mrjuggins 
ezOP Posts: 838 (12/9/02 11:29 am) 
The NEW DS RR Story (12-09-02) 

The Secret

It was a very cold night in CollinWood, and Quentin decided to stay up for
awhile.  Pondering about the mystery of what was beyond that locked door of the
paneled wall.

Suddenly, there was a loud noise in the Dwg Room lights flickered, windows flew
open!!  A chill came over Quentin as he walked towards the window a voice cried
out "You know my secret!!!!  And you must be destroyed at once!!  

"NO!!!!!!!!!!" Quentin yelled as Anne, Tim and others came to his rescue.  The
ghost was gone now and said I WILL BE BACK!!  HA!!!!!!!!!!  HA!!

Written by Anne Andie Unregistered User (12/9/02 2:27 pm) A soup-con of
suspicion 

"Darling, what's wrong," Anne cried.  "You're white as a ghost!" She ran over
to Quentin and threw her arms around him as if to shelter him from a terrible
storm.

"It's....it's alright now," he panted, trying to catch his breath but afraid to
reveal what he'd heard.

"I wonder..." Anne thought, horrified that anything could have scared Quentin
that much.  And what might happen to her if the same thing.....but no, he'd
protect her.  She was sure of that.

"Darling, get me a little brandy," Quentin asked, his pale face shining in the
firelight.

"Of course," Anne replied, scanning the sideboard for clean glasses and the
decanter.  SHe opened the bottle.

"pfft-Roger must have gotten this stuff at K-Mart!  Yuk, it smells
slightly.....used!" She poured Quentin a drink, but warned him the stuff didn't
seem very good.

"Thanks.  Yes, Roger does err on the side of cheapness at times." Anne
comforted her love as best she could while the brandy calmed his shaken nerves.

"At least Carolyn has better judgment when it comes to how to stock the liquor
cabinet."

As if on cue, the lovely blond floated down the staircase and into the drawing
room.

"Cousin Quentin!  I thought I heard your voice.  Anne, what brings you here,"
Carolyn asked melodically.

Anne wasn't terribly fond of Quentin's rather overbearing and sometimes very
aloof cousin.  Carolyn brushed back her blond tresses and sidled up to the warm
hearth.

"I was just paying a call," Anne stated, not looking at the blond woman.  "I'm
glad I stayed though, as Quentin seems aggitated over something..."

Just then a black and icy wind blew open the window at the far side of the
room.  Candles flickered and both women froze, startled and shivering in the
sudden breach.

"Anne, get away from the door," Quentin yelled just as the heavy oaken mass
threatened to slam into her shoulder as it closed and divided them from the
rest of the house.  Anne jumped back, and tried to avoid knocking into Carolyn,
who suddenly screamed as if she, too, saw something come into the room.

Terrified, Anne flew to Quentin's side, just as the blast of air slammed the
window shut again.  Carolyn managed to open the doors and fled the room, but
not before the sound of persistent knocking reached their ears.

An icy calm covered the room again except for a heavy pounding that came from
outside.

"Quentin, I'm frightened!" Anne held onto his strong arm.

"Visitors?  Today?  I'm not expecting anyone.  Carolyn, better call Mrs. 
Johnson.  It must be the UPS man, delivering the package of rare books I
ordered last Thursday." The need to explain all the noise forced Quentin to
take control and shield Anne from anymore danger.  Certainly, it was a
tradesman or maybe the mailman, nothing more.

"Right here," the housekeeper said, muttering about unannounced callers and the
work they often involved.  She trundled to the door, wiping her damps hands on
the apron she always wore.  "I'm coming," she called crossly as the knocking
continued.

Mrs.  Johnson smoothed back her hair and adjusted her smock.  SHe opened the
door and a chilling blast of air, not unlike the one that had invaded the
drawing room, nearly blinded her.

"I believe I am at the Collins' home?" A cultured voice and the sharp steps of
someone in riding boots annouced the arrival of their guest, who stepped
through the porticos of the forboding house.

Anne left the security of Quentin's side and ventured out into the vestibule.

A dark haird man glanced from Carolyn to Mrs.  Johnson, waiting for a reply.

"Yes, you are.  This is the Collins residence.  May I help you," Carolyn
fluted.

"I'm looking for my cousin, a Mr.  Quentin Collins.  Does he reside here?"

"Definitely." Quentin answered the question himself.

"Then I was correct in my assumptions." The dark man took off his cloak and
handed his cane to Mrs.  Johnson.  She sniffed, but carried his outer garments
to a closet just by the kitchen door.

Anne stared at the man.  He wasn't terribly tall but his features were so
distinct she could have picked him out of any mug line in the parish.  After
only glancing, mostly out of courtesy, at the other women, he focused his
attentions on Anne.

"And you, madam, are..."

"Quentin's fiance," Anne finished for him.  Her eyes ran over his shadowed face
and unnaturally black hair.  A slight smile curled his lips as she tried to
hide her curiosity.

"What can I do for you?  As I mentioned, I am Quentin Collins but I don't
recall expecting any relatives this week.  Perhaps you meant to see Roger
Collins?  Or my aunt Elizabeth...about...something?  For once, the eridite
Quentin seemed stumped by the visitor's steady gaze.

"No, I must speak only with you.  This concerns your family...and....future."

Anne spoke up, finally resisting falling into a trance, watching the dark
visage.

"And who might you be?" Boldly, she extended her hand, not as a welcome but to
fend off any disrespect he might have in store for her, or Quentin.

The dark man took her hand and gently kissed her fingers.

"I am....Barnabas Collins." mrjuggins ezOP Posts: 845 (12/14/02 12:57 am) THE
TOWER ROOM 

As the darkness around Collinwood began to start, Maggie and Carolyn decided
they wanted to know more about The Tower Room.  The two girls proceeded to walk
up the creekey stairs, suddenly, there was a feeling that came over them like
someone had warned them not to enter into the room.  

Help yelled Carolyn as Maggie came running over!!!  LOOK!!!  Laura Collins had
been murdered and was left to rot here!!!

But just then a figure appeared and said "if you take Laura Collins Both of you
girls Will die!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  HA!!!" 

Written By Anne Andie Unregistered User (12/17/02 1:52 pm) The dark past and
future fears 

While Barnabas was keeping Quentin guessing about his future, Carolyn had
escaped the notice of her cousins and suggested to Maggie that they try to find
out what had frightened Quentin and Anne.

It was Maggie's idea to explore the house and Maggie who found the secret
passageway that led to the tower room, abandoned in the days of assignations
and lover's trysts.

"Carolyn," the redheaded woman said to her rather scared partner, "let's look
inside.  you know, I've heard that someone, maybe your mother, hid a stash of
jewels someplace and then couldn't find them.  I've heard rumors that
perhaps....a cousin...or a lover..."

"Ridiculous" Carolyn snorted.  "My mother never had a lover!  You're just
making that up." She swung her blond hair about, trying not to sound curious. 
Her mother...with a lover?  Maybe Roger, but not her solid and stern mother who
ruled the family with an iron hand sheathed in soft leather gloves.

Then, the ghost appeared.  Both woman nearly fainted but Maggie, the stronger
and less easily routed of the two, attempted to shove her way into the room and
then saw the dead body!

"Oh my God, Carolyn...look!  Someone's been murdered!  Help!" Maggie and
Carolyn fled down the steep inner staircase and careened into Mrs.  Johnson
coming from the drawing room, where Quentin and Barnabas were arguing.

At the noise made by the terrified women, Anne ran out and tried to calm Maggie
and Carolyun.

"We've found..." they panted, gasping and choking with emotion,
"someone...something killed....up there!" Carolyn pointed her shaking hands.

Quentin strode out, took one look at Anne and the hysterical Carolyn, and tried
to intervene.

But Barnabas, Anne noticed as Maggie tried to explain their terror, kept a hard
eye on her.

"Cousin Collins," the solemn man stated, "perhaps these ladies might be better
served by a strong drink and some quiet rest.  It seems somethning....or
someone...has frightened them out of their wits."

MAggie noticed the handsome stranger but was still too startled to speak
coherently.

Quentin called to Mrs.  Johnson for cold towels and built up the fire until the
room seemed safer for the hot coals and warm air.

"What on earth were you doing in the tower?  You know Mrs.  Stoddard forbade
anyone to go into that dank place...for any reason.  Carolyn, I expected you'd
be nothing but trouble for me, but now I see you've dragged Ms.  Evans into
your problems."

Maggie tried to defend the lady but Anne privately was glad Carolyn was on the
chopping block.  Anne didn't like her flirtatious mannerisms or her unkind
looks at anyone not associated with money or title.  Also, a new feeling arose
in her throat.  She didn't want Carolyn flirting with the very serious Mr. 
Collins.

"Carolyn," Anne said more kindly, "maybe you just thought you saw something. 
After Quentin's....vision....well, we all have sympathetic feelings that get
triggered.  Maybe it was just a shadow-not a real body."

"Far be it from me to suggest any other reason, but perhaps the bad air made
you faint before you knew you did," Mr.  Collins interjected.

Anne stared at him.  How did he know what the tower smelled like and why, if
the body wasn't "real," would the air be foul?

"Mrs.  Johnson, take carolyn upstairs to lie down.  Maggie, maybe you'd better
go back home.  I'll call a cab for you-you shouldn't be driving alone, not
while the weather is changeable.  Anne, help Carolyn to her room, be a dear
please?"

Anne wouldn't hesitate to jump off a bridge when Quentin looked at her like
that, with his pleading eyes and smile.

"Okay, but what if...."

Quentin smiled and all the clouds in her head vanished.  No one could hurt her
while he was in the house.

"I'm just being silly," Anne said and smiled back.  "Ill be down once Carolyn
is feeling better."

"I'd like to be of service, if I may." Barnabas touched Anne's shoulder.  "If
Carolyn is still...poorly, may I speak to her?  I, too, have had this
experience...seeing...ghosts."

Anne shuddered.  Something about the dark, quiet man unnerved her.

"Go on, we'll be just in the other room." Carolyn, blinded by tears and unsure
on her feet, shuffled up the stairs, still sipping on the brandy brought to her
by Mrs.  Johnson.

Maggie lingered at the door, waiting for Quentin to call her a cab.  SHe wanted
the security of her cottage, the warmth of the small living room and the
knowledge that she could double bolt the door, bank the fire and feel safe and
secure.

Barnabas watched Anne mount the stairs and go up.  

"Something in his eyes!" Anne thought, feeling dismembered by his harsh gaze. 
"I know he knows something.  And Quentin....why the the ghost come to him?  And
why did Mr.  Collins show up at the same time?"

Anne glanced back.  Quenting was talking on the phone.  Maggie was peeping out
the door, watching the snow fall.  Suddenly, it was too cold in the hallway.

Barnabas stared back at Anne.  She blinked.  But not before she thought she saw
white glare from the side of his mouth.  His lips suddenly covered it up, but
she was sure she saw the tip of a fang.

Andie Unregistered User (1/2/03 12:53 pm) A hippy hoppy gnu year (??) 

Snow covered the ground outside the Old House and an early darkness,
irridescent with the first silver flakes of winter fell over Collinwood.  For
once, there wasn't a full moon, but the sliver of moonlight that drifted from
the windows of the second floor bathed Anne's shiny hair and lovely batiste
lace nighgown like a vision of sugar plums.

"Quentin, darling!  Come look!" Anne had spotted a doe and her young fawn
lingering under a large pine tree on the edge of the woods.  "Isn't she
wonderful," Anne breathed as her love walked in and peered out the window at
the duo.

"Yes, and it's going to be an early winter.  I heard on the local radio station
we should be in for a big snowfall overnight.  Better have Mrs.  Johnson get
out some extra blankets." Quentin touched her hair and smiled at her.  "And
don't you suppose you should wear something....well, at least something a
little warmer?"

Anne giggled and danced around him.  

"It wouldn't do for my love to catch a cold.  Not when I've asked Harry to
hitch up the sleigh tomorrow!"

"Quentin!  An old fashioned sleigh ride?  How perfect!" Anne kissed him
passionately.

"Now, deary, I have to attend to our guest downstairs."

"You mean," asked Anne, "he's still here??"

"Yes.  Rather bothersome all around but....well, I can't just turn him out like
an old dog in the snow."

Suddenly, the snow took on a sinister hue of blue and purple and the little
moon faded behind a black shadow of the pines along the yard.

"Well, dear, don't be too long.  I'd love to hear you read to me...something
Dickens.  Remember, you promised you'd read Oliver Twist to me sometime.  Now
with this cold night seems as good a time as any."

At the mention of that particular book, Quentin's brow crinkled.  Anne noticed
a sad light flicker in his eyes.  But when she smiled up at him, it vanished.

"Of course, dear, anything to wile away these long hours and of course, wile
away the time with you." Quentin kissed her neck and tweaked her cheek.  "Be
back in what is quaintly known as a 'jiffy.'" He shut the door to the room.

Anne sighed.  How could anyone doubt him especially when he'd professed his
undying love to her and went to such trouble to entertain her?

Quentin descended the stairs but not before he noticed Carolyn going into the
small den just off the formal dining room.  It was a tiny room with a small
grate for a fire and just enough room for a desk, several uncomfortable chairs
and heavy bookcases full of legal books and such.

"I thought this might be a more proper place than trying to discuss family
matters in the rather public confines of the drawing room," the visitor spoke.

"One man's prision is another's paradise," Quentin remarked as he took the
decanter of brandy that Carolyn held.  "I think that's fine.  If you'll excuse
us, Carolyn dear, we have some..."

"Oh, that's perfectly fine," Carolyn huffed, but not without a smile at the
elder Collins.  "I'll go out now." She stared at Collins and unabashed
curiousity.  "But if you need anything, I'm just in the other room." She
swirled her full skirt as she walked out the door.

"Carolyn means well, but she's young and impressionable." Quentin offered his
guest the brandy.

"Thank you.  However, what I have to say won't take very long.  You're probably
aware of the property north of this estate?"

"Yes," Quentin replied.  "It contains several old tombs and a graveyard, if
that's the property you are referring to."

"Exactly.  My....ancestors distinctly requested that the property never be
built upon.  In some respects, I suppose you might conceed it's sacred
ground....belonging to the Collins family for over five hundred years.  Since
the times of the Great Inquisitions."

Quentin shrugged.  "That was then....  this is now.  I plan to build my wife
and I a home there.  I've checked with the town aldermen and the council.  The
land was deeded to my family just fifty years ago."

"Outrageous!" Collins erupted.  "YOu cannot be serious!  That land goes back
centuries.  To tamper with history would mean.....disaster!"

Quentin laughed openly.  "My family's middle name is disaster!  No, ghost and
graves don't scare me.  But if you insist, I can show you the deed records. 
COme to town with me tomorrow and I'll prove it belongs to me." Quentin did not
like to be thwarted.

Barnabas acted as if he'd heard something, so soft and quiet that only his
intense senses could pick up the sounds.

"I must go.  Forgive me, but I've something to do tonight that I must attend
to.  I'm sorry I've troubled you at such a late hour." He stood up, towering
over the sitting Quentin.

"Well old man, if you insist, but it's snowing out so you'd better let me call
you a cab back to Collinsport."

"No," Barnabas stated but as he walked to the study door, Quentin noticed the
way he held onto his cane as if he found it hard to steady himself.

"Are you ill?  Should I call a doctor?"

"No!" the man barked.  "I'm sorry.  The shock of thinking about that property
desecrated for a mere house..."

"It's no mere house!  Anne and I will live there and tend the garden and the
land!  And that's a large undertaking considering the graves will have to be
moved...."

"No!  You cannot do that!" Barnabas struck his cane on the floor and Carolyn
came running out.

"What's wrong?  Can't do what?"

"Carolyn, it's nothing, Just a dispute about the land Roger's uncle deeded me
last year.  The land that I intend to start a family on, building permits
pending!" Quentin glared at them.

"Oh, that..." Carolyn sighed, disgruntled.  "Believe me, Mr.  Collins, we've
had more arguments about that disgusting cemetary.  It's an eyesore and a
magnet for kids to run through and pillage.  Half the tombs are missing their
original angels.  It's so...depressing!  I'd like to see the whole thing
wasted!"

Barnabas shuddered and muttered something under his breath.

"What?  What did you say to me?  Carolyn snapped at him.

Anne came down the stairs, clothed in a warm fleece robe the color of wine that
set off her pale skin and blazing eyes all the more.

"Quentin.  I expected you back long ago." She smiled at Carolyn and took
Quentin's hand.  "Say goodnight to Mr.  Collins and let's go up.  I'm famished
for sleep, dear."

Carolyn sulked and returned to the study to clean up the glasses.  Barnabas
gazed at Anne.  Suddenly, she felt her heart stop beating.  It was as if he had
some unearthly hold on her.

"Mr.  Collins, please meet me at the Bank of Maine at 9am tomorrow and we will
settle this once and for all.  I have the deed and trust documents.  It's not
the public scandal you think.  I have permission to move the graves to the
North Church and I will have it done." Quentin faced him, steady and secure in
his beliefs.  Anne held to his hand as if something had frightened her other
than Quentins' stubborn insistence.

"As you like." Barnabas bowed to them both and prepared to meet the cold quiet
outside.

But when the door shut on his stiff back, Anne shivered.

"That look again," she thought.  "Like a ravenous wolf!"

Quentin ushered her upstairs, never guessing that his wife to be was in the
thrall of Mr.  Barnabas Collins!  Andie Unregistered User (1/7/03 4:10 pm)
Banking on Hope 

"Quentin, Dear, it's almost 9," Annie called as she dressed herself in a royal
blue velveteen smock and ruffled blouse.  She knew Quentin would love the
feminine touches of ruffles and lace at her throat.  She brushed out her hair
and put on her new diamond earrings, a birthday present from her one and only
love.

"I know it, I know.  Well, I must fly...but I'll be back by noon.  It's cold
out so don't go running about without your coat if you do venture out. 
Although you'll probably want to stay in today.  Nasty storm last night."
Quentin kissed Annie and sailed down the stairs, thinking about his errand at
the Bank and his impending meeting with Barnabas Collins.

Annie didn't confess it was more than the storm that kept her awake.  Three
feet of snow fell overnight but the howling wind was nothing to the howling of
her heart.  All too well she remembered the glace from Mr.  Collins and the
feeling of dread she had when he looked at her.  

"I can't let Quentin know I'm afraid of him.  He might think I'm just trying to
provoke his jealousy...which I'm not," she assured herself.

But the eyes of Barnabas Collins seemed to watch her put on the diamonds.  She
tore herself away from the mirror but in looking around the room, she saw
everything was in order, just as always.

She heard the front door slam and a car start up.  She ran to the window and
waved at her love.

"Come back soon, dear," she prayed.  "For I'm..."

She never finished the sentence.

A light tapping came at the door.  "Come in," she called.

Maggie Evans walked in, carrying two mugs of hot coffee.

"I thought you might like something.  Seems the old heater in the basement
isn't up to this storm.  Mrs.  Johnson called the repairman to see what's wrong
but it's freezing in the library and study.  We've got a fire going now but I'm
still cold."

"Thank you so much!  I wondered why I felt so chilled."

Maggie set her mug on the table next to the bed.  "I see you're wearing
Quentin's earrings.  They are lovely on you." Maggie smiled at Annie.

"Yes, lovely because they came from him," she smiled back.  She sipped the
coffee.  "It's so wonderful to have found somebody who understands me at last. 
I felt...so lonely all those long years."

Maggie grinned.  "I know what you mean." Then the smile faded and she looked
chilled again.

Annie thought for a long time aw Maggie watched her brush out her hair and
finally spoke up.  "Maggie, that mystery in the Tower....did anyone ever find
a....body?"

Maggie shook her head.  "Mrs.  Johnson tried to get Carolyn and Jed the
handyman, to go up there yesterday after Barnabas had gone.  But she refused,
she was so shook up.  Finally, I had Jed go with me.  I wasn't about to get
robbed or worse if someone was playing a joke and trying to scare us out of the
house.  But when we got back into the Tower Room, there was nothing.  No smell,
no body.  Nothing.  Absolutely nothing." A long silence ensued before Maggie
asked her: "Annie, do you believe in ghosts?"

Annie sat down.  Finally she admitted, "Yes, I do.  Quentin hasn't told me a
lot but after his fright....I guess you probably heard about that too..  I
believe there are ghosts in this house.  I've heard stories that someone died
here.  In this very room."

Maggie started.  "That's horrible!  And you're staying in here?"

"Yes," Annie stated.  "Quentin is my life now and no matter who..or what....is
trying to frighten him out of his money, I'm....I'm going to find out the
truth!  Maggie," Annie clutched her friend's hands in hers, "Maggie, there's
something wrong.  Something I can never tell Quentin, about Barnabas Collins, I
mean."

Maggie sat on the bed next to Annie.  "Tell me." It was as if she knew what
that 'something' was.

"Maggie, I think....." Annie stared hard at her friend, "I think...well,
maybe....he's in -- love-- with me!  He kept looking at me funny before he left
the house, as if he'd known me from someplace else.  And that look!  Maggie, I
couldn't get him out of my head last night.  Quentin was reading to me, but all
I could think of was....oh, I'm so sorry!" She began to cry, feeling ashamed of
herself.  "That look....Quentin is the only one whose ever looked at me like
that, but he's kind and good.  Mr.  Collins...he looked at me like....he
wanted..."

Maggie shook her head.  "Quentin would kill him, I mean, figuratively.  No,
Collins just met you so how could he be in love with you?" Maggie patted
Annie's shoulders and handed her a Kleenex.  "We were all so upset, maybe you
thought he recognized you from someplace else.  I'm sure if you asked him
outright..."

