Miss Brigham stood and began to go around the room. "Let me see, fifteen, sixteen, twenty. There's so many more here than I thought. I don't know how I'm going to manage. But how wonderful the reverend thinks I can handle this on my own. I'm going to make him so proud of me. Then he's sure to fall in love with me and we can get married. It will be so grand."
Samantha listened to all this with another knot tightening in her stomach. The reverend had somehow turned wise, noble Miss Brigham into a bubbly, scatter-brained teenager. He had killed her not in body, but in spirit. It was Samantha's fault for snooping around in the cellar.
She came around the corner, surprising Miss Brigham. "Oh my, you put such a fright into me. Who are you?"
"I'm Samantha. Samantha Young. Don't you remember?"
"My dear, how could I remember you? I only just got here. Unless we met somewhere before this, but I think I would remember someone with skin like yours and such lovely dark hair. It's so much nicer than this awful red hair, don't you think?"
"Miss Brigham, please, you have to remember. You were my teacher. You gave me my name from one of your books. Don't you remember anything?"
"I'm terribly sorry, but you must be confusing me with someone else. What a pleasing thought that someone out there might look enough like me to be confused with me. I should like to meet her sometime. Perhaps you can introduce me."
Samantha grabbed Miss Brigham by her narrow shoulders and shook her. "This isn't you. You're a grown woman. You saved my life! Can't you remember that?"
"Listen, Samantha Young, I have had quite enough of this. I don't know why you're even here. Reverend Crane told me all the children here would be no older than three. You're much too big to be three unless you're some kind of giant. You aren't a giant, are you?"
"No, of course not. I'm not sure how old I am."
"You should feel lucky you aren't thirteen like me. Thirteen is such a frightful age. I have these awful spots all over my face. I should rather be twelve again, but I suppose there's nothing I can do about that. At any rate I shall have to talk with the reverend about you for I specifically remember him saying-"
Samantha took the baby from Miss Brigham with one hand and used the other to punch the teenager on one pimpled cheek. Miss Brigham tottered for a moment and then collapsed to the floor. "What did you do that for?" Prudence asked from the doorway.