Barnabas has been rescued from the imprisonment that Trask and otehrs had condemned him to, thanks to Ruby Tate's help. But her help has a price. He must allow her to use his body to experience all she has missed due to his early death. Julia and Willie have recoverd as they were hostages taken by Trask to compel Barnabas to deliver himself to them. As he offered himself willingly they have no more power over him. Gratitude at his rescue, and the effects of Woodard's manipulation have made Barnabas start a love affair with George Brant, the sheriff.

RUBY TATE

Chapter 1

Edmund and Roger were assembling an airplane model together,, among a mess of sawdust, glue, and assorted odds and ends.

"Make sure you clean up after you are done." Carolyn said. "You have to learn to pick up after yourselves."

"Of course, we will" Roger grumbled. "I will make sure of it."

Roger would not do such a thing. He was more of a child than Edmund himself.

She should be grateful for that. Edmund had kept Roger busy and way from the kind of trouble that she had resigned herself to expect.

And it had changed her too. Already she had trouble remembering that Edmund was adopted. He had grown in her, even if at the start he had only been the means to keep Roger from willing all his money to David.

That seemed so long ago...

She heard the knock at the door, a d a few seconds later the maid led Barnabas to her.

"You look a lot better" she a\said to him.

"Thanks. Julia just gave me a clean bill of health. She cut the tape off my wrists at last." he moved his hands "I had almost forgotten how to use them, can you believe?"

"I am sorry for what happened to you. It must have been horrible.

Barnabas nodded. He sensed that she was not wholly comfortable with him, yet. There had been too much bitterness between the two of them and it would not vanish overnight.

"You come here for your visitation rights. I imagine." Sarcasm was not wholly absent from her voice.

"Yes. We agreed on it."

"Edmund is up. I will see if the wants to see you."

Barnabas strode in, looking longingly towards the boy who could, SHOULD have been his.

"Edmund" he said. "How are you doing?"

Edmund looked up. His face showed fear and mistrust, but he did not scream, for which Barnabas was grateful.

"I came to see how you are doing." Barnabas knelt down. "I see that you are busy."

Roger interposed himself. "What do you want here, anyway?"

"I want to see him."

"Well, he does not want to see you." Roger spat out. "Can't you tell when you are not wanted?"

"Uncle Roger." Carolyn protested. "I said that it was all right."

"It is not all right! He has David, doesn't he? I want him away from Edmund."

Barnabas turned to Carolyn, trying to hide his hurt.

"I am sorry, I really am."

And she was, Barnabas knew it. Yet he could not restrain himself from making an nasty comment. "someone must have been filling his head with ideas."

"Uncle Roger, of course." she shrugged. "and remember that Edmund saw you in your coffin."

Barnabas sighed. "You are right. I had no right..."

"Do you want some booze?" she offered "sometimes it helps."

"I think I do."

Carolyn poured down the brandy. "I wonder if you can take this... It is not what you usually take..."

"I can handle it, don't worry." Barnabas took the glass "But I prefer to space it. I don't want to become dependent on it." he swallowed it. "One monkey on my back is all I can afford."

"It is strange, seeing you drink from a glass."

"Yes, it is. It is good to see Roger caring so much for Edmund."

"Yes. It is good for both of them."

"Still, Edmund needs friends of his own age."

"Elsa comes to visit him."

Barnabas nodded. "I guess that you'll be sending him off to school."

"I'd rather hire a governess for him."

"Why? Regular school is not good enough for him?"

"He's a Collins. And Collinses do not go to school."

"That's what the problem with us. We were told that as members of the Collins family nothing was good enough for us. We believed it, and we turned out the way we did."

"You included?"

"Me included. My father believed in both spoiling his children materially while starving them emotionally " he pursed his lips. "I survived thanks to Jeremiah and Sarah... and what they got for loving me.;.."

"Well," Carolyn looked at her watch." For how long are you going to mope and moan?"

Barnabas laughed. "You got my number."

"Yes, I do. As you have mine."

They sat down on the couch. "Was it bad? What they did to you?"

"I hope you never find out what it is like."

Carolyn nodded, shivering. ...she could not know what is was like. Her own efforts to imagine it made her break into a cold sweat and brought about nightmares about a giant serpent coming down to swallow her...

