“Y’all seem a bit mazy,” her aunt remarked shrewdly, as she dished up soup and cornbread. “Anythin’ y’all see fit t’tell me?”

She blinked, forced her head to clear, and took a deep breath. “Josh aim’s t’arst y’all fer leave t’court me,” she said, deciding to get it out all at once and have done with it.

She waited for the storm. She knew exactly what her Ma would have said after such a revelation as that, and there would have been thunder and lightning. And as for Pa! Given how much he’d been against her coming here in the first place, she could well imagine the avalanche of disapproval.

Or—on second thought, maybe her Pa would take such a thing as an opportunity to get her off his hands.

Her aunt put down her spoon. “My land,” she said, which was a sight milder than Anna had expected. “That was a leap. Care t’tell me how this come about?”

Relieved that there had not been an outburst of anger and opposition, she poured out the words. Exactly what had happened and, as near as she could remember, exactly what had been said. Her aunt listened patiently, with no sign of disapproval—in fact she continued eating through the whole recitation—until Anna finished.

“So—how d’yall feel ’bout him?” she asked. “An’ I don’t mean all the stuff’n nonsense. I mean at bottom.”

“Like we been friends always,” she said carefully. “Like I c’n count on him, an’ he can count on me. Like when trouble happens, we’ll both put shoulder t’ the wheel and git the cart back on th’road. Am I a-makin’ any sense?”

“Better sense than I reckoned,” her aunt admitted. “S’pose I tell him yes, he c’n court y’all, but I ain’t lettin’ y’all marry till yore eighteen? ’Cause I ain’t. It’ll take y’all thet long, at least, t’ larn all I got to show y’all.”

“Then that’s how it’ll be,” she agreed.

“An’ what iffen I tol’ him no?”

“Then I’d wear y’all down,” she replied, daring a bit of sauce. “Reckon I c’n be as stubborn as y’all, an’ I’m younger. I got time.”

Aunt Jinny laughed softly. “Good. All right, then. When he comes up t’arst me proper, I’ll tell him it’ll be a long courtin’, but Jacob’ll git his Rachel in th’ end an’ he won’t have ter take no toad-faced Leah fust.”

Anna actually leapt up from the table and kissed her aunt.

“Oh, hush now,” Jinny said, snorting, but pleased. “It wouldn’t’a been so easy iffen I hadn’t known thet boy an’ his fambly since Hector was a pup. He’s a good young feller, an’ he ain’t a-gonna waste his life down a hole in th’ ground. And he’s got th’ Glory, which is kinder important, since y’all got it strong. Any man y’all married up with’d either have ter hev it his own self, or be easy with it like my Pa was with my Ma, or y’all have ter hide it from him. Most fellers don’ cotton to it when their woman’s got somethin’ powerful they ain’t got an’ cain’t hev. An’ thet hidin’ part ain’t easy.”