Author's Note: I'm sorry for the delay with this one. School is making me crazy and busy, so I haven't had time for fun stuff like writing. Anyway, here is the next installment. Hopefully I will be able to catch up and post chapter sixteen by Sunday or Monday. Enjoy!

Chapter Fifteen: East

Winnie left the Ferguson's home the very next morning, despite protests from Rebecca and Tom, who insisted that she stay until her head was fully healed. However, Winnie was ready to hit the road because she knew that the sooner she did that, the sooner she would find the Tucks, and the sooner she found them, the sooner she could see Jesse and work out all of the mixed-up feelings that she had concerning their relationship.

Rebecca hugged her when she left. "Are you sure you don't want to wait another day? Tom could take you wherever you needed to go in the wagon if you waited until he came home. He offered last night, remember?"

"No, I can't stay any longer, even if I wanted to. I have to find my family. But you'll never know how much I appreciate the generosity that you have shown me during the time I've stayed at you house. Thank you so much, Rebecca." Winnie's eyes began to fill with tears and she struggled to brush them away.

Rebecca gave her a weary smile. "Don't you cry, Winnie. You'll make me start, too. Now you just sit tight for a minute and I'm going to go fetch something for you." She walked quickly into the kitchen while Winnie waited for her and returned a moment later with a flour sack.

"What is this?" Winnie peered into the bag, then closed it and looked at Rebecca. "I can't take all of this. It's too much."

"Well, of course you can take it! I only wish it were more. I know that you don't have any money left since those horrible people took it from you, so you'll have to eat something." Winnie opened her mouth to speak, but Rebecca shushed her. "Now, I don't want to hear another word. You just take this as a gift and don't say anything more. Do you want anymore oatmeal?"

Winnie laughed. "No, thank you. I'm full as it is."

"Are you sure? There's still some in the pot back there."

"No, I'm fine. I promise. Thank you."

Rebecca smiled, but it was sad this time. "You take care of yourself, you hear?"

"Yes, I hear. Good bye, Rebecca."

"Good bye, Winnie Foster. Good luck to you."

Winnie took the road heading east out of town, which happened to be named Fredericksburg, not Windy Hollow as she had originally thought. The name Windy Hollow had been made up by Carter, as had the story about his knowing the Tucks. Oddly enough, it was Virginia that had given her the first real clue in her journey. They had been enjoying Rebecca's strudels the day before when the conversation rolled back around to why she was traveling.

"I am trying to find my family," she had said, taking another bite of the warm, fruit-filled pastry. "I think they may have traveled through here sometime ago."

"What is their name, dear? Is it Foster?"

"No, Tuck. They are my mother's cousins."

Virginia's brow wrinkled in concentration. "Tuck? It sounds familiar, but at my age, you just never know."

Winnie sat forward eagerly. "Oh, do you know them? Please try to remember."

The older woman nodded her head. "Yes, I believe I do. They were an older couple, though they were younger than me. Very nice people."

"Mae and Angus! Is that who they were? Mae and Angus Tuck!" Winnie was so excited that she could hardly keep from shouting.

"Yes. Yes, that's it. Mae and Angus Tuck. Why, they lived here a few years ago, remember, Rebecca? It was right before you and Tom got engaged. A sweet couple that lived down the road from me. Mae baked apple pie all the time and would always give me one because she knew apples were my favorite. It was such a shame when they moved. They were only here for about two months." Virginia shook her head. "They talked about going out east to live near their sons."

Jesse and Miles! "Oh, did they really? East?" Winnie was so excited that she was trembling with joy. "Thank you so much, Virginia! I'm so glad that you remembered." She leapt forward from the sofa and threw her arms around the older woman.

Virginia scoffed, but Winnie could tell that she was secretly flattered by the attention. "All right. That's enough," she said. "Really, attacking me like that. You would have thought I had given you a bag of diamonds from the way you're going on." Then she smiled. "But I am glad that I could help."

Winnie was thinking the very same thing as she neared the outskirts of Fredericksburg carrying her satchel, where she kept Rebecca's flour sack. Virginia's memory of the Tucks was the first real clue she had in finding them in her entire journey. In her merriment, she found that she was practically skipping down the dirt path that led her out of town.

To the east.