Subj: Charade: Chapter 12
Date: 11/11/01 2:46:43 PM Central Standard Time
From: Nicole

December 7, 2008, Collinwood, 1:15 PM-Parallel Time

Gwynneth hated playing alone but there she sat in the drawing room, a large pad in front of her and a pack of soft crayons at her feet. William was sick and their mother had taken him to the doctor. Her father was hard at work, locked away in a room beneath Collinwood so that he would not disturb anyone. They left Gwynneth to her own devices; on any normal day she would consider that a good thing, but today, it troubled her. It had been three days since the letter incident and all seemed well. Gwynneth knew better. She had noticed that her mother would seem troubled every time she passed by Daniel’s office. Was she expecting another letter? Gwynneth would have gladly checked for her but she was being watched much more carefully since she had been caught in the office. That is, until now. Now she was free for Angelique to get in touch with her and she was distressed when the ghost made no attempt to do so.

Gwynneth did not understand her role. Amy had railed to her about being a “protector.” Who was she supposed to protect? She was too young to protect herself much less save anyone else. And now the creepy things that roamed the house were asking her for her assistance. Could they just talk to her mother directly? It was beginning to bother her that she was needed and yet she would have it no other way. She almost longed to be summoned to the east wing. She liked the thrill of lurking through the house; it made her feel important, older.

Gwynneth kicked the crayons to the side and took a seat by the fireplace. She was so lonely. She turned back to the doorway to see a man standing there. He was tall, much taller than her father, with graying brown hair and bright blue eyes. He was beautiful in a stoic, mournful way. He smiled and curled a finger at Gwynneth. She rose from her perch and moved toward the man. “Are you the one from my dream, the one who told me to find the note in Daniel’s office?” He maintained the brilliant grin as he nodded. “Will you take me to her? Do I have something else to do?” He nodded and offered Gwynneth his hand. She hesitated a moment but willingly laced her fingers through his and allowed him to take her away.

Gwynneth remained silent throughout most of their trip to the east wing. What was she supposed to say to this man? He would not answer any of her questions with words, only answering each inquiry with a firm nod or a slight shake of his head. His hand was cold and slightly damp. Gwynneth had never touched anyone who had felt that way before. What was he? What did he know? She knew better than to trust a stranger, but he did not feel like a stranger to her. He seemed familiar to her, as if she had met him before but had not been aware of it.

Once they entered the east wing, Gwynneth remembered Amy. What would she think of them traipsing through her area of the house without permission? She looked up at the man and asked, “Did Amy give you permission to come here?” He shook his head. “Then we can’t be here?” He shook his head as he led Gwynneth to Amy’s door. He opened it to reveal the jumbled room to the world. Gwynneth walked inside and she noticed that Amy was no where to be seen. She turned back to the man and asked, “Did you do something with her? Did you hurt her?”

The man’s face seemed to fall immediately. He shut his eyes and walked away, stopping by the door to a spare room and laying his forehead against it. Had Gwynneth known better, she would have sworn that she had hurt his feelings. She ran back to the man and wrapped her arms around his legs. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I didn’t mean to say that. I know that you didn’t hurt her. They must’ve taken her out for air or something. She probably won’t be back for a while. But you probably knew that. That’s why you came to get me, isn’t it?” The man smiled gently and nodded. “Okay. I didn’t know. I’m sorry.”

The man peeled Gwynneth off of his legs and knelt in front of her. He looked her over, quietly assessing her as she stood before him. He hugged her and rose back to his feet. He offered Gwynneth his hand and led her to the room.

Just as she had expected, the light was on. Then again, they never turned the light off, did they? She could still remember the time she was in the east wing when her father had gone back to Angelique’s room to get something he had left. Before he had entered the room, the lights had been off; the moment he opened the door, they flared on to their normal intensity. She leaned her head against the man’s hand as she stared at the door. She was almost hoping for the lights to turn off. She looked back up at the man and asked, “Do you know what she wants me to do?”

The man shook his head slowly. Gwynneth could tell that he was not really listening to her. He did not seem to enjoy this job. She could not blame him. He almost seemed like a flunky doing the bidding of some demanding mistress. As Gwynneth looked up at him, she saw his blank expression change to one of pure confusion. She looked back and noticed the light failed to peak through beneath the door. Suddenly, she was able to hear voices, a man’s and a woman’s, stream out of the room. The man let go Gwynneth’s hand and opened the door.

Angelique’s beautiful room seemed to no longer exist. All the furniture had disappeared and the walls had turned to drab gray ruin. Even the portrait had been removed from above the fireplace. This was not what surprised Gwynneth. The people who stood in the room had been the major shock. The woman looked just like Angelique. She could see no distinct differences between this woman and the woman who would call her to do her bidding. The man looked like the man at her side, only younger. She looked back up at the man, who still seemed in shock. He let go of Gwynneth’s hand and backed away. “Oh not again,” he mouthed.

Gwynneth turned back to the pair in the room. “I do understand what had happened,” said this Angelique. “Kelene explained everything to me once she had been able to pry the information from Jason. I’m not quite sure if William didn’t go too far with his punishment but he was only doing what he thought was right and he can’t be faulted for that.”

“Nonetheless, Constance and I are going to talk to him . . . talk to them both. Apparently Gwynneth started the whole thing,” murmured the man in the room. He paced back and forth anxiously, his eyes darting around the walls before the landed back onto Angelique. “Do you have any problems being in here?”

“Why?” she laughed. “I’m not afraid that the room will change on us. I sincerely doubt that we’ll end up transported to another Collinwood, Quentin. Paranoia doesn’t look good on you. What’s brought this on?”

“Take a guess. I’m just afraid that the twins will come here. God, I can’t believe I took them here hoping to deglamorize the east wing, hoping to make it seem like less of mystery. You won’t believe it, but I thought I saw a light in this room.”

“You were imagining things,” insisted Angelique.

“I know. I checked the room out and it looked the way it does now.” The man laughed as he quietly slipped the floor. “God, I must sound crazy to you.”

“Not so much crazy as worried.” Angelique took a seat next to the man and placed her hand on his shoulder. “You just need to relax. Everything will be all right.”

“That’s what Constance says. But as much as I try to relax, I just can’t seem to pull it off. I can’t stop thinking that maybe one of them will come up here, come into this room, and that it will change around them, trapping them in a world they don’t know.”

“You’ve been thinking about it too much.”

The man laughed as he rose up off the floor. “I suppose you’re right.”

Gwynneth only stared on in wonder. They were in Collinwood, but they were not in her world. That room, Angelique’s room, was a portal to a world much like her own but not quite. And there was another Gwynneth! That child had a brother named William and her mother was also Constance. But that girl’s father was the man in the room, the man who looked like the one who had led her to the room. Angelique had called the man in the room Quentin. Was that the man who had led her there’s name? She turned back to ask him but he was gone. How could he have gotten away without her noticing?

Gwynneth turned back to the room to see that it had changed back to its usual elegance. She knew that she ought to go inside because inside that room awaited her next mission. But something in her told her to stay away. If the room could change so quickly between worlds, it might change with her inside it. Gwynneth backed away and headed back to the drawing room. Besides, maybe someone would be home by now. Maybe she would not have to spend the rest of her afternoon alone.

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