"Maybe not love," Annie faltered, unsure of how to put it and not really
listening to Maggie, "but he looked at me like.....he knew me!  Or he didn't
want to admit he knew me!"

Maggie took Annie's hand.  A plan formed in her mind, but it would depend on
total secrecy.

Maggie pulled Annie up and led her to the door, leaving the half empty mugs
behind.  "Don't ever tell anyone, not even Quentin, what we're about to do!"

Maggie lead her away from the normally busy household, past the long gallary
and staircase downstairs, to a door she hadn't noticed on her first night in
the house.  Gently Maggie pushed the door open and looked around to make sure
they weren't seen.  She guided Annie's hand to a bannister and as the door shut
behind them, the two women were in partial darkness.  A short staircase led to
a landing, where an old table without a leg and a broken chair sat.  Maggie
moved the chair away from another door recessed into the panelling.

She pulled out a skeleton key.

"Annie, Elizabeth Stoddard locked this door ten years ago.  Her husband died in
the North Wing.  Only Jed's been inside; she allows no one else into this part
of the house.  Mrs.  Johnson never goes here; she was here when Mr.  Stoddard
died and she told me one day that this part of the house is totally abandoned.

Maggie pushed on the rusted key and the lock sprang open.  "After
seeing...whatever it was...in the Tower Room, I talked Jed into letting me have
this key.  Only he knows I still have it!  Jed says Mrs.  Stoddard won't talk
about Mr.  Stoddard for fear of his ghost.  She won't open this part of the
house because....well, his death wasn't what you'd call 'explained'.  It was a
police case for months."

Maggie pushed again and the heavy door swung open.  "I've never been in here
myself, but Jed told me about it.  I think Mr.  Collins knows something about
the family and isn't willing to let Quentin know.  I think whatever we saw in
the Tower Room has something to do with the North Wing."

They walked through the door and into history.

The dim lights showed all the furniture, still placed exactly the way it had
been on the day of Mr.  Stoddard's death, under wraps and white sheets.  A long
table with candles covered in cobwebs sat at the side of the large room and an
empty black fireplace covered one whole wall opposite the table.  THere were
family portraits and photos all over the walls and some of them were quite
ancient.  One looked suspiciously like Barnabas Colins, but with the poor light
coming through the covered windows, they weren't certain.

"Maggie, what are we looking for?"

Maggie peered around.  "Jed told me once that the whole Collins family was on
these walls.  I wish we could turn on a light, then we could see.  There's just
something about what you said about Mr.  Collins that makes me think...."

Suddenly, Annie felt a cold hand close over her throat.  She wanted to scream,
but couldn't!

Maggie grabbed her hand and pulled her to the center of the room.  "Look!  On
the wall beside the photo of Roger and Elizabeth Collins!" she whispered,
terrified.  "Annie, that woman.....it could be you!"

The wall next to the door had several family likenesses, including Mr.  and
Mrs.  Stoddard, Carolyn and a handsome photo of Quentin on horseback from his
college days.  There were large oils of ancestors in hunting garb and ball
gowns that towered over the little black and whilte images.  But just behind
the door they had entered by, was a miniature oil of a woman in a blue dress,
the blue shining in the eiry light like a beacon!  And beside her, in the same
small landscape, was a younger version of the man who had come to haunt Annie's
dreams!

Maggie pointed.  Annie looked closer at the little painting and almost fainted.
 The lady in question was wearing the same color as Annie's jumper, and a white
shawl of Brusse's lace, similar to Annie's blouse.

The mytery woman looked pale and adorable, holding a bouquet of pansies and
roses.  Her eyes sparkled, in spite of the old paint and she seemed to light up
the whole wall, though their picture was smaller than the rest of the family
gallery.  Sitting beside the twin image of the present Barnabas Collins, she
looked as if she might be the happiest woman in the world.  In the painting, he
was gazing at her with a fixed smile, rather sternly, but still as if they were
definitely an item.

Maggie gasped and turned Annie so she faced outward into the room.  When she
stood her friend side by side with the oil, Annie and the dark-haired lady in
the picture could have been sisters.

"Maggie, who is this woman?"

Maggie began to explain something, then, hearing the warning of voices far away
through a heating grate in the floor, she hustled them out of the North Wing. 
Carefully, she pulled the old door closed and made sure it was locked.

"Maggie, who was that woman," Annie demanded quickly.  The likeness was too
shocking to be a coincidence.  Annie felt like she was seeing herself, only in
an era that had long past, with speakeasys and flappers.

Maggie looked at her friend and she wasn't smiling.  "She was the late fiance
of Barnabas Collins."

"But late?...That must have been years ago!  That painting looks like it was
made when the lady was in her twenties, and the man wasn't much older.  It
can't be the same man I saw yesterday!  And even if it was, why....that woman's
been dead for sixty years!  The Mr.  Collins I saw yesterday didn't look like
he was more than...about fifty at the most?  You mean he had an older
brother...or maybe that was his father in the picture."

"Hush--someone's coming!  Quick!  Down the stairs!" Maggie pushed Annie ahead. 
"I don't know how old any of those portraits actually are.  Some of them
obviously came from oversea's or were done in the 1800's.  That oil could have
been painted in the 1900's or later.  This wing has been closed for ten years,
but the painting could be a reproduction.  Without any tests, there's no way I
can tell about it."

"But...what's the mystery?  So I look like her.  So what?"

Maggie turned to her friend with a hard look.  "The man in the picture killed
that woman."

Annie felt the world sink underneath her.  

Andie 
Unregistered User (1/14/03 5:10 pm) 
Forget me not!  

Quentin had long returned from his errand to the Bank of Maine and the snow
hadn't stopped since his arrival.  Annie finally felt secure enough to greet
him in the drawing room.  A fire shivered over seasoned wood but she felt less
at home than ever.  She didn't dare tell him about her foray into the past but
certainly he guessed something was troubling her, because he seemed kinder and
less preoccupied.

"Well, that's settled, at least.  The question of Barnabas' family claim over
the land next to the cemetery, that is." Quentin sipped the hot tea that Mrs. 
Johnson had left on the drawing room table just a few minutes before Annie
appeared.  "I'm not at all happy about his meddling, though.  But what was in
the original deed still stands.  I do have access to any of that land I care to
claim.  And I will build my dream house." In spite of his surly words, he
smiled broadly at Annie.  "My dear, you'll have every modern appliance known to
man, none of this oil heat and boiler room difficulties." He laughed and put a
strong arm around her.

She felt a cold draft sneak into the room.

"Darling, you look tired.  Has Carolyn been pestering you this morning?"

Annie shook her head.  "No, dear.  It's just....maybe it's just the house."
Suddenly she wanted desperately to get away.  "Quentin, can't we go out to
dinner this evening?  Please?  If you made it back from town without any
problems, certainly we could catch a commuter train to Boston or something,
coulnd't we?  Can't you drive us to the station?  I'll only take 5 minutes to
change!"

"Surely not," Quentin laughed, surprised at her sudden ambition.  "Not in this
weather.  Patterson's closed one road and says it will take hours for the
snowplows to clear the highway." He hugged her.  "Why the sudden desire to
leave?"

At the word desire, Annie remembered the look on Barnabas' face when he left
the house the night before.  Her shoulders trembled and she felt a cruel sense
of hatred flood her heart.

"Nothing much, I guess.  Just cooped up all day." She turned her face to him. 
"You did mention a sleigh ride.  At least we might escape while it's still
light out."

Quentin considered.  "Well, I guess that's safe enough, but it won't be a
sleigh ride now.  The stables are closed because of the weather." He gulped his
tea.

"I say, bundle up!  We'll take a walk.  If we get too cold we can get a hot
drink at the Blue Whale."

Just then, Maggie Evans walked into the room.

"Quentin, you're back already!" She seemed worried but one look from Annie and
Maggie hid her fears.

"Everyone seems so surprised today.  What's the mystery, you two?" Getting only
wan smiles, Quentin glanced at Maggie, then went to get Annie's coat and hat.

"Maggie, don't tell him what you told me.  Please!" Annie tried to stall
Quentin by asking him to get her fur from the bedroom upstairs.

"Mum's the word.  But I'd be very careful around that Mr.  Collins.  You look
too much like the lady in the painting.  Maybe it's just a repro, or some
candid photo taken at a costume party but something tells me Quentin's cousin
has something to do with the ghost and the body we saw upstairs." Annie hugged
Maggie as Quentin appeared with their coats.

"My lady, let's enjoy a little walk.  The brisk air might do us both good,
although Lord knows it's not hot in here." He has noticed the chill too, she
thought.

Annie put on her fur and pulled a wool hat over her shining hair.  She was
still wearing the velvet but bundled as she was, nothing could hurt her lovely
dress and blouse.  Quentin and Annie hollered goodbye to Mrs.  Johnson and
Carolyn.

**********

Barnabas Collins strode purposefully about the old cemetery, as if looking for
something.  Finally, he found one grave, untended and sporting an ancient
headstone made of marble that had seen many snowy winters.

"My poor mother," he mourned.  "How could she know what the future would hold? 
ANd how could she live, knowing..."

Footsteps stopped his musings.  He saw a young woman and Quentin walking along
the narrow roadway towards Collinwood.  For a moment, a flashback shook his
senses.

A woman, clad in blue velvet and expensive lace sat laughing, swinging back and
forth in an old bench swing.  He heard her voice, lyrical and sweet.  She
laughed, pushing herself higher into the air, calling to him, taunting him
until he thought he felt the air swishing by as she swung out over the lawn.

He saw her stop and climib off the swing, then flutter over to a table and take
up a bouquet of French flowers and pansies.

"Here, darling!  Catch!" She tossed the flowers to him and began laughing
again.

"Barnabas Collins, you are the most dreary old thing!  Heaven knows you might
be more sociable.  How I fell in love with you I'll never know.  In fact, am I
in love?  Poor darling, will you ever really know" she teased unmercifully.

Barnabas felt his heart constrict as if the lady had actually struck him.  The
impudence of her!  He snarled a reply but suddenly the scene vanished and he
was standing alone in the graveyard.

He heard a voice, similar to that of his dream.  Annie and Quentin were
entering the graveyard!  He ducked behind a large tomb before they could see
him standing on the path.

"This is the spot Barnabas claims to own.  Personally, I never cared for this
place and when my uncle was alive I had asked him to consider moving the whole
cemetery.  Of course, it would have cost thousands of dollars, what with these
old headstones and name plates." Quentin leaned against the same headstone that
Barnabas had been worshipping.  "But he never got around to it.  Many things
never got done by him.  So now I'm stuck with this travesty of death!"

Quentin kicked the stones between the graves.  The snow made it look as bleak
and heartless as Scrooge.  "This will all have to go.  I'm thinking of the
future now, not of the past."

Annie looked up at him.  The confidence returned to her eyes and she seemed to
see into the future just as he predicted.  He leaned down and put his warm lips
on hers.  SHe breathed in the scent of cold air, his after shave and wool.

"Could I ever doubt you," she whispered.

Barnabas' eyes burned.  For a second, he thought he saw the impertinent woman
kissing her lover, his rival, behind the graveyard gate.  Agony overcame him
and he shut his eyes.  Then, he opened them and saw only Annie and Quentin.

"It cannot be!  She can't be...." he cried out in his heart.  "No....I won't be
fooled this time!  Ghosts, begone.  Tempt me to folly no more!" He ran from the
place, just as Quentin looked up.

A sinister form was fleeing the graveyard.  Quentin started to follow but Annie
clung to him, afraid.

She knew who it was, but why had he been spying on them?

"Let's go back, please," she begged.

"If I catch that rascal around here...I'lll..." 

"Let's go home.  I've had enough of the cold." Annie pulled on his arm.

Quentin guided them around the maze of markers until they stood on the roadway
once more.

"I hate to admit it but you're right.  It's getting colder.  Time to start
back." 

Annie looked over her shoulder.  A thin outline of a man appeared under a
dripping tree.  Her heart went faint.  What ever was drawing him to her hadn't
abated at all.  In fact, she felt his eyes burning into her back.  She ducked
and when she looked back again, the outline was gone.  No one remained in the
graveyard.  Andie Unregistered User (1/16/03 11:17 am) Gone but not forgiven 

Quentin felt the same chilling blast of ghostely air as he entered the large
mansion after his walk with Annie.  The same feeling of eyes, cold and
calculating, and the feeling of being frozen by some invisible ectoplasm
invaded his happiness.  He clutched Annie's hand and almost ran from the front
door.

"Darling, what's the matter," Annie cried.

"Can't you feel it?  Death is here!!!" Quentin grabbed both of her hands.  His
face was contorted into a hideous grimace.  "Annie, death has come!  I can hear
the whispers!  The voices!"

Annie screamed.  Carolyn flung open the front door and called to them, but
Quentin continued quivering on the threshold, unable to move.

"Call Dr.  Hoffman, please," Annie cried at Carolyn.

A few moments later, Quentin had collapsed in the drawing room on the large
divan, carefully tended by Annie.  

"Dr.  Hoffman's on her way," Carolyn said, shaken by his sudden fit.  "Annie,
did he...see...a ghost again?  Was it that body...Annie, what happened?"

"I don't know," she sobbed.  "Everything was fine but...oh Carolyn, we saw
Barnabas, or someone int he graveyard.  I think that's what caused Quentin to
become ill!  It's that Collins man!  He's cursed Quentin somehow!"

"I thought his meeting with Collins went alright," Carolyn said.  "He didn't
seem upset when he came home this afternoon." She poured hot water into a mug
and made them hot toddies against the onslaught of deathly cold.  

"Oh Carolyn, there's something else..."

Just then, Quentin came to and muttered, "Dont' mention that name in front of
me!"

"Julia's here," Mrs.  Johnson announced and tried to help the patient up but
Quentin shook off her hands.

"I'm fine.  I was just...I had a little relapse.  An old ailment....but I'm
fine now."

"I'll be the judge of that," the auburn haired doctor said.  She pulled up a
chair and sat down, not bothering to take off her heavy coat.  "Now, tell me
what happened." She pushed her medical bag closer to Quentin and began pulling
out instruments.

Annie related their walk in the cemetary and how cold the house had been before
Quetin had arrived back from town, and how he had seemed perfectly normal until
they got back from walking.

"Yes, just as I thought," the doctor pronounced.  She stared at Quentin.  "And
what on earth prompted you to go out in 32 degree weather when I've told you
before not to strain yourself?"

Annie gasped.  "Is he ill, I mean...he never told me anything about any
strain!"

The doctor nodded.  "A long ailment, followed by a long recovery.  THe Collins
family have one gene peculiar to ages of cousinly relations and some nasty
viruses from the flu epidemics in England in the 1800's.  It strikes the
younger members harder for some reason." She patted Annie.  "Your husband just
isn't as strong as he'd like you to think.  I've nursed him through several
bouts of illness and it just takes him longer to get well.  Right now he should
be resting and not out walking in the snow." A little harshly, she added, "And
not out chasing relatives through cemeteries!"

"What's wrong with him," Annie asked, frightened at the implications.

"Just a little weakness, dear," Quetin replied.  "Julia's right.  Our family
was struck down during the hard times in England.  Many of my ancestors died
because ...well, it's a long story." He held ANnie close and stroked her tear
stained face.  "Don't worry about me.  I'm good stock and not ready to drop the
harness and give up!  I had a bad autumn-a lot of trouble for one stupid cold! 
Took me months to get well.  I should have known better."

Annie clasped his hands, trying to warm them.  They felt icy cold.

"I promise to take very very good care of you from now on, darling," she said
and kissed him to seal the promise.

Julia smiled.  "Your bedside manners should bring Quentin back on his feet in
no time.  Just don't go rambling out in this beastly weather."

Another knock at the door made Carolyn and Annie jump.

"I'll get it," Carolyn offered.  "Annie pour the tea out and put a little
brandy in mine, could you?" 

"In mine too, sweet," Quentin smilled at Annie.

She could hear Carolyn open the door and some pleasantries exchanged.  Julia
was writing out a prescription and Annie hovered next to her love, holidng the
mug and stroking his wan cheek with her other hand.

"Well, I'm not sure she's able to receive you right now," she heard Carolyn
say.

Carolyn stuck her blond head around the door and then slightly pulled it shut
behind her.

"Annie, there's a gentleman to see you." Just the way the words left her mouth,
Carolyn indicated she was not happy at the prospect.  "It's Barnabas Collins. 
He says he needs to speak to you in private." Carolyn pouted openly.

Annie froze.  Then she rose up and held onto Quentin's free hand as tightly as
she had in the graveyard.

"Tell Mr.  Collins that I cannot see him today.  If he has a message, there's
paper and pens in the desk by the door but no, I won't see him." She glared at
Carolyn.  "Perhaps you could find out why he called and let us know."

Quentin frowned and sat up.  Julia moved out of the way.  "Show him in,
Carolyn.  What he has to say, he can tell both of us.  I won't have my wife
keeping secrets about a man we both dislike."

Annie settled next to Quentins' couch, determined to put an end to her fears.

Carolyn shrugged.  "Alright, I'll bring him in."

SHe opened the drawing room door and the tall, foreboding man walked in.  He
tried not to notice Julia or Annie but at the sound of Annie's reply, his eyes
fastened onto hers.

Quentin stood up, a bastille between Annie and his cousin.

Barnabas backed up a few steps, then looked at him.

"I've come to ask something of you." 

Quentin sat down.  "Anything you ask I will consider but if it's about the
cemetery..."

Barnabas held up his hand.  "Don't do this.  Quentin, consider the family
history!  Don't move those plots and stones." He stared at them darkly. 
"They're cursed, and the curse will fall upon anyone who disturbs the dead!"

Annie remembered the conversation with Maggie on the stairs and the portrait. 
Could this man have something to do with the tower mystery and the ghosts in
the North Wing room?  The picture she'd seen began to move, rekindled in her
memory, the blue dress and the cruel smile of the lady who wore it.  The man
who stood next to her, the man who had allegedly murdered her.

Suddenly Barnabas strode to the chair where Annie sat and put his deathly cold
hand on her shoulder.  Looking full into her terrified eyes, he said softly, "I
know you!"

Annie fainted.  Andie Unregistered User (1/21/03 11:37 am) Love Among the ruins


"Carolyn, Mrs.  Johnson," Quentin bellowed as he caught Annie in his arms.  He
patted her face and tried to awaken her.  Barnabas, seeing the young woman
collapse, felt the dread of the past sucking his breath away and making his
presence in the room intolerable.

"Annie," Quentin whispered to her and held her close as he tried to move her
over to the couch by the fire.  "Annie, my love, wake up."

Annie's eyes fluttered and she struggled as if trying to escape something.

Carolyn ran to the hallway phone and dialed a number while Mrs.  Johsnon made a
strong draught of tea and brandy which seemed to be the remedy for most things
in the Collins house.

No one saw Barnabas slip out of the room, past Carolyn's back and out into the
snow.

"I cannot believe it," he muttered, his hopes against reverting dashed to
pieces.  "She cannot be the one!" he fled into the darkness of the storm.


"No, no, please don't hurt me!  oh darling, please...." Annie struggled against
him but he held her tightly as if to shield her from something no one else
could see.

"Annie, come back to me," he called at her.  Finally she opened her eyes but it
was several minutes before she recognized him.

"Where am I" she asked.

"I am here, don't worry.  Nothing can harm you now." Quentin kissed her
repeatedly, forcing air into her lungs and pressing her hands until she sat up,
pushing him away, still fighting something invisible.

"Annie, was it Barnabas that frightened you," Quentin demanded.  "If so, he's
no longer any relation to me.  I won't permit him to enter this house as long
as he threatens you." 

Carolyn came back.  "Barnabas left.  I think I heard him when I was on the
phone.  A doctor will be here in a moment.  I thought it best to call someone
other than Julia Hoffman this time." 

"Whatever," Quentin barked.  He returned to Annie.  "Annie, if Barnabas has
threatened you, I'll get my gun and kill him!  He won't ever hurt you again,
believe me." He was truly angry now.

"No, Quentin, he only said....I think he said....he knew me!" She stopped and
looked at her beloved.  "He knew me, Quentin."

She lay still again on the couch, shivering with cold.  "This house hates me. 
I know it.  The whole manner reeks of death!  You said so yourself, just today.
 We must leave, Quentin."

"But our new home, it's not even built.  I have plans, but...." Annie stopped
him.

"Quentin, we will die if we stay here!  You said you saw .....something...I saw
a body in the Tower room!  I saw a photo of someone who once knew somebody who
looks like Barnabas Collins does now!'

Carolyn cried out.  "You promised not to tell!"

Annie snapped, "How can I promise to leave my lover vulnerable to bad things! 
How can I promise to be honest and then hide the truth?  The truth is here! 
It's here, Quentin,and we cannot hide from it.  This house is evil!  Evil!" She
began sobbing and struck the arm of the couch.  "I hate this place.  Someone
died here, in my room, where I sleep, dreaming of you!  Someone who was
murdered!"

Quentin blanched.  He turned to Carolyn.  "I think you'd better call for that
doctor again." He held Annie's hands.  "She's in a bad state." For some reason,
Carolyn didn't argue this time.  She put the brandy decanter closer to her
cousin, and went into the hallway to consult with Mrs.  Johnson about the
hysterical girl.  Quentin stared at the hallway, as if trying to see someone
who wasn't there, but who was a sense more than a vision to him.  He didn't
look away, even when Annie stopped crying.

***********

Barnabas fumbled with the lock on the Old house door.  Once inside the
cavernous manse, he slumped against the doorframe in agony.

"I thought it was all over.  I thought it was finished.  But I am wrong!"

He threw off his cloak and stood before the cold hearth.

"No one knows....and yet!  Ghosts from my past are coming back to haunt me!  Oh
mother, God help you that you died before all this began once more!"

