She gave me a sidelong look. "Aye, that's true enow.

She'll have no sins to make her walk these hills, but we've other things to talk about, you and I . Important things. Has Lilybet any folks?"

I saw she meant to keep me from speaking more of the sin eater and fix on Lilybet. I was greatly uncomfortable with the set of her conversation. "She mentioned her father." I hoped for another opportunity to learn more about the sin eater once we reached Elda Kendric. Being so old and near the grave herself, Elda Kendric was not afeared of anything.

"And have ye ever laid eyes upon her father, dearie?

"No, ma'am.""And where'd ye meet Lilybet?"

My heart started in pounding. I thought to tell her I 'd met Lilybet in the meadow at the west end of the cove, but everyone knew Gervase Odara could tell when someone was lying. She stopped at my silence. T aking hold of my shoulders, she turned me to face her. "T ell me, child."

Her pale blue eyes were so fixed upon me that I blurted out the truth. "At the river."

63She straightened with a start, releasing me. Afraid of what was coming, I darted away, calling back over my shoulder. "Miz Kendric might like some flowers." I retreated to the top of the meadow to gather some, thinking Gervase Odara might go on without me and I would catch up when she reached the old woman's house.

She waited. Both arms looped through the handle of her basket, she waited and watched. "Where by the river, Cadi Forbes?" she called after me.

I could feel the heat coming up my neck and filling my face and then washing away as quick as it come,leaving me cold as winter snow inside. "Does it matter?"

"Aye, it matters, child. Now, come on back. Elda's waiting."

I did as she bade me, bringing a bouquet of flowers with me. They would cheer the old woman and give me something to hold on to.

"Where did this Lilybet come upon ye, child?"

I knew she would not give over until she knew all she had set her mind to know. "Above the falls."

She looked troubled. "Near the tree bridge?"

I nodded once, slowly, my eyes filling with 64tears. Sucking my lower lip, I bit down, awaiting her pronouncement upon me. Gervase Odara's mouth became pinched with dismay. Cupping my chin, she lifted my head and waited for me to look at her. "Y e must be careful, Cadi Forbes. Y e must listen hard to me, my girl, and do as I say. Close your heart to this Lilybet. Do not let her near to ye again. This is most important. I ken you're sorrowful and hurting for whatimportant. I ken you're sorrowful and hurting for what happened, dear, but ye mustna let those feelings be a road into your soul." She stroked my tears away, looking as aggrieved as I was feeling. "Oh, child, thar's things in these mountains even I dunna understand, but I know enough to leave alone. And ye must do the same. This Lilybet is not what she seems."

Every way I turned, I faced a mystery. Oh, I understood rightly enough that she was warning me against having anything more to do with Lilybet. What I didn't ken was why. What things were in these mountains? What things should be left alone? And what was wrong with Lilybet, who had been only kind to me? And now I must forsake her when she was my only true friend? Gathering my courage, I asked the healer about all this, but she shook her head and would not say more. Even as young as I was, 65Iunderstood that she wasafeared of something and talking aboutit made that fear grow. For my sake, she tried not to let it show, but I sensed it all the same.

Death has a smell that permeates. She was not frightened by what she knew but by what she didn't understand.

Why was it so? And did it have to stay that way, ever being afraid of what was beyond our understanding?In my heart I knew that Lilybet was opening a door for me. She was giving me a glimpse inside. But inside what?

I didn't know. All I had in response to my questions were more questions.

Elda Kendric was in sore spirits and sorry condition when we reached her place. She hollered from inside her house for us to come in. Gervase said right off she could see the old woman's joints were swollen. In fact, Miz Elda was aching so fierce she couldn't even rise to greet us. She tried, but her grimace turned to a growl.

"I was wishing for ye to come two days ago."

Gervase Odara made no explanations, but went to Elda Kendric's cabinet and took out a jug of whiskey.

She poured a goodly amount into a mug and stirred in honey and vinegar. "Thar's a small pouch in my basket, 66Cadi. Bring it o'er here if ye please." I did so and watched her open it and add two pinches of powder to the drink. "A bit of rhubarb'll help the poor dear." She pulled the drawstring and handed the small pouch back to me, then offered the drink to the old woman. Elda Kendric downed it right quickly, clearly craving ease.Then the healer took a jar from the shelf and went outside.

"She'll be back soon as she's caught some bees,"

the old woman said. "Why don't ye sit awhile and keep me company?" She smiled through her pain. "I don't bite too hard, especially since I lost my teeth. Pull up that stool."

Here was my opportunity if I had the courage for it. I sat close to Elda Kendric and tried to think of a way to ask about the sin eater without being found out. She looked at me, a small smile playing on her lips. Granny used to get that look sometimes, as though she knew very well what I was thinking. Or thought she did.

"Those are pretty flowers ye're holding thar. Did ye pick them for your mama?" "No, ma'am. I thought ye might like them."

