Subj: Crossing Over Time -- 7
Date: 5/22/99 10:56:02 PM Central Daylight Time
From: DSRules
Joshua walked into the study, one of his books on 20th century business practices in his hand.
"How's the restaurant plans goin', Mr. Collins?" Willie asked.
Joshua looked his son's ill-cultured friend up and down disdainfully. "I've learned that I don't just need to provide food quickly, I also need something called a 'gimmick.'" He spoke this last word as if it were something he'd never heard of before.
"A 'gimmick'?" Barnabas turned to Willie for an explanation.
Willie explained. "Yeah. A gimmick is somethin' that sets your restaurant apart from the others. Ya know, like Colonel Sanders in the Kentucky Fried Chicken commercials. Havin' an old Southern gentleman in their commercials makes the place seem like it serves home-cooked food, even if your mom never made fried chicken in her life."
Joshua nodded. "That was one of the examples the authors of this book gave, Mr. Loomis."
"And what 'gimmick' do you have in mind, Father? Appearing in television commercials for Collinburger?"
"Don't be absurd, Barnabas! I was actually thinking of using some of our family recipes as our 'gimmick,' like Cook's eel pie or old Aunt Hettie's recipe for syllabub."
Barnabas shuddered. "I don't think that eel pie would go over very well these days, Father. It's best that you stick to the syllabub. Even if you don't know Aunt Hettie's recipe for syllabub."
"I'm sure that we'll find it around here somewhere."
* * * * *
Elizabeth caught up with her daughter in the drawing room. "Did you have a chance to speak with Vicki last night, Carolyn?"
Carolyn nodded, pursing her lips. "Not that it did any good, though. All that she was willing to say was that Burke was an old friend, and that they went back a long way together."
Liz's eyes lit up as an idea formed in her mind.
"All right, Mother. I recognize that expression. What are you thinking?"
"Your Uncle Roger is due back from Japan next week. What if we had a small dinner party to welcome him home, and included Mr. Devlin on the guest list?"
* * * * *
Bathia Mapes had explored the grounds of Collinwood in 1795, and she found the grounds of 1968 not very much changed. Except for one thing - a beautiful little house with white columns across the porch on the very edge of the estate. The name above the gate of the white picket fence that surrounded the house said {Rose Cottage.}
She was tempted to go through that gate and investigate the grounds, but was stopped from leaving the shelter of the trees around the clearing when a van drove up the street, stopping in front of the house. With a flurry of activity, the two men in the front seat got out and set up a wheelchair. Then they lowered someone from the back seat into the wheelchair.
First one of the men was in the way, then the other one was -- Bathia couldn't see who the figure in the wheelchair was, except by the general shape, she got the feeling that the occupant of the wheelchair was a woman. After putting her into the house, the two men came back outside, got back into the van, and drove away.
* * * * *
As Vicki crossed through the foyer, she heard someone knock on the door. She opened it to a delivery man, bearing a huge arrangement of red roses.
"Miss . . . Vicki Winters?" He asked as he looked at the address label.
"That's me."
"These are for you." He handed her the arrangement. As she struggled under its weight, he held out a clipboard. "Sign here?"
Vicki dropped the arrangement onto the table and then took the clipboard from him. She signed it and handed it back to him.
The delivery person considered trying to wheedle a tip out of the young woman, but he knew that she was the governess, not a member of the family, and so she needed all of the money she could get. So, instead, he left. "Thanks. Have a nice day."
"You, too." She said with a smile that disappeared as soon as she closed the door.
"Ooh! Who are these for?"
Vicki recognized the voice. "They just arrived for me, Carolyn."
"Who are they from?" Carolyn grabbed the envelope that contained the card and quickly, before Vicki could stop her, opened it up. "'To a New Beginning. Love . . .' His handwriting is just terrible. I can't even read his signature. What's that name? Oh! 'Burke'!"
Without so much as a 'by-your-leave,' which was understandable in the circumstances, Vicki grabbed the card out of Carolyn's hand. She walked toward the drawing room, where she encountered Elizabeth just leaving.
"Mrs. Stoddard," Vicki asked, "May I use the telephone in here?" She shot a look at her nosy friend. "Privately?"
"Why of course you may." Elizabeth was clearly confused by the governess' ire.
"Thank you." Vicki walked into the drawing room and closed the door.
"What was that about?" Elizabeth asked her daughter.
"She just got those." Carolyn indicated the roses on the table. "From Burke Devlin."
Concern etched Elizabeth's face. "She didn't seem pleased by them."
Carolyn grinned. "And doesn't it pique your curiosity?" The young blonde woman walked to the door of the drawing room and pressed her ear to the door.
Through the door, she heard Vicki saying, "I just got your flowers."
"They're beautiful. But you shouldn't have."
"I'm not flirting with you, Burke. I mean that you *shouldn't* have."
"You know why not."
"Among other reasons."
"Burke, I've moved on. I thought you had, too."
"You're right. That *was* my mistake."
"I'm busy. I can't."
"Not tomorrow night, either."
"Yes, I am trying to get rid of you."
Vicki heaved a huge sigh. "Good-bye, Burke."
When she realized that Vicki had hung up the phone and that she should be coming to the door of the drawing room, Carolyn stepped quickly into the middle of the foyer - right into the arms of Barnabas.
"Barnabas! What are you doing here?"
"I'm living here now, Carolyn." He favored her with a charming smile. He always had a soft spot for blondes. "I might ask you the same question, about why your ear was pressed to the . . . ."
The doors of the drawing room opened, and Vicki came out. Barnabas looked from the brunette to the blonde and back again, a glint in his eye that told Carolyn that he had figured out that she'd been eavesdropping on the governess.
"Vicki, I was thinking that I have a perfect place for these flowers . . ." Carolyn said as she grabbed Vicki's arm and hurried her down the hallway.
{I wonder who those roses are from,} Barnabas thought as he watched the pair walking away, {and why Carolyn was eavesdropping on Vicki.}
* * * * *
Upon her return to Collinwood, Bathia encountered Willie Loomis. "Mr. Loomis." Bathia began. "I just saw the most peculiar thing."
"Well, you see lotsa peculiar things around here, Mrs. Mapes." Willie responded with a grin. "'Specially if Professor Stokes is around."
"This wasn't that kind of odd thing, Mr. Loomis." She described seeing the woman being brought to the house by the two men in the van.
Willie's eyes grew large. "I heard that she was comin' home soon. That was Sabrina Collins. She's been in the hospital for about four months. It happened right after I got ta Collinsport."
"What happened?"
"Her husband pushed her down the stairs."