Subj: Collinsport Part 40
From: DSRules

Margaret was in the kitchen preparing dinner, and Azura was just finishing up her comments on Zoe's progress. She had only intended to make a few notes to Colin, but she ended up writing several pages, mostly about Zoe, but occasionally she lapsed into talking about her life before she came to live there.

"What are you writing, Ms. Von Stein?" Margaret asked.

"I think that we've been working together long enough for you to call me Azura, Margaret. I'm writing a note to Mr. Chance. He asked me about Zoe's progress."

"Ah," Margaret said in a knowing tone, "you're to the notes-writing stage already."

"The 'notes-writing stage'?"

"It's the step between when he lurks silently, and when he actually speaks to you. Though I'll have to admit that he never bought a nice book like that for me, nor for Lana, either, I'll bet. His notes to us were mostly just written on plain notebook paper and things and left for us to find."

* * * * *
Stunned by her latest statement, David goggled at Sarah. "Josette? As in Josette DuPres?"

Sarah nodded. "Even though Maggie Evans -- I mean Haskell -- looks just like Josette, I know that this has to be Josette's. "

"Why?"

"Because this," she held out the piece of fabric, "is a handkerchief I monogrammed for Barnabas in 1796."

"I guess that I still have a little difficulty realizing that all of those people who are just legends for most of us were real people for you -- Josette, Joshua, Naomi, Jeremiah, Daniel . . ."

"Well, except for Josette and my mother, you really didn't miss much. My father was a complete bastard, and Daniel was a spoiled brat."

"And Jeremiah?"

"The less said about him, the better." And with that, Sarah, wad of hair and cloth doll in hand, left the room.

* * * * *

Margaret finished fixing dinner, and put the tray together for Colin Chance. Before Margaret took they tray upstairs, Azura put the book on it with a feeling of anticipation, wondering why she was so anxious to see his response.

* * * * *

David caught up to Sarah. "What happened back there?"

"You mean about Jeremiah?"

He nodded.

"I can't tell you. I'd be breaking a promise if I did." She felt bad enough having told Adam about the two Jeremiahs. {The only reason I could justify having told Adam was that Jerimiah was Adam's uncle. There isn't any relationship like that that I can use as an excuse to tell David the truth,} she thought.

She hoped that he'd pressure her a little, but he said, "Oh. Sorry."

Deflated that he wouldn't be able to con the truth out of him, she said, "That's all right. There's really nothing to forgive." Still holding the wad of hair and the cloth, she put her arms around him and gave him a kiss.

"Come on, you two!" Javier yelled up the stairs. "We're waiting dinner for you!"

Sarah ducked into her bedroom, where she tucked the hair and the doll safely into her purse, and the pair descended the stairs.

* * * * *

After dinner, Sarah excused herself to make a phone call. The line on the other side rang once, twice, three times. Then a woman's voice answered. "Hello?"

"Julia?"

"Yes? Sarah?" The younger woman was pleased that her sister-in-law recognized her voice.

"Yes. Is Barnabas there?"

"Can you hold on just a minute?"

"Sure."

A moment later, she heard the cultured voice of her elder brother, "Sarah? What a pleasant surprise."

Sarah took a deep breath to collect herself. "Well, you might not think it's so pleasant when you hear what I have to say. Are you up for a visitor tonight?"

"Who are you talking to?" David asked when he arrived in the drawing room.

"Barnabas," she mouthed at him silently.

"You want to go up to Bangor tonight?" he asked.

She nodded.

"You want to come and visit me tonight, Sarah? Isn't this something that can wait?"

"I'm not sure. I think that you'll need to see what I just found. Then you can tell me whether it can wait."

* * * * *

After Azura had read the next chapter of The Secret Garden to Zoe, she stepped into her own bedroom before heading downstairs to watch her soap opera, which she had taped earlier in the day. There was the book on her nightstand. Her hands trembled with excitement as she picked it up and carried it downstairs.

