"The Pit of Ultimate Dark Shadows" notes (which you are welcome to skip:) Sam Evans is saved along the story line by Tony & Carolyn swapping the portrait of Angelique with the portrait of Capt. Daniel Gregg from "The Ghost & Mrs. Muir." They bring it to him because it had stains and needed to be cleaned and touched up. When he's out of the room they notice the portrait of Angelique he's working on, decide they have to get rid of it, and leave Capt. Gregg's portrait in it's stead as they run away.
So Sam alters Angelique's painting, and with a vengeance this time around because he recalls not only a past life as Andre Dupres but some afterlife knowledge of what Angelique had done to Josette, his daughter in 1795. So both Sam and Maggie are reincarnations of those characters. Hence she'd switch back and forth from calling him "Pop" to calling him "Papa". (Fitting, eh?)
Later on Sam is also saved when the withered Angelique comes to investigate and demand her painting. Whoops! :) Tony & Carolyn took it away, and he doesn't know where so he doesn't have it and can't tell her anything. Plus, The Ghost of Capt. Daniel Gregg is hanging around. Capt. Gregg's character is the type of ghost who goes unseen and unheard unless he "wishes it". So he has powers to help and suggest certain things to people. Angelique doesn't know Gregg is there and in a way Gregg likely kept her from harming Sam, as she might just do out of habit.
(And I have to admit, I still laugh at the lines in that encounter. When Angelique announces that the painting is crucial to her existence, Sam replies, "I don't blame you for saying so. *Anything* might be crucial to *your* existence at this point... I'd wager 20 supplements a day!". :D ...I know, we all likely have that as a standard in the 21st century, but I figured in the 1960's one must have been rather hard-up to be taking that many.)
Hence "Pop" is saved, and so here, Josette talks about him briefly and that he's still working on paintings and likely more inspired than ever.
Chapter 17: To Love, To Speak, To Name
I have to admit… when I expected my husband to return from a trifling matter at the Main House of Collinwood… I had a few yearnings of my own I'd acquired. I'm sure his errand had something to do with a decanter and our Cousin Roger's machinations between some absurdity and his Sherry… for which we need look on with loving bemusement. As it all comes down to the essentials… Rogeris rather a gentleman when one gets to know him.
Still, I was looking forward to Barnabas's arrival… and I managed to get the other gentlemen away before he did. They sweetly ventured a few knowing smiles when I informed them of what I was after… Considering how big this homestead was… why wouldn't I wish to explore the avenues of love in all of its surfaces? And… with Him?
Now that we'd been through the worst of it, I found my love for him growing steadier and broader. He'd taken everything I thrown at him, all that I'd terrified myself to give and he'd even welcomed it. That could have shocked me but I was learning how willing he was to face the troubles and when he did they melted away in my hostility, of which I never enjoyed.
Yes... he was a good man... now... and how I loved him for it. Including the fact that I was the one who created that good in him... and now as I look at it, I had to be.
We'd slept on this Davenport together that I rested my back upon now, as I lay on these blankets on the floor before the fireplace … and… I remember walking in this door one hundred, seventy-four years ago… Seeing my people… seeing his people… and now that it was so much was quieter… if all the locks were secured, and the fireside lowly crackled… why wouldn't I wish to have some experimental time right here? Really? Why wouldn't I?
I thought of the possibilities... what would he do? I hope he'd be pleased and I kept smiling to myself at the thought of his welcoming gaze. Oh, yes, there was so much more to explore, especially now that we'd endured the worst of it. I thought of his kind face, of the smooth skin I'd touched. Of his secure embrace that held me with that sheltering warmth I adored. Barnabas never wanted to let me go when he did that and I faded into his arms. All was lavish in my union with him as I'd always longed for. He was proud of me and he had finally made me proud of him. I was opening my arms in anticipation of this renewal.
I had to giggle to myself… I wasn't sure if Mr. Barnabas Collins would be confused, surprised, or eager. I really had no idea. But I was curious. And I sighed…
Here it was that I'd been so disappointed and as Kitty, foolishly taken poison… but does anyone know what I was feeling or thinking at the time? What I'd been imagining in this room? What wild motions of love I'd entailed in my mind as I sat there waiting for what felt like forever? And surely, when one considers what I'd been through… I HAD been waiting forever… from one lifetime to the next… What a man… and a man one might not believe worth it… but he's always been to me.
