14

THE marble had been delivered and Josh was chiseling out the rough outline of the smaller baby angel when Anna arrived at the Holcrofts’ farm that afternoon. She heard the chink, chink, chink of his hammering almost as soon as the farmhouse was in sight.

While she had sped through her chores and made quick work of the potion lesson Aunt Jinny had set her, it had not been sloppy or slip shod, and her aunt had acknowledged as much over dinner. “An’ if I’d’a known I could light a fire under yore feet jest by lettin’ y’all see Joshua, I’d’a done it afore this,” she’d laughed teasingly, as Anna blushed. “Jest do the warshin’, an’ off y’all go.”

Anna had finished the dishes and the day’s washing, hung her things on the line, and practically flown down the lane, marveling at how easy it was to run now, and how long it had been since she’d have been out of breath from mere walking.

When she trotted out of the green shade of the lane into the open, the sun hit her with a flash of heat that made her wish she had worn a hat. Neither Maddie Holcroft nor her daughter Sue were in sight when she arrived—and although she didn’t exactly sneak into the barn and the workshop, she didn’t go out of her way to find them, either. She had the feeling that if she did, Maddie would find a way to set Sue as a chaperone, and that would put paid to about half of what she wanted to talk to Josh about.

So she headed straight for the barn, staying out of visual range of the kitchen door and the kitchen shed. And she was very glad to step back into the relative cool of the shady barn. They must have just brought in a harvest of hay and spread it up in the hayloft, because the building was full of the sweet, dusty scent of it. She waited a moment for her eyes to adjust to the darkened interior, then made her way to the rear.

The windows were open wide to a fresh breeze, and Josh had his back to her. Josh was very much engrossed in his work, and the ringing of hammer on chisel covered the sounds of her footsteps, so she waited patiently until he stopped chiseling off pieces of marble for a moment, wiped his forehead on his sleeve, and turned to get a drink of water from the bucket behind him. That was when he saw her standing there, waiting for him to finish what he was doing.

“Anna!” he exclaimed, eyes lighting up and generous mouth immediately forming into a grin. “How long y’all been a-standin’ thar?”

“Not long. I weren’t a-gonna innerupt y’all,” she said, gratified at such a positive reaction to her presence.

“Didjer aunt send y’all down here?” he asked, offering her the dipper full of water first before draining it himself.