At the sound of Lettie's voice, all sound in the ballroom ceased. It was, to excuse the pun, as quiet as death.

Immediately, everyone's eyes were on Lettie's small frame. "What do you mean Chrissy's in trouble?" Daddy asked her, disbelief in his voice.

Lettie nodded. "I'm serious. She's in major trouble. Apparently, Mama found out about what happened between her and Michael and now, she's trying to get Christy and Scott to fall in love."

"Excuse me," Leota said from behind George, "Who's that?" she asked, looking at Lettie a little harder then the others.

"That," said Daddy, still a little bitter, "is your niece Little Leota. Chrissy calls her Lettie."

"And who's Scott?"

"Scott is my half-brother," Lettie sighed deeply. "Daddy, if you think I'm twisted and evil, Scott's even worse. He didn't have a Christy to help him know bad from good. All he had was Mama, and she taught him everything she knew. And if Mama's using Scott for something, you know it's not good."

"Wait, wait just a minute. My sister is trying to get Christine to fall in love with my psychotic nephew? Why?"

At this, Lettie finally seemed to truly see Leota for the first time. "Who are you?" she asked, looking at the woman who looked so much like her mother.

"I am Madame Leota." The woman responded matter-of-factly.

"No." Lettie shook her head wildly. "You can't be Madame Leota! My mother is Madame Leota. And for your information, she wants them to fall in love so that she can take advantage of Christy's fragile emotional state and have Gracey Manor herself."

The medium shook her head."Your mother is my sister Leona and a bad egg if there ever was one."

"Excuse me," Edward said, interrupting the niece-aunt reunion. "If what Lettie says is true and Chrissy really is in trouble, we should be trying to prevent disaster at all costs. I don't want to loose a niece before I've even really had a chance to know her."

Daddy nodded. "You're right. And I don't want my daughter to end up like me."

The group left the ballroom and split up, each taking a different part of the house to see if they could find me.

Finally, Edward and Elizabeth found me in my bedroom. The door was open and I was splayed across my bed, not in my covers but on top of them, and sound asleep. As the pair advanced into the room, Edward accidentally stepped on a squeaky floorboard. As he jumped back, I stirred, my eyes opening.

When I finally noticed them, I smiled groggily. "Hi. What are you guys doing in here?" I sat up and immediately, my head began to throb. I groaned. "Next time, remind me that being fat is so much better then being hung over."

Edward looked at me with concern. "Christine, are you all right?"

I shook my head. "I drank too much last night and now my head hurts." Then, Elizabeth came over and sat beside me on the bed while Edward left the room and eventually came back with Mama and Daddy. When I told them what happened, they both looked slightly disappointed, but Mama brought me some ice for my head and Daddy brought me an aspirin.

"What's the matter Chrissy-Lily?" Mama asked. "Lettie said you were in big trouble."

"Oh, it's nothing really." I shrugged. "Scott just came by to apologize last night and we spent some time together. I think I'm falling in love with him."

My parents looked at each other for a long moment, then Mama looked back at me. "What about Michael?"

"He doesn't love me anymore. If he did, he'd be here comforting me right now instead of being at stupid Greeling Terrace trying to exorcise stupid Frank Malrooney."

"And it's not just that, is it Chrissy?" Daddy said, putting his hand on my back. "It's the house too, isn't it?" I'm sorry I did it, but I thought it would allow us to have bonding time. I remember what it was like to grow up without a father and I didn't want you to end up the same way."

I managed a smile for him. "Some parts of it are really nice, especially the cemetery and the ballroom with Aunt Vickie's party in it. But can you tell me why there's that thing in the attic that's supposed to be Emily?"

He averted his eyes. "Emily never came back, Chrissy. She never did. But the men who made up the story for the house read about her in my journals and thought she would be a nice thing to stick in."

I nodded. I was feeling well enough now that I allowed Edward to lift me off my bed and place me on the floor.

"Daddy, would you do me a favor? Take me through again, please?"

And we did go through again. In the portrait chamber, I found out the truth about Uncle Eddy and in the ballroom, I even joined the party, replacing Wolfgang's melancholy piano with one of my own rousing jazz numbers. But little did I know that Scott was still around, he still had plans, and that this serenity was just the calm before the storm.

Thanks reviewers! Only the unrecognizable stuff is mine.