“Y’all know anythin’ what c’n be in Ducktown one minnut, an’ in Roosha th’ next?” her aunt demanded. Anna shook her head, because obviously she couldn’t. “Neither do I. Neither does any Marster I’ve arsked. Purt powerful don’t begin t’ describe her. Great-Granpappy was lucky to get shuck of her, an’ he knowed it. It’s might near as dangerous t’ be somethin’ she wants, as t’ get atwixt her an somethin’ she wants.” Her aunt paused for a moment, searching for words. “She ain’t human. An’ she don’t thank like one.”

“Wonder what she wanted with me?” Anna said aloud.

Jinny’s lips twisted in a sardonic smile. “T’plague me, most likely.”

But Anna wasn’t at all sure of that. The only thing that she was sure of, was that Jolene wasn’t all that different from Grandmother Spider, and that her aunt was right. She was far more dangerous than Anna had ever guessed.

Aunt Jinny turned her loose in the morning, right after tending the pigs and the chickens and eating breakfast. She couldn’t get down the lane fast enough, and Jinny must have known she would be useless until she saw Josh again.

He must have heard her footsteps in the barn, because he met her halfway inside and caught her up in his arms and swung her around until she was breathless, and for a long, long time, wouldn’t let her go.

She had a thousand things to say, and didn’t need to say any of them. That embrace gave her all the answers she needed.

So instead she asked something else entirely. “The li’l angel?”

He heaved a huge sigh. “Done an’ gone. An’ it’s been a rotten three days. On’y two thangs good outen ’em a-tall. C’mon in th’ workshop an’ I’ll tell y’all.”

He took her hand and led her to the shop, and picked her up by the waist to perch her on her usual stool, while he leaned back against his workbench. Now that she saw him, she saw he looked as if he hadn’t slept for those three days. Shocked, she waited for him to tell her what was going on.

“So. Mistuh Cooper showed up with his cart an’ hoss three days ago, an’ McDaran with him, ridin’ a livery hoss.”

“What?” That hit her with another unwelcome jolt, although that corresponded to when McDaran had turned up at Aunt Jinny’s. “Why? I mean, why did he hev McDaran with him, when y’all tol’ me he couldn’t hardly stand the man?”

Josh sighed. “Wall, he weren’t too clear ’bout that. In fact, he weren’t too clear ’bout anythin’, ’cept thet he wanted thet statchoo right quick, an’ he weren’t goin’ back t’Ducktown wi’out it. Pa weren’t a-tall happy about Cooper bein’ thar, much less McDaran, an’ then—wall, I dunno how the heck he done it, ’cause I know Pa thanks McDaran’s a snake, but McDaran talked to him an’ Ma fer ’bout an hour, an’ next thang I know, they’s invited t’stay, they’s eatin’ in the kitchen like guests, they’s a-sleepin’ in my room, an’ I’m beddin’ down out here. Oh, an’ Susie’s so sweet on thet skunk McDaran thet I cain’t even say ‘boo’ ’bout him without she crawls down m’throat. I ain’t seen nothin’ like it, an’ iffen y’all hadn’t tol’ me ’bout magic, an’ thet he had it, I reckon I’d’a thunk I was a-goin’ crazy. As ’twas, took me most of the fust day t’ figger out he’d done messed with their haids an’ done it with magic.”