Subj: Absolute Power, Chapter 4
Date: 1/3/99 10:06:44 PM Central Standard Time
From: Whitey Pale

Chapter 4 -- Painful Departures

For once, the Great House of Collinwood was filled with cheer and gaiety. The ground floor of the Mansion was teeming with well-wishers who had come to offer their congratulations to the happy couple of Danielle Collins and Frank Garner, soon to be married. There were legal associates of Frank, his father and grandfather, talking shop in the library. Cannery employees filled the halls, solariums and studies. A few brave souls, fortified with drink, were even making use of the billiard room, although they called it the "pool room." Of course, all of the civic leaders of Collinsport were there as well, and even some state officials from Maine, as befitted a Collins engagement party.

Naturally, the drawing room was also packed. However, as the primary room in the house, it was where the close family members and friends gathered--including some that had not seen the interior of the room for decades. In the right hand corner of the drawing room, Maggie Haskell nursed a cocktail with her husband, Joe, standing dutifully by. They were talking with Willie Loomis, who was animatedly telling them about the changes to the estate during the past 27 years. Joe, while polite as always, was alertly ready to whisk his wife to another conversation if painful memories came up. And Maggie did look somewhat preoccupied.

While Maggie told Joe and Willie that her reservedness was a result of being overwhelmed at returning to Collinwood for the first time in 25 years, she dared not reveal the real reason for her quietude. For the real reason would deeply hurt her devoted husband of 25 years. Maggie Evans Haskell was thinking of Quentin Collins.

Back in 1971, when Maggie was still a governess at Collinwood, she had fallen in love with the handsome, dashing Collins cousin. Quentin had first shown himself as an amnesia victim using the name "Grant Douglas" but, thanks to Barnabas and Julia, Quentin somehow regained his memory.

Soon afterwards, Maggie suffered a nervous breakdown and was sent to Windcliffe Sanitarium, where her one-time fiancee, Joe Haskell, had previously been committed. There, Quentin visited her often. After Maggie recovered and returned to her duties at Collinwood, Quentin began courting her vigorously. Quentin treated Maggie to fine restaurants, shows and museums in Boston, romantic outings on the beach and intimate evening rendezvous in secluded parts of the estate. Maggie, in turn, had fallen hopelessly, desperately, in love with her suitor.

Then, one day, after Maggie had finished tutoring David, she walked into the drawing room to find her love sitting on the couch, staring into space, eyeing a nearly empty glass of brandy. Maggie could see from the nearly empty snifter on the coffee table that it had not been Quentin's first glass.

Maggie snuck up behind her lover, leaned over, and draped her arms snugly around his shoulders. "Hey, handsome, what's the matter?" she exclaimed.

Quentin dully turned his face and, seeing Maggie, lowered his eyes, his face etched with sorrow. "Maggie, I'm glad to see you," he slurred.

"Well, you don't look it!" Maggie said, removing her arms and sitting down next to Quentin on the sofa. She grabbed his hands and gently stroked them. "Something's bothering you, I can tell. In fact, you've been gloomy for much of the past week. Why don't you tell me what it is, so I can help."

Quentin looked soulfully into Maggie's eyes for a moment, and then broke his gaze away. "I wish that you could, Maggie. I really wish that you could, but you can't."

Maggie began rubbing Quentin's shoulders. "Now darling, I can try. And I want to try. After all, if we're going to be married--" At that word, Quentin abruptly turned towards Maggie and looked at her painfully. Maggie withdrew her arms and looked down, biting her lip. "That's it, isn't it? I've noticed you've been in a bad mood ever since last week, when you talked to me about getting married. Well," Maggie looked up, "if you're not ready, I--I understand. Please don't get all upset on my account. We'll pretend the discussion never happened." Maggie tried to sound encouraging, but she was clearly crushed, on the verge of tears.

