"No, everyone's been wonderful. But I've been here two weeks and I still don't know who I am."
"I know, dear, but it will come back to you. You have to give it time."
"I guess so." Samantha looked down at her lap, where the book rested in her apron. "How did you come up with my name? I mean, how did you know I was a Samantha and not a Gertrude?"
"Oh, I don't know, dear. You looked like a Samantha to me. I can call you Gertrude if you want, although I think Samantha is a far prettier name."
"I do too. I thought maybe you had a reason for my name."
Someone knocked timidly on the door. Miss Brigham got up to answer it. "Annie, aren't you supposed to be helping Phyllis?" Miss Brigham asked a sandy-haired toddler.
"She says we're almost out of towels and Helena hasn't brought over the laundry yet. She's not in her cottage either."
"Did you check by the stream, dear? She may still be washing the laundry." Annie shook her head. "Very well, Samantha and I will find her. I will check by the stream. Samantha, go out to the meadow and see if perhaps she is drying the laundry out there. Annie, tell Phyllis to use spare aprons or bedding if she must. On you go, dear."
Annie scampered away to relay the message while Miss Brigham and Samantha hurried out of town. "That girl is becoming most unreliable," Miss Brigham said. "Why just the other day I had to send Prudence to assist her with the laundry or we would have gone naked the next day."
"Maybe she's ill."
"Perhaps. I fear I will have to speak to the reverend about her. We cannot allow this to go on." They split up at the fork in the road, Samantha hurrying towards the meadow. As she did, she remembered the night she woke up from her dream and saw Helena sneaking back into bed from the dining room. What has she been up to? Samantha wondered.
A bush rattled nearby and Samantha froze, preparing for one of Pryde's dogs to lunge at her. Instead, she heard Helena's voice say, "I should get back to the stream before Miss Brigham finds out I'm gone."
"Just a couple more minutes," said a voice Samantha recognized as John's.
"I can't. I have to go. I mean it."
"Come on, one more time. Please."
Helena laughed and said, "You can't get enough, can you?"
"You're addictive," John said.
Throughout the exchange, Samantha crept nearer to the bushes. When she got close enough to peer through the leaves, she had to put a hand to her mouth to keep from crying out. Lying on a rock were Helena and John's clothes.