"Little girl? Are you awake?" a voice whispered. Molly felt a hand on her forehead. She opened her eyes to find an old woman leaning over her. The old woman had brown skin creased with wrinkles, frizzy gray hair streaked with white, and gray eyes rimmed with dark circles. She wore a tattered gray sweater and a silver chain around her neck. "Can you hear me?"
Molly opened her mouth, but couldn't get any words out. Her throat felt dry as paper and her tongue heavy as clay. A silver flask appeared in front of Molly's lips, dribbling water down her throat. "Does that feel better now?" the old woman asked. Molly nodded. The old woman helped her to sit up.
She wasn't anywhere in Eternity. The walls around her were made of mud, not wood or stone like the buildings in town or Becky's cottage. Could this be the castle where Mama and Papa lived? The room seemed awfully small for a castle. And who was this old woman? She must be a servant.
Molly cleared her throat and asked in a hoarse croak, "Where are my parents?"
"I'm not sure. You're the only one I found out there."
"You found me? No, I remember there was a horse-"
"I didn't see any horses. I was walking through the forest and found you lying in the snow half-dead. So I brought you here," the old woman said.
"Where is here? Are we in Dublin?"
"Dublin? We're on the island of Eternity. This house used to belong to my grandfather."
"Your grandfather?"
"Jonas Pryde. He lived here some time ago." The lines along the old woman's lips and forehead deepened when she smiled, exposing a mouth full of yellow, crooked teeth. "My name is Veronica. What's yours?"
"Molly Brigham."
"That's a pretty name. You look like a Molly with that pretty red hair and those freckles." Molly blushed at this. She wondered how many Molly's the old woman had seen before. "How did you get here, Molly?"
"I've lived here since I was a baby."
"With your parents?"
"No, with Becky."
"Was Becky with you out in the snow?"
"No. I ran away from her because she's mean," Molly said. She crossed her arms over her chest. "I hate everyone there. They're all stupid and I don't want to go back."
"Where's that, Molly?"
"In town, where everyone lives." Molly raised an eyebrow as a thought struck her. "I don't remember seeing you before."
"That's because I only got here a couple days ago. I came over on a boat across the water. From a town called Portland."
"Is Portland very far away?"