Chapter 5
Vicki smoothed down her dress, flipped her hair over her shoulder, and then laced her fingers together. Looking at the anxious faces in front of her she felt a sense of panic as she faced her parents. She started o speak felt her throat tighten, cleared her throat and then squared her shoulders. "I believe I owe you both an apology for reacting the way I did yesterday. I hope you understand that it had been a very trying day and well then to be told by two people I have come to respect and care about to come out and tell me they were my parents was just too much for me to absorb at one time."
She had hoped not to rush her explanation or her thoughts. She wanted them to understand where she was emotionally at the moment of the revelation. "It is not that I object or am disappointed in who my real parents are, it was just a lot to comprehend at one time." Vicki cleared her throat again and looked at the expectant faces before her. "In fact I am very excited and flattered that I had two parents that are as wonderful as the two of you."
Liz was the first to stand up and moved to take Vicki into her arms and whisper in her ear. "I love you darling. I am so proud that you turned out as well as you did and that you are home where you belong." Vicki held to her mother's embrace, closing her eyes she let out a small sigh.
"Hey got room for a hug from the old man?" Liz stepped back to allow George to move forward to his daughter and caught her to his barrel chest. "I am equally as proud of you as your mother and I want you to know that nothing will ever diminish the love I have for you. You are and always will be my kid." He kissed her forehead and stood back.
Vicki held her tears back watching two people who had laid claim to her as their own and she was once again overwhelmed by the emotions of finally knowing her family and having a family history. Elizabeth was the first to broach the subject. "I was hoping to get you to return to Collinwood with us and having a big family dinner so you can get to know your brothers and sister better."
"Oh what about Carolyn?" Vicki was the first to bring up the subject of her mother's second daughter.
"Carolyn was told yesterday. I knew I was going to tell you so I wanted to make sure she knew and what with her being in a frail position with her pregnancy I felt it necessary to let her know before you were told." Liz had felt bad that she had discussed this with Carolyn before coming to Vicki but she accepted the conditions and the reasons for her being the first to know.
"Oh good I was worried it might upset her to hear this news." Vicki watched her mother and father sit in front of the fireplace before she continued with her thoughts. "I want you to know that this is all very new to me and I may need a little adjustment time but I am thrilled to have you in my life as my mother and father." She was stumbling over her words and turned with the approach of Barnabas.
"Well, this has taken on a brighter time and tone for us all. Elizabeth, George would either of you care for some refreshments?" Vicki felt embarrassed that was the first thing she should have offered upon entering the drawing room.
"I could make us some tea or coffee if you prefer." Vicki backed towards the doorway that would lead her to the dining room and then to the kitchen. "It is no bother since we modernized the kitchen." She actually would have preferred to get to know her parents better in a less formal surroundings but knew this was their choice.
Liz sensing her daughter's discomfiture smiled. "Why don't we all go to the kitchen? We can have a cup of coffee and sit down and learn about each other in a less stressful or formal setting."
Nicholas stood in front of the mirror and smiled, the reflection of Reverend Trask appeared in the mirror. "You offer something you cannot produce purveyor of evil."
Nicholas laughed, "Now there you are wrong. I have access to her and I can give her to you, all you need to do is go to Collinwood and in the west wing there is a closet, it changes, you enter the closet and you think of 1968, the stairs will appear and you follow them up when you get to where you cannot go any further you open the door and you will be in the year 1968 and in the west wing of Collinwood. I will tell you when you should come and you will see for yourself that she is here and she is about to marry Barnabas Collins."
Trask frowned hearing the name of Barnabas. "So the witch dallies with another of the purveyors of evil and even dares to pledge herself to him in holy matrimony. NOT if I have anything to say about it."
Nicholas smiled as he stood before the image of an alive Trask in the mirror, he had found him before the day he disappeared and would be sealed up in the walls of the old house. "Yes, but time must always play itself out as it was intended, and she was pledged to him, now are you interested or not? If you are interested I will save you from a fate far worse than you could imagine and allow you an escape to the future to claim what is rightfully yours to claim."
Trask smiled, "You can provide her to me?" He was thinking about the offer and it pleased him to think he could finally have what he had coveted before he was interrupted by Collins. He studied the beady-eyed man that now stood dressed in strange clothing that could easily belong to another century.
