Subject: Beneath the Dark Shadows Part One
Date: Tue, 05 Sep 2000 09:00:42 CDT
From: N.E. Collins

"Betty Hanson? No, Hanscomb. Betty Hanscomb. She was a local girl. One of the first I ever did a portrait of as a matter of fact." Sam Evans leaned back in his chair and looked fondly at the picture of the young girl in his hands that the governess Victoria Winters had asked him about. His eyes held the expression of thoughts far away and long forgotten, and one could tell that his mind was on things once more peaceful.

"Did you know her well?" asked Miss Winters.

"Yes, I knew her quite well. I was, well, you might say she was my first love. Of course, that was a long time ago. Twenty, no, twenty-five years ago." Sam smiled and chuckled softly.

Miss Winters could hardly contain her excitement at her discovery of an image of a woman who looked so much like her. When she asked Mr. Evans if he too saw any such resemblance he agreed that around the eyes and the shape of the picture's nose he could see a noticeable similarity Vicky almost squealed with girlish delight.

"Where is she now, this Betty Hanscomb?" she furthered queried. "I would be VERY interested in meeting her as I am sure you can understand, Mr. Evans. You see, I believe she may be my mother or a close relation at best."

"Ah, Miss Winters I'm afraid that would be quite impossible. You see, Betty Hanscomb left town about 6 months after I did this portrait, and she died about 5 months after that."

Maggie walked in the room around this time and sat on the armchair next to her Pop. "Betty Hanscomb? Wasn't she related to that man that Burke Devlin ran over all that time ago?"

Sam got uncomfortable at the mere mention of that unfortunate past event. "No, Maggie! His name was Hanson not Hanscomb, and if you wouldn't mind I would rather not talk about this anymore. If you will excuse me a minute." And with that Sam Evans got up and left the room.

Maggie looked at Vicky and was smiling, but embarassed as she said, "Sometimes my father is a bit abrupt, but he's a real good man once you get to know him better."

Vicky politely nodded her assent as she inwardly burned inside to know more, to know anything more about this newly discovered Betty Hanscomb. Who was she? Or more importantly was she who Vicky thought she was?

Dark Shadows is a Dan Curtis Production.