A full moon, now that the storm had quieted and the snow was through for the
night, blazed across the wintery sky, chasing the treackly sunset away from the
tall pines.  The sad cry of a mourning dove split the silence.

Barnabas sank into a chair.  "Foolish that I ever imagined I would be free." He
groaned and put down his head.  "It's all starting again...it's all beginning
once more!" Andie Unregistered User (1/27/03 4:37 pm) Past Dreams, Broken
promises 

"Barnabas, darling, please.....dont' be so morbid," the blue lady in the swing
called to him.  "Just because of a gypsy at the fair you've gotten so worried? 
Come on, dear.  It was just a deck of cards!" The lady swung higher, showing
her admirers a glimpse of a finely turned ankle and white hose under her lacey
dress.  Finally, getting no reply, she jumped off the swing and sauntered over
to the tea table.

"Richard, pour me a lime ricky, would you?" She smiled such a beguiling smile
that the gentlemen in question could do nothing but obey.

"Don't you think we might quit this travesty you call a party and go back?" The
lean man who approached the frivolous woman stared darky at his competition.

"Not until you've admitted it's all nonsense about that fortune teller." She
giggled and pointed at him.  "Richard, this poor man is under the impression
that something bad is going to happen.  And all because I persuaded him to have
his fortune told by some drab at the county fair!" She laughed and her laughter
seemed to hurt the dark gentleman, but his counter part also joined the young
lady.

"Yes, I've heard about the superstiteous Collins clan," he said, somewhat
snidely.  "They dote on their fears and complains, like hens on eggs.  Then
when they have everyone upset, it all turns out to be a tempest..."

The leaner of the two man stepped forward, almost tredding on the fair lady's
shoe.

"I regret I cannot enjoy your jests.  Come, dear.  It's getting much too late
for us to be out.  And I have business to attend to in town.  I'm tired of
this," he added, looking around the glen, decked out with ribbons and garlands.
 "It's....too frivolous.  And I believe we have some business with the curate,
if I understood you correctly this morning."

The lady shrugged her delicate shoulders.  "Why?  I'm enjoying myself.  Richard
cand drive me back while you go to the bank in town.  I'd much rather stay
here."

"But I will not." Barnabas Collins took her arm.

"Ouch!" She sprang back, then confronted him.  "Don't ever do that again," she
spat cruely.  Then more softly, she said, "Go away.  I'll see the pastor when
I'm good and ready!  Now, go!" She turned her back on him.

In bad humor the lean man bowed to his spurning lady and walked off.  But as he
left, he heard her cruel laughter ringing through the woods.  A carriage
awaited at the cross-roads but he had no pleasure in the fine scenery that
passed by.

"She's toying with me," he sneered.  "And she shall pay!"

Hours later, the lady had not arrived, even though her consort had long
finished his errands and was seated in front of the fire in Collinwood.

A servant came in.  He stood up.  "Where is my fiance?"

At his harsh demand, the young girl winced but she didn't dare lie to the angry
man.

"She's....she's walking in the wood...with Mr.  Richard.  She said he promised
to...promised to....let her look at the stars with him.  He's a scientist, I
guess."

Barnabas grabbed his cane and ran out into the dark night.  The summer air made
his blood boil and the full moon lit the garden and the surrounding manse with
bloody light.

"Let me not find her....please..." he begged, "let her not be out here...with
Richard!"

It was too late.  Just over a short rise, on a bench that sat under a large
pine, he saw his betrothed and his cousin, laughing and drinking from ogblets
belonging to his mother's collection.

"Lovey, whatever possessed you to take Barnabas, that old scoundrel, to a
fair!" The blond man laughed.

She clinked her goblet on his and the sound that rang out crushed Barnabas's
very soul.

"Well, he insisted actually.  But he's so droll and serious." She sipped her
wine.

"Personally, I don't think you should marry him.  He's too pedestrian for you. 
Too introspective.  You need someone as young and foolish as yourself.  To
enjoy life with!  Not someone so dour and quaint."

"But it's that very quaintness that makes me like him," she added.

"But do you love him?  Do you?" Richard put down his glass next to the bench
and sat at the lady's tiny feet.  "Lovey, do you?"

She rose and walked a few steps, then suddenly turned and threw herself into
Richard's arms.

"What do you think" she said, beginning to cry.  She hid her face in the other
man's chest, sobbing loudly.

Barnabas felt the whole world crumble.  Groaning in pain, he walked back to
Collinwood, convinced his life was over.

*****

Annie rose from the bed where Quentin had carried her.  Her head ached and the
potion from the unknonw doctor made her woozie.

Carolyn came into the bedroom and banked the fire to warm them.  "Annie, you're
finally awake!" She scampered over to the bed and hugged the ill woman.

Maggie walked in.  "I feel like I've done this before," she said, trying to
joke but seeing Annie's pale face, she became more concilatory.  "Quentin's
talking to the doctor.  You had a nasty spell but the doctor gave you a
tranquelizer and we got you up here, safe and sound at least.  For now, I guess
you're stuck with us as nurses." She smiled.

"Maggie, how much does Quentin know about....about..."

"Barnabas?  Not much, I should think." Carolyn filddled with the fire tongs,
watching the other two women.  What about Barnabas, she thought?  What does
Annie know about him?

Annie shifted the pillows and lay back.  "I'm so afraid of him...and yet, I
shoulnd't be.  The past is dead.  That's fact.  Unless....."

Unless...thought Carolyn.  Unless what???

Andie Unregistered User (1/31/03 5:49 pm) Kissing Cousins 

Carolyn sulked the next day, privately in her room.  It seemed Annie was
getting a lot of attention from both Quentin and a certain mysterious man.  She
padded around the house while Annie recovered, unsure of what would happen next
but positive she wasn't going to sit idly by and watch a perfectly magnificent
species of eligible bachelor be destroyed over a bunch of graves and marble
headstones.

She wasn't as scared of the figure or the ghost, or whatever it had been, that
frightened all of them in the North Wing.  In fact, there seemed to be more to
the secret between Maggie and Annie than either one of them wanted to tell her.

The long afternoon wore on, the clocks ticked and Mrs.  Johnson hummed
tunelessly as she cleaned the dining room and planned the usual four-course
meal for dinner.

"Child, what ails you?  You've been gathering moss all day around here." The
housekeeper pointed at her.  "Those blue eyes look jealous to me.  What's
wrong?  Why didn't you go into town with the others?  I can look after Annie
well enough."

"Oh, well, I didn't feel like shopping today.  In fact," Carolyn stated, "I'm
really tired of shopping.  I've seen every boutique and store in this dreary
town.  Frankly, if mother could get away, I'd talk her into going to Paris or
London.  It's not like we can't afford it."

"More like she doesn't want to afford it," Mrs.  Johnson muttered and left the
room to turn on the gas oven and prepare the potroast.

Carolyn waltzed about, sipping her usual mint tea and wondering what mischief
she could invent.

She didn't have long to wait.  A ponderous knocking sent her flying to the
front doors.

"Well," she smiled.  "Mr.  Collins again.  I assume it's Quentin you want?  He
left for town early today.  Something about a solicitor.  But come in." She led
the cold figure into the warm drawing room.

"Miss Stoddard, I really came to see....  actually, I'm glad your cousin is
out."

"So am I." Carolyn shifted pillows off the low divan.  "Please, have a seat. 
I'll get you something to drink."

"No thank you." He seemed uneasy.  "Actually, is Miss Anne about?  I understand
she's had a severe shock but I must talk to her."

"She's resting, and I have strict orders not to disturb her today.  Orders from
Quentin." Carolyn suspected that name might bring the cool man to heel quicker
than any other excuse.

Barnabas rose.  "Then I won't take up any of your time." He smiled at her as
she reached for his arm.

"But I haven't been very hospitable.  Forgive me, please," she smiled up at
him.  "I won't let him go...he's not leaving me now!" she thought.  "No way! 
Annie's just fine without him-she has Quentin so there's no reason Barnabas
Collins has to talk to her right now!"

Carolyn bustled over to the bar.  "A glass of sherry before you go, if," she
added sadly, "you really must leave."

"Thank you." The tall dark gentleman took the fragile goblet from her chilly
fingers.

"Please, stay and talk to me.  It's been so dull here today and everyone else
is out.  I chose to stay home, though I hardly know why I did it.  But
Collinsport is so....provincial.  Too small and quiet." She gleamed at him, the
fire bringing out her wonderful complexion and bright smile.

"I hardly think Collinsport is provincial, but perhaps too intimate for a young
woman."

"Of....marriagable age, you mean." Carolyn's glass glittered in her hands.

"No.  I wasn't trying to uncover your personal preferences," he added. 
"Perhaps you need more culture than Maine has to offer.  Music, theatre..."

"Heavens!  I'd go daft with too much culture.  No, I want lights,
parties...we're a morbid bunch, Mr.  Collins." The wine made her smile broader.
 SHe felt giddy.  "No, I meant, the lack of romance, the...." she stumbled over
her words.  "The lack of..."

"Passion?" Barnabas looked quizically at Carolyn.

"Yes!  That's it.  We are a passionless family." She pouted into her glass. 
"Actually, my mother is rather...absurd.  She's a widow and an attractive lady
yet she stays shut up in this living mausoleum."

At those words, Barnabas winced.  Carolyn was getting way too close to his own
experience.

Suddenly, she sat next to him.  "Please, tell me the truth." She stared full
into his luminous eyes, like a moth to a dangerous flame.  "Do you...I
mean...you realize that Annie is...Annie loves Quentin very much.  She'd do
anything for him.  She'd never leave him."

Barnabas shuddered.  "Yes, I realize that.  But there are forces at work that
she is unaware of.  That are dangerous.  I must warn her!" He stood again.

"Barnabas," Carolyn said softly, "Annie won't ever love you.  If you're trying
to drag her away from Quentin, she's a much his as breath is to life."

Barnabas turned away.  The grimace on his face and his actions told Carolyn
more than he imagined.

Carolyn took his arm and walked him closer to the fire.  "But perhaps I've been
too cruel." The words smote his heart, just as the blue lady's had.

"Miss Stoddard, please.  I've told you far too much and I should never have
come on this errand.  This is a personal matter, something from my past that
Quentin will never understand, nor his wife."

"Then let it stay in the past.  Why muddle your present with things that cannot
be changed," Carolyn worried him, flushed with the wine and his presence.

"Because they do change!  And I am proof of it!"

Carolyn made him turn and face her.  "Mr.  Collins, if I can be of any help at
all, would you ask me?  Would you trust me?" She put her lovely face closer to
his shoulders, as if too shy to convey her true feelings.

He took her pale hand and kissed her fingers.  "Yes, Miss Stoddard.  I would
ask, but you....you know not what you request of me." His answer was all she
wanted.

"Thank you," she breathed.  She smiled at him, hoping, waiting to him to move
towards her and take her in his arms as he had Annie when she fainted.  Nothing
happened, so she went to pour another glass of sherry.  When she turned around,
she was alone in the room.  A soft gust of wind pushed the open front door
closed.  He was gone.  

Andie 
Unregistered User (2/5/03 10:50 am) 
Knock knock, Who's there??  

Annie felt much better the following day.  The sun was shining brightly over
the snowy landscape but a little bird, one of many who survived the long
winter, hopped about on the windowsill, singing madly in the dull warmth of the
sunshine.  The storm seemed to be over; Annie could sense how much warmer the
house felt.  Curious about what had happened since she'd been ill, she dressed
quickly and went downstairs to have morning coffee with Mrs.  Johnson and
Carolyn.  The rest of the house seemed strangely calm.

Quentin had come back the previous evening but was uncommunicative about his
errands and Anne hadn't felt well enough to press him.  But now that she was
better, she wanted to know all the gossip and what had happened to Mr. 
Collins.  Her spirit still quaked alittle when she remembered the painting and
his reaction to her, but she didn't want to spoil a perfectly good day being
frightened of ghosts.

Sunlight flooded the kitchen where Mrs.  Johnson was making Welsh rarebit and
the coffee perked loudly on the stove.

"That smells heavenly," Annie sighed, taking a cup from the hutch and pouring a
little cream into the bottom.

"Mr.  Quentin was kind enough to do a little shopping for me when he was out
yesterday.  He bought some coffee from the shop in Portsmouth and brought me
back some very good salmon for tonight's dinner!" Mrs.  Johnson bustled about,
cleaning off the drainboard and sifting spice for the rarebit sauce. 
"And....he mentioned that when you were feeling up to it, he wanted to take you
into town for a meeting with his attorney.  I take it the land issues hasn't
quite been settled."

Annie sipped the rich coffee.  "Well, I'm not surprised," she replied.  "Mr. 
Collins seemed very adament about not changing anything in that graveyard."

Mrs.  Johnson looked up from her cookbook.  "Annie, I shouldn't tell you this
since you've been....well, ill, but I think you should know something about Mr.
 Collins."

Just then, Carolyn strolled into the room.

"Good morning everyone." She had a bright smile pasted on her face.  "And it is
a lovely morning!"

Annie nodded at her over the coffee.  "And I hope it will stay that way."

Carolyn smirked.  "Why, Annie.  Jealous so soon?" She almost pranced over to
the sideboard and grabbed one of Mrs.  Johnson's famous oatmeal cookies.

"Careful, you'll spoil your appitite." Mrs.  Johnson smiled at Carolyn, a child
stealing a cookie.

"Actually, I won't be in for breakfast." Carolyn paused and then strolled
towards the dining room.  "I have...other plans." She bid the two puzzled
ladies farewell and went upstairs to comb her hair and put on something warmer.

She had plans, alright.  She surmised where the mysterious Mr.  Collins was
staying.  There weren't that many inns in town and certainly he wouldn't be
sleeping in the rackety Old House, full of drafts and cold.  She was determined
to find him.  She brushed out her hair, pinned it up and put on a bright wool
dress against the chilly room.  The blue wool suited her pale skin and bright
eyes.

"This time, I'm going to discover where that man hides all day.  We don't seem
to meet during normal visiting hours but I'm going to ferret him out and find
out just what he does with his time.  And hopefully I can persuade him to spend
some of it with me!  Even if he's a relative, we're only related as cousins,
not as brother and sister.  And I'm not even sure about that, now that some
suspicion has been introduced into the family about him.  he could just be
another wandering relative with the same name and no blood line at all!  Well,
I'm going to find out for sure!"

She patted powder over her nose and gracefully waltzed over to the mirror.  She
chose a dramatic shade of magenta lipstick and carefully traced the lines of
her full lips.  Finally satisfied, Carolyn put on a grey coat and blue scarf to
protect her neck and throat from the cold.  SHe smiled into the round mirror.

"Look out, Mr.  Collins!  You don't realize what real trouble you're going to
be in after this morning!"

She heard footsteps coming down the hall.  "It must be Anne.  I won't let her
see me go out.  That way, no one will know I'm gone until breakfast."

Sure enough, Annie was padding down the hall but as she went into her room, she
listened as if she'd heard something.

A knocking sound made both women jump.  Carolyn heard Mrs.  Johnson's muttering
voice as she went to answer the door.

Then there was silence.  Complete and utter silence.  As if they both feared
the worst, Carolyn and Annie almost collided running from their rooms to make
sure Mrs.  Johnson was alright.

Annie reached the stairs first and fled down, followed by Carolyn close behind.

A lovely blond woman stood in the foyer with Mrs.  Johnson.  She seemed a
little lost and looked about her with big, wide eyes.

Annie and Carolyn watched as the lady gazed at the huge portrait of the Collins
ancestor in the hallway.

Finally she spoke.  "I'm sorry to intrude on such a lovely winter day." Her
voice was like honey.  "But I must see Quentin Collins.  My business is most
urgent." She saw Annie standing on the stairs.

For a single second, Annie felt a bolt of cold air pierce her heart but in the
next moment, the lady held out a perfect slim and white hand.

"Hello.  I realize this must be quite a shock, but I'm one of Quentin's distant
relatives."

Carilyn stepped forward.  "I don't believe Quentin is in right now.  He's out
surveying some property north of here.  I'm his cousin, Carolyn Stoddard.  I
was just going out," she looked at Annie and Mrs.  Johnson, "so I won't keep
you.  But it's nice meeting you."

The pale woman smiled.  "May I wait?  It's extremely important that I speak to
Quentin.  It is about the property."

"Oh not another fight," Annie thought.  

Just then, the door opened and Quentin strode in, followed by a young man with
tools and a map.  They both wore heavy boots and apparently had been walking
through the mud and snow.

"Sorry about the mess," the young man apologized.  "Maybe I should take my
boots off outside."

"Just sit here.  I'll bring in some newspapers.  Hello, dear.  This is Michael
Derring, he's helping me with plans for the house." He kissed Annie lovingly.

Then he saw the other woman.  She smiled at Quentin but it was not a cordial
smile.

Quentin stepped back.  "Who are you?"

"I wonder that you should ask," she replied.  Andie Unregistered User (2/7/03
4:26 pm) Tossin...and turnin....and burnin....for love of ???  

"Darling, what's bothering you now?" The young lady strolled along the
riverbank, the wintery sun playing over her hair and eyelashes.  "Goodness,
here you ask me to walk with you and then you hardly speak to me."

"I have little to say," the tall man replied hurtfully.  "Or perhaps...you
should speak to me instead."

"For instance?" She played with a jeweled pin on her lapel and bit her lips. 
"About what, my dear?  You look so pained!"

"And so I might!  Regarding your recent behavior..." the pale gentleman
couldn't bear to expound.

The lady smirked.  "Oh.  I assume you mean my visit with Richard.  Barnabas,
he's practically family.  And if he wishes to flirt with me, well, you're going
to have to get used to that.  Gentlemen aren't morose and brooding, not where I
came from." She flipped the ends of her red silk scarf over her shoulders.

"Perhaps he's not a gentleman!  And bethrothed ladies don't spend their
attentions on other men...where I come from!"

His anger upset the lovely girl.  "Well!  As if a kiss meant anything.  Perhaps
you'd love to hear the rest of the conversation," she spoke, tears coming to
her eyes.  "About how I told Richard....how much...oh how much I wished we
could be like other people!  Happy, well liked, asked to parties and balls! 
But no, you brood and vanish at the least provocation!  And then you ask why
I'm unhappy!" She began to cry.

Barnabas turned to her and put a pale hand on her exquisite shoulder.  "I'm
sorry, my love.  Surely you can see how my life has been altered recently.  The
property disputes and the scandal!  My mother..." He faltered, stroking his
lady's arm.  "She might have taught me how to be happy, how to ward off
adversity.  But as you know, she died suddenly before I had a chance..."

"Yes, I know," she replied, still sharp with hurt.  "And I know how 'precious'
your family is.  How much your great uncle treasured your mother and how he..."
She paled at his anger.

"Never speak of that travesty!  Never!" He jerked her around to meet his
furious eyes.  "My mother was an angel compaired to that...that villan!  May he
never rest in peace!"

She cried out in pain and her escort turned away, aghast he had caused her any
harm.  Silently, they stood facing away from each other.  Finally, the
terrified lady turned back to him.

"We cannot go on like this.  And I refuse to live in the past for your sake! 
You think so lightly of my happiness, yet you spend your affections on the
dead!" 

Barnabas pushed her roughly away, but she continued, raging against his
seemingly callous attitude.

"I won't be led into a life without any laughter or fun!  I won't be stuck away
under your thumb!  Whatever is causing you such grief is taking you farther
away from me every day and if I choose....!  If you can't act and offer me the
affection I want and the romance...well...."

She stood ten feet from him but already she could tell her words hit home.

"You're so...so absorbed in your own problems you can't even talk to me
sensibly about something that doesn't really concern you!  Richard has been my
best friend since we were children.  Until these past weeks, I thought maybe I
could bring you out of this morbid fascination with death!  Maybe Richard was
right." She backed away from him as if he were plagued with some curse.  "Maybe
we should part!"

Barnabas raged at her, his teeth snapping out the words.  "I suspected as much,
your treachery and deceit!  You've led me on and condemned my love to the
abysses of Hell, yet you talk as if I don't care!  You flirt and call it
friendship!  Yet were I to do the same, you would chastise me with every
hateful word you could think of!"

"I wouldn't act like a jealous fool," she shot back, realizing her mistake too
late.  SHe was standing so close to him he could feel her hot breath on his
face and see her flaming eyes scald his heart!

Barnabas swept her from his eyes like a bothersome bug, tossing her lithe body
from him like so much sand.  "Why do you taunt me like this!"

She was lying on the ground, stunned form the blow of his hand.

Barnabas shook with horror.  She wasn't moving, barely breathing in fact.

He sat up, sweat running down his cheeks.

THe horrible dream had shaken him to the core.

***************

Annie crept out of bed, cold and terrified.  Her feet touched the frigid floor
but she felt distanced from reality.  A dream, a horrible dream, had frightened
her into wakefulness.  It was the lady in blue, the one in the picture.

*************

As if he sensed someone, Barnabas rose from the bed and put on a heavy dressing
gown.  The forlorn and empty house was silent but as he walked into the dark
front room, he saw a shadow standing against the far wall.

"No!  No, it cannot be....you cannot return!  I forbid it...  No!"

**********

Annie cried out as a shade, blacker than night, floated across her room and
seemed to linger by the moonlit window.  Before she flung open the door to call
for Quenin, she saw the outline of a woman.

It was the lady in the picture from the North Wing.  Andie Unregistered User
(2/12/03 1:32 pm) 130.86.138.5 A cold hand and a colder heart 

For all Carolyn's efforts, all she came back with from her adventure was a
cold.  Julia Hoffman tried to comfort her: "You've only been sick for 3 days
Carolyn and it's a virus; nothing I can prescribe anything but rest and fluids
for.  You'll have to stay quiet and find things to do indoors for a few more
days.  And don't supplement the cold medicine with brandy-that dehydrates you
and just masks the symptoms."

