“Howdy, Caleb Strong. Niver doubted y’all would.” Aunt Jinny smiled slightly at him. “Le’s get her down so y’all kin git home in time fer supper.”

The mules stood, steady as statues, as Caleb hopped off the seat, came around to Anna’s side, and helped her down by the simple expedient of putting both hands around her waist and lifting her down. Anna stood there awkwardly while he got her bundle and managed to get hold of the basket as well, handing them both to Jinny.

Jinny reached down and picked up a similar basket that had been hidden in the weeds at her feet. “Here y’all be, Caleb. Much obliged. An’ give my thenkee to Jebediah Sawyer when y’all see ’im.”

“It’s me that’s obliged, Miz Jinny,” Caleb replied with deep respect. “My Mary sets a powerful store by y’all’s potions.” He stowed the basket under the wagon seat and fastened it there securely with a bit of twine he took from his pocket. “Now I’ll get my team turned about and be on my way.”

“Safe journeys,” Aunt Jinny said. She took the basket with Anna’s bundle in one hand and Anna’s elbow in the other, and steered her up the path, deeper into the holler, before Caleb had even gotten to the front of his team to lead them back around to the track.

This was not a track; it was a path. Ferns encroached on either side, and foliage met just above their heads. There was barely enough room for the two of them to walk side by side, but the moss-covered path felt quite cool, soft, and utterly wonderful on Anna’s bare feet.

Aunt Jinny let go of her elbow once they’d gone a few feet. It wasn’t as if she was going to have to guide Anna anywhere, when the path was clear. And it wasn’t as if Anna was going to run back to Caleb Strong to beg him to take her home—although given how odd and stern Aunt Jinny looked, that idea had certainly passed through her mind.

They walked on for almost an hour. The path went up a slight incline, and there was bright light at the end of it, so presumably there was a house up there and Aunt Jinny didn’t actually live in the woods, or a cave, or a hollow tree.

They emerged from the forest into a clearing under bright sunlight. If there had ever been any trees here, the least vestige of them had been cleared away a long time ago. The path went to a split-rail fence with a stile they used to get over it, then passed between two farmed sections: one all corn, the other a mixed garden of vegetables and herbs. Or—wait, no, that wasn’t just corn in the first field; each hill supporting a corn stalk also had a winter squash vine trailing out of it, and a pinto bean bush. Bean pods studded the bushes, and the squash plants each had hard little green shapes on them. Chickens, brown, white, and speckled, scratched at the earth and hunted vigorously for bugs in both fields, watched over by a sharp-eyed red rooster. The sheer amount of food growing here, presumably all for just one person, left Anna feeling stunned.