Sarah lowed at her in response. Samantha nodded to the cow and then left the barn. She left the pitchfork behind but took the lantern with her so she'd be able to see her way to the beach. Then she could be on her way home.
***
Samantha's departure had left the girls in a panic. Even Rebecca, who was ordinarily so unflappable, sobbed uncontrollably into her pillow. Prudence sat on her bed, looking down at her feet. This wasn't how she had wanted things to go.
In her shop, Prudence had worked on a new dress and thought about what Samantha had said. It was more tempting than Samantha had let on to leave Eternity and go to the mainland. If they made it there, maybe the kids she met on the mainland would be nicer. They might not call her names or pinch her stomach. Maybe on the mainland Prudence would be normal and skinny girls like Samantha would be the ones who were called names.
Yet when she thought about it, she couldn't do it. Eternity was her home. It was the only home she'd ever known. From what she and Samantha had found out, Prudence had lived on the island for over three hundred years. After all that time, how could just pick up and leave?
She didn't want to go, but she couldn't let Samantha go either, not the way they had left things between them. Samantha might never come back; she would spend the rest of her life thinking Prudence hated her. Despite the scene in the dining room, Prudence didn't hate Samantha. Samantha was her only real friend, the only one who stood up for Prudence when the others teased her or comforted Prudence when she felt sad. She couldn't let Samantha leave thinking Prudence didn't like her.
She had decided to apologize to Samantha when she got back to the dormitory. Then she opened the door and saw Samantha telling a story to the other girls. Prudence decided to go to her bed and wait until the morning, when she could talk to Samantha in private.
From there everything had gone wrong. Samantha had said such terrible things about her. And then she had said horrible things about the rest of the girls. She had even attacked poor Rebecca for trying to intervene.
As she looked around the room at the other girls crying, Prudence forced herself to stand up. She couldn't let Samantha leave like that. It would devastate the other girls and demoralize everyone on the island. In particular it would demoralize Prudence to leave things as they were. For that reason she had to go and bring Samantha back.