He had a strange effect on her Get the facts straight and the names right, her foreign correspondent father had advised Samantha when she began reporting. And Sam did. Somehow, though, every story featuring James Clarke, the engineer hired to fix the New England town's old bridge, came out making James look like a fool. It probably had something to do with the personal misconceptions Sam and James had of each other. It probably had something to do with love. Though Sam could never explain it, the air around them positively crackled!