Anna could cheerfully have seen all of those unknown “Masters” to perdition. It was seeing Josh she wanted to do!

Aunt Jinny didn’t say anything more about it, but for once Anna didn’t linger over the good food. She was on fire with impatience as she and Jinny worked through all the produce they had brought in from the garden, preparing some of it for storage and the rest for meals for the next few days. She knew very well that Jinny was aware of her impatience, and was amused by it.

She ain’t never been in love, Anna thought resentfully, using that loaded word “love” for the first time even in her own thoughts. So she thinks it’s funny. But it wasn’t funny. It was exhilarating and scary, and had her insides and sometimes her thoughts buzzing around like a hive of disturbed bees. And right now the only thing that seemed to make those bees settle was the idea of seeing Josh.

Finally, they finished drying the last nugget of tomato, shelling the last pea. Finally, Aunt Jinny got out her black glass plate and directed Anna to settle herself down on a stool beside the stove.

“All right,” she said, as Anna fixed both eyes on the plate. “Fill thet there plate with th’ Glory. Make the sign I showed y’all over it. An’ concentrate on seein’ Josh.”

Carefully, she gathered the power to her, blocking off all the distractions around her, like the feel of her hair drying, the warmth of the stove at her back, the cold of her bare feet. She brought up the power from the earth under the cabin, and it answered to her easily; she directed it into the plate, and it flowed there with docility. When it felt as if the plate was humming in her hands and was drinking all the light in the room, she took one hand away from it briefly, and made the glyph Aunt Jinny had showed her the last time over the pool of blackness in her hands.

And she didn’t even have to do anything more. The black void became a window, a window that showed Josh in his workshop, shaping the stone on his workbench with a smaller chisel than before, the little stove showing a good fire through the slits in the door.

None of the little critters was nearby—evidently they didn’t find carving stone as enthralling as Anna did—but one of the calico farm cats sat on the toolbench, drowsing in the heat.

The sense of triumph she had for finally conquering the task was almost as sweet as being able to see Josh—even if he was unaware of her.

“Good,” was all Aunt Jinny said. “Now we see if y’all c’n talk to Young Raven. Then we’ll try for Rufous Taylor over to Asheville.”

Anna just sighed.

16

ANNA had lost track of the days and the weeks; it was easy to do that when every other afternoon was full of Josh. He wasn’t “absent-minded” anymore during their afternoons; in fact, he took great pains to show her what he was doing with the little angel, even going so far as to have her hold the chisel and use the mallet, and carve away bits of the marble where it didn’t count. He explained everything to her in great detail, eagerly, offering her his knowledge as some other boy might give her a flower. He was unconsciously kind—that is, he was kind without even having to think about it—things like making sure all the kittens in the barn cat’s litter were being fed by their mama, and not losing his temper with Susie even when she deserved it. It inspired Anna to be the same. Everything about her feelings for him had deepened, until she thought she understood (and completely forgave) her mother’s obsession with her father. There were times she was so happy with him that she’d even forget to breathe.