Pryde left Miss Brigham and the children at the church door, shoving the children inside. Pryde left for the reverend's house, leaving one dog to stand guard. The remaining dog sat on the steps, its muscular black frame poised to strike down anyone foolish enough to open the door.

Her hands still bound and her mouth gagged, Samantha could do nothing but collapse in the front row to await her punishment. She didn't think she did anything wrong this time, but she supposed watching two naked people kiss was against The Way. Helena would certainly tattle on her about the books from Miss Brigham's cellar to save her own skin. She imagined the reverend's outrage when he found out about that. Pryde would feed her to the dog outside.

The door opened and Samantha jumped, but it was not Reverend Crane. Miss Brigham untied Samantha's hands and took the gag from her mouth. "Samantha, what happened? Did that monster hurt you?"

Samantha worked saliva back into her mouth and then spat out the awful taste of the rag before she said, "I was on my way to the meadow like you said. I heard a noise and then I saw them kissing." She pointed to Helena and John lying by the altar, close enough together to kiss again.

"Kissing? This is most serious indeed. You didn't kiss anyone did you, dear?" Miss Brigham asked her.

"No, I saw them and then he grabbed me."

Miss Brigham took the gag from Helena and John's mouths. "Is this true?" she asked.

"Yes, Miss Brigham," Helena said. "We wanted to know what it was like. That's all."

"You children know better. I'm very disappointed in both of you. This will not do at all. The three of you stay here while I talk to the reverend. Perhaps I can persuade him to be lenient. Then we will have a long discussion about this." Miss Brigham gave them a hard look before she hurried out the door.

"What do we do?" Helena said. "He's not going to be lenient no matter what Miss Brigham says. We're doomed."

Samantha couldn't disagree with Helena's assessment. "Maybe she'll get him to exile us instead of executing us," Samantha said.

"This is your fault," Helena said. "You and those books of yours. If you hadn't started reading them to us none of this would have happened."

"My fault? I didn't tell you to go around kissing boys."

"What did you expect? It sounded wonderful in the books." Helena started to sob. "And now it's going to get us killed!"

"What books?" John asked.

Samantha patted her apron pocket and took out Forever Young. "I found these in Miss Brigham's cellar," she said. "But we can't say anything about it or else everyone is going to get in trouble. Right, Helena?"




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