"Yes, doctor.  I'll be a good girl," Carolyn sniffled, disgusted with the turn
of events.  She'd tramped all over the woods and to the Old House twice in one
day, plus she'd walked into Collinsport but she never found out anything about
the mysterious relative.  He was the needle in the haystack, and her side, that
rankled her and added to her frustration.

Even Annie wasn't terribly sympathetic.

"Carolyn, he's nobody you should be chasing after," she said, pouring the hot
tea and adding some sugar to Carolyn's cup.  "Besides, there's plenty of
eligible young guys in town, one of which I know has a sharp eye out for you
already."

Carolyn sneezed.  "That's doesn't mean much right now." She wasn't sure how
much Annie knew about her adventures.

Annie smiled at the poor sick lady.  "Put your feet up.  Mrs.  Johnson's making
some clam chowder for lunch and I know Elizabeth mentioned having something
really special for dinner."

"My diet isn't what concerns me today," Carolyn grumbled, wiping her runny nose
again.

Annie picked up the tea things to take them to the kitchen.  "Lunch is about
ready I'm sure.  Why don't I bring in a tray here-it's warmer than the dining
room.  We could have a bite in front of the fire and chat."

"No thanks, my voice is already hoarse." Carolyn got up and padded towards the
door.  "I'm going upstairs to lie down for a bit.  Maybe I'll feel more like
food in an hour."

"I'll tell Mrs.  Johnson to keep the soup warm for you."

Disgusted with herself and the cold, Carolyn went to her room.  It was cool
insiide but wrapped in a warm blue bathrobe over her jeans and blouse, she felt
a little better.  She sat by the window, gazing out into the bleak wintery
scene.  "Even the birds aren't singing today.  I guess nobody feels good." She
sighed, bored to death with the long morning and having blow her nose.

She heard voices downstairs but it was only Quentin again.  She heard Annie's
glad cry and Mrs.  Johnson's comments about dirty floors and soot in the
fireplace.  The normal house noises floated up the stairs and drifted into the
room.

"Carolyn, can I get you anything from town?" Annie called to her up the
stairwell.

"No thank you," she replied but inwardly she said "just the elusive Mr. 
Collins."

She heard the door slam.  "How boring!  How infintessimally boring!" She
puttered about, unable to settle or read or just daydream, she felt so
frustrated and aggitated.

An hour later, she heard another voice.  She was sure who it was.  "And I look
like a Cinderella reject!" Carolyn ran a comb through her hair and pinched her
wan cheeks, trying to put some life into her looks.

"No, Mr.  Collins.  I can't ask Quentin and Annie to come back.  They left for
town.  You might catch them in Collinsport but I'm not sure what they planned
to do today."

"Then I assume Miss Anne has recovered?" The voice sounded worried.

"Well, she seemed well enough this morning.  She didn't say anything to me
about anything although it's not my business to ask."

The voice replied, "I'm sure Quentin must be concerned about her, given the
shock my presence seems to have inflicted."

Carolyn came down the stairs, feeling a little rough and tired.  

"Miss Stoddard.  I'm sorry to intrude..."

"Your intrusion seems to be most appropo, Mr.  Collins.  In fact, I was
wondering when we might see you again." Carolyn smiled at him, even though her
nose itched.

"I was under the impression that Miss Anne was unwell but I see she's gone
out."

"Yes, with Quentin." Carolyn emphasized the name.  There was no mistake about
her implications.

"Miss Stoddard, may I speak with you?" Mrs.  Johnson took his coat and went
into the smaller den to lay it out by the heater.

"Well, Mr.  Collins.  What brings you back?  The last time we met, you abruptly
disappeared." Carolyn didn't feel well enough to play games.  If he'd come to
see her, fine.  If not, she was going to make sure he left knowing just what
was what.

"Carolyn, I must tell someone.  I must!  THere's a horrible secret about this
family, something even Quentin doesn't know.  And I'm afraid he's going to find
out and that it may cost him.....cost him....Annie!"

"Mr.  Collins, stop playing mystery with me.  I offered to help you once.  Now
you're simply spiting my offer!" Carolyn felt her face turn red.  "Either come
out with it, or leave!  I'm not feeling myself today....thanks to this damp
climate and constant rain!  And certainly you're not adding any comfort to my
day by barging in with more nonsense!"

"It's not nonsense!  You saw....the ghost...in the North Wing.  Annie saw a
photo that frightened her."

"How do you know about the picture?"

"Because....she looks like the woman in the picture.  I knew that the moment we
first met."

"And how," Carolyn remarked, "does this pertain to me?  So far, you've told me
nothing I don't already know."

"Carolyn, this family is cursed.  It was cursed long before your mother and my
mother lived at Collinwood.  And I am the cause!"

Carolyn gazed at his tortured face and a shot of pity went through her heart.

"So.....how can I help you?  I'm not even sure we're related yet you and
Quentin seem at odds at every step.  And nobody seems to know much about you
before your arrival here."

"There's good reason for that, which I'll divulge at another time."

"And when might that be, Mr.  Collins?" For the first time all day, Carolyn
felt a surge of energy.  He wasn't going to get off that easily, cold or not.

"I'm not sure.  It all depends on Quentin's decision.  About the cemetary."

"Ah.  So that's the real reason for your visit.  Well, I know absolutely
nothing about it.  Land or not, I'm not familiar with his business dealings,
nor do I wish to be."

"That land is part of the curse!  Desecrate that and the curse will come full
circle upon you, your loved ones and.....and...Anne." His eyes fell upon her,
so buring with hatred she wasn't sure what to do.  "That's why I want your
help.  Convince your cousin that what he's about to do must never happen.  At
any cost!"

Carolyn turned her back on him.  "And if not?  If I have no influence on
Quentin?"

"Then what must happen, will." The deathly quiet in those words made Carolyn's
heart colder by the moment.

"Well, I suppose that's a threat?" She turned to him, eyes blazing.  "I don't
go with threats, from anyone!"

She went to the door.  Thwarted from her original plan, now wounded, she
angrily opened it and pointed.

"YOu'll find your coat and things in the den on the chair.  Now please, I'm not
feeling well today and must rest.  Pardon me for not seeing you out!" Her anger
could melt an iceberg.

"Very well, Miss Stoddard.  I will leave you."

Carolyn was halfway up the stairs when Mrs.  Johnson asked about all the fuss.

Through tearful eyes, Carolyn called back, "It was nothing.  He wanted to see
Quentin anyway.  I'll let him know when they get back from town."

Carolyn had no intention of letting anyone know anything.  Andie Unregistered
User (2/19/03 12:22 pm) None but the lonely heart 

Barnabas considered his options.  Stay and let the curse take its toll, or
leave and leave Carolyn, Annie and the mysterious women to their fates or try
again to persuade Quentin to give up his dream of building on the property. 
None of the options gave him any hope.  Carolyn's obvious interest in him
bothered him and his worries about Anne and the ghost frightened him.  He felt
the world crushing about his shoulders once more.  But he had to make a choice.

"I've got to speak to Quentin once more," he decided.  "Until I'm sure he won't
change his mind, that's the only way.  He must not tear apart those graves!"

And there was good reason for that.  Reason that only Barnabas Collins knew.  A
horrible secret, worse than any ghost or goblin in Collinwood waited for anyone
who disturbed the dead!

Quentin and Anne rode home, oblivious to anything but themselves and happiness.

"Darling, I'm glad you decided." Anne beamed at her love.  "This will be so
much nicer than battling demons and fighting with that strange Mr.  Collins
over the property."

Quentin smiled.  "Yes, I think this decision will work out very well...for
everyone." He didn't want to think about the lady who had appeared out of the
past at his doorstep, claiming to be a long lost relative.  That could wait. 
For now, she was safely out of the way, being escorted by the young surveyor
who had helped him with the property.  No, she wasn't anyone to worry about. 
And if she was, Quentin had a good lawyer, and good bankers who could make sure
she didn't bilk him out of anything that was rightfully his.

Anne smiled back as the car stopped in front of the mansion.  "Here we are,
back again, safe and sound...I hope." 

Quentin laughed.  "As sound as I know how to be." They got out and walked up
the drive to the door.

"Our last weekend here.  Well, let's tell everyone tonight at dinner.  I'm sure
it will be a big surprise and probably a big relief to the overworked Mrs. 
Johnson."

Anne laughed.

A frowning Carolyn met them as they went up to change for dinner and dry off.

"Well, dear, any news?" Quentin pinched her cheek but she glared back at him.

"Nothing happened all day.  And I'm so tired and bored being stuck inside while
I recover!  YOu can't imagine..."

"Yes, I can.  But at dinner, we have a surprise for everyone.  Some good news."
Quentin patted Carolyn's shoulder.  "Go on, get ready for supper.  We'll all
have some hot wine and celebrate."

Anne smiled mysteriously.  "Sounds good to me." Carolyn shrugged and walked to
her room, still in a bad mood.

As the family assembled for dinner, Quentin poured out the hot port and raised
his glass.

"As you know, Anne and I want our own place.  Not surprising I would think. 
However.....as you also know a certain Mr.  Collins has been meddling in
property litigation and causing me a great deal of stress over it.  Given that,
I made a decision which I think will alleviate the problem and give Anne and I
a new start."

"What?  What is it?" Everyone clammered at once.

Anne stood up and linked her hand in Quentin's.  "We're going to live..."

Quentin finished for her.  "In the old manse just on the coast, the place
everyone calls, for lack of a better term, the Old House."

Mrs.  Johnson lowered her glass and stared.  Carolyn shuddered.  "That place is
full of rats and mice and ...."

"Maybe now, but next week, I have the exterminators coming, I've found a good
carpenter and Jed is going to help me move out some of the junk and refinish
the flooring in the living room and kitchen.  In a few weeks, we should be able
to move in so we can work full time on the place.  My business is being handled
by apt hands and I can spare a month to make the house 'sea worthy' as you'd
say.  New carpets, new furniture and..." he smiled at his lover, "a woman's
touch and we'll have the place good as new."

Mrs.  Johnson muttered something and vanished into the kitchen.

"Well, don't everyone talk at once.  What do you think about it." Quentin sat
down and sipped the warm wine.

Someone pounded at the door.  Carolyn jumped up and ran to answer it.

She came back, followed by a very formal looking Mr.  Collins.  He had on a
dark blue suit and crisp white shirt, impeccably tailored and he had a black
cloak over his arm.

"Mr.  Collins!  Join us in a slight celebration.  I've just informed everyone
of Anne's and my plans for living quarters.  I intend not to build, as you so
objected to, on the north part of the property after all.  Since you had so
many concerns about my plans, I've gone to see my solicitors and made a better
decision.  We intend to fix up the old place by the sea and live there."

Barnabas turned white as a sheet.

"Now, Mr.  Collins.  Please don't be upset." Anne ran to get him some water. 
"Quentin and I talked this over.  I was the one who persuaded him not to dig up
the graves that you were so worried about.  Please, here, drink this.  You
looik as if someone had..."

"I'm sorry.  The news is quite a shock although I cannot blame you for your
decision.  However...."

"I realize you've been residing at the place since you came here, but we do
have a few good hotels and residence inns in Collinsport and frankly, cousin, I
haven't seen a speck of evidence that links you with that house in the frrst
place." Quentin's face showed he wasn't to be questioned.

"But..." Barnabas put the glass down and folded his arms.  "You don't know....I
must tell you...."

"Nonsense.  The case is closed." Quentin gave him a menacing look.  "And we
intend to start construction next week.  Monday morning to be exact."

Barnabas' mind spun.  Anne, the lady in the photo, Carolyn; all of them blended
into a red haze.  Now the danger was worse than had they dug up every last
grave and headstone on the grounds!

"You're welcome to stay," Carolyn added, not meaning it but from politeness,
forced to say it.

As if he had given up, Barnabas rose and threw his cloak over his shoulders. 
The gesture sent cold chills up Annie's spine.

"No, I cannot stay.  I must repair home and prepare for my removal.  Please,
don't see me out.  I know the way."

Triumphant, Quentin nodded, then settled down at the table, grinning at Anne. 
"Well, I guess that's that.  And frankly, I'm glad.  It was too tiresome
dealing with him.  My lawyers can take care of the rest."

Once in the woods, Barnabas felt his heart constrict.  He had to get back to
the house, to hide the coffin, to cover his tracks.  And to find a resting
place.  Out of sight and mind, and Carolyn and Anne.  Yes, out of Anne's reach
particularly...and the reach of a certain person from his past.  

Andie 
Unregistered User (2/28/03 10:15 am) 
COme Saturday morning 

A bright weekend dawned on Collinsport and for once, it wasn't raining or
snowing.  Some of the snow had melted and streams and rivelletes courses over
the sidewalks and through the cemetary.

Anne and Quentin discussed plans over a hot breakfast, dominated by Quentin's
blueprints and phone calls from architects and tradesmen making bids on
repairs.  Finally, he got up from the oaken dining table.

"Well, it seems we have the whole day to go over to the Old House and survey
the damages.  I'm sure there's a lot that needs to be fixed so I'd suggest
putting on some boots and walking out there this morning.  Bring some paper and
pens, will you, dear?  I want to make some notes about the place before we tear
anything out."

At those words, Anne gave a slight start.  What had made Quentin put it so
bluntly?  SOmething told her that the work was going to be more dangerous than
if they'd desecrated the graves, but she shoved her thoughts aside and prepared
to go with him.

"Alright.  Ruler, pens, paper, blueprints...I guess we're equipped for the
work.  Funny I haven't heard back from that young man who ran off with the
stranger at the door the other day.  Oh well, I;ll leave a message at his
office Monday.  Come on Anne.  We've got lots of work to do."

Anne galloped after Quentin, excited to see the manshion she would soon be
mistress of and excited to see the birthplace of Barnabas Collins.

"I'll go open the front door.  Stay here.  I don't know who or what might be
squatting inside." Quentin took a heavy limb that had fallen nearby and strode
up to the door.  Knocking three times with it, he waited a few seconds before
using his keys.

The door swung open, but on one appeared to be home.

"Guess it's empty after all.  Perhaps Mr.  Collins has actually removed himself
from the premises.  Well, let's go in.  I'll find some lights.  It's pretty dim
in here even in the daylight."

No bright sunshine flooded the dustry front rooms and the heavy drapes were
pulled.  Quentin shook them out and pulled them away from the windows.  Cobwebs
and spiders fell all over the floor but he ignored the mess and gradually got
the windows open.  "Faugh!  Smells like a grave in here!  Anne, come on in. 
Nobody's home but us."

Anne crept inside the large hallway.  The house felt dead and cold, like a
coffin.  "Quentin, this place is awful!  Are you sure we can't find someplace
else to live?  Isn't there some other property?" Annie was afraid.

"Not that we own outright and this place will fall down someday if we don't get
it ship shape.  That fellow looked at the roof briefly.  It won't last another
winter.  In spite of building codes way back when, this place wouldn't stand
another 10 feet of snow next year." Quentin was fiddling with his blue prints.

Anne tried a door that seemed to lead nowhere.  She opened the front bedroom
door.  The room was musty and damp but nothing seemed disturbed.  The bedspread
was covered with dust; the mirrors were dirty, the corners and ceiling of the
room was a mess of webs and waterstains.  Anne shut the door.  An awful feeling
of dread seeped into her heart.

"ANne, go out in the kitchen and see if the gas is turned on.  Try the stove. 
I'd love some tea.  I brought some tea things in my backpack.  Maybe we can
make this livable at least for a few hours."

Anne ran and gave him a hug.  "Trust you to be civilized in the wilderness!"
SHe laughed and went to find the kitchen.

A single door in the entryway, just right of the kitchen door, caught her eye. 
Something told her not to open it.  She stared at it for a long time.

"Anne?  Something wrong?" Quentin was at her side.

"No...no..nothing.  Just...I wondered where this door leads.  It doesn't seem
to want to open."

"No matter.  We can explore later." He went back to his blueprints.

Anne found the kitchen.  She wondered if mice had taken over but seeing none at
first, she tried the stove.  Unbelievably, the gas came on and a slight humming
sound, domestic and comforting, started up.  She ran a kettle full of water and
put it on the stove.

"Darling, the gas works!  Someone must have paid to have it turned on again!"

"Yes, and I imagine I know who that was.  Our mystery visitor seems to have
made himself quite at home."

"Well, I can't much blame him, although he should have asked you, I know."
Annie came out looking for the backpack and the tea things.

"Seems you're taking a gentler notion to my supposed cousin," Quentin remarked.

Anne started.  "Not really.  Just...well, he does seem rather unattached.  I
think Carolyn would like to change that." Anne giggled.

"Well, I doubt if she can.  Mr.  Collins may have to vacate sooner than he
thinks."

Anne frowned.  For some strange reason, this wasn't good news.  Vacate, she
thought.  Where would he go?

She turned back into the kitchen and tried to find a teapot.  Glancing up, she
thought she saw someone walking past the house.  She ran to a window and looked
out but sunlight and shadows flitted through the old garden at the back and no
one was around.  THen she saw another movement.  SHe thought she saw a rope
swing, swaying back and forth, back and forth at the end of the garden,
attached to one of the larger oaks.  Back and forth....the motion hypnotized
her.

She tore herself away from the pendulum....back and forth....she couldn't think
of that anymore.  She had to...she had to...she didn't remember what it was she
hd to do....

A form materialized next to her.

"Anne.  I must speak to you." 

It was Barnabas Collins.

Back and forth...back and forth...was it him that was hypnotizing her?  She
coulnd't breathe!  SHe couldn't speak!

"Yes, Anne.  We must speak.  Now.  While Quentin is busy.  Come with me." He
held out a thin pale hand.  She took it.

They were in an old garden, with lilacs and roses.  It was spring.  SHe was
dressed in blue.  Barnabas walked her around the patio, under a grape arbor
that smelled of ripe grapes and rosemary.  Back and forth.....she looked up at
him.  

At first, his face was kind and smiling, then it dissolved into a cunning,
cruel visage of horrible proportions.

She screamed but nothing came out of her mouth!

Another scream!  She struggled, trying get away from him!

The kettle was boiling furiously.  Anne blinked and saw she was in the kitchen,
standing at the range.  The kettle whistled; that had been the screaming.

But the cruel image of Barnabas Collins reared its ugly head in her mind once
more.  Had she ever left the house?  Was the garden a dream?  Had he actually
been here?  She wasn't at all sure.

One thing she did know.  This house was noplace she should live.  She poured
the water into the pot, shaking and trying not to spill.

Quentin walked in.  "I heard the tea kettle and got worried that you didn't
take it off the burner.  Everything alright?"

Anne smiled wanly.  "I guess I was daydreaming.  Sorry." She handed him the
warm pot.

They walked out to the front room.  Sunlight still streamed in the windows. 
SOmewhere a clock struck nine.  "Funny.  He must have wound those old clocks,
too.  SOme of them are quite valuable."

Another clock tolled the hour only this one played a gentle melody, an old song
that Annie didn't know but that rang in her heart.  SHe saw Quentin turn pale. 
SHe felt the ghosts of the past surrounding them.

The clock stopped.  Quentin turned away from her but she could see he was
upset.

"What is it, darling?  What's wrong?"

"Nothing." But she wasn't convinced.  "Just a memory.  That's all...nothing."
Andie Unregistered User (3/3/03 1:00 pm) Forgive the intrusion but......  

Okay, I admit it.  This was based on a dream I had last night (I tried to keep
it G-rated!!).

Barnabas skulked in the basement until Quentin and Annie had finished working
upstairs.  THey left as the light was fading from the woods and the night owls
had begun their soft hootings.

The house was quiet but he knew peace wouldn't be possible for very much
longer.  And there was no place to go...nowhere to run...his hiding place was
already in jeopardy!  He would have to enlist some other help in order to
prevent his terrible secret from being discovered.

Just as Annie and Quentin were making their way back to Collinwood, Carolyn was
making her way to the Old House.  Unnoticed by her family, she'd slipped out
and managed to elude her mother and Mrs.  Johnson.  She was determined to find
Barnabas!  Their last meeting had been less than cordial but with womanly
curiosity, she was determined to find out more about him.

She gained the steps just as a sliver of moon came up over the transepts of the
building.

"How lovely," she said out loud.  "And how appropriate." She pulled her fox fur
tighter about her shoulders.  THe luxurious coat was an antique from her
grandmother when women dressed just to go get the mail every day.

She heard a hinge squeak and what she thought could be footsteps behind the
door.  Carolyn thumped on the heavy iron knocker.  "Is anyone home?  Mr. 
Collins, are you there?" She waited then tried again.  "Hello!  It's Carolyn. 
Ms.  Stoddard.  Mr.  Collins?"

The door opened quietly.  "Miss Stoddard.  I'm sorry, but I cannot permit you
to come in.  I've had a very trying day and I'm not receiving visitors."

"But Mr.  Collins.  I thought...I came out to apologize to you for my poor
behavior last time we met." Carolyn put a small slender foot in the doorway so
he couldn't close it.  "Couldn't I come in for a few moments?  It's much too
cold out for me to just stand here."

"Very well." He didn't seem amused or glad to see her but she would change
that.

"May I have some tea, if it's not an imposition?  Please.  I'm chilly and I've
just gotten over that nasty cold that really made me so unfriendly last week."
She sluffed off her coat in front of the fire.

Barnabas smiled grimly.  "Well, I suppose it wouldn't be chivalrous to let you
catch cold.  Particularly when you haven't been well." He walked out of the
room to light the gas.  "I do have some Russian Caravan tea.  WOuld that do?"

Carolyn was struck by his domestic manner.  How could someone so charming
alienate everyone at Collinwood?