Quentin's face softened. He seemed to be on the brink of tears himself. He furiously grabbed Maggie in a tight embrace and began caressing the hair on the back of her head. "Oh, Maggie! I do so want to marry you." he said. "You have no idea how much I want to marry you. But, you're right about that being the reason for my being upset. Because I can't marry you."

By now Maggie was crying heartily. "But why, I don't understand."

Quentin sighed and pulled Maggie away from him. He looked directly at her. "Maggie, I--I never told you this before but--" He paused to gather his strength. "I really don't know how to tell you this but--" He paused again and then blurted out "you see, I'm already married!"

Maggie drew away from Quentin in stunned horror at this revelation. Quentin downed the rest of his brandy glass and continued. "Yes, it's true. And I know that you must hate me for not telling you. Her name is Jenny. I met her during my wild days when I was traveling in Texas. We got married as a lark." He poured himself another brandy and gulped it down, then began to pace around the room.

"Some lark!" he continued. "She was very attractive and a lot of fun. I think it happened at a county fair. Anyway, last week I got a letter from her. I don't know how she found me. But she told me that I have a son."

Maggie continued to be frozen numb, stabbed deeper by each word, especially when she heard Quentin say that he had had a child. Suddenly she yelled, "how could you, you bastard! How could you!" And then she ran out of the room bawling hysterically.

She never had seen Quentin again. Within a week, he was gone. He had moved back to Texas to support his wife and son. Shortly thereafter, Joe Haskell was released from Windcliff, completely cured. The doctors weren't quite sure how Joe's madness suddenly cleared up, but he had not had any anxiety-type attacks for two years and was finally released. Maggie got back together with Joe and, soon after, they got married. Wanting to leave all of the unpleasantness of their previous lives behind, they moved to Boston and raised a family. Joe worked on the docks and Maggie got a job at an art museum. She felt that it made her closer to her late father.

They never wanted to return to Collinsport, although Maggie did keep in touch with Mrs. Stoddard through letters. One day, in 1978, one of Mrs. Stoddard's letters had shocking news. Quentin Collins had been killed in a car accident in Laredo, Texas. Mrs. Stoddard had tried to contact Quentin's wife by phone about burying the body in the family plot, but to no avail. Soon after, Mrs. Stoddard learned that Jenny had moved with her son, also named Quentin, without leaving a forwarding address.

No one heard from them again for nearly 14 years. Then, in 1992, Maggie saw on the news a man who looked exactly like the Quentin she had known. After a moment of shock, Maggie realized that it was Quentin's son--it had to be because he looked just like the elder Quentin the last time that she had seen him. The junior Quentin was the campaign manager of Presidential candidate Bill Murdoch, the youthful Governor of Arkansas. Later, after Murdoch won the Democratic nomination and upset the incumbent President, the younger Quentin was named Chief of Staff.

Maggie tried not to watch the news after this new Quentin cruelly made his appearance. His presence brought back bad memories and stirred old feelings--especially since the younger Quentin seemed uncannily like his father. When Maggie received a personal handwritten invitation from Mrs. Stoddard to come to Danielle Collins' engagement party, she wanted to politely decline, but Joe prevailed upon her to go. Joe argued that Mrs. Stoddard had been very kind to both of them, that she was now old and sick, and that this would likely be the last chance for them to express their gratitude in person. Maggie reluctantly agreed to go, largely because she had heard through the grapevine that, while the family often invited Quentin Collins to visit, he always begged off, citing his busy schedule.

Maggie had spent the previous five minutes thinking about all of this while pretending to be listening to Willie Loomis. Suddenly, she noticed that Willie and Joe had stopped talking and had turned away with stunned expressions on their faces. Maggie turned and gasped. At the entranceway to the drawing room was an elderly gentleman of around 70, somewhat portly, and sporting a gray beard of distinction. Draped on his shoulder was a wrinkled elderly woman, about ten years older than her companion, with brown and white hair. The assembled crowd might not have recognized the man had it not been for the singular silver wolf's head cane he held in his right hand. For the first time in over 27 years, Maggie Evans Haskell laid her eyes on Barnabas Collins.