* * * * *

With a warm smile, Barnabas opened the door. "Sarah!"

Sarah exchanged a hug with her elder brother. She noticed a change in him. He had seemed melancholy the day that she first came to his house, but ever since she remembered who she was, he was more like the warm, affectionate brother she remembered from her childhood.

Sarah watched with pleasure as Barnabas and David shook hands.

"So, what was this that you wanted me to see so badly?" he asked after they had removed their coats and taken seats in the living room.

Sarah had kept her purse with her, and she reached into it and pulled out the objects she discovered in the compartment. "This."

Barnabas was glad he had taken a seat; if he had been standing, he surely would have passed out at the sight of his long-lost beloved's hair and -- "This was made from one of the handkerchiefs you monogrammed for me!"

"Yes. That's part of why I couldn't tell you about this over the phone. I wanted to ask if you remember the last time you saw this handkerchief."

Barnabas thought for a moment, casting his mind back over 200 years. "I took it with me to Martinique. I remember having it with me the day I proposed to Josette. But I don't remember having it at any time after that. Do you know what this looks like?"

"What?" Sarah asked.

"It looks like a love charm."

* * * * *

Azura reclined on the couch, reading Colin's latest entry into their book. For the first time, he said something about himself. {I'm glad I hired you to be Zoe's governess,} he wrote, {my own math skills are so bad, I can't even balance my own checkbook. I think that you'll keep Zoe from ending up like me.}

After she finished her response to him, she smiled and reread his notes to her. While she was in the middle of reading, she fell asleep.

* * * * *

"A love charm?" Sarah asked, stunned. "You don't think that -- your first wife -- had anything to . . . ."

"Oh, certainly not!" Barnabas exclaimed. "The last thing that *she* would have wanted to have happened would be for me to fall in love with Josette. And I'm certain that was the purpose of this charm. You see, it's all very symbolic. The handkerchief represents me -- especially since you were the one who monogrammed it, Sarah -- it doesn't just belong to me, but my very favorite person in all the world," Barnabas and his sister shared a smile at that, "gave it to me. The hair, of course, represents Josette. You see, you put the hair inside the doll, and it represents filling me up with thoughts of her."

"What do you know about this?" Sarah asked her fiance.

"David?" Barnabas was perplexed.

She looked at her brother. "He recognized the doll."

David took the doll from Barnabas and looked at it for a long moment. "It was my first year attending the high school in town. I was a sophomore. I remember because you and Julia disappeared for a couple of months. I was kind of hanging around the house -- it was Christmas break -- and I went exploring. I couldn't ever remember looking at the hidden compartment in one of the bedrooms in the main part of the house, because it has always been the governess' room. It was Vicki's and then Maggie inherited it from her. Well, Maggie had left town recently, and I decided to go in there and have a look around. That's when I found the doll. I didn't notice the monogram or anything, but I felt something hard inside it, so I opened it up."

"Hard?" Barnabas asked.

David nodded. "It was this." He reached into his pocket, pulled out his keys, dropped them into Barnabas' outstretched hand.

Barnabas looked at the small rock that was attached to the keychain. "I'm willing to bet that this rock is from Mount Pelée, the volcano on Martinique. Hmmm. . . I wonder what that would represent."

"Heat?" Julia suggested

"Passion?" Sarah decided to embroider on her sister-in-law's suggestion and gave this idea a try.

Barnabas looked from his wife to his sister. "Yes. Probably."

David continued. "The rock was at the bottom, so I had to pull the hair out before I could get to it. I just never bothered putting the hair back.

"And it's probably a good thing that you didn't," Barnabas suggested.

The other three looked at him, waiting for him to finish, so he said, "Because, if my theory's correct, you were what allowed me to end my obsession with Josette."

Julia leaned forward and chimed in, "this doll was causing you to be obsessed with Josette, and David taking it apart was why you were finally able to move on!"