"Yes, please.  That would do fine." SHe smiled as she heard little kitchen
noises and the water in the kettle.  She wondered if he had done this for
someone in the past.

He returned to the room and tried not to looked surprised when he noticed
Carolyn poised on the silk divan next to the fire.  She wasn't overtly watching
him but he sensed her interest.

"Miss Stoddard, I must be blunt.  I'm afraid I'm going to have to remove from
Collinsport very soon.  You see.."

"Yes, I know.  Quentin's plans for the house.  Well, I guess that's pretty
inevitable.  Although I'd hate to have you leave on our account."

"I have no other place to go."

Carolyn's eyebrows raised.  "You mean, no family...or friends?"

"No immediate living family.  And perhaps you've noted that not everyone has
been so solicitous of me as you have." He walked closer to the fire.

Carolyn reached out and took his pale hand.  "Mr.  Collins." She started to say
something but when she looked into his dark eyes, she forgot the words.  Why
had she come to see him?  What was hiding behind his long lashes and deep
looks?  She couldn't withdraw her eyes.

"Carolyn.....I know why you came tonight.  It wasn't because of what you've
told me.  I know all.  I can see all."

She tried to blink but she couldn't.  His eyes bored into her, deeper and
deeper until she felt lost.

He gently ran his fingers down her neck.  "Yes, my dear.  I know why you came."

She felt cold, colder, coldest.  But she couldn't move.  She didn't want to.

"Carolyn.....look at me!  Listen to me!" SHe couldn't do anything else!

Suddenly she saw his head bend over her shoulder and a dull pain invaded her
but she didn't want to run away!  She felt the blood draining from her heart
but where was it going?  She didn't care; she clung to him as if he were life
itself!

"Carolyn....Carolyn..." She heard his voice as if her whole body were filled
with the sound.  She slumped into the black void.

Barnabas lay the still body on the divan and walked to the window where a
sliver of moon shone down on the garden.  Withered grasses and rampant weeds
tossed by a sharp wind brushed the windowpanes and rattled next to the walls.

"She is mine!" He looked once more at the comatose woman, then walked towards
the basement door.  "She will be mine and she will do my bidding!" Andie
Unregistered User (3/19/03 1:26 pm) Hopelessly devoted to youoooo....  

"Dearheart, have you noticed anything usual about Carolyn?" Annie was seated
with Quentin in the drawing room, looking over some blueprints.  SHe still felt
a musty horror about the Old House and it's occupant but Carolyn's rather
bizarre behavior had taken place of that.

"Not really," Quentin said absently as he made marks and measurements on the
plans.

"No, dear.  Look at me.  Something's wrong with her."

"My dearest, I've got to finalize these plans by tomorrow morning.  I'm afraid
Carolyn and her feminine woes are your venue right now."

Annie smirked.  "Goodness!  Men!  You can build rocket ships but the least
female trouble and you hide!" She laughed and finished her sherry.  "Okay. 
I'll go talk to her myself.  But I am worried.  She won't eat and seems to go
rambling about with no purpose now.  Won't even go shopping with me.  Now
that's strange!"

ANnie went upstairs towards Carolyn's room.  

"Carolyn?  Are you in there?  Can I come in?"

A pale and flustered Carolyn met Annie at the door.

"Well, I suppose so." Carolyn shuffled back into the dim room.

"Good grief!  WHere's the light?  It's too dark in here.  No wonder you.."

"Don't turn on the lights!" Carolyn snapped.  Then she paused.  "I am sorry. 
Really.  I've had the most atrocious migraine and light hurts my eyes.  Please,
Annie.  I'm not much company today.  I'm sorry but I don't feel good."

"Mrs.  Johnson said you felt well enough to go out last night and you didn't
get back until after midnight." Annie confronted her friend.

"Mrs.  Johnson, that busibody.  She has better things to do than babysit me!"
Carolyn scoffed and bit her lip.

"Carolyn, is everything alright?" Annie didn't believe Carolyn's excuse about a
headache.  She'd been up and about and certainly well two days before....before
they had gone to the Old House...

"Yes.  Really.  I'm just out of sorts." Carolyn turned and put her cold hands
on Annie's shouders.  "Annie.  Annie, I want to tell you but.....I can't!" She
began to cry.

Suspicious, Annie wanted to call Julia Hoffman but Carolyn refused adamantly to
see any doctor.

"If you're ill..." Annie began.

"Then I'll take care of myself." Carolyn put her hands down in defeat.  "Annie,
please.  I'm too tired right now and my head really does ache so.  I promise
I'll be better.  Tomorrow for sure."

Annie left the room but she could hear Carolyn crying softly behind the heavy
door.

"Quentin.  I'm going back to the Old House." ANnie already had her coat on and
was getting her hiking boots from the closet.  "Something is wrong with Carolyn
and I think I know what it is."

"Annie!  It's dark out and too cold to be rambling in the woods now.  This is
crazy!  You can't go alone out there."

"Yes I can.  And Carolyn is lying to me about that headache.  IN fact, she's
upstairs crying right now and yesterday, she was fine except for a sniffle or
two.  She lied to me about what's wrong but I know it's that Barnabas Collins!"

"Annie, you can't go see him tonight.  No, that's crazy.  It's dangerous and
it's cold.  What if you get sick?"

"I won't be gone long and I'll drive the car around.  Quentin, please, your
cousin is sick and it's becuase of that horrible man!" She stamped her foot and
pounded the side table.  "She's in love with him and whatever he's done to her
he has to answer for it!"

"In love?  With..."

"Yes!  I knew it weeks ago.  Ever since he set foot in this house, I've felt
crushed and unhappy about it myself.  Carolyn is falling in love with the wrong
man and she knows it!  Maggie knows it!  Can't you see?"

"Annie, if you're not back in half an hour I'll come for you.  I'm going to set
my watch.  You have half an hour, no more, or I'm bringing the sherriff!" Andie
Unregistered User (3/21/03 3:37 pm) Hopelessly devoted to you part II 

Annie regretted not waiting for Quentin.  The cold air seeped under the lining
of her coat and into her boots.

"I'll be glad once we really begin renovations on the Old House," she said out
loud to the trees.  "I can't stand all this!  Too many people have been hurt by
the Collins family.  Even sometimes I wonder if Quentin realizes how his family
has treated each other.  It's a wonder they don't still have duels!"

She tromped through the woods and soon found herself on the familiar road up to
the Old House porch.  A dim light shown in a window.

"So he does live here!  And all that talk about family and not having a place
to stay!  Well, he's about to get a very swift eviction." Annie walked up to
the front door and banged the knocker down.  "Hello!  Hello!  Open the door Mr.
 Collins.  I have something to say to you!"

It was a few moments but the door did open.  Barnabas Collins, in a black suit
and smoking jacket against the frigid wind, ushered Annie inside.

"I knew sooner or later we would have to meet." His words fell like a death
knoll in the cold rooms.

"Carolyn is acting very strangly and she's been crying upstairs at Collinwood. 
Yes, I know you're connected to her in some way and I know why she's crying!"
Annie faced him.

"Annie, I would have done anything to avoid this confrontation.  You yourself
told Carolyn not to get involved.  SHe told me you did." It wasn't exactly true
but the implications were there all the same.  "Carolyn tresspassed on very
very thin ice.  What hurt she feels is all her own.  I tried to tell her not to
get involved with me!" He followed Annie to the fireplace.

Annie wasn't buying any of it.  "Mr.  Collins.  Carolyn is Quentin's cousin and
where her well-being is concerned, as a woman, I'm asking you to stay away from
her!" 

Barnabas stared at Annie as if she'd suddenly turned transparent and was a
ghost.  The way the fire lit up her hair and her angry eyes reminded him of
something else from the past.

Annie turned around, knowing her presence bothered him.  "Mr.  Collins, Quentin
is going ahead with his plans to remodel this house.  It will be our home in
the future.  My advice to you is..."

Annie spun around.  Barnabas was standing so close to her she felt hot air
inching down her neck!

"How dare you!" She put up a hand and slapped him!

His eyes turned soft and he staggered away from her.  Annie grabbed the
fireplace poker behidn her back but it wasn't necessary.

"I'm...I'm sorry." He walked away to a window on the far side of the room. 
"Please.  Forgive my intrusion."

"No, I won't.  You're an evil man and I know i look like some dead woman in a
picture in the North wing but I'm not her!"

"She's not dead!" Barnabas thundered at Annie.  Stricken, for a moment he felt
the presence of the other world, the dead world, tugging at him but he stalked
towards the fire as if the heat would save him from destruction.  "She is very
much alive and determined that I should suffer!  Yes, she is alive!"

Annie stared at the crazed man.  "You can't possibly mean that.  I saw the
photo."

"It's not a photo!  It's full of phantoms, ghosts that are living, breathing,
things, ready to claim their prize.  Ready to take me back at the least
provocation!" He pointed maliciously at her.  "And you have provided them with
the bait to entrap me!"

"I want nothing to do with you," she shouted at him, but in her heart, she knew
it wasn't true.  The pain of losing someone flooded her soul, she could feel
cold tongs of pain crushing her, bending her will.  "NO!  NO!  I don't want to
be a part of the past!  I won't do it!" As if she could see someone else and
hear a ghostly voice, she protested but every time she opened her mouth, she
thought she heard another woman's voice, a sweeter, more insidious one,
mimicking her.

"Let her go!" Barnabas shouted into the room.  "You don't want her-you want me!
 Let go of her!" He flung ANnie back and put himself in the way of the
advancing harm.

"I'm the one you want to hurt!  Not her!"

Suddenly, a bright flame coated both of them and Annie felt her body ripped
into millions of pieces!  She shut her eyes and screamed!

When she opened them again, she was standing in a garden, and it was spring.  A
warm breeze tickled her arms underneath the blue dress with white lace that
covered her body.

And walking towards her, grim and tight lipped, was the man in the picture she
had seen in the North Wing!  Andie Unregistered User (3/24/03 6:48 pm)
Something Borrowed Something Blue 

"My, aren't you the morose one," the lady in blue teased her consort.  Barnabas
sat at her side but took no pleasure in the green scenery and fresh spring air.
 She fiddled gently with the bouquet of flowers in her hands.

"Dearheart, if it's not too much trouble, do put on a smile.  Mr.  and Mrs. 
Bestwich are coming over.  I would so like them to join us at the wedding.  You
know, our wedding?" The blue woman laughed quietly.  "I'm sure that's been the
one thing on your mind you thought I'd forgotten about."

"Yes, I thought you had." He stood up and walked behind a large tree where he
leaned, half in shadows, away from the crowded bench.

The couples around him spoke and laughed but there was no laughter in his
heart.  Annie felt as if she was watching the whole screne enacted below her,
yet she was part of it too.  She felt the lady's flowers, the cool air, the
sensual touch of the dress, but she could not stop the terror in her heart that
what was happening was not to her.

The lady stood up.  "My fiance is not feeling himself.  Perhaps some time alone
would suit....both of us." She smiled at her companions.  "Mrs.  Bestwhich, we
might go watch the archery competition.  I hear my friend, Richard Lopes, is
quite a good challenger."

Barnabas winced and tried not to hear the cruelty in her voice.  Of two people
in the world, only she had the capability of wounding him mortally.

Annie watched the lady walk off, all the time feeling the earth under her
leather shod feet and seeing Mrs.  Bestwich, a fat,jolly older lady, talking at
her with some eagerness about a wedding.  The Blue Woman was a cruel
taskmaster, she thought, but how can I escape?  I'm stuck in this loop, I'm
part of the past now.  Even Barnabas can't help me!

Suddenly, her whole imitation world vanished!  She was back in the Old House,
standing in front of the cold hearth!  Barnabas ran to her!

"Thank goodness you're back!" He seemed almost out of his wits but in a few
moments returned to a horrified calmness that scared Annie.

"I...  I couldn't escape!  Something...someone, had me in its grasp!  I tried
but I couldn't get away from her!"

"And neither can I.  That picture in Collinwood, the one you and Maggie saw. 
It's alive!  Annie, it's alive!" he trembled.  "She wants her revenge and at
any cost!"

"That's what you were trying to tell Quentin wasn't it, that I was in danger? 
That's why you tried to get him to put off doing something to the graveyard,
isn't it?  Because she's....she's..."

"Yes, Annie.  The Blue Woman, my former love, lies buried there.  To dig up her
grave and let her spirit out would mean certain destruction to everyone I
love." He walked to the other end of the room.

"But I only saw part of what happened.  She didn't show me anything but that
photo of the garden that already exists." Annie touched his sleeve.  "Is there
something else I should know?"

"Yes.  Yes, there are many things.  Annie, you have come to Collinwood at a
time that bodes no future for you...or Quentin...if you don't leave at once. 
The Blue Lady already knows how to pull you into the past.  If she so
desires,she can imprison you there!  Forever!"

A world without Quentin?  A world of cruel lust and vengeance?  A world without
Quentin's love and trust in her?  It was unthinkable.

"There's got to be a way to exorcise her!  There has to be a way!"

"This is only the beginning.  And Carolyn....I've wronged Carolyn most
grieviously." 

If Annie could have known, he thought no wrong of the blundering and curious
woman.  His only thought was how to escape reliving a terrible past.  Carolyn
was just a victim, like all the rest, and he needed her to accomplish his ends.
 Sacrifice or not, he had to get Carolyn back to the house, to be with him,
when the Blue Lady came next.

"Annie.  I want you to do something for me.  SOmething which may seem very
wrong given my circumstances but something which must be done.  Tell Carolyn to
come here.  Tell her to come alone.  I must see her!  Tonight!"

"No!  She is in as much danger as I am and I won't permit you to harm her!  Do
what you like to me-I'm not afraid as long as Quentin loves me, but not
Carolyn!"

Annie stood by the door.  "No, I will not allow her to come here alone and be
harmed by anyone or even you!"

"Then what must come, must come.  I won't be responsible.  I've given all of
you fair warning.  Now, someone must pay what I've paid all these years!"

His thundering voice was answered with a call of a wolf,nearby, responding to
the tension in the air.  Annie screamed and tried to run out of the door but
with one strong arm, Barnabas detained her.  

"You'll never get out of this house alive," he snarled.  Andie Unregistered
User (4/3/03 5:48 pm) Hush little baby don't say a word 

"Carolyn, have you seen Annie lately?  Over an hour ago she said she was going
to the Old house.  I told her I was going after her if she didn't come back and
I haven't seen her since then!" Quentin was putting on his coat.  Carolyn stood
at the top of the stairs.

"No, in fact, I was just....oh dear.  I can't remember what I was going to do
just now." Carolyn gave him a sickly grin.  "Don't mind me....it's just this
blasted headache."

Quentin turned and grabbed his gun from a drawer in the side table.  "I may
need this.  I'm not going to let that goul harm my Annie."

"Quentin," Carolyn quavered, "please, let me go with you!"

"No!  You must stay here and if I call you from the Old House, call the sherrif
and get him and his dogs out there.  Do you understand me?" Quentin gave her a
snarl and flung open the door.  "I don't want anyone else hurt....except if
necessary, that cousin who is welching on me right now.  If he's touched one
hair..."

He ran up the drive to his car.  Carolyn heard the motor start up but she
couldn't move to go catch up with him.

"Oh no!  Barnabas...and Annie?" She almost fell down the stairs trying to run
and get a coat from the cloakroom.  She hurried into her snow boots and grabbed
a stray scarf from the mirror behind the door.  "I can't let Quentin hurt him! 
I can't!" She ran out, slamming the front door behind her.

**********

Annie woke up to find herself laying across a couch by the fire, which was
actually burning brightly.  Barnabas sat in a straight chair close by.  She
thought he might be sleeping but when she tried to get up and sneak past him,
he awoke.

"Annie!  Thank God, you're not hurt!" He held out a strong hand but she shunned
him.

"Get away from me, you monster!" She wanted to flee but the blanket he'd
wrapped around her got tangled under her feet.

"Get away from me!  Help, help!" She screamed.

Barnabas lept at her but only to catch her as she tripped and fell.  'Annie,
wait.  Please, it was that horrible woman in blue that caused me to try to hurt
you!  It's not me--you're safe now, safe...." He tried to calm her.  Finally
giving up, he held one end of the blanket while she struggled out of the other.

"No, I don't believe you!"

"Annie, look out the window.  Remember when you first came here, the first
time?  Remember when you thought you saw me in the window and you felt
something strange."

"How could you know what I felt then?"

"Because, the woman tried to harm you that time too.  She...she's in this
house, as solid as the beams that hold up the roof...and she won't leave me!"
He shook his fist at the ceiling.  A low rumbling caused a tremor in Annie's
heart.

"You see?  She knows!  She's afraid ....afraid of my..." He didn't finish.

Annie stopped struggling.  Another low rumble.  "Why should I believe you?" She
pulled hard and finally extracted herself from the soft cocoon.

"Annie, Quentin must not dig up those graves.  That woman's spirit will condemn
all of us should she be set free.  I would never..." He held out his hand to
her again.

She felt a twinge of grief, the same feeling she'd had when she met him at the
door and he'd looked at her so strangely.  Now that she knew the reason, the
same twinges still knocked at her heart and caused shivers of icy cold in her
limbs.

"But why should a dead woman keep you from finding someplace else to live? 
You're not responsible for the past!  Not now.  That's....impossible.  You
can't be the man in the picture."

"But ANnie, I am.  Believe me, were it any other way, I would gladly die to
make it so.  But for now I roam this place trying to dispel the spirits that
have entered Collinsport looking for vengeance.  Please believe me."

Annie looked at him.  He was still holding out his hand as if....as if....did
he....  was it possible???  She stepped closer.

"I know why Carolyn was crying.  And I know she loves you, only how and why is
a complete mystery to me.  But all the same, how can you stand here and talk to
me when you just threatened my life and then expect me to...." 

Barnabas looked away.  "It's the nature of the beast within me." He looked
ashamed.

Annie raised her head.  "Quentin will be here any minute.  I've overstayed my
time and he will come looking for me."

She seized his arm.  "Don't ask me why but you must get away from here.  Now! 
Don't be here when he comes or he might..."

"Death is a welcome guest if only...  only I never harm you." Barnabas turned
dark and sad eyes on Annie.

She walked to him and took his hand.  "I believe you.  I do.  In spite of..."

He bent his head to hers and kissed her gently, as a child might kiss a beloved
relative.

They never heard the car drive up, nor Carolyn's shouts as she and Quentin
tried to break down the door.

When Carolyn walked into the Old House, Annie jumped back from her cousin,
guilty and stricken.  Quentin walked in just behind her, not believing what
might be happening.

No one spoke.  

Andie 
Unregistered User (4/9/03 5:24 pm) 
Preserve your memories, that's all that's left you....  

If there was one word that could have described the look on Annie's face, it
would have to be "stunned." Quentin closed the door softly and stood, tall and
silent in the foyer.

"Perhaps Carolyn and I have come at a bad time," he said quietly, not moving
from his place.

Carolyn's eyes grew larger.  Annie felt herself sinking into the soft carpeting
without anything to grab hold of.

"No, Quentin, it's not what you think..."

"I can't think right now," he replied, the hurt so strong in his voice that
every word struck Annie in the heart.

"Quentin, please....I was trying to persuade your cousin to leave!  You've got
to believe me," she said, so softly Barnabas had to lean over to hear her.

"Yes, I believe you.  And I've had first experience with your persuasiive
powers.  I can't help but feel that my cousin also realizes how persuasive you
can be." There was no love in his voice, only a cold sorrow.  Annie slumped
onto the couch.

"Mr.  Collins, I won't be needing your services here as a caretaker.  Actually,
I won't be wanting anything you might have to offer me." Quentin put his coat
back on.  Carolyn was too frightened to move.

"Annie, I'll be going to the house, now," he said to her, looking away as if he
was ashamed.

"Quentin, please.." Annie started towards him but he turned away.

"Annie, meet me at the house.  I'll wait for you there.  Good evening Mr. 
Collins." Quentin started to help Carolyn to the door but turned around.  "Mr. 
Collins, please don't be here when I return tomorrow morning."

Annie walked back to the chair.  "Do you really want me to come back, or should
be I gone as well." Annie was surprised at her matter-of-fact question.  No
emotion leaked into her voice.

"Do as you wish," he said and walked out.

The door shut on the loveless and silent house.

"He doesn't love me anymore, Barnabas.  He doesn't love me." She said it as if
she wasn't sure but was afraid to hope.

"I know," the dark man answered.  "I too have suffered." 

"But you...how could you know?  Quentin is my soul mate!  He's as much a part
of me as...as that blue woman is a part of you.  I can't forget her anymore
than I can forget Quentin." She sighed heavily, barely able to stand up.  "My
life is over, Mr.  Colllins.  Without Quentin, I don't have a single thing
left."

"Yes, Annie you do." The force of his statement almost knocked her over.  "You
do!  Don't ever believe life isn't worth living!  I....I once believe that, and
it's cost me everything I ever loved."

"No, you don't understand at all," she cried out.  "No one does!" She rocked
back and forth, clutching her sides as if her heart and all her vital organs
would fall out of her body if she let go.  "No one, not even Carolyn,
understands how much I love him."

"More than yourself?" The question startled her.

"Yes," she answered without conviction.

"Then go back.  Apologize and belittle yourself," Collins snapped at her.  

"What are you suggesting?  That I simply walk away?"

"No!  I'm suggesting you have some courage, my dear.  Courage never spoiled
love.  If you love him, then show it!  Make him take you back!" He pointed at
the door.  "You only have to go through that portal to get back to him.  One
step is all it takes!  Force him to love you!"

"I can't!  That's not my way!" She looked so miserable Barnabas wanted to put
his arms around her but something stopped him.

"Then be unhappy and blame yourself for what's happened." He turned to leave
her but she flung herself in front of him.

