Chapter 2: Breakfast at Collinwood

It was a quite nice morning in Maine and even though the curtains were covering the windows in the dining room the air was still filled with good mood. Elizabeth had woken up earlier than usual and as a result she had already finished her breakfast with the caretaker Willie and young David. She had left a lot of food on the tabe, expecting someone else to clean it up after they ate. Carolyn was in no mood for that though and had no plans of cleaning as she strutted into the dining room around 11 am. At first she didn't even notice Barnabas sitting at the end of the large table.

"Good morning, my dear girl. Did you have a night filled with magical dreams and pondering?" asked Barnabas and pointed, with his long fingernails, at a chair for Carolyn to sit down.

"I had almost forgotten your weirdness, but now it's obvious again.." Carolyn muttered and sat down in another chair, a bit further away from Barnabas.

She slowly started buttering a sandwich when Barnabas said:

"Are you the only one dining this morning?"

Carolyn shrugged and continued with her food, pretending the weird guy wasn't even in the same room. She didn't hate him, that she had decided on last night, but she felt rather uncomfortable around him and didn't like the way he so carefully watched every single thing her and the other people in Collinwood did. Nevertheless her mother had told her to be nice to him, so she had decided she would try to be. That is, if he would be nice to her.

"I have no clue where the other folks are, how would I know?" she replied after taking a huge bite off her sandwich. Barnabas looked rather disturbed when she spoke with her mouth full but replied:

"Alright young girl, now finish your food."

They sat in silence for a while, until they heard footsteps approaching from the corridor outside. Barnabas looked up and closely watched the door as Dr. Hoffman entered the room.

"I'll be damned, I missed breakast again." Julia muttered as she strolled towards the table, a bit unsteady on her feet.

"I'm still here. And mister weirdo. We all missed breakfast." Carolyn said while buttering another sandwich.

"Indeed you are." Julia said as she yawned and leaned slightly over the table to reach a teacup. As she grabbed the cup she looked in Barnabas direction and found that he was staring at her.

"Well goodmorning to you to, gazer.." she muttered.

"I am sorry, madam, I did not mean to stare at your delicate features." Barnabas replied immediately and looked rather confused as he could not really understand why he had said that. Manners, for God's sake Barnabas, manners! he said to himself and smiled at Julia rather sheepishly trying to smooth over what he had just said.

"Alrighty.." Julia said and scowled at him as she sat down a few chairs away from Carolyn, on the side closer to Barnabas. She wasn't entirely sure what she thought about the new Collins guy, but he was quite peculiar. Her delicate features? Well bite me, she though to herself as she poured a mixture of whisky and tea into her cup. She yawned again and started stirring her drink with a small spoon. She took a sip just as Roger entered the room, with a wide smile on his face.

"What a LOVELY morning it is people, can you believe it? It's not raining, we have a bright blue sky outside everyone!" he announced as he sat down at the end of the table and picked up a newspaper. No one in the room said anything. Barnabas because he was slightly annoyed with the man, Carolyn because she had started listening to Alice Cooper on her freestyle and Julia because she was busy with her booze. After a long, quite awkward silence, Julia turned her head and said with a slightly dry tone:

"Indeed, we can believe it. Where have you been all morning, sunshine?"

Roger stood up again and started walking around aimlessly in the room, still with the newspaper in his hand, not caring about the fact that Julia's comment wasn't entirely nice.

"Oh nowhere my dear, I have just been out in the garden, sunbathing and reading a book. Lovely weather, as I said before. We should really go out and do something today, together." Roger replied as he sat down opposite Julia. She gave him a weird look and he quickly added: "The family, I mean. The family should go out and do something."

Barnabas was taking in the scene. He did not like Roger. For some reason he could not quite put his finger on he did not like him. He cleared his throat and replied, calmly, before Julia got the chance of saying anything: "I am afraid I am not fond of the sun, Roger. I think I will be staying in Collinwood today, but I am sure the rest of you will have a wonderful time in the delightful weather."

Roger nodded. Excellent. He wasn't actually planning on bringing the loony along with him. He put his feet on the table and continued reading the papers. Carolyn, who hadn't heard anything of the conversation at all, stood up and left the room.

"Goodbye, young girl!" Barnabas said politely, but Carolyn didn't hear a word he was saying and left the room, dancing along with her music.

Roger gave Barnabas a weird look. That man was really too much, he couldn't understand why Elizabeth had allowed him to live here. He scanned the headlines in the newspaper and put it back down on the table, still waiting for Julia to reply to his proposal. Their eyes met and he gave her a questioning look.

"What? Oh, that. No, I think I'll stay inside as well. Not very fond of the sun either." she replied and emptied the contets of her teacup in one huge gulp.

Roger looked disappointed but knew better than to nag Julia about it, she had made up her mind and that was it. He thought it wasn't that bad, until he saw Barnabas smiling and looking in Julia's direction. Julia, who in fact was completely oblivious to anything around her as she was entering another drunk haze, was finishing off a last piece of bread before she stood up.

"Alrighty gentlemen, I'm off." she stated and waved slightly in their direction as she left the room, even more unsteady on her feet than when she came in, not even noticing both of the men following her with their eyes.