"I can provide you with the time she will be present for you to abscond with her if that is your wish." He smiled and was tempted to smooth his mustache at such a devious thought.
"Then tell me when and I shall come." Trask reasoned back with what he knew to be an agent of the devil. He smiled too. He was ready to make a bargain with the devil if it meant he could have what he coveted and wanted. "Very well then devil's advocate, I will come for her, you will tell me when and I shall come."
Nicholas was proud of the fact he had come up with this idea and smiled. "I will be in touch and let you know when to come until then return to the time of before." Nicholas waved his hand over the mirror and moved into the bedroom smiling he could still smell her scent, he could see the imprint of her body on his bed and his heart raced with desire. "Yes, Trask you will get what you wan and I shall have what I want and we all can be happy once again."
Carolyn sighed, stretched and decided that she had been in bed resting long enough. Throwing back her covers she sat up and shifted her legs from the bed planting them on the floor. Pushing herself up she immediately regretted her spur of the moment decision to get out of bed as a wave of nausea and dizziness swept over her. Lying back in her bed she moaned. "I just want to get out of bed. That is all I want to do little one why won't you let me get up?"
Her door opened and Daphne moved into the room carrying a tray of food and a shot for her nausea. "Oh now what did you try to do Carolyn? Were you trying to get out of bed?" Daphne moved to sit the tray on her desk and turned to move to the bed with hands on hips she looked at the overly pale features of her friend.
"I just wanted to get up and out of this damn bed for a short time and I got sick to my stomach and I got dizzy." She sounded so pitiful that Daphne was touched by her plight.
"Come on let me help you up and we take it easy and little steps okay?" Daphne moved to help her sit up slowly, then guiding her up she moved her over to the table where her food sat. "Now before you try to eat this, let me give you this shot so you won't feel so nauseous."
Carolyn patiently waited for her to inject her and then looked at the food with disinterest. "I really am not hungry Daphne. I would just like some juice." Carolyn was starting to sound petulant with her whining. She turned her nose up at the porridge and dry toast.
"I understand you have no appitite my dear friend. However that is part of your problem and you might not be hungry but that baby that is growing in your womb does need nourishment and the only way it will get it is through you. Now try to eat a little Carolyn or you will end up in the hospital again and I am sure you would not want that."
"Nor would I." Gregory Trask stood in the open door way and beamed his smile to the woman that was the mother of his son. With his raincoat draped over his arm he moved into the room and to Carolyn's side and bent to kiss her lightly on the cheek. "It is good to see you up my dear." He turned to lay his coat over the adjoining chair.
Carolyn smiled as Gregory kissed her cheek then turned to peer at her food. "So, why are you here Greg? I thought you had business to attend this morning?" She picked up the piece of toast and tore it in half chewing on a piece as she watched her fiancé.
"I did and I cancelled my appointments due to the weather. It is particularly nasty out there right now with all the ice covering everything. I had a dreadful time getting here." Gregory sat back and studied the pale features of the woman that now would bear his child.
"Really, I wouldn't know I have been stuck in bed for a few days. So, the roads are impassable? I heard we got around six inches of ice from the storm but with the weather suppose to be warming up in the next week that should cause flooding." Carolyn surmised picking up her tea cup and sipping from it to replace it with gentle care back to the table.
"Yes, in some places they got over six inches of snow and ice, here we got mostly ice and from what I was able to gage it was more like three inches covering everything it could." Greg did not sound happy. "it affected my power and my lines are down at the house, it is a good thing you are here my dear, there you would be kept warm by the gas powered fireplaces."
Carolyn sat back to study Greg and noted he did look tired which meant he probably had not slept much. "I for one am happy that Vicki talked mother into having a gas powered generator installed now we have power when the lines are down. It works pretty nice to have lights and heat when the power goes off. OH speaking of Vicki I guess you had better be made aware of a situation that is going on right now if I am not mistaken."
Gregory focused his attention on Carolyn. "Oh, and what might that be?" He flicked an imaginary piece of lint from his jacket then turned his attention expectantly back to Carolyn.
"Well mother confessed to me that when she was younger she had an affair with Sheriff Patterson and it resulted in a pregnancy and that my friend Vicki Winters is actually my sister. They told Vicki last night and she did not take it well." Carolyn had frowned at the thought that Vicki did not readily accept her mother. "I think it had mother upset all night."
