But there was no further response from Victoria. Caroline sighed in exasperation. "All right, then. I can see you aren't gonna make this easy for me, are you? Just a piece of advice, though: I can't help you if you don't help me, you got it?!"

Suddenly the windows began to rattle, and one of the panes broke. Clearly, Victoria didn't appreciate her tone.

"All right, all right," Caroline said, throwing up her hands to protect her face in the event of an onslaught of flying glass shards. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry. I didn't mean to come off as a smart ass, but seriously. I don't know what to do do know that we found that clock, right? Did you see that? Or whatever it is you ghosts do?" She chuckled nervously, wondering how long Victoria had been up here and just how much Victoria might have seen. The thought that the ghost might have witnessed some of her and Klaus' more private moments made her blush a deep scarlet. When no further sound came from Victoria, Caroline began backing toward the door. "All right," she said. "I'm gonna go now. You come up with anything that could help Klaus and me help you, just let me know." She had just about reached the door when it was flung open, sending her crashing back down on the floor.

"Ow!" she said as she rolled over, her hair in her eyes. "Damn it. That was so painful." She blinked a couple of times, trying to see who it was who had hit her. They were standing over her, peering anxiously.

"Sorry about that, love," Klaus said, reaching out a hand to pull her up. "If I woulda known you were standing there, I never would have opened the door."

Caroline rubbed her aching nose gingerly. "You hit my face," she said. "Why did you come up here? Did Sally say anything?"

"No," Klaus said. "Why would she?" He watched Caroline struggled to sit up and then he said, "You know what? We don't know how hard I hit you when I opened the door, or how hard you hit when you hit the floor. Walking down a flight of stairs might just make you hurt yourself worse. Put your arms around my neck. I'll carry you."

"It's not my arms I want to put around your neck," Caroline said sourly, making wringing motions with her hands. But she reached toward him anyway and he picked her up and carried her down the stairs, his hand only moving up to stroke her breast once they reached the foot of the stairs before he put her on the floor. She slapped his hand away and narrowed her eyes at him. He just grinned and followed her into the kitchen.

"What were you doing up there?" Klaus asked. "Looking for more of Victoria and Theodore's mysterious antiques?"

"Well, yes and no," Caroline said. "You know how you think that if we had a ghost connected with this house, it would be a better draw for tourists?"

Klaus' eyes lit up. "Yes? What about it?"

"Well, you will be very happy to hear that we do have a ghost after all."

"Oh?" Klaus' eyebrow went up. "Pray tell, who is it? Theodore or Victoria?"

"Victoria," Caroline said. "She needs our help with something. Probably finding all the antiques. I bet that's the only way she and Theodore can be reunited on the other side!"

"So did she tell you where the other antiques were?"

Caroline shook her head. "She's not particularly verbal. When I tried to get her to give me some hints, she got mad and blew out a window pane. Don't worry, no shards landed on me. So I guess we have to find the first clues ourselves."

"Well how do we do that?" Klaus asked, coming up behind her, playing with her hair and blowing in her ear.

"I don't know, I-Hey!" She said. "Stop doing that!"

"Why?" He grinned. "Does it tickle?"

"Victoria is a ghost, all right?" Caroline said. "She mainly stays up in the attic I think, cause that was the scene of her death, but you and I, we, well, you know, did stuff up there! What if she saw us? I know some people get off on that, but personally, I just find it creepy!"

"So what are you saying?" Klaus asked her. "Are you saying you don't want to have sex anymore?"

"No, that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that we can't have sex here anymore," Caroline said. "It would make me too uncomfortable!"

"Do you realize how silly you sound right now?" Klaus pointed out. "Victoria's mission is to get all the antiques Theodore gave her back together. Not to spy on us while we're having sex!"

"You don't know that!" Caroline countered, looking him in the eye. "You're not a ghost. You have no idea what ghosts do in their spare time."

Klaus sighed and rolled his eyes. "Fine, we won't do it here. I guess we'll just have to move somewhere else. Like a hotel. A nice one, of course. And we'll have to stay there as long as this ghost thing is going on."

"We can't just move out of here!" Caroline said, horrified. "There's still so much that needs to be done here in order for the place to be inhabitable. We need to get business licenses and call electricians and plumbers and.."

"And we can do that during the day," Klaus said. "But you can't expect me to go without sex just because you're frightened that a ghost might be watching us. We'll spend our days here and our nights somewhere fancy. Do you think you could put up with that?" He asked her appealingly. "For my sake?"

"Well, fine!" Caroline said. "I'll suffer through room service and massages and a whirlpool tub just for your sake. And we could also call it research, I guess."

"Well, there you go," Klaus said. "That's a good way to look at it. Now let's see who can get us the nicest suite the quickest."

"Why would you need to call more than one place?" Caroline asked. "Why can't you just compel the concierge of the first hotel you call to give us the room?"

