ ’bout not gitting Aunt Jinny’s her-ubs? How did y’all know which ones I was s’posed t’git?”

“I have eyes everywhere,” Jolene replied, with a slightly mocking smile. “And ears too. I couldn’t let you go back to Virginia empty-handed. Not—” she added, “—that Virginia would fault you for neglecting her task in order to get a lesson from Grandmother Spider. But you did promise her that you would bring the things she needed, and I don’t like to be the cause of you breaking a promise. You both need these plants for your cures, they were easy to find, and my pets didn’t mind. And now that you don’t need to tell Virginia why you didn’t have what you set out to gather, you needn’t say we met unless you choose to.”

Anna hesitated a moment, then asked one of the questions she’d been worrying over in her head. “What’s Aunt Jinny got ’gainst y’all?”

“Ah . . . partly that goes back to things her Grandmother told her, I think,” Jolene replied, thoughtfully. “And partly that she misunderstood something I told her. And mostly that she does not understand what I am. Everything is black or white with her. Good or evil.”

“And—” Anna dared to prompt.

“And that is a very simple way to think of—those like me.” Jolene shrugged. “Too simple. And really, Virginia should know by this time that nothing is ever that simple. Your Great-Grandfather knew better than that.”

That seemed to be all that Anna was going to get out of Jolene, because with a wave of her hands, Jolene sent her lizards scattering into the underbrush and rose. Anna did the same, stooping to pick up her basket.

And when she rose again, Jolene was gone.

Aunt Jinny was so pleased with the quality of the cuttings Anna had brought back that she didn’t even comment on the fact that Anna was a little late, and Jinny had already fed the pigs by the time she climbed over the fence and headed for the cabin. Over supper of bean soup, she decided to tell part of the truth. “I done seed the Little People, an’ Granny Spider is a-larnin’ me now,” she said.