Subj: Fiery Forbidden Love:Burning Embers Chapter 4
Date: 2/1/99 12:02:02 PM Central Standard Time
From: msann

Chapter 4

'All is going according to plan,' thought Barnabas as Julia continued to cry on his shoulder. "Is there anything I can do to help you?"

"No. You've already done a lot to help by just listening. But Roxanne, she needs you and so does Jamie. You have improved enough to come home, Barnabas, but you still need to continue your therapy. That was one of the reasons I came to see you today."

"Thank you, Julia. You don't know what you've done for me by letting me come home."

Back at Collinwood, Quentin Collins was trying to evade his two pursuers, namely Maggie and Shane/Willie. Recalling a childhood memory about the secret passages of Collinwood, Quentin raced inside the Great House and into a passage that led from the upper rooms to the Drawing Room. Shane and Maggie, ignorant of that particular feature of Collinwood, searched in vain, unable to find any clue as to Quentin's whereabouts.

A short time later, as quickly as it appeared, the pitchfork disappeared from Maggie and Quentin. Maggie's needs, however, still raged as strongly as ever and with Quentin gone and Nicholas busy, Maggie decided a new game was needed. She was still sure that Shane was really Willie, but for some reason he couldn't/wouldn't acknowledge it. Somehow she had to loosen him up in order to get some answers. This would prove to be a little challenging since Shane was a lot more tight lipped than Willie ever was when she spoke to him. Therefore, it was time to use her secret weapon procured from a spy mission into the secret files of Dr. Julia Hoffman-Collins. "Shane, I think Grant has left. Why don't we go down to the drawing room and wait."

"Well, the full moon is tonight. I can't stay too long. I gotta go and chain myself up in the basement so I don't hurt anyone."

"Well, you can have one drink with me can't you? It's still several hours before dark. Please?" said Maggie striving for schoolgirl innocence, and willing Shane not to see her ulterior motives.

Shane looked uneasily at his watch before replying, "All right, but just one. I don't want to loose track of the
time."

Once in the drawing room, Maggie seated Shane on the sofa (with his back turned to the bar) and began to fix the drinks. After she had poured one, Maggie reached into her pocket and pulled out the instrument of her retrieving the truth, a small vial filled with a drug called rohypnol in it and added it to Shane's brandy. According to Julia's medical journals, Rohypnol mixed with alcohol made almost any victim susceptible to any suggestion given without the victim having any memory of what they did. "Here you are, Shane," said Maggie as she handed Shane the drugged liquid.

"Thank you."

"Tell me more about Shane Douglas. Are you a writer like Grant?"

"Well there isn't much to tell about me. Mostly I try to keep Grant out of trouble and get blamed for his mistakes. He's a little over a year younger than me, so I guess I think of him as the little brother I never had. "When I'm not bailing out Grant, I am a horror writer. It's sort of therapeutic for me. I don't know what I'd think if I didn't tell my story in some way, even if people think it's fiction. I also help out Grant with his historical research. He's really into Victorian era and turn-of-the-century stuff. I still remember the obsession he once had with an artist named Charles Tate for a long time. I never knew why. That's one of the few things that Grant never shared with me."

"How did you come to be cursed?"

"Well my grandfather got into a fight with an old gypsy so she cursed him and every firstborn son of each generation."

"Is there no hope for you?"

"Yeah, there's hope. Grant 'n I have been lookin' all over for cures. But that's about enough about me. Tell me about Maggie Evans."

"Well, for starters, my life isn't nearly as interesting as yours. I am currently David's tutor and Mrs. Stoddard's companion and currently enjoying the worst social life in Collinsport," answered Maggie with more venom than she had intended.

"I can't believe that! A pretty girl like you? How can that be?" asked Shane with wonder.

"It's true. Every guy has either dumped me, gone insane, or just rejected me!" cried Maggie as Shane brought her into his embrace.

After a few minutes, Maggie seemed to gather herself a little and suggested that Shane take her down to the Collinsport Inn coffee shop and buy her an ice cream cone. One of the things that Maggie always loved to watch with Willie was the very distinctive way he ate ice cream, especially when there were chocolate chip cookies around. Casey, the waitress who was hired after Maggie quit to work at Collinwood, once commented that Willie eating ice cream reminded her of her little brothers when they were growing up. It had to be done the exact same way each time, or else it was wrong. No one dared to interfere when Willie had one of his homemade concoctions. Even Barnabas backed off after Willie gave him a very dirty look at one time. At the coffee shop, Maggie told Casey to fix "the usual" and sat Shane down at a booth. A few moments later, the two ice cream dishes arrived at the table.

"How are you enjoying your ice cream, Shane?" asked Maggie.

"It's great. You know, when I was a kid, I used ta eat my ice cream with cookies all in it just like this. My mom thought I was weird of doin' it but I did it anyways and eventually she gave up on me," said Shane as he began to carefully arrange his cookies and ice cream. "But that's not surprisin'. When I became friends with good old Jason McGuire, she gave up on me completely."

Maggie sat there stunned. Shane really was Willie! Somehow, the ice cream and the rohypnol allowed Willie to come back again. Maggie knew from her experiences with Julia as her psychiatrist, that keeping the patient talking was the key to keeping progress up. Maggie's musings were interrupted by two very familiar voices entering the coffee shop.

"Oh Nicholas, really you're spoiling me!"

"I could never spoil you my dear. I only give you what you truly deserve in life."

Maggie looked on in horror as Nicholas Blair and Elizabeth Stoddard walked into the coffee shop.

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I pass the pen...