After moving pieces of furniture with our two wonderful employees, I had this terrible feeling that from my various smiles and meaningful petting on the top of their hands… well… I had to wonder if they weren't driving off soon to something along the lines of… a house of ill repute… ? …or a theatre of lingerie damsels who danced around poles…? …or perhaps a certain movie-house in which… well, I'm sure you may be making up your own minds of where they went.
In Collinsport, there is a saloon of sorts, of course, we all know that… but perhaps I should be ashamed that I may have put ideas in their heads and led them elsewhere. What I would dearly love is if they'd only gone to the shed again for another game of Backgammon. Or they could have gone to see Pappa about some more portraits. His paintings have truly been coming along. More of our Sarah, especially. Yes, if they went to see him… That would relieve my heart.
Still, I had to enjoy the candlelight and the lack of any obnoxiously interrupting telephone to my thoughts. I stayed, with a bottle of chilled wine, resting on some cushions over blankets in front of the fire… and staring into it after I'd placed another log there. There were three now, resting cross angled over one another. "Three," I mused out loud, "like me."
I sighed… oh… how I'd always wanted just this. I sipped my wine and had a stack of three books I was tempted to flip through and just kept touching the covers of while I thought, and stared, and waited. Of course, one of these books was by John Cleland, published in 1748. I tended to leaf through it at times, but that was usually all I needed. I do love the ending line: "The paths of Vice are sometimes strewed with roses, but then they are for ever infamous for many a thorn, for many a cankerworm: those of Virtue are strewed with roses purely, and those eternally unfading ones." If my old friend, Angelique had read this, could read it, I'd hope it would make all the difference.
While reading I opened my slender robe from the heat, my sheen night dress exposed and rippling across my skin. It's silken features a comfort right now. But the fire brought me back to substantial thoughts. Perhaps it was the lack of oxygen… as the fire is so likely to waft that away within itself and I kept thinking… what will he do when he walks in that door, turns to his left and sees me awaiting him in this state lying down among quilts and cushions? What will he think? But what did it really matter until the time came? Until… I did… I wondered.
Soon enough, I heard the door open and his footsteps… I knew they could only be his and his alone.
"So…" he almost whispered, "awaiting me, my pet?"
Ohhh... his confidence had come back. Yes... I was hoping it might. I'd been so vile in my destruction of his being, unleashing my contempt and the shame he'd done to our family so recently. I knew I had to do that, but now I was yearning to let go of that... and be... taken by him; My dearest Barnabas Collins.
"Yes…" I answered softly.
You see. I wanted to be the lamb, this time. I was a little tired of doing so much work when it came to the dire necessities of love between him and I. In this moment… I was sleepy, which is perhaps why I'd somehow blinked awake… perhaps I'd been asleep, in fact…
Fluttering into my recognition I leaned back on the cushions I'd arranged for us to create this new ardour. He was down there with me, draped with the blankets as though wearing his own cape like coat over his shoulders. It could be that I faded in and out of can be a strong sedative.
Before the firelight, he wrapped the blankets around us and kissed me deeply and held the back of my neck and skull with a gentle clasp. I felt the weight of his chest and sternum in my hands, reached further up to caress his shoulders.
It was less fierce this time, but somehow as passionate as before, if not more so. I felt myself closing around him, trying to respond to his movements with my legs upraised.
He stroked my hair and face and kissed me all over as he said these words… and I understood. Perhaps I'd been too voracious… and also, perhaps it made little difference when all was said and done? We would, if we were lucky, have all the time in the world for this, and that was something I had not listened to. We'd been waiting too long and been too eager… Not that we blamed each other for that. It was such a long time to wait.
"Don't you know that I love you? Don't you know that I want you?" He asked, even then running his hand up my thigh and squeezing my hip.
"But… you are having me… aren't you?" I queried, in motion, "As I am… having you?"
"What difference does that make?" He asked, still not changing his stance, and we continued to envelope each other. "I still love you… I still want you… I still adore you… and I want to know that you know this," he whispered in kisses along my neck.
"Of course I know it, Barnabas Collins… of course… aren't you showing me?" I answered in my kissing returns. I felt his compounding efforts to bring us together... I wanted to spread my arms along the floor but I couldn't. I had to clasp the muscle of his shoulders... strongly.
