Chapter 2
Angelique worried about Megan. Too many shocks for her. First find out that Phillip was alive and back in Victoria's loving arms. Then finding out that Richard was alive.
Not that she worried too much about Megan going for Richard again. For her it had been a highly romantic situation, straight out of an Alexander Dumas novel. But still...
Still, she would know that she, Angelique had deceived her.
And now, on top of everything, she had to tell her that she was going to be an aunt. Or a mother, or a father... or whatever... that they soon might be raising a baby.
Roger pouted in his room.
"He'll just have to accept the fact that we are married." Carolyn said.
"He has to." Adam said. "We can't let him dictate our lives."
"I know that."
"I know how it sounds. But you were planning to have him committed just before he disappeared."
"And he found out about it, and ran away."
"He did not. He was kidnapped, like the rest of them. What you had decided had nothing to do with it."
Carolyn did not answer.
"You said it yourself, that you had bribed the doctor who first treated him to have him released him before he was ready, and that you blamed yourself for it."
"That is in the past."
"Carolyn, he tried to kill me once.. He may try again. Or he might try to run away with Edmund. He did it before."
"I believe that if I talk to him, he will come to accept it."
"You know better than that. You know that no one can reason with Roger. Tell me, how many messes of him did you have to fix?"
'Most of the time he is under control"
"And what happens when he is not? You know that neither you nor anyone can predict what Roger can do. He hates me. He thinks that I am not good enough to marry into the Collins family, and he will protect the family name, even if he has to kill me for it."
"You don't want him at all, that's all there is to it. And you'd love to get rid of Edmund too, if you were to tell the truth."
There is was, their first major marital fight. Adam sighed. And it would not be resolved, not unless there was another crisis.
His own relationship with Edmund was less than ideal, but he thought that they had begun to bond in Roger's absence. But once Roger got there, he started turning Edmund against Adam...
"It isn't just me, Carolyn. Everybody in town says it. Ask Dr. Hoffman."
"My, my, you suddenly care for what Julia thinks. What next? You'll want me to take Barnabas' advice because you admire him so much?"
"Will Peter be all right?" Iris asked Julia.
"He's free of Vassily and Nastassia's influence. That will help a lot."
"But he will not be wholly all right."
"Not immediately... He had problems before he found the egg. Those problems remain. They were getting better, but better is not the same as healed."
"How much longer?' She almost wailed this, as if she already knew how discouraging Julia's answer could be.
"I would not give up on him, if I were you. David Collins also had a lot of problems, but now he's all right. He is even married, and a father now."
Iris began to weep. "I failed him,"
"I would not say that. It is a big job you got on your shoulders and Peter's past history should discourage any easy enthusiasms. But it can be done, if you are willing to work at it."
"I never suspected that it was going on..."
"Or maybe you did, and Vassily made you forget about it."
"If I had not been so busy drinking and picking up men, I would have seen.."
Julia shook her head. "You were in Vassily's power, same as Peter. Do you think that he'd have allowed you to interfere?"
But still Iris insisted in crippling herself with guilt.
And guilt could be thoroughly crippling. Julia knew a few things about that herself.
"I am going to have a child." George said, musingly.
"No," Angelique corrected him. "I am going to have a child."
"Whichever way." George emptied his glass, refilled it, and emptied it again. "It is mine, isn't it?"
"Vassily bred me only to you."
"I am not doubting you. It is just that... I never thought I'd have the chance to have child of my own. Sure, I am a donor at the sperm bank, but that means nothing... I thought at times to adopt. But to get a woman pregnant... never in my wildest dreams."
"Well, you did it. Or rather you were forced into it."
George sat down to digest it. "I wonder what it will be like?""
"Do you want the child?"
"Of course."
"You did not want it when we were doing it."
"I did not want a child for what they had in mind. And neither did you. We both knew that Vassily Petofi wanted more slaves, and we were supposed to produce them... But this child will be born in freedom... What about you? Do you want the child?"
"I am not so sure. The way I live... well, you know that I could not convince anyone that I am parent material. And yet, it is my baby."
"Of course, my doing the decent thing is out of the question."
"I have no desire to marry you."
"No." he laughed. "Of all your husbands, I would be the most ridiculous. But I like some legal claim on the child... I wonder how Barnabas will take it... His wife and his lover having a child together... Some triangle...It might make him jealous."
"He knows how it was conceived, doesn't he?"
"No., he'd be jealous because in his condition he cannot father any children."
"He's got Tammy. And other bastards that he never bothered to track down."
George rubbed his face nervously. "Look, Angelique. I'll look into the legal aspects of it. I don't want if you want to raise the baby or not, but if you don't I'll be glad do. If you do, I will be part of his or her life."
"It may put a strain between you and Barnabas. And you may not be thrilled to have a vampire under the same roof with your baby. You love Barnabas, you trust him. But your baby is your baby."
"You'll have the same problem with Megan."
"True... But she has more self-control than Barnabas."
"There is always the first time."
"So it seems that either the baby will have two Daddies or two Mommies. And one of those Mommies or one of those Daddies needs to sleep in a coffin during the day... Some upbringing that will turn out to be."
"What a mess." he agreed. "But still we will raise him or her as best we can."
Roxanne stepped out of the changing room. She had not truly believe that the day would come when she would be able to do this. The day when the battles were over and she would be free go seek Barnabas.
Yet it had happened. The collapse of the dictatorship had come sooner than they had dared to hope. The dictatorship had fallen and now was the time to rebuild the institutions. Her usefulness was over. What need did the country have of a vampire assassin"? Men like Dr. Blair could be of use. Not her.
She was free. And Barnabas was free. She would be able at last to put the nightmare years behind. She would be able to laugh, hope, and love.
She walked down the halls silently. Yes, the house was Collinwood, but it was different. This one had not burned down, and thus there had been no need to rebuild it. The furniture, the decorations were not as she had known them. She was not sure that she recognized the paintings on the walls, and she did not approve of their taste. She figured that many of them were family heirlooms, which had to be put up no matter how hideous.
She hoped that this was the Parallel Time where Barnabas was.
If not, she would keep trying the changing room over and over.
Downstairs, she faced Barnabas' portrait.
"Yes, you are Barnabas" she said. "But are you my Barnabas?"
Buffy Harrington, she thought. And Edmund. If they were here, then she'd come to the right place. She had to find out about them.