"I do indeed. Y er granny was partial to blue beauties, but I 've always liked daisies best."

67I placed them in her lap and watched her finger the blossoms. "They come from the meadow below your woods, ma'am."

"Thought so. Last time I walked through that meadowwas on the way to yer granny's funeral." She looked up from the flowers. "Lyda Hume came to visit yesterday and said her young'uns had seen ye."

"Fagan was spearing fish."

"Jest like his daddy. Ain't happy unless he's killing something."

"Ma'am, I was wondering. "Wondering about what?"

"Well, about who ye'll want to come to your funeral."

She cackled. "Land sakes, chile, what a thing to ask a poor old woman. I ain't dead yet."

"Y es, ma'am, but what good'll it do to wait?"

The healer returned. Two bees buzzed angrily in the bottle she carried.

I moved back as Gervase Odara knelt. Forsaking modesty, the old woman pulled her skirt up past her knees.Angering the bees by tapping the jar, the healer removed the first one with wood tweezers. Elda Kendric drew in herbreath sharply as she received the first sting.

"Time was I could have gone out and 68caught these bees myself without waiting on yer convenience," Miz Elda said, brushing away the dying honeybee that had just dispensed the poison that eased her pain. She sucked in her breath sharply as the healer put a second bee on her other leg. When the treatment was done, Miz Elda laboriously pushed her skirt down again. "The chile was just asking who'll be invited to my funeral."

Gervase Odara looked at me with dismay and I blushed.

"I reckon I 'd want everyone invited who'd like to come," Miz Elda said, leaning forward and patting my hand. "I 'd like a wake just like yer granny had. Plenty of good food for the women and whiskey for the men."

"And the sin eater? Will ye want him to come, Miz Kendric?"

"Oh, indeed. I 'll have sore need of him." "And how'll we find him for ye?""Y e won't need to find him. The passing bell echoes in these mountains," Gervase Odara said. "He'll most likely hear it."

"Is that where he is? High on the mountain top?"

Gervase Odara frowned as Miz Elda answered.

"Reckon so." She rubbed her aching legs. "No one really knows where he lives, except maybe -" The healer cleared her throat. "Hmmm," Miz Elda said, 69meeting her glance. She looked at me again.

"Could be he's living in a house he built or a cave he found, but he ain't so far removed from us that he won't know when he's needed. Don't ye worry yourself about it.

I knew to leave off asking where to find him and tried another track. "How did he come to be the sin eater?"

"Why, he was chosen, of course."

"Chosen? How?"

The healer turned while mixing another mug of medicine for Miz Elda. "I t isna good for a chile to be so fixed in her mind about the sin eater." She came to usand handed the mug to the old woman.

"I was just wondering what to do if Miz Elda died and -".

Elda Kendric snorted. "Just because yer granny has gone on her way don't mean very soul past seventy is going to chase right on after her." She drank the remedy, shuddered, and held out the empty mug to Gervase Odara. "Thank ye kindly, Gervase." She moved easier, shifting in her air. "I 'm feeling a wee bit sleepy."

Soon as we get some vittles into ye, we'll ye to bed.

I 'll come round tomorrow d see how ye be."

The healer had brought bread, berry preserves, and a jar of thick 70soup, which she was warming over the fire she'd stoked.

"Let's just visit awhile. I 'll eat after ye go." "Y e'll eat now, Elda."

The old woman looked at me, eyes twinkling. "She doesna trust me."Gervase Odara cracked an egg and stirred it into the soup she was heating over the fire. Pouring it into a bowl, she brought it back and put it on the table.

Elda Kendric took the proffered spoon in her gnarled, misshapen fingers. "Nothing tastes good anymore." But the bread and berry preserves were to her liking, especially when washed down by tea brewed from the green bark of a wild cherry tree. The healer sat by her, making sure she ate every bite and drank every drop. They talked about others in the cove.

Mercy T attersall was in a family way again, seven babies in eight years, and the woman is done in from the last. T ate MacNamara shot the painter that had been killing his sheep.Pen Densham's son Pete fell from the hayloft and broke his leg in two places.

Not once did they mention the sin eater. "Thar now, dearie, ye sleep well," Gervase Odara said, having seen the old woman to her bed and covered over with a quilt. "I 'll come by tomorrow."

71"Cadi," the old lady said sleepily. "Y e come by anytime, dearie. We'll talk about yer granny. I miss the old soul.""Thank ye, ma'am. I hope ye'll be feeling better."

She took my hand and held it strong as Gervase Odara turned away to tidy up the cooking things. "We can talk about other things, too."

I t fixed in my mind that she was talking about the sin eater, and it was all I could do not to press her right then and there with questions. But she was already dozing off, the healer's remedies sitting well with her and easing her poor body of its pain.

Lightning split the gray sky with white as we were on the way home. "We'll keep to the trees," Gervase Odara said as the deep rumble rolled. She was afeared, and rightfully so, with the sky brightened again. I heard of a man once who was running for home and got struck dead in the meadow just below his house. Granny said she reckoned he had done something real bad to rile p God like that.