"Tell me what to do!" She wasn't sure what his answer would be but anyone who
could survive the underworld surely could give her courage.

"I already told you.  You must make him love you again!  By any means, whatever
it takes.  He must be forced to see you as you are, a mortal nonetheless but a
proud one!  Stop thinking he doesn't love you and pretend he does!"

"Spoken from experience?  From your fiance who deserted you?  It seems your
plan didn't work with her!" Annie flared out at him.

He turned his back on her.  "I didn't try.  I let her go.  And if I wished to,
I could crush you here and now for that remark.  But I only wish for you to be
spared my anguish!  And yet you insist on taunting me!"

"I'm sorry," she shouted, "but you've forced me to!  I'm sick of hearing about
how you lost your only love." Hearing herself repeat his words, she almost
laughed.  "I guess you were right.  I'm being abominable.  Yes, I should go
back and pretend.  Maybe that's the only way." A small smile appeared on her
lips.  "Perhaps that's exactly what Quentin wants.  A woman who never shows her
true feelings." A hard seed had begun growing where her heart was split.  She
could feel a tiny green shoot bursting up through her veins.

"Yes, you should go back," he told her but her feet didn't move.

"I suppose.  You've given me courage somehow.  I don't pretend to understand
it, but I don't feel so timid anymore.  I might be able to patch things..."

"Not patch!  Make them work.  That's the only solution." Barnabas faced her. 
He took her hands.  "Annie," he started to say something but a force greater
that she could resist pushed her into his arms.

"Barnabas, I'll never give up.  Never." Whatever she meant she felt he
understood.  She put her arms around his tired shoulders and kissed him! 
Nothing she could have done would have prevented the passion she felt for him.

"Annie, no.  I cannot offer you love.  I can only offer you refuge from my own
past, my own mistakes."

"I know," she whispered, "but it is a past I have come to share.  Remember,
I've been there."

Why he let her go or how, she couldnt' remember.  The next thing she remembered
clearly was walking in the door at Collinwood.

"Quentin?  Quentin, I'm home now.  Just as you asked."

She walked proudly into the drawing room where he sat looking at some
blueprints with fogged eyes, not concentrating on anything but her voice.

"Quentin?  I've come back." She reached out gingerly and touched his arm.  He
stood up, still with his back to her.

"Quentin, answer me this!  Should I stay, or go?  One word, Quentin, will
decide it.  Do I stay," she demanded.

He turned around to her.  She blazed at him, fire in her eyes, as if she was
not going to take no for an answer.  The air felt heavy in the room, as if
something was crushing them.

Quentin grabbed her and like Rhett Butler, carried her across the room to the
fireside.  Setting her gently in a chair, he kissed her many times.  She smiled
up at him, confident and quiet.  Her eyes reflected a beauty he hadn't noticed
before.  She kissed his cheeks, his lips, his neck.

He didn't need to tell her what the answer was.  Andie Unregistered User
(4/21/03 4:44 pm) You're only an ocean away 

Carolyn fumbled with the bottle of aspirin.  Her head banged and every movement
shot terrible pain through her body.  Her neck in particular, ached and itched
and although she tried to cover up and tell-tale marks, she kept tearing away
the fabric to see if the fang indentations were healed.  Finally, driven to
distraction, she fled down to the drawing room.

Annie, gratefully nestled in Quentin's arms once more, lay half on the couch
across his body while he cradled her head and shoulders against his own.  They
made such a happy couple it made Carolyn's heart freeze.  She ran from the
room, unable to stop her tears.

"Quentin, shouldn't we..." Annie began but her lover hushed her.

"Carolyn's business is her own from now on.  I can't risk anything more
happening to you because of her...or Mr.  Collins.  He's been told to vacate
the Old house immediately.  I only hope for his sake, he is gone tomorrow."

CArolyn heard the dreaded sentence and sobbing quietly, dragged herself up the
steep stairs to the secret door off to one side.  Prying the hidden latch with
a key, she managed to slip past the heavy bolts and up to the second landing in
the passageway.

She had to get to the North Wing.  In her hand was a single match but hidden
under her dress in an inside pocket was a whole box of them.

**********

Barnabas walked from one end of the house to the other.  There was no other
choice.  He had to leave the place.  Dreading the daylight, he flung a heavy
cape over his shoulders and started to go out the door.  But something told him
to linger, that it wasn't safe outdoors.

*******

"You'll never se the light of day again, Barnabas Collins," Carolyn sobbed as
she lit one match and held it to the strange picture above the antique table. 
It caught suddenly, burning her hand.  The picture began burning steadily as
she watched with gleaming tears.  

"You cannot live without this picture and only I know why now!  Quentin doesn't
suspect a thing about Annie and you but I know the truth!  It's Annie in that
photo-and it has to be you!!!  I hate you!!  Hate you for what you've done!!!"
The overpowering urge to set fire to the whole room consumed her.

Striking another match, she set a portrait on fire, then another, then another.
 The ancient paints caught quickly, sending sparks and ashes into the musty
air.

Smoke billowed out from the wall behind the large painting of Quentin.

"I hate all of you!!  Everyone of you must die!!" Carolyn screamed, then
noticed the door wasn't quite shut.  Smoke would be going out from the landing
and soon somebody downstairs would notice the house was on fire!

"Die, Barnabas Collins!  DIe and let my love for you die as well!" Carolyn lit
the last match and let it burn the box.  Then tossing the box onto an old
wooden table in the corner, she ran from the room.

The flames rose, engulfing another portrait, dissolving into golds and red the
valuable likenesses of her ancestors.  Only she could hear the terrified
screams of the paintings as they turned to ash and dust.

***********

"Annie?  Annie, are you awake?  What's that smell?  Smoke?" Quentin shook her. 
A dread came over them and Annie hurried out of the drawing room into the musty
hallway entrance.

"Quentin!  Quickly, call the fire department!  THe house is on fire!" Aninie
cried out for Mrs.  Johnson and ran into the kitchen.  "Get out!  Fire!  Get
out of here now!"

************

Barnabas felt heat flood his veins and a horrible burning.  Something was
wrong!  He could feel the heat tearing up his blood, pouring from his brain. 
He hurt!  Something was wrong!  He ran outside into the cooler air and saw
smoke coming from the woods!  IT was coming from Collinwood!

********

Carolyn couldn't find the door.  The smoke was dulling her senses, blocking her
eyes, burning her nose.  She gasped for breath but the fetid air didn't allow
her to breathe propertly.

"Die!  All of you, die!" The terrible echos of her curses swirled around her. 
"Die!  Die!"

Suddenly hands grabbed her and dragged her away from the flames.  The
portraits' burning eyes stared as a strong hand pulled her up to her feet and
flung her over a broad pair of shoulders.  Carolyn screamed and kicked but the
hands woulnd't let her go.  Bodies slid along the walls, the faces of flame
cried out to her, begging to be extinguished.

"Die, die you traitor!" Carolyn called out to the stranger who rescued her and
now pulled her down the stairs to freedom.

Quentin and the firemen raced up the stairs with hoses and hatchets.  Annie,
terrified and calling for more help, tried to stop him but her love refused to
let the house tumble down around them.

Carolyn lay prone on the damp grass by the driveway, unconscious.

"Quentin!  No!  DOn't go up there, it's not safe," Annie screamed.

"I'm okay," he called, taking her in his smoky arms.  "The fire department has
it under control now.  The fire started inthe North Wing.  I found this..." He
held up the partially burned match box.  "Someone, or something, was playing
with matches!"

Annie didn't laugh.  Enough that her love was safe.  But where and how did
Carolyn fit into all this?  She thought she'd seen Carolyn carried out by a
masked and cloaked man but now Carolyn's body wasn't on the grass.  Had she
even been in the house?  Or had she gone out on another mysterious "errand"
before the fire started?

*********

Carolyn awoke on a white bed, covered in a silk eyelet spread.  At first she
didn't recognize the room, then she did.

"Carolyn." A soliatary voice seemed to call her name.

"Carolyn" The voice came closer.

She sat up, startled at being alive.  "What..  ..what...where am I?" Andie
Unregistered User (4/29/03 4:32 pm) Got to admit it, your addicted to love...  

Aftger the fire was out and the townspeople had had their fill of excitement,
Annie confronted Quentin about the old house.  Lingering wisps of smoke still
hung in the air and the fire department demanded that they stay in a hotel
until all the possible embers had been extinguished.

In the Collinsport Inn, a rather old fashioned, lavish place that almost
rivaled Collinwood, Annie sat on the high upholstered bed, facing Quentin.

"Dearheart, I know what you're going to say.  That we should abandon our plan
and just pack up and call it quits on Collinwood and the Old House.  But I
can't.  It's my property..."

"And what am I?  Chopped liver?" Annie glared at him and for the first time in
a long while, she felt like a fight.  "I'm not staying in that forsaken place,
with your weird cousins and Carolyn who is sick with love over some obscure
ghost in your pasts." She folded her arms.  "This time, I mean it.  It's either
me...." She didn't want to threaten him, he meant to much to her but fire wan't
something you fooled with.

"Annie, please.  Let's just sack out for the night here and get started again
in the morning.  I'm so tired I could sleep standing up."

Annie smiled, certain she had won the argument.  "Why sleep standing when you
could be more comfortable over her with me?" She held out her arms.

The morning came too early.  In spite of hot coffee and room service and the
hot shower, Annie's head ached and they still had not heard from the police
about Carolyn.

"ANnie, she will turn up.  I know it's strange not to worry about her, but
she's a grown woman and quite sure of herself in any situation." Quentin chewed
on a piece of toast, not at all happy about the events of the past day.

"I know you think so, but she's been acting so morbid and unstable these last
weeks.  Maybe....maybe Wynwood might be a good place for her, just to settle
down."

"WYnwood?!  That's hell on earth!  SHe'd never survive.  I'm surprised at you,
how can you be so calous?" Quentin shuddered.  "Carolyn's not crazy, she
overwrought but she's not insane.  No, I won't have her sent there.  But I
think I know of someone that might take her in just until we can move back to
Collinwood."


Annie's face fell.  So much and now she had lost it all again.  SHe was hoping
he would forget his violent past and be willing to leave it behind for Europe
or Paris or England, someplace safe and sane again.  But no, he was as mired in
the mud of the Collins clan as she was determined to pull him out.

"ANnie, call Julia Hoffman.  She rents a house by the sea here but she also has
someplace in the country that she's spoken about.  I think she might be willing
to have Carolyn stay there." Quentin picked up the phone and handed it to her. 
"Here, you're a woman and you know Carolyn's moods better than I.  Talk to
Julia and see if you can persuade her to let Carolyn rent the country place. 
I'll pay for everything, just to make sure she's safe."

What about me, Annie thought as she dialed the hospital.  What about my safety?

"Of course, I'll come right away," Julia said.  "Dont' worry.  The police will
find Carolyn and she's probably just fine.  She can't get far without a car
anyway.  Besides, she had no money I take it, nothing to spend and where could
she go?" Julia was ready to join them at the hotel just half an hour after
Annie called her.

"Quentin, Julia says she's on her way right now." Annie turned around to him. 
"Quentin, if they find Carolyn and she...she isn't crazy or she just needs a
rest, why can't we leave once you've seen she's okay?  I'm afraid, Quentin.  I
don't want to return to Collinwood."

"Honey, I can't sell the place and I can't give it away damaged as it is. 
Please, let's just take one thing at a time." He lay back on the bed, tired of
death of every problem and displacement.  And all because a mysterious man had
shown up one dark stormy night at the door, claiming a relation.

************

Carolyn sat up in the small room.  Just the bed, a lamp lit by a single candle
and a chair were there.  The room seemed warm but a sudden draught made her
shiver.

The door opened and Barnabas walked in.

"My dear woman, I'm abjectly sorry to have to put you through all this but I
had to make sure you didn't talk.  You see, my life, or what it once was, is at
stake and since I can't trust Annie, I must confine my attentions to you." 

Carolyn shrank back but it was no use.  He came towards her, hypnotic and
quiet.  She looked into his eyes and her world went pale.

"I'm here, alone with you," she stated primly, no longer cowering against the
wall by the bedposts.  "What do you want of me?"

Her eyes met his in silence.  He held out his hand to her.

"Come with me and see."

She could do nothing else but get up and follow him.  Andie Unregistered User
(4/30/03 2:26 pm) Parting is such sweet sorrow 

Julia sat in the cool vestry of the hotel, sipping sherry with Annie and
Quentin.

"What Carolyn needs is a complete rest cure and Annie's right-she won't get
that at Wynwood.  I'm afraid she's at risk for a nervous breakdown." 

Julia nodded sagely.  "I agree.  The country would be the best place for her. 
And I think I can find out myself where she is." She stood up and put the empty
glass on a table.  "Give me 24 hours, please.  I think I know how to locate
her, but it's best you're not involved.  You see, I know something about the
past myself and I don't really want anyone harmed." 

"Quentin," whispered Annie, "can we trust her?"

"Of course," he said quietly.  "She's been in the family for years and somewhat
unfortunately, she knows most of the secrets.  Yes, Julia Hoffman can find
Carolyn even when the police seemed to have failed abysmally." He helped the
women put on their coats.  "Julia, can you take care of Carolyn, just take her
to your country place yourself?  I'm afraid if she sees us, it will just make
her worse.  She hasn't been very close to me lately and I would probably say
something that might upset her."

"That would be the best way.  Yes, I will do that." Julia pulled out her car
keys.

"Annie, I'm going back to Collinwood to find out the damages.  Stay here at the
hotel.  I know you're bored darling, but things aren't safe at the house." He
kissed her gently and held her hands.  "I promise I will be back before happy
hour.  Promise."

Annie could only shake her head and wonder why Quentin had to be so stubborn.

The pair left, and Annie wandered into the fireside room.  She could read or
just daydream but without Carolyn or someone to talk with, nothing appealed to
her.  She slumped in an overstuffed chair and sighed.  It was going to be a
long afternoon.

Julia arrived at the old house just before sunset.  Carolyn's suitcase,
haphazardly packed with undamaged clothing was in her trunk and boots and a
warm coat were on the seat.  The house looked totally dark but Julia knew
better.

I only hope Carolyn is still conscious and I can get her away without any
problems from Barnabas.

As if he'd heard her, the tall somber man opened the Old House door.

"I should have known Quentin would send you to me," he stated somewhat coldly.

"Barnabas, you must let Carolyn go.  She's very ill." Julia stood her ground.

"Julia, I had no intention of detaining Carolyn, but as you well know, the
women at Collinwood have a bad habit of turning up information and passing it
along to hostile parties.  Carolyn and I have a.....relationship of sorts." He
smiled coldly at her.

The doctor didn't hesitate to brush off the implications.  "I realize that but
at the same time, she's not your prisoner.  Not while I live.  And you have got
to understand I don't intend to leave the county alone." She crossed her arms.

"Very well.  You may enter and see that nothing is keeping Carolyn from
leaving....except to make that choice." He beckoned for her to follow him
inside.

Carolyn sat fully clothed and breathing normally by the fire, but her manner
suggested someone who had given up on life entirely.  She didn't turn her head
when she heard the door open, or Julia's voice calling her name.

"Carolyn...can you hear me?" Julia jogged Carolyn's shoulder.

"Yes, I can hear you Julia.  I assume Quentin sent you.  Quentin ....and
Annie." Her voice sounded controlled and sad.  Nothing in her face registered
any pleasure at seeing the family friend.

"Yes...yes they did.  They are so worried for you, and so am I."

"Well, as you can see, she's in no danger."

"No apparent danger." The doctor took her pulse which was slow and regular but
some hopelessness in Carolyn's face gave her real concern.  "Carolyn, Quentin
felt that with the shock and the fire you should come with me for a few days. 
To the country.  I have a house there, where you can relax and recouperate."

"Julia, that's ridiculous." Barnabas sniffed as if the "country" were beneath
him.  "Carolyn can recouperate just as well in Collinsport.  Certainly she had
no need of a rest cure."

Suddenly Carolyn raised sad eyes and looked at him.  "Don't I?" The tone of her
voice said everything.

"Carolyn, I'm terribly worried about you and I feel as your doctor that this is
best.  To get away from Collinwood.  The repairs will take months anyway. 
Everyone else is staying at the Inn or thereabouts.  Please, for your own sake,
come with me and at least give yourself a chance.  Away from all this...death."
Julia flung her arm out as if including the house, the owner and the present
company inside.

"I guess you're right Julia.  There's nothing here for me." At those words, the
same one's ANnie had uttered about Quentin, Barnabas winced and turned away. 
How cruel life, or life without life, could be.  What a cruel mistress was
hope!  Now, having lost his influence over Annie, he was about to be robbed of
the one person who had wanted to help him in the first place, even out of
selfish desire.

Carolyn rose tiredly and faced him.  "This is the last time, isn't it?" The
bite marks on her neck had faded with her rage and the fire, which seemed to
burn the hatred from her as sure as the poison which had started it.  

He couldn't say anything.  Julia put the warm coat over Carolyn's shoulders. 
"I have your things in the car.  Enough for a week.  After that, you can choose
but right now, your nerves need a rest.  You're worn out, my dear." The
motherly tones overmastered Julia's usual professional manner.

Barnabas didn't dare suggest she stay.  He knew he only had a few hours before
necessity demanded his departure.  He wasn't sure where he would go or what he
would do, but the coffin in the basement, his permanent home, had to be moved. 
And soon, before the police and Quentin came to ensnare him.  Carolyn had to go
with Julia, if only for his protection.

Carolyn smiled sadly.  "I will miss you, cousin.  If that's what you are." She
didn't look at his face.  "I never dreamed that day I first met you that we
would be parted so finally." Her old fashioned words struck a blow in his cold
heart.  First, the fickle woman in blue, then Annie, now this.

"Julia, please go.  I cannot..." He walked to the doorway and pointed to the
outside.  The sun had set.  Better they should flee and live then behold his
transformation!

With one last longing glance, Carolyn followed the grim physician out the door
and into the dim driveway.

Barnabas didn't watch them go.  He never heard the car start or the sound of
flying gravel under the wheels.  Andie Unregistered User (5/9/03 12:52 pm)
Drooping wings 

Carolyn sat, bundled against the fickle breeze in a warm shawl on the porch of
the country house.  The serene hills full of blue pine and gorse only made her
feel more lonely than ever.

Birds trilled and she could see several geese winging their way towards warmer
climates but even that didn't made her heart feel any better.

"I should have stayed at Collinwood.  Annie and Quentin would have put me up at
the hotel.  Then, I could..." Her neck tingled, thinking about the dark man
she'd left behind.  With Julia gone, she thought, it's all the more quiet here.
 Well, I'm supposed to be reading and writing and getting better.  So much for
modern cures!"

She got up and wandered back into the large and comfortable house.  THe windows
let in light from every angle and for a moment, her face lost the tight,
unhappy lines and she looked years younger.

The phone rang.  Carolyn ran to get it.

"Carolyn!  It's Annie!  Quentin and I are staying just outside Collinsport, in
a rented house but I had to call you to give you the number.  Julia said you
were feeling better..." Annie's voice trailed off.

"Well, I'm not insane if that's what you mean, " Carolyn said rather archly. 
"Still, this place would make a sane person think twice about getting stuck in
the country.  It's very nice...and extremely boring.  No liquor allowed, just
books and rest and thinking too much."

"You're sounding like your old self.  Ready to go." 

Andie 
Unregistered User (5/13/03 10:20 am) 
Drooping Wings Part II 

"Well," stated Carolyn," if you all really loved me you'd let me come back to
Collinsport." She waited for Annie's approval.

"Carolyn, you were so ill and there's so much confusion right now.  Please,
don't you think you'd be better off staying there for a little longer?  I know
you're bored but your mother and Quentin have made arrangements so that you
don't end up in the hospital.  I don't want to see you so ill.  Please, bear up
a little longer.  While I have a chance, I'll come up and visit but as long as
Barnabas is here, you'd better stay away." Annie sounded sad.

"Very well, I'll agree to this imposed exile a bit longer but tell Quentin I
want to come home immediately.  This is ridiculous, being kept prisoner in this
country house, if that's what you want to call it." She hung up, angry.

A knock at the door startled her.  "Who could have come all this way out here? 
Nobody knows I'm here except the relatives and Annie and Quentin!"

Carolyn peered out into the sunny yard.  She could see a wavy figure in the
glass but couldn't make out who it was.

"Please wait one moment." She found Julia's gun in a desk drawer and, afraid
she might have to defend herself, she stuck it in the pocket of Julia's coat
which hung in the vestry.  "I'll be with you in a minute!" Carolyn tiptoed to
the door.  Then she swung it open.

A man was standing on the steps, looking lost and confused.

"Yes?  Can I help you?"

"Well, I hope so." He smiled at her.  "I've been driving for 2 hours, trying to
find the short cut to Collinsport.  But I've gone around and around this silly
road and I missed the turn off.  Now..." He pointed to a map folded inside his
coat.  "Can you tell me which way, I mean, point it out on the map so I don't
use up all my gas driving in circles?"

"I guess so.  I'm not from this part of the county but I'll try." Carolyn
looked at the map.  The roads seemed to point in the wrong directions.

"Ahem....Miss.  You're reading it upside-down." He smiled again.

"Sorry," Carolyn laughed.  "Guess I'm not much on maps.  NEver had to use them
myself.  I live in Colllinsport.  Maybe you've heard of my family?  Collins."

"Yes, Quentin hired me to survey some property but I've never been this far
East.  Maine is a big state.  This is a lovely home.  Is it....yours?" A dimple
came out on his cheek when he spoke.

"No.  It belongs to Julia Hoffman.  Dr.  HOffman.  I'm a house guest, if I can
call it that." Her manners changed into a more brusque feeling.  "She's not at
home right now but I'm expecting her later this afternoon."