Barnabas smiled fondly at his wife of 26 years. "Yes. It was. Now, who would have done such a thing?"

Sarah smiled at him. "I'll bet you'll be able to guess who when I tell you where I found this."

Barnabas braced himself for the news that she'd found it in the room where Josette had taken the poison that ended her earthly existence.*

Sarah surprised him. "The next-to-westernmost bedroom on the south side of the house."

Barnabas' jaw dropped. "Natalie DuPres's room?!?"

* You'll notice that since Josette died two different ways -- the first time she died she fell from Widows' Hill, and the second time she came away from Widows' Hill alive but ended up taking poison, I decided to go with the version where she took the poison.

Subj: Collinsport -- Part 41
Date: 1/24/99 11:32:37 PM Central Standard Time
From: DSRules

Azura was awakened by the {snick} of a latch closing. She was slightly disoriented at first, but when she remembered where she was -- asleep on the couch in the living room - she realized two things. First, she realized that the sound she heard came from somewhere in the living room, which meant that one of the floor-to-ceiling mirrors in the living room must actually be a door leading to Colin Chance's quarters. Second, she realized that the book, which she had been holding in her hands when she fell asleep, was on the coffee table and that she was wrapped in a quilt.

These two factors added up to one thing -- Colin Chance had just been in the room with her, and he had made certain that she was as comfortable as she could be. She fell back asleep with a contented smile on her face.

* * * * *

Barnabas was stunned by the conclusion they had reached about the source of his feelings for Josette - that Natalie DuPres had put a love spell on him. But there was time to process that later. Now, he had to speak to Sarah about something very important. "Could you step into my study for a moment?" He asked her.

"Sure."

The pair walked into his study and closed the door, leaving a surprised Julia and David behind them.

Barnabas sighed as he closed the door. "I'm not sure where to start, so I might as well just take my chances. I'm not sure you should be seeing David until you know the full truth about him."

"Oh, really?"

"In a way, you're more closely related than either of you realize."

"How?"

"Well, you remember hearing tales of Daniel and Millicent's mother, don't you?"

Sarah nodded. "Laura. Didn't she die soon after having Daniel? In a fire?"

"Yes. That's who I meant. Only . . . . She didn't die."

"She didn't? But I thought . . ."

Barnabas nodded. "So did we all. But I know that she didn't die, because I met her in 1897. She's David's great-grandmother. And she's also his mother. You're practically cousins." He elaborated.

"But, as far as blood relationships go, David would actually be our what? Fifth cousin? Sixth?"

"Eighth. I counted."

"Hardly an incestuous relationship. He might be Daniel's half brother . . . ." Her voice faded as she realized that she just found her loophole. {If he's Daniel's half brother, then Uncle Jeremiah would be his stepfather. Sort of.}

"Yes?"

She realized that Barnabas was waiting for her to finish her thought, so she continued, "Even if David and Daniel are half-brothers, they're related on their mother's side, so that doesn't make David anything even remotely resembling my first cousin."

"I just thought that you should know."

Sarah gave her elder brother a hug. "Thank you for watching out for me."

"That's my job, Sarah," Barnabas said as he returned her embrace.

* * * * *

The thump, thump, thump of the eight year old's feet on the stairs awoke Azura as Zoe came down the stairs.

Azura sat up, propping herself up on her elbow. "Good morning, Zoe."

"Azura? What are you doing up already?" Then she got her first good look at her governess. "You're still wearing the clothes you were wearing yesterday. Did you sleep down here?"

Azura nodded, sitting the rest of the way up so that the quilt pooled around her hips. "I fell asleep while I was reading your father's latest note to me."

Zoe smiled. "You know, he's never done this before."

"What?"

"Spent so much time writing to my governess."

Azura returned her student's smile, wondering why the notion that Colin Chance would spend more time on her than on her predecessors made her feel more than slightly giddy.

* * * * *

Sarah and David stayed overnight at Barnabas' house and returned home just as Javier was about to walk out the front door. "Where were the two of you all night?"

