1937
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"You sick, warped pervert!" Celia Collins stormed onto the landing, jeweled bracelets jangling, face flushed under what Elizabeth had always thought was her too-heavy makeup.

Elizabeth winced, and the boys edged closer to her. They were watching from a corner of the foyer, where the housekeeper had left them when they flatly refused to accompany her to the Old House.

Elizabeth noted that Celia now had the box, which was tied again. Meaning the thing had undoubtedly been put back in it.

She was furious with herself for having fainted. Dad had a right to keep anything he wanted in his own room! If I hadn't been such a ninny, if he hadn't had to fuss over me, Mama wouldn't have been able to take it away from him. She wouldn't even have found out about it.

Jamison caught up with Celia before she reached the stairs. He grabbed her by the shoulders and forcibly spun her around. "Give me that!"

She clutched the box to her chest. "What sort of man are you? To keep a mummified fetus for forty years because it belonged to that bitch--"

"That 'bitch' was your sister!" Jamison roared.

Sister? Elizabeth was stunned. She'd never known her mother had a sister.

"Yes," Celia shot back, "my sister. The one you really loved! You only married me because I reminded you of her!"

"Th-that's ridiculous. I was twelve years old when she died!"

"That makes it all the more sick. You preserved this loathsome thing, you kept it for forty years because it was hers--"

"No, I d-didn't!" Elizabeth was frightened by the quaver she heard in her father's voice. "I didn't keep it because it was hers. I kept it because it was his."

"His"? Whose?

"I know he'll come home someday," Jamison continued. "This was his child, a child he probably never knew about. I want to tell him--give him a chance to look at it if he wants to. I th-thought we could bury it together."

"Liar!" Celia's face was contorted with rage. "You kept it because of your twisted fantasies about her. You even named the damn thing! The same name you gave our daughter!"

Elizabeth hadn't thought of that. Her knees buckled, and she sank to the floor with a whimper.

"It was your sister's name. I had to think of...this...as something, didn't I? And all those years later, I was just honoring your long-dead sister. There was no connection--"

"Why do you care more about my long-dead sister than I do?"

"Maybe because you've never cared about anyone but yourself!"

Celia hauled off and slapped him. Hard.

Elizabeth heard her little brothers gasp. She struggled to her feet and gathered them both into her arms.

Celia had made a mistake by taking one hand off the box. Jamison made a grab for it and tried to wrest it away from her.

She was a tall, solidly built woman. Jamison was taller, but not so much so that he could easily overwhelm her. She clung fiercely to the box--and kneed her husband in the groin.

As he doubled over in pain, she made a dash for the staircase. "I'm going to burn this thing!"

He lunged after her, with a growl that didn't sound human.

They fought furiously at the head of the stairs.

Jamison's strong hands captured the box.

Celia kicked and clawed at him.

He jerked away--and she lost her balance.

He could have reached out to steady her, but didn't.

He stood there, hugging the box, and let his wife tumble head over heels down the staircase.

From the position in which she landed, Elizabeth knew immediately that she'd broken her neck.
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Jamison walked slowly and carefully down the stairs. He didn't appear to notice the quaking children.

He bent over the body and felt for a pulse.

Then he turned to the phone on the foyer table. Picked up the receiver and spoke briefly to the operator.

When his call was put through, he said calmly, "Sheriff? This is Jamison Collins.

"There's been a terrible accident at Collinwood.

"My wife has fallen down the stairs.

"I think she's dead."
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Elizabeth realized with a chill that in feeling for the pulse and in making his call, her father had used only one hand.

He wasn't about to let go of that box.
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(The End)
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Author's Afterword: Events in 1897

For readers who don't know or don't remember what happened on that fateful night in 1897, here's an explanation (covering only details that are relevant to this story).

Background: Quentin's promise to marry the witch Angelique--which drove Jamison to declare he hated him--had in fact been her price for saving the boy's life.

Since then, Count Petofi had switched minds, seizing Quentin's body and trapping Quentin in his aged one. But on this night, Charity/Pansy made Beth consider the possibility that "Quentin" was really Petofi. She suggested a test Beth could use to prove it.

Beth found "Quentin" at the old mill that had been a known residence of Petofi's. She told him they wouldn't have to worry about Petofi any more--his mortal enemies, the Gypsies, had arrived in the area and planned to kill him. "Quentin" was visibly upset and rushed back to the relative safety of Collinwood.

The horrified Beth was now sure he was Petofi. She fled to Collinsport to ask Tim Shaw for help. She knew her story sounded insane. But she told Tim that if he sought out the apparent "Count Petofi," the old man would confirm it and say he was really Quentin.

Tim pretended to take her seriously and said he'd look for "Petofi." In reality, he thought she was having a mental breakdown. So he went straight to "Quentin." The impostor accompanied him back to Collinsport to pick her up--almost certainly meaning to kill her.

But a short time before, Petofi had discovered that his control of the stolen body had been weakened by his having used the I Ching to make an aborted trip to 1969. He had lost the power of the Hand! He tried and failed to transform "Pansy" back into Charity and to make Barnabas a vampire again.

Quentin found that the power had reverted to the original body. With encouragement from Barnabas, he began trying to use it to reverse the mind-switch.

Petofi experienced a weak spell, which allowed Beth to run away from him. He recovered quickly, still in Quentin's body, and pursued her.

Quentin finally succeeded in reversing the mind-switch. But it happened at the worst possible moment: Petofi had been chasing Beth through the woods near Widow's Hill. With neither of them realizing where they were, Quentin caught up with her and began trying to explain, and she retreated in terror. Tragically, she went over the cliff to her death.

A final thought: I'm sure I remember a scene--just one, at some earlier point in the storyline--in which a distressed Beth turned away from whomever she was with and pressed a hand to her belly. That was undoubtedly an attempt by the director to mislead viewers into thinking the character might be pregnant, but it provides a basis for playing with the idea.