Cool story. I really liked "happy as a clam being female", giant clams switch genders from male to female when they turn eight.

Haha, amusing chapter. I like the way you described Samantha. Her character adds flavor to the story like this and it'll be interesting to see how her and Eliot get along. I also liked the ending of this chapter. It leaves the reader with an air or mystery and foreshadowing of what's to come. It's also extremely well written. As I've said before.

I love the writing style you have going with this. It's just PERFECT for this piece. It gives it that sort of old time fantasy feel to it. Also, the opening was so intriguing that I just wanted to read more.

"The air was unseasonably chilled. It smelled of apples, and rotting leaves, and pumpkins from the autumn garden; but there was an edge to it, a bitter edge, the hard scent of cold."

That sentence? Perfect.

Overall, I really liked this chapter but I there were a few unnecessary words here and there.

For example:

"Darla’s curtains – off-white linen – billowed..."

I think you should have omitted the off white linen part. The reader doesn't really need to know that.

Other than that, great job.