"We went up to Bangor to talk to Barnabas." Sarah responded.

"About . . . ?"

She shrugged. "Family stuff mostly." She didn't want to say any more on the subject. Javier really didn't need to know exactly how unconventional their family was.

"So, you going in to work?"

"Yeah." She yawned. "Just give me a few minutes to take a shower and I'll be right with you."

"Well, I guess that's my cue to leave," David said with a yawn even larger than Sarah's.

"You aren't going anywhere, Dr. Collins," Sarah rebuked him. "You can't possibly drive in your condition. Why don't you go up to my room and take a nap?"

"But my patients. . . "

"Won't get any better if you get injured or killed in a car accident from sleeping behind the wheel, now, will they?"

Seeing the logic behind this, as well as being interested in sleeping in Sarah's bed, David acquiesced to her request. He just wished that she was going to be in her bed, too -- although he didn't think they'd get much sleeping done in that situation.

They went up to her bedroom, David dragging in his tracks the whole way. He sat down on her bed (she'd finally bought a bed frame) and immediately flopped backward, sighing. Uncomfortable with getting undressed in front of him, Sarah took her work clothes into the bathroom with her, where she took her shower and got dressed. When she emerged, she was ready for work.

She took her dirty laundry back into her bedroom, where David was out cold on her bed. {Oh, well,} she thought with a smile as she took his shoes off and moved his legs onto the bed, {I guess I'll just have to tell him about Uncle Jeremiah later.}

* * * * *

The first thing Sarah and Javier noticed when they arrived at their desks were envelopes with their names printed on them in an ornate font. They each opened their envelopes and read the card inside.

"Adam's having a New Year's Eve Party?" Sarah asked. "How's he going to fit us all in his hotel room?"

"It says here that Mr. Von Stein has a new house," Javier began.

"He didn't mention anything about it to me," Sarah responded.

"Well, maybe he wanted to keep it quiet for some reason."

* * * * *

When the phone rang at the lighthouse, Zoe beat Azura to the phone. "Chance residence," she said.

"Is this Zoe?" The man on the other end asked.

"Who is this?" Zoe asked.

"I'm sorry, Zoe. This is Adam Von Stein. May I please speak with Azura?"

"OK, Mr. Von Stein," Zoe said, and then, placing her hand over the mouthpiece, said to her governess, "it's your daddy."

"Dad?" Azura asked when she took the phone from her charge.

"So, you've got Zoe answering the phone for you now, do you?" Azura could hear the smile in her father's tone.

"Her Aunt Hettie called yesterday, and ever since they talked, she's just dying to talk to anyone on the phone."

"Hettie?"

"Her mother's sister. She seemed very pleasant, at least to talk to. So, why are you calling? You didn't call just in case Zoe needed to talk, right?"

"No. I called because I finally got in touch with Hallie Stokes Collins yesterday, and last night, I bought her uncle Eliot's house from her."

When she was silent, he elaborated. "Hallie's uncle Eliot was my first friend. He was the one who arranged for me to move to Seattle and go to college."

"And now you're gonna be living in his house? How cool!"

"If you're available, I'd love to take you over there so you can see it before I get all of the repairs and things made. "

"I'd love it. Only . . ."

"Of course you can bring Zoe with you."

"Great! Do you want me to meet you up at the office?"

"No. The lighthouse is actually in between the office and the house, so I'll swing by and pick you up on my way."

"All right. See you later, Daddy."

"'Daddy'?"

Azura blushed. "Oh, sorry, Dad. Too much Zoe, I guess."

"Actually, I kind of liked it. It's too long since you last called me 'Daddy.'"

"You honestly don't mind?"

"Why did you think that I'd mind?"

She shrugged. "I don't know."

"Well, I don't. You can call me 'Daddy' as long as you like."

"Thanks -- Daddy." Azura hung up the phone and went to eat her breakfast.