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to my place. Annie’s sleeping over at Pieta’s, so you can have her bed.”
    “What’s your mama going to say?”
    “Nothing. We’ll tell her in the morning and she’ll just set out another plate for breakfast. Then you can go see Aunt Nancy—which I still don’t recommend.”
    Lillian nodded. But she saw another problem now. “If the Welches come looking for me,” she said, “you can’t let on I’m here.”
    “Don’t worry about that,” Davy said. “We all like Harlene and Earl just fine, but once everybody knows you’ve got business with Aunt Nancy, they’d sooner suck on a rotten egg than talk about it to anybody.”
    “Yeah,” John said. “Nobody’s dumb enough to get mixed up in Aunt Nancy’s business unless they don’t have a choice.”
    Lillian let the boys lead her down the hill to John’s house.
    “You’ve got to feel a little sad for Aunt Nancy,” she said.
    John gave her a puzzled look.
    “Well, think about it. Everybody’s so scared of her, she’s got no friends.”
    John nodded. “I see what you mean. But you know, I think she’s got friends—we just can’t see them. I’ve walked by her cabin and heard her talking away when I know there’s no one else there. Leastwise nobody I ever saw go in.”
    Lillian shivered. Maybe going to talk to Aunt Nancy wasn’t such a good idea, but Lillian
had
to find out what she meant. It was her only shred of hope for finding a way to have the life she wanted.
    “You want to come in now?” John asked.
    Lillian nodded.

CHAPTER TEN
Aunt Nancy
    J ohn’s mother didn’t seem at all surprised to see Lillian the next morning. As John had said, she simply laid out another plate and asked her how she’d slept. Creek children—ranging in age from toddlers to John’s older brother Samuel, who was almost eighteen—filled the kitchen with a happy clamor.

    “Are you
really
going to see Aunt Nancy?” Samuel asked. “On purpose?”
    “Samuel!” his mother said.
    He shrugged. “I’m just asking.”
    All the Creek children stopped eating and stared wide-eyed at Lillian to see what she would say.
    Lillian played self-consciously with the food on her plate, pushing scrambled eggs and bacon around with her fork. A big knot of fear was lodged in her stomach, and none of this was helping. She managed to take a bite of fry bread before she stood up from the table.
    “I should go,” she said. “I’m sorry I’m not hungry, but thanks for breakfast, Mrs. Creek.”
    “My pleasure, dear. I hope everything goes well with Aunt Nancy.”
    Lillian hesitated. “Why’s everybody so scared of her?”
    “Well, now. I have to admit she can be a trial from time to time, but she’s never hurt a body that didn’t deserve to be taken down a peg or two. Just be polite, and I’m sure you’ll be fine.”
    Easy to say, Lillian thought, when it’s not you going to see her.
    She thanked John’s mother again and went outside. John had already pointed out to her Aunt Nancy’s cabin, which stood a little distance from the others. It was a pine-log structure with a cedar-shingle roof and a small porch out front. A pair of towering sprucy-pine stood tall on either side. Bundles of drying herbs hung from the porch rafters, and a big black cat the size of a bobcat lay at the top of the stairs, staring right at her the way all the cats seemed to these days, like it was anticipating something.
    That made it no easier, but she started for the cabin with her knees knocking and her heart pounding. She stopped with a jump when she heard Davy shout her name.
    “The Welches are up at the farm looking for you,” he yelled as he ran over from the path that led to Aunt’s farm.
    “Did you say anything to them?”
    He gave her a withering look. “They never even knew I was there.”
    “What were they doing?”
    “Looking around, calling your name.”
    “Do you think they’ll come here?” she asked.
    “Probably.”
    “Well, thanks for letting me know.”
    She