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  Darci swallowed her bite of pie. After the time in the tunnels she’d found out that nearly all the people in her hometown of Putnam, Kentucky, had known about her abilities. They hadn’t known everything, but they’d known much more than Darci thought they did. It was probably the same in this small town. So how did she ask the question that got them to tell what they knew?

  “Is there someone in town who’s versed in the occult arts?” Darci asked.

  That question stopped the women in place. Cook recovered first. “You don’t want to get involved with someone like that. Unless you must,” she added as she looked at Darci’s midsection.

  It took Darci a moment to realize what the cook meant. Unless you’re going to have a baby. Obviously, both women thought Darci was asking for an abortionist.

  Darci batted her eyes to look as innocent as possible. “Need?” she said, her voice rising. “Yes, I need someone to make him love me as I love him.”

  The two women blinked at her. This time Emmy understood. “Ah, you want a love potion.”

  “Yes,” Darci said, pretending to hold back tears.

  The cook squared her shoulders. “Who is this young man?” she demanded.

  Darci put her hands over her face. “You don’t know?” she said, sounding hurt. “If you don’t know, then he certainly doesn’t know that I’ve been in love with him since we were in the first grade. If he doesn’t love me back I’ll just plain die.”

  She peeked through her fingers to see how this was being taken. Cook was obviously eaten up with trying to figure out who Darci was in love with. She patted Darci’s shoulder. “We’ll send Tom to Tula’s to get what you need.”

  “I’ll have to go with him,” Darci said as she grabbed the rest of her pie and ran toward the back door.

  “I don’t think—” Cook began.

  “A lady can’t—” Emmy began.

  But Darci was out the door before either of them could finish her sentence.

  Behind the house was a small stable where a tall, thin, gray-haired man was combing a horse’s mane. Darci’s impulse was to introduce herself, but she didn’t. She tried to think how the daughter of a household in 1843 would treat a stableman. Better to just brazen it out, she thought.

  “Could you please take me to see Tula?” she said to the man’s back.

  He took his time in turning around to look at her. He had piercing eyes that were almost black and they made Darci take a step backward. How she wished she could see his aura! Was this man hiding something? From his look she could believe he was an absolute devil inside.

  “You don’t wanta see Tula and you don’t want no love potion. There ain’t no man you’re pinin’ over.”

  Darci swallowed. Obviously, he was an eavesdropper, and he also seemed to be someone who watched what was going on around him. She might be able to get around the household help with an easy lie, but this man was going to take big lies—which happened to be something she was rather good at.

  Stepping closer to him, she lowered her voice. “I need someone with second sight, someone who can tell fortunes. For real, not fake.” She lowered her voice even more. “Someone sent Lavender a note saying she was going to kill Lavey on her wedding day.”

  Tom drew in his breath.

  “Lavender and my brother laughed the note off but I didn’t. The wedding is tomorrow and I need to find out fast who hates Lavey enough to want to kill her. Do you know of anyone who can help me?”

  “Simone,” Tom whispered. “But girls like you don’t go to her.”

  “This girl does,” Darci said and couldn’t help the rush of joy that ran through her. Maybe this Simone was why she’d been sent back in time. If she’d been sent, that is. If it hadn’t been an accident.

  “Horseback or the buggy?” Tom asked.

  “Buggy,” Darci answered quickly, looking fearfully at the big horse. It rolled its eyes at her and she gave it a weak smile. “Should I pay her?”

  “Not in gold, but she’ll take all the food you can carry.”

  While Tom hitched up the buggy, Darci went into the kitchen and came out bearing a huge basket full of food. Behind her Emmy and Cook carried more baskets. It didn’t take a psychic to see that they believed this was “too much.”

  Once the buggy was loaded, Darci prepared to hop onto the top seat, but Tom gave her a look to remind her of her place. Meekly, she got into the back with the food.

  It took nearly an hour to drive to Simone’s tiny cottage. They left the prosperous town of Camwell and drove through rural areas with picture-perfect farms with pastures surrounded by fieldstone walls.

  Finally, they came to a patch of land that hadn’t been cultivated. It grew wild, with giant trees and tangled, thorny blackberry vines.

  “Through there,” Tom said.

  Darci looked at him in disbelief. The place looked like what had surrounded Sleeping Beauty’s castle. How could she get through that?

  “There’s a path and you can find it if you need to,” Tom said as he got down.

  Darci looked skyward for a moment. May God strike her dead if she ever grew to be so otherworldly that she made people have to search through thorn bushes to find the front door of her house.

  She put her hand on a basket, preparing to hand it to Tom.

  “Leave it. I know where to leave her food.”

  If Darci’d had her power she would have known what his cryptic phrase meant. It wouldn’t surprise her to find out that Simone and Tom were related.

  Tom helped Darci out of the buggy and she took several moments to arrange her huge skirt and her half a dozen slips. “Where’s Amelia Bloomer when you need her?” she muttered as she walked toward the blackberry vines and the deep shade. She let out the breath she’d been holding when she realized she’d half expected them to magically part.

  The vines didn’t part, but on the edge, near a stone wall, she saw an opening and entered. The path had been recently cleared and she wondered who maintained it. Tom?

  As Darci walked through the dark forest, she realized she was nervous. So this is how other people feel when they meet me, she thought. She’d always been on the other end and had always desperately wanted people to see her as normal, as anything but a freak.

  But only Adam, her husband, had, she thought. Only Adam had seen the person beneath her ability to see things and change them.

  At the end of the path was a cute little stone house that Darci guessed had been there since before George Washington was president. It might have been there in some form when the Mayflower landed.

  Now what do I do? she wondered. And what was this woman going to see about her? Darci had many secrets and it had never been difficult to keep them to herself, but now…

  Before Darci could knock, the door opened and she saw a thin little woman with gray, grizzled hair and eyes very much like Tom’s. They are related, Darci thought, smiling that she’d guessed that earlier. The woman had a gaudy red shawl around her shoulders and giant gold hoops in her ears. She looked like a caricature of a psychic.

  “I see clouds around you,” the woman said in a booming voice that made Darci step back. “Clouds and spirits. The spirits hover over you, watch you, and they take what they need from you. You must be cautious or the spirits will come for you when you least expect it.”

  “I just wish they’d come when I call them,” Darci said under her breath, disappointment in her voice. The woman was a fake, a showman, all psychic mumbo jumbo. Darci well knew that if you mentioned “spirits” people got frightened.

  She couldn’t repress a yawn as she stepped away from the woman. “Sorry to have bothered you but Tom has some food. He’s leaving it…Actually, I’m not sure where he’s leaving the food, but I assume you’ll be able to find it. Thanks.” As she said the last she turned and quickly started down the path. Now what was she to do?

  “Wait!” the woman called after her, but Darci just waved her hand and kept walking. “You’re a ghost,” the woman said. “Y