Chapter 4

"Did he tell you at what time he would be here?" Barnabas asked Angelique for the fifth time.

"No, only that he'd come when you'll be here.:

"He couldn't have been with Carolyn this long."

"Maybe he had another business to take care of."

"I wish I knew if he was all right."

"After all, he didn't say anything as to when he'd like to meet you."

"But he was in a hurry to meet me."

"He was in a hurry to meet you before he saw Carolyn. He has seen her. You can wait."

"I don't like the way you make it sound."

"He wouldn't be the first one who accepted a bribe. The world is full of them."

"Not him. I've talked with him. He's honest. And Carolyn doesn't have enough money to buy him. He's turned down big bribes in the past."

"Maybe that's his style. Turn down the big ones to get a reputation for honesty. Then work the small ones. If you think about it, there is more money in the end that way. And small industries do not attract many investigative reporters." Angelique tightened her fists and jaw.

She wanted so much another drink. She did not want Barnabas to see her. She believed he was starting to notice. She could drink as much as she wanted during the day and put the bottles back out of her own pocket.

If he knew, what would she tell him? That she didn't love him anymore? That she did not love him anymore? That she did not care who was honest and who took bribes? That she had had enough of the worthy causes and stray dogs he kept bringing in?

How could she hurt him this way?

"He is not the type?" Barnabas said. "I have talked to him."

"You have not heard him today."

"What did he say?"

"The same things Megan says. You know her. Working on draft dodgers and all kinds of illegal stuff did not teach her respect for the law or of morals. Well, this guy talks and thinks like her. Nobody can think like Megan and turn down a good bribe."

"He did not sound that way to me."

"Of course, he's smart enough to know that you are the local moral uplift commando. You are the one who called him in. He has to make a good impression on you. But the speech he gave your, it does not mean a thing."

"He'll come." Barnabas stared ahead.

"Don't look that way." Angelique put her arm around his shoulder.

"Do not touch me now". He pulled out fast.

"You are hungry" she understood "but you can do it with me if you want."

"No, I've already done it this week with you. After what happened with Megan, I will not go to the same person twice in the same month."

"You keep count?"

"Megan taught me to. For all that she is a hustler, she is right many times. And she is a nice person, basically."

"She is a nympho."

"And I am a pest. So what does it prove? I have read in one of Julia's books that there are many ways that people cope with impossible situations. Both she and I are in impossible situations, and we both found a way to cope."

"You can find excuses for everything."

"I just find it harder and harder to blame anyone."

"Even Carolyn?"

"Even Carolyn, specially after what she went through. She loved Adam."

"And he took Elizabeth instead. I bet you don't blame Elizabeth either."

"I cannot. She had buried herself alive. Then discovered that life was passing her by. she jumped at her only chance to be young again."

"What about Adam?"

"He's my son. He and Megan are the only children I had . The only children I will ever have. And I never really cared for him. I am a lousy father, Angelique. I never could have the patience my father had. Or Roger for that matter. Maybe it was just as well that I never married Josette. If only I had not driven her to jump off the cliff. If only she had had her chance for happiness...

The name Josette brought a sharp pain to Angelique. If it hadn't been for her, Barnabas would have had his chance for happiness. Instead here he was, full of quirks, a pest, a compulsive crusader, and the kind of hypochondriac who read Julia's psychiatry books to learn of new symptoms to catch.

She remembered how he was when she had first seen him. Young, impetuous, carefree. She had made sure that that part of him was gone for good. And what did she have in its place?

Serve her right for using the powers she had been born with to evil ends.

"If you are hungry you can leave" she said finally. "if he comes, I'll keep him here until you return."

If he went, he would get out of his depressed mood. Also that left her alone with the liquor cabinet.

"I can wait."

"For how long? Remember what Megan says. It doesn't do anybody any good if you try to hold it off. It doesn't do you any good, and the one you run into after holding out too long is going to get it tougher and take longer to recover. She says that's what happened with you two."

"She's right." he admitted. "I should go. But still I don't like it."

"Carolyn likes paying taxes even less. But she still pays them."

"I'd better be going then. Maybe on the way back I'll stop at Carolyn's and see if I can find out anything."

"I don't think you'll like what you'll find."

Megan was having a hard time explaining the fine points of covering up to Carolyn.

"The kind of report you want is too good." she explained "they are going to get suspicious. A report saying that you are starting improvements in a bad situation you inherited is good enough."

"I don't want it said that the cannery is unsafe."

"Don't' be so damn stubborn."

"I am stubborn. it happens to be the truth."

"Baby, fool Washington as much as you like. But don't fool yourself. One thing I have learned is that a con man starts to go when she believes his own spiel."

Those damn Collinses! There was not a single one of them who had an ounce of self-preservation in his body. She wondered who they managed to last this long. A bunch of babes in the woods, that's what they were. And now this Hawkes bitch wanted too much of a good thing.