"Well, I hope that this road here," he pointed to the paper, "will take me to
town.  Seems the signs out this way aren't accurate.  I followed what I thought
was the hiway but it ran into gravel drive just a few miles up."

He put his hand on Carolyn' shoulder.  At first, his touch was welcome but she
shied back, wary of any familiarity.

"Mr...."

"Baines.  Jacob Baines.  Actually, I'm not a surveyor.  I design houses and
Quentin proposed that I bid for a design on a new home he wants to build. 
Seems there's been some problem though because he hasn't returned my phone
calls and then yesterday I found out about a fire.  I was on my way back to
Bridgeport when I got his messages.  So I turned around and started for the
coast but got lost."

"Sounds reasonable, Mr.  Baines.  But what does this have to do with your being
here, other than getting lost and wanting directions?" The old flirtateous
Carolyn was emerging.

"Miss Collins, would you, I mean, can you...."

"Accompany you back to Collinwood so you don't get lost again?" She sparkled at
him, her eyes snapping with mischief.

"Well, put it like that and I'd love to have a passenger along." He held out
his hand.  "We haven't been formally introduced but....would you like to come
with me?"

"Of course!  Let me change.  Do you mind waiting a few moments?"

"For the pleasure of your company, I'd wait more than that!" 

She closed the door.  So she snagged a ride back home!  What would Julia think?
 Did she care what?  Carolyn rushed to gather her bag and clothes, changed into
a tweed jumper and fresh blouse and combed her hair.  She spritzed a little
perfume on....  just in case he turned out to be friendlier than she hoped.

"Now I can get back to business," she thought.  "Back to Collinwood and
Barnabas."

The young man outside sat in one of the striped beach chairs on the porch.

"So that was Carolyn Collins.  Her inheritence will be a nice little nest egg! 
A few hours from now, her mother will get a very interesting phone call from
Carolyn, asking for money.  And I'll be the recipient.  So far, my plan is
going along just fine." An evil grin replaced the dimples.

"Ready whenever you are," Carolyn called and came out to the porch, her
suitcase in one hand and purse and coat in the other.  "I'm not coming back so
I'll lock the door.  I left Dr.  Hoffman a note."

"Oh, you did?" The smile left his face.  "Well, I guess you should, if she
comes back."

Just then a car drove into the driveway and Julia herself got out.

"Carolyn, what on earth are you doing?"

Carolyn paused, then walked over to the young man's car and put her bag in the
back seat.

"I'm going home." Andie Unregistered User (5/22/03 10:49 am) Just a Bird in a
Gilded Cage 

"Julia, I'm not a prisoner here and just so that you wouldn't think I was
running away, I did leave you a note as to just where I was going and with
whom.  This man is trying to get in touch with Quentin about plans for the new
house.  But he got lost and fortunately for me, ended up on your doorstep. 
Now, please doctor.  Don't make me go back inside and unpack.  I'm in perfectly
good hands!" Carolyn smiled at Jacob.

"Carolyn, your mother specifically asked me to look after you.  What will she
think, me letting you leave?  She'll never trust my professional opinon again!"
Julia wrung her hands.

"Don't be silly, Julia.  You know as well as I do that mother would never let
anyone else touch her."

Jacob beamed at the warring women.  "Excuse me ladies, but I'm at a loss here. 
And I do have an appointment to keep.  Carolyn, maybe this woman is right...I
shouldn't take you away if it's a question of health."

"Oh bother!  Let's get going," Carolyn laughed and swung open his car door. 
"I'm famished and frankly, I could use a nice long drive."

"Carolyn, I can't keep you under lock and key but I wish..."

"Goodbye, Julia," Carolyn stated, and took Jacob's hand once he got inside the
car.  "I'll tell mother you took the best of care but I really wanted to go
home tonight."

Julia's misgivings about letting her leave didn't abate when she noticed Jacob
watching the young woman intently.  "I wonder what he's up to," she thought. 
"I do wish she wasn't so headstrong."

That should have been the least of Julia's worries because Jacob was planning
on bringing the family to its knees.  Graft and corruption had played large
parts in his upbringing and he'd read all about the Collins scandals for years,
from the distance of a tiny seaport town in Canada.  Now, at the height of his
zenith, he was about to embark on a dangerous and profitable scheme.

"So....did you grow up in Collinsport?" He let the car drift slightly while he
stroked Carolyn's hand.

"Actually no.  Mother and father had property in Maine and then we moved at one
point to England but Mother became very ill and we had to come back here.  The
house belongs to....well, some very eccentric relatives.  Or at least, that is
what I've been told."

Jacob chuckled.  "I can imagine.  My own family has a few skeletons, carefully
preserved, of course."

It was Carolyn's turn to laugh.  "Don't we all.  What family secrets are you
hiding," she asked cunningly.

"Tabloid trash mostly.  A little of this and that." He pressed her hand again. 
"You know, I hardly took you to be a sick lady.  You're the blossom of health."

Carolyn frowned.  "You mean I was.  Actually Julia and Mother concocted this
idea I was about to have a nervous breakdown.  Then they plopped me in that
country villa aka Boringsville, for a rest."

"Better than I thought," Jacob said to himself.  "A nervous breakdown!  I won't
have to do much work to make her family think she's crazy!  What an easy mark! 
It might take a little more time but by the time I'm done, her family will pay
me as conservator to take care of her.  Ah, this is going to be more
interesting than I thought."

"The brain is the most sensitive organ we have.  What...I mean, if you don't
mind me asking...what caused..." Jacob's eyes melted at her.

"Lost loves.  The eccentric relative I mentioned...well, it's a long sad
story>" For a second Carolyn wanted to tell him everything but caution urged
her to keep silent.

Jacob patted her shoulder.  "Carolyn, if its any consolation, I've had a hard
time in that department too.  In fact, recently, well, my wife....actually ex
now, and I split up." Divorce always bring them to their knees, he thought.

"Oh I'm so sorry." Carolyn looked at him with pity.  "Do you want to talk about
it...if you feel comfortable."

"Carolyn, if I told you what I think, you'd call me barmy and send me off the
the crazy farm." He smiled at her.  "When I first saw you standing in the
doorway, I thought, here's a woman who I can talk with and feel at home with. 
Something about your looks and your smile made me....this is silly." He looked
back to the road.  as if puzzled.

"Mr.  Baines, you're quite the complimentary man." But he could see she was
flattered.  "All going quite well," he thought evilly.

He pretended to watch the road ahead but his scheme flickered through his mind.
 "Get her on my side, sympathy and all and then pounce.  Make sure she doesn't
see anything wrong at all with what I do or say but I can whittle away her
family's confidence in her all the time she's drooling over me."

"Carolyn, can I ask you something?  This...relative....do you still love him?"

Carolyn stared ahead.  Did she?  Or did this new Mr.  Baines have a promise in
mind that might keep her sane and happy without Barnabas Collins?  Could she
abandon hope of Barnabas and perhaps find love elsewhere?

She took a deep breath and answered.  "No, I don't love him anymore." Andie
Unregistered User (5/23/03 3:44 pm) Drop off the key, Lee and get yourself
free...  

The little car droned on and on, Mr.  Baines guiding them through the speckled
countryside, Carolyn smiling happily and pointing out interesting things along
the road.

They stopped for a drink at an old inn, one of many along the narrow winding
road.  Jacob only sipped at his martini, protesting he had to drive and with
such fragile cargo, he didn't want any accidents.  Carolyn gradually finished
her Old Fashioned, still chatting playfully with the strange man as if they
were the best of friends.

"Carolyn.  You must have been thirsty.  Goodness, you really sucked that drink
down." Jacob gawked at the empty glass.  "Let me get you another one."

"Heavens no.  I don't drink mid day and certainly not hard liquor.  No, one Old
Fashioned is enough for me."

"But my dear.  All that stress you've been telling me about.  Even St.  Paul
said a glass of wine is good for the soul."

"St Paul didn't drink anything else.  No, I'd better stop at one." Carolyn
didn't want to admit she really would like another drink.  SHe eyed Jacob and
sighed.  "I'd rather get back on the road if you don't mind."

"Let's just rest a little longer.  If I order you something special, will you
try it?  Guaranteed, if you don't like it, I can send it back." He waved at the
barmaid.

Carolyn giggled.  "Well, I suppose.  But please don't have them fill the glass
to the top." 

Jacob whispered into the waitress's ear.  Then he folded his hands in front of
him, his dark eyes snapping with glee.  "Done!  Wait until you taste this. 
You'll love it.  A sweet drink for.....well, you know what I mean." He looked
shyly down at his feet.  "Or maybe you don't.  Doesn't matter.  I've never had
much luck with love."

"Don't say that," she purred at him as the barmaid came over with a slender
goblet full of yellow fluid.  "What is this???" She stared, not willing to try
it at first.



"A star fruit cordial.  They only make it in Jamaica.  It's very
expensive...and very very special.  Like you." He took the goblet and held it
to the light.  "See those little specks?  Real gold!"

"Nonsense," Carolyn murmurred.  "Next thing you'll tell me is that this is the
drink of queens and kings." While she was talking she never took her eyes off
his.  It made it very simply to rub something over the lip of the glass as he
held it out to her, all the time stroking the edge and following her eyes to
make sure she was entirely distracted.

"It is, my dear.  Really.  Here, try it." He held the glass and she took a slow
sip.

"It is good!  My, it's so....like honey....very cool but warm, like the
tropics.  Jacob, you're being much to romantic for someone with no luck."

"And that's about to change," he thought wickedly.

After a few sips, Carolyn felt giddy but not out of control.  She laughed
loudly but she didn't try to touch Jacob other than put her hand in his or
purse her pink colored lips.  

After a few more moments, she called to the barman to make her another Old
Fashioined.  She was getting rather loud and boistrous, but she affected not to
notice how people were looking at them.

"Imagine me...in love with a vampire," she was saying, cooing and laughing at
Jacob.  "My goodness, wasn't I the fool!  An unknown cousin and what do I do
but fling myself into his arms." She laughed and sipped at the drink again. 
The barman was talking to the waitress, pointing at Carolyn.  "Nope.  Not
little me!  Never again.  Never fall in love with someone who won't come out in
the daytime!"

"Carolyn," Jacob said gently, "I think we should leave.  It's been a long day
and we still have 2 hours to go to Collinsport."

"Aw, come on, don't be a spoil sport.  Jacob, this drink is perfectly lovely. 
Let me have another one." She almost tossed the glass on the floor.

"No, I think we'd better leave.  Maybe some other time."

He guided the drunken woman out the door, all the time motioning to the barman
that maybe he might like to follow them to make sure she got into the car
without any problems.  The chunky barmaid also walked out with them.

"Oh I love a parade," Carolyn sang.  "Where is this line of people going?" She
tried to conga dance but tripped on her high heels.

Jacob gently lifted her and put her into the passenger's seat.  He spoke
quietly to the barman who nodded and looked sadly at the mussed woman.  Carolyn
was laughing, completly unaware she was the object of pity and attention.

They had only gone a few miles when the poison began wearing off.  But it
didn't matter.  She had already created a alternate persona that had been very
public and damaging.

"Ouch, my head hurts!" Carolyn tried to get comfortable in the small seat. 
"Jacob, do you have an aspirin handy?"

"Of course, dear.  Reach into the glove compartment and there should be a
bottle just behind the hinge."

As Carolyn fumbled for the remedy, she saw the glint of metal but thought it
was only part of the compartment mechanism.  She shut the door, tired of
looking.

"I didn't see anything like a bottle.  Just something metallic."

Jacob smiled, firmly fixed on his evil plan.  

"That's okay.  We'll make Collinsport before the stores close and I'll buy you
some aspirin.  Poor thing." He stroked her hand.

Carolyn had touched the gun but hadn't realixed what she was touching.  The
gun, a small Biretta pistol, was loaded.  What was Mr.  Baines doing with a
concealed weapon?  Had he wanted Carolyn to find it?  And Why?  Andie
Unregistered User (5/29/03 1:00 pm) A short ride off a long pier 

Carolyn walked into the charred remains of her home, expecting to see her
mother or Mrs.  Johnson, but everyone was in town.

"Well, this is quite a homecoming," Jacob said, feigning uncertainty.  "Didn't
anyone expect you back so soon, or are they hiding with those skeletons you
mentioned?" He tried to kiss her but she stepped aside, fluttering her eyelids
and laughing.

"Not before you meet my mother.  I'm sure that's the proper way for someone as
generous as you've been."

Jacob laughed.  "And someone as lovely and good company as yourself."

Seeing no one about, Jacob started up the unsteady stairs.

"No!  Don't go any farther.  I'm not sure how safe it is." Carolyn tried to
follow and pull him back down but her head hurt and she ended up sitting at the
bottom of the staircase.  "ooch.  My head still aches.  Jacob, what was in that
drink?"

Jacob started and turned back to her.  "What was...why, starfruit, just like I
told you.  It may have been a bit watered down though.  They don't make them
here like in Jamaica."

Carolyn leaned against the wall.  "Well, I guess we might as well go back into
town.  Actually the aspirin seems to be helping a little bit.  I think I could
do with a long shower and a nap." She held up her hands and let him pull her
up.

"Listen.  I know this is sudden and all...." He smiled at her convincingly. 
"But you haven't told me what you intend to do or where you'll stay.  Your
mother obviously didn't expect you back here and you can't stay overnight in
this place.  I'm renting a cottage down by the shore, a few miles from here. 
It's small but quaint, quiet and certainly private."

Carolyn gasped.  "Jacob.  You're not supposing...I mean..."

"Heavans woman!  I'm not a gargoyle come to kidnap you." Inwardly he laughed. 
Not exactly, he thought, but close.  "No, what I meant was you could have my
room, the run of the place.  Use the place like you owned it.  I could sleep on
the couch and we could take turns...well, you understand.  Like I said, it is
small but just right...at least it was for me.  A phone, TV, everytning you'll
need until you can work out something with your family."

Carolyn considered.  It would put her close enough yet far enough from Barnabas
and her mother to resist their interference.  And she could cultivate her
relationship with Jacob.  He did seem like a very kind gentleman, in spite of
pressing those drinks on her.  Well, that was only a fluke.  He certainly
wouldn't do that again.

Jacob paused to let her think.  "Musn't rush her, she has to feel safe." He
smiled and took her hand again.

"Get some things, do you have clothing downstairs so you don't have to go up?" 

Carolyn nodded.  Fortunately she had put some old clothes in the Goodwill box
in the hallway and no one had taken it yet.  She fumbled through and found a
warm sweater, several blouses and another pair of slacks.

"I can do with this until I talk to Mother.  She's probably contacted the other
contractors for the repairs.  I'll call her as soon as we get to your place."

"You'll never get the chance," he thought watching her closely.  "I will make
sure I'm the only one talking to Mrs.  Stoddard from now on."

Jacob helped her take the things to the car and lead her around to the other
side.  But as he started to open the door, a cruel thought jabbed at his brain.

"Oh Carolyn, mind if I put your things in the trunk?"

"Not at all." Carolyn stood by the passenger door, not looking at him.

"Whoops- here, can you give me a hand?" Jacob was trying to hold the trunk lid
up while putting her clothing in the back.

"Sure, just let me...here, I'll hold the clothes."

Jacob laid the sweaters at the back of the trunk so that Carolyn had to reach
all the way in to get them.  Suddenly, he let the the trunk lid go!

Carolyn staggered and knelt on the ground behind the car in pain.  A small line
of blood was forming on the crown of her blond head.

"Oh my God!  Carolyn, are you alright?  Oh darling, I'm sorry!  You must have
let go of the lid."

"Let go?  I didn't have my hands on the trunk, I was trying to reach those
sweaters," she said beginning to cry.

"I thought you said you would hold up the trunk while I got the clothes out. 
Oh Carolyn," he cried at her, all the time wiping the blood from her cheek.

"Jacob, I'm sick.  I think...." she slumped into his arms.

When she woke up, she could see trees and grass and felt a cold breeze playing
across her face.

Jacob was sitting next to her, holding her head in his arms and stroking her
face.

"You fainted, but I caught you before you hit ground.  It was only a few
seconds." Actually it had been almost three minutes.

Carolyn tried to get up but he held her fast.  "Do you remember anything?" He
stared into her glazed eyes.

"I remember you asking me to help you but not too much else right now.  My
head....am I bleeding?"

"Only a bit.  Headwounds bleed a lot I've been told, but I wiped off most of
the blood.  See?" He showed her the stained handkerchief.  "You'll be find.  As
soon as you can stand up we'll go to the hospital but I didn't want to move you
too quickly."

She blinked and tried to focus.  "Jacob, are you sure I'm alright?" She sounded
frightened.

"Just a little bump.  Feel here?" SHe could feel a smarting and the tiny gash
in her part line.  

"Yes, I guess.  I still feel kind of sick."

"No matter dear.  Just rest and in a few minutes we'll go into town."

An evil smile wiped the concern from his sharp face.  Once in the hospital, he
could start his plan to become her jailer and in a few days, her fortune would
be primed for his hands.  Yes, he thought, just a few more days and everything
I've ever wanted will come true!  Andie Unregistered User (6/2/03 11:33 am)
Jacob's ladder 

Annie bent over Carolyn's tired face and patted her cheek.

"That was a nastly bump!  Quentin, maybe you should call Julia.  I'm not sure I
like the looks of that." Annie pointed at Carolyn's scalp.  "Does it look like
it will heal okay?  Quentin, Carolyn really should talk to Julia."

Carolyn shook her head, which still ached but less now that the doctor's had
bandaged her and left her resting in the ER.  "No, Annie, actually Julia would
be more upset about the fact I left and this happened than the actually cut. 
I'll be fine in a bit.  THe doctor said I could leave after he checked the
bandages and that should be just about now."

Jacob was sitting a few feet away, watching the trio.  "So that's Quentin.  I
hope he doesn't blow my cover.  I've never met him so I'll have to act
convincing-he thinks I'm just here with Carolyn so far but I've got to act
professional so Annie and he don't suspect anything."

"Quentin," Jacob said, risiing and holding out a roll of plans.  "Why don't we
take a look at these while Carolyn rests?  I'm sure I can find a table in the
waiting room that we could use and I can show you some of my drawings of
Collinwood and what..."

"Nonsense!  Not while Carolyn is hurt, man.  The plans can wait.  Just leave
them with me and I can look at them later." Even Annie was touched by his
concern about his cousin.

Jacob shuffled his feet.  "I didn't mean to ignore Carolyn, but I think she's
had enough of me for a while.  I just wanted to use the time while she rests to
consult with you."

Quentin looked at the young man.  "I understand, but I'm not really ready to
talk construction today.  There are a few other things to take care of.  Family
matters." He turned back to Annie and led her to the other side of the exam
room to talk.

"Damn.  That man is going to be trouble," Jacob thought.  Quentin came back.

"What firm did you say you work for?  I don't believe we've ever met."

"I came down from the border.  Actually I'm working independently right now. 
No special reason except I can make more money as a IC than for a firm.  I was
based out of New York last year but the rent went up so I moved back to Toronto
and my home office and set up shop.  Meanwhile, I found some interesting
architecture in Maine and come down often to sketch and draw up plans. 
Collinwood is a historical listing, you know, so I thought I might stop in and
talk to you about renovations." Jacob held out his hand.  "I'm honored to meet
the heir of the property."

"It's just an expensive pile of bricks and wood right now." "That's what I
wanted to talk about.  I could make it a very lucrative pile, if you want to
see what ideas I have.  But you're right...now isn't the time." Jacob set down
the rolls of plans.  "But maybe....tomorrow?  Or the day after?"

"Let me think about it.  Can I call you?"

"Actually, I do have a rental close by and yes, here's the number.  My card."
Jacob wrote out the phone number and handed it to Quentin.  "I have to act
natural and stick to business.  This guy is a hard nut to crack.  I'll have to
be very very careful."

Then the exam door opened and a young medic walked in to check with Carolyn. 
After ten minutes, he pronounced her ready to go home.  SHe clung to Jacob's
hand.

"Carolyn, don't you want to go home with Annie for now?  I'll see you tomorrow
if you like, but I think you'd better let them take you home." Jacob hugged her
gently as if he didn't want to hurt her.

"Oh Jacob, I was hoping to talk to you longer," she sighed, not letting go of
his neck but unwilling to show ANnie how much the stranger already meant to
her.  However, her hold was rewarded.

Jacob helped her off the gurney.  "Annie, why don't you follow with Quentin in
your car and I'll show you where my house is.  Carolyn, can I get you something
for dinner and then they can pick you up later tonight?  Is that alright?" He
beamed at her.

Flattered by his affection, Carolyn let Jacob help her out of the room in spite
of Quentin's protests and Annie's hesitations.  "You can follow me straight
home and I'll show you I can take care of Carolyn until you come back from your
business dealings today.  She's as safe as a baby with me.  I promise I won't
let her do anything but rest, relax and I'll make sure she eats a nourishing
meal.  I promise." He looked deep into Carolyn's eyes.

"Carolyn, come back with us to the hotel.  I'ts closer to the hospital in case
you need treatment tonight.  I don't feel right about letting you go to
somebody's house alone." Quentin blocked Jacob's way.

Inside, Jacob seethed.  So this was the man who had caused so many problems int
he past and would continue to block his path to the family fortune.  Well, he
would have to be shown....and soon, if he was to continue with his plans.  But
for now, he thought, best to be flexible.

Jacob carressed Carolyn's shoulders.  "Yes, my dear.  You'd better go with them
although I will miss you and I'll call you first thing tomorrow morning and
come over and take you for breakfast." He kissed her cheek.

"Oh Jacob, I'll miss you too." She hugged him again, this time releasing him
but not without regret.

