Without waiting for an answer, she whirled and ran for the barn and the workshop. There was very little light, but what there was, was enough to tell her that her worst fears had been realized. The roll of tools and the block of malachite were gone.

There could be only one explanation.

Jolene had taken Josh.

The Holcrofts surrounded her, and babbled, but she was too sunk in shock and black despair to answer in more than monosyllables. No, Josh had not come up to the cabin last evening. Yes, the last time she saw him, it had been in his workshop, and she had sent him to the house to eat and rest. No, he hadn’t said anything except a promise he would get some sleep. No, she didn’t know where he was.

The last was a lie, of course. But what could she possibly say? Yore son’s been rieved away by a thang what calls herself The Queen of Copper Mountain, he’s been a-took Blessed Jesus on’y knows where, an’ we ain’t niver gonna see him agin. They’d think she’d lost her senses. All she could do was stand there helplessly while they gabbled at her; what she wanted to do was hold her hands over her ears and think, or cry, or both—but instead, she hugged herself tightly and listened to them, hoping against hope that they’d say something that would give her an idea of what to do.

From the babbling she gleaned that Josh had gone in for dinner, but that he’d eaten and then gone back to his workshop, saying he’d had an idea for something. That wasn’t unheard of; once he got the shape of something in his head, he often wanted to get the rough idea for it (sometimes literally) hammered out or he wouldn’t be able to sleep.

But in the morning he hadn’t come down to breakfast, which was unheard of, and when Susie went up to his room, his bed was still made and had not been slept in since it had been used by McDaran—Cooper having been bedded down on the floor with blankets.

Eventually the Holcrofts stopped babbling at her and swirled off again in their several directions, each one having an idea as to where Josh might have gone—regardless of whether or not there was any sense to their notions—leaving Anna standing alone in the yard between the house and barn.

Her mind seemed filled with ice and blackness; her heart felt as if it was being squeezed out of her body, and she could scarcely breathe.

Jolene took Josh.

No use in going to Aunt Jinny—Jinny had made her feelings clear. Don’t get atwixt Jolene an’ what she wants and Iffen he goes with her, y’all’s well shuck of him.

But she couldn’t believe that of Josh. She wouldn’t believe that. Not until and unless she heard it from his own lips, something like I pick Jolene an’ what she c’n give me over you.