Another jagged shaft of light struck in the distance, and I thought sure it was coming for me. A wind came up as the thunder rolled again. Closer and closer itcame. Granny had told me God's voice was like 72the thunder, and he lived in the dark clouds. She had learned all this when she was very young in Wales and had attended services every Sunday with her mother and father. "He is fire and wind," she'd said.

"Is God speaking to us, ma'am?" "Shouting more like it," Gervase Odara said as the thunder rolled again, so heavy and loud now the hair stood up on my head. "Stay to the trees, Cadi, and move along. The skies'll open afore we can make shelter the way ye're dawdling."

As the lightning flashed, I thought I saw someone standing in the trees above us. The light blazed hot, and there he was in his tattered clothes and hood.

"Sin eater!" I cried out and then the light dimmed and so did he.

"Hush now!" Gervase Odara snapped, having glanced sharply up the hill. "Thar's nothing there." She caught hold of my hand and pulled me back and along with her through the woods. When I looked back over my shoulder, he wasgone.Mama sent me for firewood as soon as we arrived home. Lilybet was waiting beside the pile of oak Papa had chopped.

"The healer says you're not all ye seem to be," I told her. "And she told me I shudna open my heart to ye."

73She smiled sadly. "Do ye think I mean ye harm, Katrina Anice?"

"No."

Her eyes softened and she came closer."Y oumust trust your heart in this. Heed what it tells you."

My heart ached within me, ached for something I could not define. Looking into her eyes, I believed she knew what it was I longed to have, and if I but trusted her, she would show me the path to finding it. I thought the sin eater was the key. I wanted to tarry longer and tell her about my visit with Elda Kendric.

"Go back for now, Katrina Anice," she said. "We've time to talk tomorrow when you're out and about in the sunshine and the meadow."

I stacked one last piece of firewood on my arm.Glancing up again, I saw she was already gone.

Straining under the burden I carried, I returned to the house.

Gervase Odara was leaving as I came in, rain having already stopped. She tipped my chin and told me to remember what she'd told me.

Mama was making preparations for supper when I dumped my heavy load into the woodbin. "Put another log on the fire, Cadi," she said dully. She didn't say another 74word to me for the rest of the afternoon. Papa and Iwan washed up outside and came in near dusk for supper. Plowing, tilling, and cultivating the fields had been done in Aries. Now that the fruitful sign of T aurus was upon us, planting had begun. Papa always said crops planted in T aurus and Cancer would stand drought. "What've ye been doing all day, little sister?"

Iwan said to me, ladling out another helping of Mama's stew.

"I went to Elda Kendric's with the healer."

"And how's the old soul?""She's in terrible pain, but doesn't reckon she'll be dying soon."

Iwan grimaced and said nothing more. I saw by his expression that I had said too much already. Mama ate slowly without speaking to anyone. Papa looked at her several times, like he was waiting for something from her. After a while his face hardened, and he didn't look at her again. He finished eating in silence, pushed his plate away, and stood. "I got work in the barn." He went out the door.

Iwan went outside and sat on the porch while I cleared and washed the dishes. Mama left me to it, sitting at her spinning wheel again, retreating into her solitude.

75When I finished, I went outside to be near my brother. He was the only one who had not been undone by our tragedy. I sat on the edge of the porch and rested my head in my arms on the railing. We didn't say anything. He was tired and I was sad, and both of us were looking toward the barn where the lantern light shone through the open door.

7576Four As soon as the sun came up, I set about my chores, in a hurry to be finished and free to return to Elda Kendric. She was working in her garden when I arrived out of breath and with another bouquet of mountain daisies. She didn't pause from her labors, but I could tell all was not right with her.

"Y ou paining again, ma'am. I could fix you another remedy."

"And likely poison me. What do ye know about remedies?"

"I was watchful of Gervase Odara. Honey, vinegar, and whiskey."

She gave a snort of disgust. Gave me a headache."

"And bees." I dreaded the thought of catching them and trying to hold them properly while they bestowed their healing stings upon the old woman, but I would do it if it would give her ease. And gain her goodwill.

She kept hacking at the soil with her ancient hoe.

"Work ... will ... ease ... the ... pain...77"Why dunna ye let me do the hoeing, and ye con walk around in the sunshine?"

She paused a moment, thinking. Handing me the hoe, she set off. She kept such a distance between us that I couldn't ask her anything about the sin eater. I worked alone until Lilybet came to keep me company.

"Do ye think she knows anything about the sin eater, Lilybet? I t's said she tells stories that ain't always true."

Lilybet nodded, sitting on a patch of green and watching me work. "Oh, yes, she knows. She's the oldest lady in the cove. She's lived a long time. I f anyone knows anything about the sin eater, it will be Miz Elda."

"She'll have seen him at other gatherings, I reckon.