“Obliged,” Jeb said, taking it, as Missus Sawyer took Anna’s elbow.

“Let’s go git y’all’s things,” the older woman said, and Anna followed her back to the kitchen.

“Here’s your bundle,” Missus Sawyer said, and put her old folded shawl on top of it. “An’ take thet shawl. I ain’t usin’ it, an’ y’all will want it if th’ weather turns.” She picked up an identical basket to the one that Jeb had taken from Caleb from under the sink, without waiting for Anna to stammer her thanks. “Time’s a-wastin’!” she said cheerfully. “Le’s go!”

They returned to find Jeb and Caleb still chatting amicably, coming up alongside the wagon as Jeb was saying, “ . . . thenkee kindly fer that, Caleb.”

“T’weren’t nothing.” The man grinned. “But y’all owe me a drink next time.”

“Here’s the gal,” Missus Sawyer said, “an’ here’s her bundle, an’ here’s dinner fer th’ two of y’all,” she added, handing up the basket.

“Dinner? Reckon Jeb don’t owe me no drink arter all,” Caleb replied, smiling broadly as he hefted the basket. “All right there, missy. One foot there, that’s right. Reach up y’all’s hand—and up y’all come!” He took her by the hand and hauled her up as if she weighed nothing at all.

Once on the high wagon seat beside him, she looked down at Jeb and his wife. “I cain’t thenkee enough,” she began awkwardly. “Y’all be so good t’me—”

Jeb waved her words aside. “Jest doin’ as the Good Lord says,” he replied modestly.

Including feeding and clothing the poor, she thought but didn’t say aloud. Because they had done that, and even though charity galled, that wasn’t their fault.

“I’ll make sure t’ let Aunt Jinny know how good y’all been,” she replied after a bit of awkward silence.

“Best be on our way,” Caleb interjected, diplomatically. “I’ll be a-seein’ y’all in a couple days, let y’all know this liddle gal’s got t’ Miz Jinny safe. Hup!” That last was to the mules, as he slapped the long reins on their six backs, and the mules stepped out. The wagon lurched forward, then began rolling smoothly, and soon the Sawyers’ house was out of sight.

Caleb’s mules were either of a brisker disposition than Jeb’s Daisy, or they found the unladen wagon no more burden than a feather, or both. Or perhaps they knew they were going home, which put a spring in their step.

Or maybe it was just the overnight rest, because surely Caleb had not driven all night long to get to Cleveland.

As these thoughts went through her mind, Caleb broke—well, it wasn’t silence, since it was full of the jingle of harness and the sound of twenty-four clopping hooves—

“Y’all know Miz Jinny good?” he asked, conversationally.

She shook her head. “Ain’t never seed her,” she confessed.

“Hrm.” Caleb considered this. “Wall—she takes some gettin’ used ter. Don’ let what she looks like put y’all off her. Ain’t a smarter, better Root Woman in—wall, betwixt here an’ Memphis, an’ tha’s a fact! If she minds t’teach y’all, y’all ain’t niver gonna lack for work.”