Merritt finds the records he needs at the city courthouse but is obliged to copy them by hand. Frustrated, Merritt looks out the window and hails a man who seems down on his luck, offering to pay him to help. The man says that his name is Baptiste and that he is French. When Merritt learns that Baptiste was a chef and is looking for work, he hires him.

Hulda is surprised to meet Baptiste when she returns and wonders where they will lodge him, until Beth reveals that the house created an extra room. When Merritt inquires as to how she is feeling, Hulda has a brief flashback to the withered bodies she discovered in Silas’s house. In her room, as she prepares for bed, Hulda finds herself thinking fondly on Merritt’s concern but then scolds herself for pining. She had developed a crush on Stanley Lidgett, the steward, when she was working for Silas. Stanley called her names when Silas was arrested, and Hulda decided after that that she would stop thinking about romance. She finds a bag of lemon drops on her pillow and realizes that Merritt must have left them.