She now wanted to nail Maggie Evans to the wall, because Maggie had pulled strings to have her investigated. Carolyn still had to learn how to be generous with one's enemies, specially when it paid to be so.

A too favorable report would backfire. Before long Jack Anderson or someone like him would smell it. then everything would come crashing down on their heads.

The last thing Megan wanted was to have anything crashing down on her head. Carolyn instead had been begging for it for a long time. Of course, whatever came crashing down on her head would end up crashing down on Barnabas' head too. Barnabas, probably the member of the family with the least instinct for self-preservation.

Why she did have to be involved with such a bunch was a mystery to her. Maybe lack of instinct of self-preservation was catching...

"Look;" she finally said. "I am the one who has control over him. I will tell him what to write."

"But I am the one who pays. It has the way I want it, or you won't see a penny of my money."

"You'd better pay. You hired me to do a job and I have done it. I've made sure that you don't get blasted by Washington. The deal including nothing about going after Maggie. And if you are smart, you won't even try. Better not find out how dirty she can fight."

"I am not going to be afraid of somebody who is giving herself airs, forgetting that she was a servant in this house."

"Well, she's a politician now. An ambitious one. I have learned that to survive you must keep from crossing two kinds of people: Mob members and ambitious politicians."

"I don't care about your philosophy. Only about getting that report the way I want it."

"You won't. It is going to go the way it will do the job. I'll send you the bill, honey."

"You won't get paid."

"You'd better."

"What will you do to me? What you did to Torrance? I wear a cross, you know."

"Wear it as long as you like. I know of certain bill collectors. They'll break your arm or your leg. Maybe only your thumb. You get the idea? I can contact them. I'd rather not, but it is bad policy to let one of my under-the-table clients welsh me on a deal."

The woman came out of her swoon.

"You are still here." she said.

"You seem to have taken it bad." Barnabas said. "I was worried."

"Don't try to con me. I've had worse and you know it. You just want to talk. I am too good a listener for my own good."

"You think so?" Barnabas sat on the bed by her.

"Just do me a favor. Try to come earlier. I am too sleepy and tomorrow I'll look terrible. And it won't be for the blood loss."

"Maybe I should leave."

"I will not risk your coming tomorrow and waking me up again. Unload now."

So he told her. About Torrance not showing up. About Angelique being so sure he has corrupt.

"It is possible, but it is more likely that she does not like him."

"Why wouldn't she like him?" Barnabas was puzzled

"Maybe he made a pass at her. It happens, you know. And maybe he said something about her drinking."

"Her drinking?"

"Don't you know that she drinks? Can 't you smell it on her breath?"

"I had no idea..."

"Well, she does. I do not think that it is out of control yet, but it might come to that."

Barnabas just spread his hands, unable to put in words what he was feeling.

"As for Torrance" she continued. " You should wait until tomorrow before worrying. Somebody might have called him on the phone. Or the session with Carolyn ended up rather late and he went to sleep. He has no way of knowing that you stay up all night."

"Yes, it might be that."

"So don't try going to his room and waking him up. He won't appreciate it, and he might wonder how you got in."

"I will try to be patient. But what if Angelique is right?"

"There you are, worrying again."

"I wish I could learn how to stop it. Worrying never helped me any, but I cannot stop it."

"Try this. Tell yourself that if it can be mended, you will mend it; and if it can't be mended, you'll learn to live with it."

"You sound like Megan."

"I wish you were more like her. At least the guys that meet her get something for their trouble. Don't blush. Sex is nothing to be afraid of. But all you offer is talk, and then you put the bite. And then the other bite, for worthy causes."

"They need the money."

"Yes, but making checks to your favorite charity isn't as much fun as old-fashioned sex" Iris opened his shirt and ran her hand over his chest.

Barnabas tried to get up, unsure.

"You can help me sleep. Sex is very good for that."

"What are you suggesting?"

"Why not? Hell, I don't want to take you away from Angelique. Just have a little fun." She undid his tie. "You look so unhappy; it will do you good. You should learn to relax. They way you look you should have died of a perforated ulcer long ago."

"You do not know what you are proposing."

Barnabas knew that he should leave. But he found out that he wanted to stay. The words "why not?" filled his brain.

"I know. I am making a pass at you. I want to have sex with you. We are already on my bed, and I am on my nightclothes. You take your clothes off and we are ready."

"Aren't you feeling weak?"

"Barnabas Collins, if you try to hypnotize me in order to get out of going to bed with me, you'd better never show up here again." She pulled at his clothes. "Come on. let's do it."

She had to undress him, but once he was naked he lost his shyness. At least lost it enough so that he could do what she wanted and enjoy it too.

"So, it wasn't so terrible, after all" she said, afterwards.