"Because," Klaus said simply, "compelling people over the phone is more difficult because you don't have eye contact with them, for one, and two, the nicest suite at the first hotel we call might already be occupied and we don't want to displace anyone, do we? I didn't think you'd want that on your conscience. But if you do-"

"No, no!" Caroline said quickly. "Call whoever you need to, do whatever you need to. I'll leave that all up to you. Meanwhile, I will go see about dinner and maybe ask Sally to play the piano for us. That would be nice, wouldn't it?"

"Yes," Klaus nodded. "Perfect."

Caroline looked around the hotel as Klaus led her into the lobby. It had a vaulted ceiling with a crystal chandelier hanging up and several stylishly mismatched chairs in various rainbow colors scattered around it and a black and white tile floor that they made their way across to speak to the man at the reception desk.

Klaus rang the bell and the man, wearing a tailored gray suit, nodded to him. "Hello," he said, brightening. "You're the ones who booked the honeymoon suite. Congratulations."

Klaus nodded. "Thank you."

The man handed them their keys. "Thanks for choosing us as the location for your honeymoon and we hope you have a delightful stay!"

"Thank you," Klaus nodded. As they walked away, Caroline frowned. "The honeymoon suite? Those are so cheesy! What with the heart shaped tub and all that. Couldn't you have gotten something a bit more practical?"

"I thought you wanted to be somewhere fancy," Klaus pointed out as they approached the elevator. "And in my experience, fancy never means rolled her eyes and they stepped into the elevator. It actually had an elevator attendant in it, dressed to the nines in a scarlet suit and hat. "Where to?" He asked them.

"Honeymoon suite," Caroline told him immediately. "We're on our honeymoon."

He grinned. "Well, congratulations!"

Caroline nodded. "Thank you very much."

The man then turned and pressed the button to go up to the second floor.

"It's only on the second floor?" Caroline asked incredulously. "We could have taken the stairs. Exercise is good for a person."

Klaus put his hand on the elevator operator's shoulder. "Ah, my darling," he said. "If everyone thought like you, this man would be out of a job, wouldn't he?" Klaus looked at the old man. "How long have you had this job?"

"I've been here for almost sixty years," the man said. "They hired me right out of high school. It was during the war, you know."

"Was it?" Klaus asked.

The man nodded. "Just after Pearl Harbor. I was scared to go into the army. I heard they tested you for bravery by making you cover yourself with peanut butter and jump into a pit full of wild, hungry dogs. Once I heard that, it was all over for me. My parents were incredibly disappointed."

"What would make you think you had to cover yourself in peanut butter and get attacked by dogs to get into the army?" Caroline asked him.

"It was cause of the Russians!" The man said earnestly. "News arrived in the war department that the Russians were so fearless, they could jump into a den of wild bears and come out unscathed. And of course the Sargent and other men in charge of recruiting wanted men just as strong, so..." He kept talking and Caroline and Klaus let their minds drift, as the ride suddenly seemed a lot longer than it was. They were snapped out of the stupor when the elevator bell rang, announcing their arrival on the second floor.

"There you go," The man said, breaking off his train of thought and handing them their bags. You have a nice time with us and make sure to come and see me again. It's nice to have someone to talk to."

"What a tragic man," Caroline said. "I wonder how long it's been since he's had a sensible, coherent thought?"

Klaus sighed. "Who knows?" He put the bags down next to the room with the right number attached to it and pushed the door open. "You go in first," he said to Caroline.

"Okay, sure," Caroline nodded. She walked inside and gasped. It wasn't at all what she'd expected. There were the usual champagne and strawberries on the table, but no heart-shaped hot tub. Instead, there was a huge grand piano. "Oh, my god," Caroline said, sitting down on the stool and fingering the keys. "This is a beautiful instrument."

Klaus sat next to her. "And probably better tuned than the one we have at home as well."

Caroline looked at him. "Will you play me something?" She asked. "I would like you to play me something."

"I was actually thinking of going to find out where our hot tub actually is, but okay." He began playing a song.

"That's beautiful," Caroline said. "What song is it?"

"I made it up," he said. "For you. So I guess that would make it your song, wouldn't it?"

"I hope you don't mind, I hope you don't mind, that I put down in words, how wonderful life is, now you're in the world..." Caroline began. "That's 'Your Song'."

"Yes, but," Klaus tempered. "My gift is my song, and this one's for you."

Caroline giggled. "Did you seriously just make that up out of thin air?"

"You sound surprised," Klaus said. "As if you think I could never do something like this. You are in fact, very wrong. I spent many a happy day with various troubadors honoring beautiful women like yourself. I got quite good."

"Yeah," Caroline nodded, flipping her hair. "I bet in more ways than one."

"Jealous, are we?" Klaus asked her with a grin as she climbed onto the bed. "You have to give me some credit," he said. I'm being honest with you about my past. I'm not lying to you. Besides, practice makes perfect and my escapades in the past are really a benefit to you."

"Oh, when were you ever worried about being less than perfect?" Caroline asked him. I doubt you had that thought, ever."

"Well, I will admit that I haven't had it recently," Klaus said. "Would you agree with me?"

"I would say you aren't bad at all," Caroline said. "That's what I'd say."