Greg was surprised at hearing this news and looked away from Carolyn hiding his disappointment that the heir apparent had another that would divide the fortunes of Collinwood. "So let me get this straight, Victoria Winters the same Victoria Winters that is the heir to Devlin Enterprises, and came here as a penniless governess is your sister?"
Carolyn nodded slowly, "Yes, mother had an affair when she was eighteen with George Patterson and well, she got pregnant. She did not want to tell Grandfather about the pregnancy because my Grandfather would have destroyed George and his father. So she snuck off to New York, gave birth and left her on the doorstep of a foundling home. Mother has carried the guilt of this information for a lifetime. So, last night when they got home from where-ever Mother with George told her and I understood she got upset and ran out of the house."
Greg sounded aghast. "Carolyn do you know what happened last night? What the Sheriff' Department found when they responded to the all from your cousin Quentin?" Greg was not one to be upset over much; he had spent a long time crushing down his emotions to play the perfect lawyer. He had been appalled at the discovery of the desiccated bodies found in the one room and the number of pregnant females being held in a subbasement.
"Apparently, Vicki had been lured to the house at the end of the block from Julia's and Eric's and when she got there she was taken hostage and forced to go through this disgusting and sickening ritual with some demented man that thought she wanted to marry him. This man," He had said man as if the word was so disgusting he could not bring himself to think of anything more disgusting to call him. "This man, had around twenty female's bodies in various forms of decay in a room and apparently he was into necrophilia. He forced Beth and Hallie to witness this bizarre ceremony with Vicki who by the way was duct taped to an appliance dolly."
Carolyn nearly choked on her toast hearing this she began to cough. Greg stood up and patted her gently on her back until he could hear she no longer had an obstructed airway. "There better?" He looked to Daphne who also was hearing this for the first time and found it disgusting. "Well anyhow they investigated further when they tried to kill Barnabas by hitting him over the head with a ball bat and left him to die in the ice storm. That man that lives with Lang found Barnabas and they followed the tracks to that house and that is when Barnabas found that Hallie, Beth, and Vicki were all being held hostage by this demented thing."
Daphne shivered and rubbed her arms. "I read in the morning paper they found about twelve college aged girls being held captive in the basement and they were all pregnant?" The whole story she knew had made national news and there had been a flurry of news crews on the scene of the house reporting for their viewers what had happened and how bizarre the whole thing had been.
Greg nodded, "Yes, they were all reported missing over the past two months and most feared they would be dead once they were found. Fortunately for them they were discovered and they are being treated at the hospital. But everyone of them are pregnant."
"Did they get the man?" Carolyn shivered again thinking about the night the wolf attacked her and Adam had come to her rescue. There had been this odor and then a feeling that had not been the only danger she had been subjected to that night.
Greg slid back in his chair enjoying being the center of attention and privy to certain information about the investigation. "From what Barnabas told them, he had been helped and escaped with that nut ball sister of his, the whole country is on alert for him and they are comparing deaths and missing persons reports from over six states that these two could have operated in or about. They think they could solve as many as fifty missing persons reports and deaths, that the two of them were serial killers traveling from state to state to avoid being caught."
Carolyn felt her stomach tense with the thought of them living in Collinsport and possibly getting away with their creepy acts. "So all the girls are they going to be okay and what about their babies?"
Greg did not have an answer for that question he shrugged lightly. "Don't know about that. I do know they are leaving the decision on whether or not to terminate to each mother. Of course the ones that are too far along won't have the option but those that are in the early stages of their pregnancies will be given an option to terminate if they want. That was why I was called in to advise them of their rights."
Carolyn sighed looked at the food on her tray and was now more determined to not eat because her stomach was in a knot. "I just cringe at the thought that crazy man thought he would force Vicki in to a fake marriage with him. No wonder she was frazzled when mom and George told her about her parentage."
Daphne moved forward and stooped down in front of her patient and friend. "Carolyn, you need to eat. I know you don't feel like it but the baby needs the nutrients that you take in when you eat. If you don't start eating you may have to be fed through your veins and I know you would hate that more, so please try."
