Subj: Where are the Angels Chapter 40
Date: 8/12/01 3:51:46 AM Central Daylight Time
From: Melissa

"Dad what's wrong?" asked Barnabas as he watched his father pace back and forth in the crypt.

"You've been seen Barnabas!" his father yelled.

"By whom," Barnabas asked.

"Laura Wicke, I told you that you needed to be careful when you went out."

"I have been!" Barnabas shouted.

"Well you're lucky I was able to throw her off the track. She knew it was you out there in the cemetery, but I think I was able to convince her that it was someone who resembled you."

Barnabas jumped on one of the coffins; he sat there thinking, how could Laura have seen him in the cemetery last night, he hadn't been there at all.

"What are we going to do?" he asked.

"I don't know," Joshua said with defeat. "I think it may be time for us to decide what we are going to do with you."

Barnabas looked at his father knowing exactly what he was thinking; it was what had been going through his mind since Josette left him last night.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Angèlique changed into her own clothes, the cave was the perfect place to hide out, she thought. She looked down at the body that lay at her feet. Laura had been so terrified when she saw Angèlique that she hadn't even screamed when she killed the girl.

Joshua had been very clever, "I bet he is with Barnabas right now," Angèlique said out loud.

Lucky for her no one would notice that Laura was gone, she had no family. When Angèlique first came to Collinwood Laura had told her that she was an orphan. As Laura, she told Joshua that she had gotten a job in a school in Bangor. No one would miss her.

She was now one step closer to gaining all that she wanted.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Would you take a walk with me?" André asked his daughter after lunch.

"I would like that very much," she said, "let me get a sweater first."

The weather had changed quickly, and Josette would have to go to Valrosa to get some warmer things.

"Ready?" André asked when she met him in the foyer.

"Yes, would you mind if we walked to Valrosa. I need to pick up some warmer clothes."

"Of course I don't mind," André said.

They walked in a comfortable silence that they were so accustomed to. André put his arm around his daughter, she smiled up at him, and for a moment he thought it was his wife walking with him, like they used to.

"You look so much like your mother," he said. "I'm very lucky to have you as a daughter."

"Thank you Papa," Josette said as they walked up the steps of Valrosa. She took out the keys from her pocket and opened the doors.

"It's a beautiful house," André said.

"Thank you, I did a lot of the decorating those past couple months after Barnabas died."

"You should have come back to France with your Aunt and I," André said.

"I couldn't leave Papa."

They went up the stairs to Josette's room, and there she packed two bags. As they were walking down the stairs, André saw the photograph of Barnabas and Josette in the living room. He set down the bag and went into the room and stood before the fireplace looking up at the photograph.

"When did you get this done?" he asked.

Josette walked over to him, "Not long after we arrived in Collinsport."

"He was a handsome man," André said.

Josette looked up at the photograph, she was glad that she had kept it. They looked so happy, and they had been. Nothing had happened to them yet, they thought they would be spending the rest of their lives together.

There had been several times when she would have destroyed the photograph but she was always stopped by something.

"Why don't we go now," André suggested.

Josette followed her father to the door and reached for one of the bags, "I'll get them," he said.

On the walk back to Collinwood, they discussed Josette's plans for the baby. André told her about the time when he and her mother found out they were going to have a baby.

"So you were going to call me Christian if I was a boy, and you were planning on calling me Simoné?"

"Yes, Simoné was my Grandmother's name, but when we saw you we decided then that your name would be Josette."

"You never told me that before," Josette said with surprise.

"You picked a beautiful name for your daughter. Did you know your Great-grandmother's name was Clemence?"

"Was it? I didn't remember that. I've always liked it though," she said.

When they got back to Collinwood André took up Josette's bags to her room.

"I think I'm going to take a nap," she told him, as he went to leave.

"Have a good rest Abeille," he said closing the door behind him.

André went to the library and found his sister at a table. Her tarot cards spread out before her.

"How is Josette," she asked without looking up.

"She tries to act like nothing is wrong," he said.

"I heard her crying last night, I was going to go to her, but I thought it best to leave her."

"How is the reading going?" André asked.

"Not well, someone or something is blocking me. All I can tell is that a good spirit is protecting this child. It is strange it also says that there is an evil with a good heart, that would do anything to protect Josette and the child, if harm were to come," Natalie said. She turned over another card, "The knight. A man is coming, he will bring happiness to Josette," Natalie said looking at her brother.