Prudence Iscariot

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?"

"They shouldn't get in trouble. You should be the only one punished. You're the one who started reading them. The rest of us just listened."