Stepping back she sighed deeply looked at Greg, "May I see you outside for a moment Mr. Trask?" Greg stood leaned over and placed a light kiss on Carolyn's cheek. Moving through the door behind Daphne he smiled noting she had a nice firm bottom that moved so nicely in her nurse's pants. "Mr. Trask I am having a hard enough time getting her to eat and hearing that story just now I am sure upset her enough that she has lost her appetite. I ask as a favor for me and in the best interest of your fiancé continued good health you reframe from being so graphic with your descriptions of what happened."
Greg frowned, she was right of course but he hardly felt she should chastise him. "I agree to a point Miss Harridge, but in fact she needed to know why Miss Winters reacted as she did when told about who her parents were. Now if you will excuse me, I have some things to discuss with my fiancé in private." He turned and moved back into the room and closed the door with force.
"What is going on Greg?" Carolyn looked up at the closing of the door with a slight frown edging her features. She had been nibbling on the other piece of toast and had sipped some of her broth. She looked over his shoulder looking for Daphne.
"Miss Harridge just expressed her concern for you and my graphic depiction of the events that unfolded last night. She felt I was too graphic for you." Greg sat down with a harrumph over being chastised by a nurse. "Who does she think she is?"
"Well she is right. I was upset hearing what you said Greg and frankly the thought of Vicki being in that house with those other women were upsetting news to hear. Upsetting enough I really did not feel like eating which is a bad thing for the baby."
Greg flushed realizing she was right he had not stopped to consider she was in such a delicate place with the pregnancy. "I am sorry love. Will you forgive me?" he slid forward reached for her hand and held it tightly in his hand. His gaze was designed to seek her sympathy and forgiveness, something he had perfected over the years of trying cases in the court of law.
Carolyn nodded slowly, "I forgive you as long as you apologize to Daphne for being so rude to her."
Greg smiled, "Consider it already done and over with my dear, now onto what you were telling me about Vicki. So did she ever accept your mom and the Sheriff?" Greg's interest was merely a distraction from what his real intent was and that was to get Carolyn to forget he had been rude to Daphne.
"They are meeting at the old house now. I hope she is in a better frame of mind after a nights sleep. Barnabas has always been able to calm her down and make her see reason when she wanted to go off on a tangent for some kind of pity party. She should be happy she has done noting but harp on who she was since she arrived here three years ago. Now she knows she should be embracing them as her parents."
Carolyn had begun to sound a little catty with her thoughts as she reflected on Vicki as her older sister. She wanted a sister and she cold not ask for a better sister, it was that she always seemed to be competing with Vicki for attention from the opposite sex and when she and Barnabas got engaged she had breathed a sigh of relief. She felt at least she would have a chance with the available men in Collinsport. The problem was she was not caught up in a relationship with a prominent attorney.
She was still not resolved to being a part of this man's life. She did want the baby and she knew that if she did not give in to his demands of being a willing partner to his proposal he could make her life a living hell. "So you said you had things to talk to me about before you slammed the door in Daphne's face. What is it you wish to discuss? And don't drag it out Greg, I am feeling a bit nauseous and need to lie down soon."
Greg felt pressured; he just did not want to share time with Carolyn with a nosey bitch like Daphne, so he had to think quickly. "Baby's names, a wedding date, where you want to live once the baby is born, and how you wish to do our wedding? Do you want a large wedding so that your family is not deprived of the glorious moment of seeing their little girl finally happily married?"
Carolyn sighed it was something she knew she had to accept and commit she was just not ready. "I was thinking if it's a boy, we could name it Gregory Paul, after you and my father unless you have another name? " She looked over to her fiancé and waited for his input. He smiled and thought a moment. "So would we call him Greg or Paul?"
She shrugged, "I thought I would leave that up to you. I just figured that it would take care of two people I care about. If its a girl I was thinking Beth Anne. That is unless you had any ideas?" She watched him mull over the names he must have thought of if it were a girl.
"I was partial to Charity Anne, what do you think?" He waited for her to respond and she smiled. "I think Charity is very pretty and like it. So, I guess we agree? Gregory Paul and Charity Anne?" She had deftly circumvented so far any discussion of a wedding. She was not sure how she wanted to handle their wedding. To make it a big affair and have her give birth a few months later could open the door for a lot of speculation and embarrassment for her family."
"I like both names perhaps we will table the discussion of our wedding date for later. You look tired and I have an apology to issue." Standing he leaned over and planted a soft kiss on her cheek. "Later my sweet." She watched him go out the door and she sighed a deep breath of relief.