"I think that I already know some of it." she confessed " When the Leviathan returned... Yes, I finally accepted the truth of what happened. I could not lie to myself anymore."

Barnabas nodded "Sooner or later we have to stop doing that."

Delia put the purchase on the counter so that Iris could ring the cash register.

"So how is Violet?" Delia asked while Iris filled the paper bag. "I used to be friends with her in High School."

"Seems better. Of courses, she still has to learn how to keep away from the wrong men. I don't know if she can do that."

"I knew somebody like that. Finally she solved her problem more or less."

"How?"

"She became a lesbian."

Iris' grimace told Delia that her attempt at humor was not appreciated.

"In Violet's case it would only lead her to going to the wrong women."

Delia had to agree with that.

Iris wished that she could trust Delia more. She HAD been friends with Violet, and she was not the type to be repeating juicy gossip. But what she had heard of Delia's private life...

Iris set her jaw. Delia as what Violet needed now. Somebody who could teach her how to get rid of undesirable men.

Barnabas held George very close, wondering why it felt so good, when all his life he had been taught it was wrong.

He had given up the charade with the gag. It was silly. He had wanted George to make love to him, and pretending he was raped was just silly.

Still, some part of him worried. What would his family say? They would be shocked...

His family was now Liz, Roger, Carolyn, Quentin, and David. Would they really care? Not Quentin, with his own scandalous history. Not Roger, unless he could figure out that the framing of Nixon was connected. David? David was just too grateful to have his life back to care. Liz, who eloped with her daughter fiancé was not likely to be scandalized... As for Carolyn... one more adjustment to make in their reconciliation...

But what would Joshua say?

Joshua had condemned to the torment of the locked coffin. He could not care less for what Joshua would have to say on the subject.

George opened his eyes. "I would like to stay..." he said.

"But you cannot. I know , you are the sheriff, you have to run for reelection, and you cannot let people suspect how it is..."

"Yes."

"Strange, I spent my first years trying desperately to protect my secret. Then I finally manage to make it public, and then everything is a lot easier... But now I have a new secret to protect. Funny how things work out."

And, he thought, but not said, he was keeping the secret to protect the old lover of a man who he had killed to protect his own secret then...

The twists and turns of life...

George got up and got dressed. "I do wish I could stay." he said.

"But you got a sheriff's office to run. And you do it well."

George left and Barnabas saw his car go. He looked at the night... It was so beautiful... He turned around and looked at his home.

He thought he would never see it again, that he had lost it all. Yet here he was, looking at a fireplace, which now held no salamanders... It was good to see, to hear, to smell, to touch...

It was so good to touch and be touched. to hold another body next to his, and to feel the pressure against his skin...

He no longer was on that plank, begging his tormentors to finish him off, to allow him to die...

No, it was over. George had rescued him...

He would hold Willie's child in his arms...

It had all seemed gone. Lost in time, the time that had swallowed up Ben, Joshua, Daniel, Millicent... so many others... and he could have lost all he had...

But he had not. He was back, and he had the assurance that Trask no longer held power over him...

And now he was George's lover.

Was it love or gratitude? He did not know, nor he did not know how much was Dave's manipulations. What he knew was that from the moment he had been brought back he wanted George o touch him, and he wanted to touch George, even in the most intimate ways...

A woman's laughter reached him.

"What did the two of you do?"

Barnabas turned to face Ruby Tate. who was laughing at him.

"You and that cop. That's rich, that's real good.! I loved watching you do it! You are doing it with a lousy cop!"

"I am, Ruby," he said softly. He sense that he'd better not antagonize her.

"I bet that the high and mighty Mr. Joshua Collins would be very proud of his son... And that fancy French lady you wanted to marry, what would she say if she saw you with your cop?

Josette... involuntarily he twitched. if Josette ever saw him...

He steady himself. Josette had returned his ring, telling him that he was free to love again.

"What do you want, Ruby?"

"You promised me something, didn't you?"

He had done so, willingly "What are your terms?"

"I want to use your body so I may learn all that I never knew. I want to see the world through your eyes, and learn whatever lessons I can that way."

"I ..." he was willing to agree, but he thought of an objection. "As long as no one else is hurt, Can you promise me that?"

Ruby grumbled "Are you trying to weasel out?"

"I will give you satisfaction, Ruby. but not at someone else's expense. Come back tomorrow and I'll tell you what I have to offer you."