Klaus grinned and came to sit next to her. "Well, aren't you a tough customer?"

"I thought you were gonna go find the hot tub," Caroline said, moving out of his reaching grasp. "I'm gonna go look for someone to give me a massage and if I can't find that, then I'll stop by a vending machine."

"If you want to find someone to give you a massage," Klaus told her, wiggling his fingers, "you know you don't have to go to all the trouble of leaving the room. Unless you still have it in your head that Victoria is attached to us and is gonna see everything we're doing?"

"No," Caroline said. "I just figure that you're paying a lot of money for this room and services rendered, right? Or you should be, instead of compelling it all. So I might as well get your money's worth." Ignoring his protestations, she left the room and shut the door behind her, pausing beside it to take a deep breath. She wasn't trying to be difficult, really. But the truth was, she was still a bit worried about Victoria. She went into the vending machine room to put a dollar and a half in the machine for a pop and then when she looked at the glass cover of the machine next to her, she started violently. A forlorn-looking young woman in a drab black dress and cap stood behind her, a dark ring around her neck, but when Caroline turned around, she saw no one. "Victoria?" She said. "Please go away now. We'll help you in the morning when we go back to the house, but now Klaus and I just want some time to ourselves." She turned back to the mirror and the woman nodded slightly and then disappeared.

"Okay," Caroline said. "Hopefully that means I can just relax now." She left the vending machine room and almost immediately tripped over something. She looked down at the ground and saw a small black book, open to a page already.. She looked around, but no one passing by seemed to notice it. Curious, she picked it up and gazed at it, dust and a musty smell making her cough. The pages were water-damaged, and the ink was faded, but thanks to her superior eyesight, she could make out the loopy script.

"January 5th, 1900.

I am in trouble. My relatives found out about Theodore giving me his family treasures. They want them, so they can sell them off and then use the money that they get for the beautiful things to go and drink. I worry for Theodore. I worry that one day, he will come here to give something to me and my family will catch up to him, kill him and take whatever he has. But not before they force me to give them everything else and then kill me because I'll be of no use afterward. So I know what I have to do. I'm going to hide all I've gotten in places that my relatives will never think to look, write down in this diary all the locations, and hide the diary in the tree where Theodore and I leave our love notes. He'll be certain to find it. Then, he can get all the things he's already sent me and take them back to his family, where they belong, and I won't have to live with betraying him.

I'll telephone Theodore tonight and tell him that I want to give him back the things and that I'm leaving instructions about where to find everything I've hidden. And then, I'm going to end my life. I'm sorry it has to be this way. Sorry for myself, and especially sorry for Theodore. I really hope he can move on without me. It would be the best thing for him, really.

Victoria."

Caroline gazed at the diary in shock. That was all this entry had to offer her? Not only was it sad, wasn't particularly helpful either. She shut the book and stomped back to the room, feeling intense frustration. "Stupid Victoria!" She muttered. "I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!"

Klaus looked up, grinning. "Sounds like you're frustrated. Could you use a little tension reliever?"'

Caroline nodded. "Oh, for the love of god, yes!" She said. She quickly removed her clothes down to just her underwear and got on her stomach on the bed. "So," Klaus said as he massaged her neck, "what's the problem?"

"Victoria," Caroline told him. "I saw her reflection in a vending machine and then when I was coming out of the vending machine room, I just happened to trip over her diary. I think she left it for me."

"Oh?" Klaus moved down to her shoulders and upper back and she moaned happily. He tried to keep himself calm, reminding himself that this was more about her than him. It didn't really help all that much, but at least he gave it a shot. "Was the diary any help to you?"

Caroline shook her head, her blonde hair shimmering in the light. "The first entry that I read wasn't helpful at all. It was just basically her suicide note. But it said that the rest of the diary is supposed to be filled with instructions about where Victoria hid the rest of the antiques. It was supposed to be so that Theodore could find all the stuff that he gave her and bring it back home to his family. She supposedly left the diary with the instructions in the same tree where they left all their love letters."

"So she left it somewhere she knew he would look, yet apparently, he never did cause the antiques are still in our house," Klaus said. "Hmmm."

Caroline nodded. "Yep." She turned the diary around in her hands. "And I still can't think for the life of me where all the water damage came from." She felt him reach the bottom of her lower back and said, "Thank you. You can stop now."

"Oh, no!" He said to her. "It's too soon. It wouldn't be any trouble for me to ease off these things and-" She felt him ease off her panties and then flip her around. He grinned down at her and pulled off his shirt and pants. "Now that's better, don't you think?" He asked, getting off her bra.

She nodded. "Yes." She kissed him. As he kissed down her neck, his hands roaming over her breasts and stomach, she said, "You know the only reason why I'm letting you do this is so I'll get worn out and actually have a chance at a decent night's sleep, right?"

Klaus grinned, twirling a strand of her hair around his finger. "Well, all right," he said. "Whatever excuse makes you comfortable." He pushed into her and she gasped, clutching him tightly. Yes, she thought to herself. If he did that several more times like she wanted him to, she definitely would be sleeping soundly tonight.