Annie took her arm and led Carolyn to their car.  "If Mr.  Baines would like to
come tonight for a very short visit, I think we could arrange that>"

"Oh ANnie you sound like my mother," Carolyn fumed.  "I can take care of myself
but this head of mine really hurts and I would like to lie down someplace quiet
for a few hours." She looked sadly at Jacob.  "Forgive me, okay?  I'd love to
see you tomorrow but I'm not feeling really good right now."

"Carolyn, I'm so sorry." He walked over and helped her into Quentin's car. 
"Carolyn, if you need me, you have my number.  Annie, promise me you'll call if
she....well, if I can help.  Promise?" He kissed Carolyn again, ignoring
Quentin.

Quentin put ANnie inthe back seat and went around to the driver's side.  "We
need to get home now, Mr.  Baines.  Can I do anything for you?"

"Just take good care of Carolyn." He didn't dare show his irritation.  Waiving
broadly, he retreated to his own car.

"Well, they got a good impression of me at any rate.  And the barmaid at that
Inn up the road got a real take on Carolyn.  It won't take a lot for me to do
some damage there.  IN fact, it would be a good idea while I'm alone to go over
to the bar here and instill a little concern with the proprietor.  Once I get

Carolyn away from those snoops I can make sure the Blue Whale knows about her
little....trouble."

Andie 
Unregistered User (6/16/03 11:07 am) 
Down the Rabbit Hole 

With Carolyn safe at the hotel sharing a room with them for the time being
until they could decide how to proceed with the house, it left Annie with time
to think about a private matter.

Her upsetting encounters with Barnabas had never really been forgotten.  It
seemed strange to her that never once had he expressed any concern about
Carolyn since her time at Julia's home in the country and yet, she couldn't
help but notice the dark shadows in Carolyn's eyes when his name was mentioned.

"I've got to quit obsessing about him," thought Annie, watching Quentin making
a phone call to another contractor about the house.  "My own true love is here;
but why is it I can't totally get Barnabas Collins out of my head!"

Annie paced the sumptuous hotel carpeting, listening half-heartedly to
Quentin's rumbles and objections over how much it would take the repair the
damages.  Carolyn was sleeping in the next room, but Annie was quite sure it
woulnd't be long before she would be back to her old demanding self, assured,
bored and ready to party with this mysterious Mr.  Baines she seemed so
enamored about.

"Quentin, dear, I'd like to slip out and do some shopping." It wasn't too late
in the afternoon for the shops to still be open.  "Carolyn is resting and I'd
like to get out for a bit."

"Of course you should.  I'd come with you.." He kissed her cheek, holding the
phone covered with one hand.

"No, dear.  I can go by myself.  I'd love to take a nice long walk and get some
exercise.  All this upset with...well, I guess I just need to stretch." Annie
kissed him back, this time lingering in his arms.  "I'll be fine."

"Say,if you run into my so-called cousin, there are some papers I need him to
sign." Quentin went back to his phone call.

Annie shuddered.  How could he have been so perceptive?  She slipped on her
coat and walked to thed door, so puzzled she almost forgot to wave goodbye.

Once in town, Annie strolled along the narrow streets, slightly disconcerted by
Quentin's request and keeping her eyes open for anyone who might fit the
description of the missing Mr.  Collins.

She passed the Blue Whale and decided to stop in and get warm.  Mr.  Baines was
sitting at the bar, engaged in a heated discussion with the bartender.

"I'd just like a diet Coke," Annie said to the waitress.  SHe watched Jacob
nodding and gesturing but when she heard him mention Carolyn, Annie wandered
over to him.

"Mr.  Baines, I thought you had some other business today.  Fancy meeting you
here!" She smiled at him, trying to be cordial.

"Oh.  Well, yes I did, but it's concluded." He motioned to the fat bartender
that he was finished with his coffee and started to leave.

"Oh, Mr.  Baines, by the way, someone called for you just now.  Said her name
was the same as the lady you told me to watch out for, Carolyn Stoddard I
think?  Yeah, it was her.  Told me to say to call her at the hotel." He handed
Jacob his change.

"How come you were talking about Carolyn?  Is there a problem?" Annie caught
his arm and wasn't about to let him leave without an explanation.

"Just that...well I'm sure you're aware she likes her parties and I was
concerned that the blow on her head might affect her good judgment.  I've heard
she is quite the social butterfly.  I just want to make sure she doesn't overdo
her first night out." Jacob smiled but it wasn't a friendly smile.

Annie glared at him.  "I think she's capable of handing herself....around
anyone." She turned to leave, mentally deciding the stranger was a bad egg and
Quentin would have to protect Carolyn from him.

"Sorry to upset you," he growled at her back, "but she is my friend....and I
don't like to see my friends drink too much."

"Who said anythning about drinking too much," Annie stated coldly.  "I think it
would be better if Carolyn didn't see so much of you, Mr.  Baines.  It seems
she's already been hurt by you since you met."

"I'll let her be the judge of that," he retorted, going to find a pay phone.

Annie left the bar, visibly upset by her encounter.  She had to get back and
tell Carolyn how rude her suitor had been and his insinuations about her
condition.

Annie walked towards the wharf.  The waves lapped gently against the old
pilings and a tugboat bobbed at the moorings.  Seagulls gave out loud calls to
the sunshine.  It was a lonely scene and gave Annie time to think about her
position in the family and with Barnabas.  The memories of her forage into the
past, the horrible dreams she'd had about him and her fleeting attraction
hadn't faded enough not to cause her immense pain.

"I can't give in!  I can't!  Quentin loves me, he'd do anything for me, even
take me away from all this if he knew.  BUt I can't ever ever tell him!  I
don't want to be unfaithful.....but.....no, I can't do it!  I have to remember
he loves me!" Tears cascaded down Annie's cheeks into the blue waves.

Footsteps sounded on the dock behind her and she felt, before seeing him, the
cold presence of a man.

She spun around, half hoping it wouldn't be true.  But it was.  Barnabas
Collins, in his usual dark cloak and gray suit stood passively watching her.

"Where....how?  We haven't seem you for at least two weeks!  How...how did you
know I...." Annie choked on the words.  Her heart rammed against her ribs.

"Annie.  I've been back to Collinwood several times.  Looking for something. 
The portrait....it burned in the fire." He stared into her tearful eyes.  "I
know about the fire, how it started.  Carolyn....had a terrible vision and was
forced to start the fire.  That woman in the picture....she is pure evil!" He
brought his cane down harshly on the chains that formed the barrier to falling
into the cold waters below the pier.

"Barnabas....I've tried so hard to forget you!" Annie wept, not knowing what
else to say to him.  SHe didn't dare move because she knew she would throw
herself into his arms and want to remain there forever!

"Annie, I've realized something I never, must never, admit.  In spite of
everything I've known, the love I never had, the woman who spurned me.....I
cannot..."

"Don't say it!  Dont' admit to anything...it's not true...it can't be true!"
She cried, miserable in her love.  "We can never.....no, I can't ever, ever
leave Quentin.  I love him."

"Enough to say goodbye to me.....for all time?" Barnabas touched her shoulder.

Annie felt like jumping into the stale water below, drowning herself rather
than give in.  The seconds passed.  "Barnabas, Carolyn's in danger from this
new friend of hers, this Jacob Baines."

"I know, but nothing I say will convince her that she's wrong.  She's too
headstrong and gullible.  You, however,..." His hand fell from her shoulders.

She grabbed it up and kissed it.  "I can't forget you....in spite of all the
pain you've caused, I forgive you!  I only wish....the situation were
different."

"Oh Annie!  If I had any hope...any recourse...against this curse I bear!"

"Barnabas, Quentin said you have to sign some papers."

"Yes, I know.  It's a deed to that land he wants.  If I don't sign, he'll take
it to the courts.  If I do, it means death to whomever or whatever is built on
that land.  Annie, for the sake of your own precious life, don't let him build
there!  You must stop him!  You must!"

His eyes bored into her soul, wrenching her heart and making her pulse race.  A
lock of jet black hair covered his eyes for a second.  She took her hand and
softly brushed it over his face.

"And if I succeed?  Barnabas, what then?"

"I know when I leave that you will be safe." He started to walk away from her. 
"Do not tell Quentin you saw me.  For all intents and purposes, I've left the
county and no one knows any differently.  Stall him, lie to him if you must,
but never tell him we met today."

Annie made a sudden movement and threw herself in front of his retreating
figure.

"Barnabas, I can't forget.....I will never forget those memories!  Tell
me....tell me you love me!" She embraced him and felt his arms tighten around
her waist.

"Oh Annie, my poor child!" SHe felt his heart beating under the woolen cloak.

"Admit it!  You do love me!" She looked into his eyes, demanding an answer.

"Yes....I know you're not the woman in my hideous past....I know that now.  But
yes....I do love you!"

For a full five minutes, the seagulls were the only thing free and happy,
soaring widly in the sky while below, two human figures were wrapped in chains
of agony.  Andie Unregistered User (6/19/03 11:27 am) Broken wings 

The gulls were the only ones who witnessed the crushing sadness that enveloped
the star crossed lovers standing on the wharf.  

When Barnabas finally released his hold on Annie, she felt she couldn't breathe
without him.

"Barnabas, I can't go back now!  Quentin will take one look at me and he'll see
something's wrong.  Please, take me with you, wherever you're planning on
going!" She begged him, not able to let loose of his strong hands.

Barnabas clutched at his heart.  "Annie, where I go you can never follow.  I've
told you of the danger, of my past and what I have to do to survive.  Please,
go back to the hotel and to Quentin who can protect you.  Mortal as he is, he
has strength that I will never have." He pushed her aside and tried to walk
back up the pier but Annie's tears held him back.

"Barnabas, if I go back to the hotel, it won't be with any dreams of a future
now."

"Have I already ruined both you and Carolyn?  I've been trying to tell both of
you....you have futures that I can never experience!  Now for the final time,
Annie, please don't force me to make the decision for you!" His anger reflected
in his stormy face.

"Alright.  I'll go, but you take with you the love of one woman who would
never, ever reveal your secrets....or her own!" Annie fled the docks, running
as fast as she could in her heels and long skirt, her coat flapping in the cool
air.  Her head was aching and her face was red.  Had Quentin seen her fleeing
from his cousin, any doubts about her feelings would have been smashed and his
heart broken.

When Annie returned to the hotel, it was dark and Quentin wasn't in the room. 
SHe found a note and slumped on the bed to read it.

"Darling, I was worried sick about you!  After an hour, I went out to the Old
House.  Nobody home.  Looking for you.  Will be back to check at 8.  Love,
love, love!"

"Love!" Annie lay back on the bed.  What did the word mean?  "Am I so cruel and
silly that I've given my love to someone unworthy?  Poor Quentin!  I've done
something horrible-how can he ever forgive me!" She sobbed into the velvet
bedspread, miserable and ashamed.

The door opened and Quentin ran to her side.  

"Annie!  I've been worried sick about you!  Where did you go?  I looked all
over Collinwood and Collinsport for you and no one had seen you all afternoon,
except that damnable Mr.  Baines, Carolyn's boyfriend.  He and I had quite a
little chat....why, what's wrong?  Annie, tell me, dear." He cradled her hot
head on his shoulder and tried to soothe her.  "What happened today that's
upset you?"

"Oh Quentin,..." she began but she didn't dare continue.  She could never
reveal her own misguided love to him, not if she valued his protection and
loyalty.

"Annie, I've got some news that might be good for us both.  I've heard from
some relatives in England and I have to go there to get some documents about
the property.  Apparently there's some dispute about the title on the deed and
they have some legal documents.  They've invited us to stay with them in
Hampshire for a few days.  So at the end of the week, we'll be on a flight to
London!" He smiled at her.  "Now, maybe a little rest from Collinwood will make
you feel better.  Carolyn seems to be recovering well and I warned that Baines
character to steer clear of her until I get back.  Any trouble and I can easily
have him arrested for harrassment."

Annie tried to smile but the dim image of the docks and Barnabas made her heart
heavy.  "Yes, you're right.  I'm so overwrought by everything here..." She
sighed as if she was dead tired.

Quentin let her lay back on the bed and covered her with a soft quilt.  "You
stay and rest here.  I'm going down and get us something to eat and have it
brought up here."

"Quentin..." she began again, "if something happened....something that took me
away from you...would you....could you...  " SHe blinked back the tears.

"Darling, what could ever take you from me?  What on earth are you talking
about?" His startled glance spoke volumes.

"NOthing, I guess.  I was just....I've been so worried."

He kissed her again, smoothing her hair with his hand.  She closed her eyes and
felt the hands of Barnabas wrapped around her, as surely as Quentin sat next to
her.  Andie Unregistered User (7/1/03 11:48 am) ue 

Carolyn sat lingering over her brandy while Jacob ordered another Irish coffee.
 It seemed strange being back in Collinsport after the fire and her mysterious
accident.  Carolyn sipped gratefully, all the time watching Jacob's dark eyes.

"Jacob, you've never really explained why you chose to stay when you mentioned
several times that you had business to take care of."

"What could be more important than what I'm doing right now," he countered
lovingly.  He took her free hand.

"Well, it seems you might be concerned about your finances.  Staying in
Collinsport at the Inn isn't exactly cheap." She blinked at him and smiled.  "I
know enough about contractors from what Quentin has said to know they don't
make a king's ransom dashing beautiful women off their feet." She laughed, the
tinkling sound carrying to the next table.

Jacob frowned.  "Now you've got that part all wrong.  What feet?" He grinned at
her.

Carolyn sipped at the brandy.  It hadn't been that long since they'd been in
the bar and not too long since her illness.  She felt a little light headed but
considering the lump the remained from the accident, she wasn't surprised.

Jacob looked around.  The waitress was chatting with another customer and the
barkeep was pouring a tankard of ale for someone.  No one seemed to recognize
them as the couple who'd been in the Blue Whale only a week before.

"Carolyn, are you sure you should have another drink?"

"Who said anything about another?" She finished the brandy and put the glass
down.

"Dearheart, you ordered another drink just a few minutes ago." He looked
concerned.

"Jacob, if I had, I would certainly know it." It was her turn to frown.  "I
don't remember doing that."

Jacob motioned to the waitress.  "I can prove it.  And I'm not sure it's such a
good idea.  Miss," he asked the thin woman in black jeans and a low cut blouse,
"didn't this young lady order something from you just a few moments ago?"

"No, but maybe she talked to Lisa.  I'll go find out." The waitress wandered to
the back of the bar.

"I distinctly remember you asking that woman for another brandy.  Surely she's
mistaken.  There wasn't anyone named Lisa here.  I'm sure it was her." Jacob
looked angry.  "Carolyn, let's just leave.  I don't like that kind of joke. 
The service here isn't what it was previously.  I'll have to speak to the
manager." Jacob stood up and walked over to the barkeep.  After a few moment,
he came back, looking chagrined.

"What's wrong, Jacob," Carolyn asked, worried about the look on his face.

"Carolyn, I don't know how to put this but....well, it's rather
embarrassing....dearheart, the man told me..."

"Jacob, spit it out!  What's happening?"

"Well, he's cut you off.  Says you've had too much and he can't risk the
liability.  Personally, I'd say he has you mixed up with someone else but....he
won't give me or you another drink."

Carolyn rose and grabbed her coat.  "That's absurd!" She yanked her purse over
her shoulder.  "Let's go back to the hotel."

Jacob helped her up and put her coat over her shoulders.  "The plan is working,
and very well.  It won't be long before she thoroughly confused.  And I'm just
the person to make that happen!"

****************

Barnabas waited alone in the cold at the train station.  There was no point in
trying to remain in the Old House.  He would have to find someplace else safe
to rest until he could return to Collinwood.  But where?

Footsteps behind him made him turn around.  Annie stood, panting, uncertain
whether to approach or not.

"Annie!  What brings you here?"

"Quentin's going to take me to England!  He asked me to get two tickets into
Boston and then we fly out from there.  We may be gone as long as a month!" She
flung her arms around him.  "Barnabas....I'll die without you!"

"Annie....does Quentin know you're here?"

"Yes, he asked me to take care of the arrangements and get the train tickets
ahead of time.  We leave three days from today and don't come back until...."
She looked at the date.  "Barnabas, I won't be back until next month!"

"Annie, there's no future for us here.  You and I both understand that.  That's
been the problem since you saw the picture in the North wing.  I can't offer
you what you have with Quentin."

At his name, Annie winced and clung tighter to Barnabas.  "I know that, I know
that!  But I can't give you up!  How does somebody just leave without any
regrets!  How can you be this way..."

"You know the reason.  There's nothing I would do that would impede your
happiness with Quentin and nothing would please me more than to see you at
peace with your own kind.."

"My kind?  What do you mean?" She drew back, horrified.  "My kind?  You mean
people who don't care....people without a heart?  Is that it!"

"Annie, don't make this more difficult." A whistle sounded in the distance. 
They could hear the chuff of diesel and the ring of the alarms in the station
house.

"Annie, please.  Go home to Quentin and live happily with him.  He loves you
more than anyone can ever love you.  More than myself..."

"How will I find you!  I must find you!  Will you be here when we get home from
England?  Oh tell me you will be!  I can't bear life without you!" She tore
herself away from his arms just as the train pulled in.

"Annie, leave word with Mrs.  Johnson at the hotel and I will write to you.  I
promise.  But I'm not sure where I will be." A porter came out and took the
large carryall and old fashioned trunk off the cart, belongings that bore the
Collins crest.  The conductor came up to them.

"Just yourself, sir, or does the lady need help boarding?"

"No, sir.  Just myself." Barnabas handed over his ticket and the conductor
motioned for him to board the car.

"Annie, this is goodbye.  My lovely woman, don't forget what I said...." He
held her hands in his cold ones.

"Barnabas, if ever....if I need you...  will you find me?" The lump in her
throat made her feel like she couldn't breathe.

"Yes, Annie.  Wherever you are, if you truly need me...I'll find you."

He walked up the steps into the car.  Annie stood in the cold rain, unfeeling
of the hot steam and fumes surrounding her.  THe conductor checked a few late
passengers into their places and waved to the switchman.  A few more minutes
and the train's engines began their laborious pull on the wheels.

The train began slowly pulling out towards the dark Maine woodlands.  Annie
stood alone at last, her heart beating so slowly she wasn't sure if she was
still part of the living world.

************

"Carolyn, I don't like that Jacob character one bit," Quentin fumed.  "He's
crafty and he's hiding something.  He pays too much attention to you for
someone who seems to have nothing better to do."

Carolyn bristled.  "That's his perogative.  I didn't ask him to pick me up and
if it hadn't have been for him, I'd still be lying someplace on the ground,
knocked out."

"How did that accident happen anyway?" Quentin peered at her.

"I'm not sure but it was him that brought me to the hospital and tended me and
he was my only visitor, besides you and Annie."

"Speaking of which, she should have been back from the station by now with our
tickets." Quentin paced the lobby of the hotel.

"You're going to England after all," Carolyn queried.  "I thought the trip was
off."

"There's something eating at Annie, something that happened that she won't talk
to me about.  I decided it would be best to get her away from Collinwood for a
few weeks."

Annie walked in, wet and quiet.

"Annie, we were worried about you.  Quentin was just teling me about your trip
to England."

"Carolyn, I have to talk to you.  In private, please.  Quentin, would you
excuse us for a bit?" Annie took Carolyn's arm and walked her back into the
hotel bar.

"Sure, but I'll be here waiting.  Did you get the tickets?"

"Yes, I did." She handed them to him.  "Ill only be few moments.  But this is
very important."

Carolyn and Annie found a quiet corner.

"Carolyn, I have to know something.  How do you feel about Mr.  Collins?  Truly
how?" Annie was so intense at first Carolyn didn't want to answer.

She hesitated.  "I thought I loved him...at one time...  but now with Jacob
around, I'm pretty certain Mr.  Collins has been replaced." She wasn't smiling
though.  "Why do you ask, Annie?"

"Because....because....I do.  I do love him." Annie hung her head.  "And he's
leaving, he left today.  I saw him at the train station.  He's gone." 

"Annie, do you mean you'd give up Quentin for someone you hardly know?" Carolyn
couldn't quite believe what she was hearing.

Annie's lip trembled.  "No, that's not it at all!  I've promised my whole life
to Quentin, but if I can never see Barnabas again.....I can't imagine life
without him!"

Carolyn huffed, "That's nonsense.  Your Mr.  Collins has brought nothing but
trouble since he came here.  Just because I threw him over doesn't give you the
right to come in and take my place.  And don't think for a moment Quentin would
stand for that either." Carolyn backed down.  "Quentin loves you...look at what
he did in the fire!  Mr.  Collins wasn't even around."

"Yes, Carolyn, yes he was." Annie stood up.  "I don't pretend to understand it
myself but I love him.  That photo, that horrible woman inthe picture...this is
her doing!  SHe's to blame, not Barnabas!"

Quentin walked in.  "Annie, I'm sorry but we really have to go and begin
packing.  Carolyn, can you track down some papers for me in my files while I
finish up a few loose ends on the phone?  ANd have you seen Jacob today?  He
was supposed to meet me here hours ago!"

"We talked at the Blue Whale.."

"Why there?  That's a bar!  Carolyn, he was supposed to meet me here at 4
o'clock and it's past seven now.  And he was in the bar with you?  Well, if
that's the way he wants to do business..." Quentin walked away quickly to find
a phone.

"Oh no, he's really angry now," Carolyn said.  "I'd better call and warn
Jacob." She ran off in the other direction.

Alone, Annie sat in one of the plushy lobby chairs and waited.  Her life stood
before her and bereft of the one person she felt would understand her torment,
she could see nothing happy or exciting about it.

"Barnabas is gone forever," she mourned.  "I'll never see him again.  And I
can't bear it!"