He was almost certainly an extremely powerful magician—and certainly as human as she was.

And surely Jolene knows McDaran.

Ducktown wasn’t that big. There couldn’t have been much in town once you got off Main Street. Had she been going to meet McDaran? And if so, why?

She’s purdy innerested in everybody what’s got magic around her . . .

She waited for Josh to pause again in his work. “What’d y’all know ’bout Billie McDaran?” she asked him.

“Thet he’s a no-good snake, an’ y’all better stay fur away from him!” Josh replied, sounding surprised and anxious all at the same time.

“Wall, Aunt Jinny says th’ same, but what d’y’all know ’bout him?” she persisted.

Josh put down both his hammer and his chisel, which demonstrated just how seriously he was taking this conversation, and turned toward her, giving her his full attention. “He come t’ these here parts ’bout six, eight years ago. I dunno where from. I’m thankin’ thet the mine owners brung him here, but I dunno fer sure. I was purt little then, an’ there weren’t much room fer anythin’ in my fool haid but fishin’ an’ tryin’ t’ git outta chores an’ school lessons.”

“Y’all went t’ school?” she said, surprised, thinking about how far from Ducktown the farm was.

But he shook his head. “Ma larned us. She’d larn us till it were purdy plain we weren’t gonna larn nothin’ else, an’ she’d let us quit. Me an’ Sue an’ Gertie, thet is. She’s still larnin’ Seth, Becky, an’ Ned. Sue an’ Gertie an’ me don’t need no more o’ thet stuff. We got readin’, writin’, an ’rithmatic, an’ thet’s all we need.”

He looked as if he was more than happy to go off on that tangent, so Anna hauled him back. “Billie McDaran,” she reminded him.

He made a face. “All I know fer sure is he’s a scandal. He’s got two wimmin as he says does housework an’ cookin’ fer him what lives in his house, an’ Pa said to Ma when he thunk I wasn’t listenin’ thet he reckons McDaran’s a-livin’ in sin with the both of ’em. I ain’t never seed ’em, but they’s supposed t’be real purdy, iffen you don’t mind a woman lookin’ like a whupped dog. Cooper at the Company store cain’t hardly stand him, but he’s gotter be nice on account’a McDaran’s the mine foreman. Cooper’s the one tol’ me them wimmin look like they’s askeert alla time. He says they don’t hardly never come outa thet house ’less McDaran sends ’em t’the store on a errand. The mine owners gotta know ’bout them wimmin, but they don’t say or do nothin’.” Josh scratched his head in perplexity. “Mebbe they don’t do nothin’ on account’a Cooper says they’s quadroons, an’ some folks reckon . . . wall, thet they don’t count. Not like a white woman, anyways.”

That was a lot to digest. “So does ev’body in Ducktown gotter act nice to him?” she asked.