Outside, I spotted T. Laine’s car. The overworked witch was asleep in the driver’s seat with her head leaning against the window, her mouth open a little. I tapped on the passenger window and she snapped awake and unlocked the doors. I got in and buckled up, saying nothing, ignoring her steady gaze. A few seconds too late, she turned to the front and pushed the start button, easing into traffic, heading toward the hills that marked Soulwood. More minutes passed.
“Okay. Fine,” she said at last, taking the turn toward Oliver Springs. “I wasn’t going to ask. I was going to let you volunteer. But I have to say, that boy is a fine specimen of manhood. Dark hair and creamy skin, blue eyes to freaking die for. And you made him blush. Deets. I want to know everything. And before you say no, just remember that it’s a damn long way to your house from here, on foot.”
I had begun to smile as she spoke and when she finished her harangue, I said, “You waited for me.”
“Of course I waited. Unit Eighteen rule number one. No one goes in alone. No one gets left behind.”
It was the single most important reason that I had joined PsyLED. “He kissed me on the cheek before he left.”
“Day-um, girl!Dish!Start at the beginning!”
For the first time in my life, I had what Lainie called a “girl talk” about men. And it was pretty wonderful.
•••
Back at the house, I unloaded my gear from the car and waved T. Laine away. She was so tired, I feared her eyes wouldn’t stay open for the drive to her place, but she refused to “crash at your pad,” as she put it, and pulled back down the hill at speed, her mouth moving. I figured she had waked up JoJo to tell her about my breakfast date.
•••
I took care of urgent housekeeping chores, like heat and water, and mixed up some no-knead bread for later baking. I had venison stew, but it needed corn bread to go with it, so I set the Dutch oven on the cooler part of the stove to warm, and the skillets on the hot part of the stove top for later use. Let the cats out and then back in, and fed them. Washed a load of clothes. Put on my pajamas. Turned on the electric blanket. And went out to the married trees with my faded pink blanket, raided from my big gobag. I sat on the blanket on the damp ground, my palms flat, and blew out the stress of the last few hours. I eased my mind into the earth, down and deep, into the warmth that was Soulwood. I had drawn on it pretty hard and wanted to make sure it was all right. And it was, energies humming quietly through the ground like pulses of pale light. I gave it a small bump of energy, like a scratch behind the ears. Had it been a dog, the sentient thing that was my woods would have rolled over and given me its tummy. Satisfied, I glanced Brother Ephraim’s way long enough to ascertain that he wasn’t doing anything naughty. His area looked cold and dark and appeared to be free of electric snakes. I figured he had used everything he had for his strike at me. If I was lucky he was well and truly dead. I wasn’t usually lucky where Ephraim was concerned. Slowly, I eased back to my body.
The air was warmer than any day in the past week, but I was still cold. I raced for the house and the bed that was snuggly and warm and wonderful. And fell asleep. Only towake at four p.m., stirred from whirling, confusing dreams about Ben Aden and Occam. About bravery and cowardice and lifestyles and the future. And not being human.
•••
I was ready for work by four thirty, when I felt an unknown vehicle on the road up the hills to my land. And realized that I hadn’t felt Ben or Occam when either of them drove onto my land. That was worrisome and I didn’t know what it might mean.
I put my gear by the front door and waited until I saw Daddy’s truck turn into the gravel driveway. Sam and Mud got out, and Soulwood perked up, aware and drowsy and happy to have them here. Which was disturbing in its own way. I opened the door and let my true sibs in, offering the church welcome of hospitality, keeping the good things from my past. “Welcome to my home. Hospitality and safety while you’re here.”
Sam chuckled and pulled off his bright blue toboggan. It looked brand-new, it wasn’t Mama’s favorite paler blue shade, and I assumed his new wife had crocheted it for him. “I hope you’un have something on the stove, sister of mine. Mindy says you two are having an early supper.”
“We are?”
“Yup,” Mud said, plopping on the couch and pulling an afghan over her.
“Woman stuff,” Sam informed me.
“I have to leave for work in an hour.”
My brother’s face flashed surprise, quickly shuttered. “Oh. Right.” Churchwomen didn’t work out of the home. Cultural bombshell—I did. But neither of us said any of that. “I heard about the rainbow wig,” Sam said teasingly, his expression so much like the young boy he had been that I laughed and shook my head.
“Ben told you.”
“Ben told everybody. I’ll pick her up in sixty minutes.” He slipped out the door and closed it.
“Grilled cheese okay?” I asked my sister.
“And somathat lemony tea, if’n you’un got any?”
I remembered the cramps of my first cycle. Mud must be hurting. “My feminine relief mixture coming up. Lemon, ginger, and maybe some fennel this time?”
Mud shrugged and snuggled deeper, the cats walking over her, investigating. Jessie curled on Mud’s shoulder, purring. Cello, the scaredy-cat, crawled under the afghan, peeking out. Torquil leaped to the kitchen cabinet and sat, staring at me, her black head looking like she wore a helmet—Thor’s helmet, for which she was named.
I put butter in the skillet and started the sandwiches, heated water in the microwave, and ladled up some stew into bowls. I spooned my honey lemon preserves into the new infuser cup, then added a small spoonful of fennel seed, some dried black cohosh, dried raspberry leaf, and some black tea. When the microwave dinged, I poured boiling water over the mixture and brought a tray with tea and stew to the table.
Mud had pulled the afghan up to her cheeks and was watching me over the edge. The silence between us had grown but was still somehow comfortable. “I don’t like being a woman grown.”
“Oh?” I put her stew bowl, teacup, and the infuser near her.