"Then stop forcing my completion, Josette Dupres… stop overpowering me to cease all I want to show you. Let this love continue as long as it can. So much I want to explore you and so much I want you to explore me. We've been too forceful on one another. Can't we understand each other here… especially in this very room… as you've so chosen to do this? "
Our hands reached to find all the spots on us that went untouched, stretching over sides front torso and each other's backs. My fingers drifted along his skin, like rose petals I was feeling with my lips on his.
"Did I?" I asked between kisses, " I only thought it would be a blessing of romance, considering all the hostility that's taken place in this room."
"I understand," he said, and then began to throw himself into me all of a sudden so that for a few minutes, that was all there was, and I reacted in kind. My throat opened with thrills of animation. Trailing his fingers behind my legs, he went and rested his face at the center of my chest. I took his head in my hands there while he breathed so heavily.
"You weren't unmindful, Josette… didn't you know?"
"Know what?"
"I've always wanted to make love to you in this room? To clean it of all the trouble and also because… I first saw you enter this house here… and how much I wanted you right then, when I saw you."
I understood. Of course, what happiness and horror we'd shared here. Had I been sensitive to it or insensitive? Perhaps both. I didn't raise my legs, but I did bend my knees and rested my feet on his calves lower down. I wanted some further communication between us beyond the upper torso and our lips. Really… I did want us to have "knowledge" of each other completely. However… what I was coming to understand is that it would take a lifetime… and what a lifetime… what a pleasure and enjoyment to keep on… exploring. I had to tell him... I was dying to tell him...
"When you call me that… When you call me, Josette… do you know what I feel?" I asked.
"Tell me." He breathily responded.
"My heart… my hands…" I answered.
"And… Kitty," he asked, not ceasing to torment the wild butterflies of my innards.
"My feet, my spine, my throat…" I answered, breathing and writhing.
"And… Maggie…?" he slowly asked, still not stopping his movements, his kisses, his caresses.
"My mind, my head, my knees… " I whispered… knowing these thing instantly in my search to explore myself.
"But… that one… you know…" he kissed and throbbed and halted all movement suddenly, staring into my eyes, touching my face, "And… When I ask you… DuPres?"
And then… the tears came down… and at last I said, stroking his hair, and his neck, as he was raised higher above… looking down… "Myself… all of me… all of it, I feel you… and all of me… my dearest."
He exhaled from his withheld expectation, a kind of slow delight. A strange ecstasy.
"Somehow… I was sure of that, DuPres… and I won't force my name on yours… for that one is the beauty of all that you are… and you know that… my dearest love."
In this moment, to my strange discovery, I found I was a happily married woman.
In "The Pit of Ultimate Dark Shadows", I have found Kitty Soames of 1897 to be a necessity while going down a condensed version of the original Dark Shadows storyline. In my story, Maggie remembers all three lives in chronological order, whereas Barnabas does not. His travels go from 1795, then 1967, and later he reaches 1897. Having Maggie regress into past lives chronologically would make the story work.
In "Pit of..." her memory urges that this Barnabas can be forgiven, because she remembers him working for the greater good in 1897, though he hasn't experienced it yet. She knows when that does happen and he returns *that* is the time to allow him absolution. So, the Kitty Soames life time becomes an important point in his gaining that forgiveness.
And, as shown here in this novel, he succeeds. :)
The Kitty Soames encounter of 1897/1795 was so brief I can imagine a 1960's housewife coming home from a tropical vacation only to discover the gorgeous 1897 on Dark Shadows suddenly lambasted with these bizarre Leviathan weirdos. Picture her rushing out in her curlers, hairpins trailing behind, to ask Selma next door what the heck is going on?! :S
Of course, the teenagers likely knew...
Still it is brief. Kitty kept remembering being Josette to the point where she strangled Angelique with a vengeful relapse of judgement, then lost all knowledge again and was embarrassed and shocked. In this way I can see Josette being the kind who *could* attack, so these bedroom vignettes might not be so implausible.
Kitty was about to leave to keep from being pulled back into Josette's identity. Somehow she was lured to The Old House and Barnabas knew. Still, Kitty would go from saying yes to no and then finally when Barnabas flat out proposed, she desperately accepted.
And *again* "Oh, I have to go do this other thing first..." P'shaw! Uh-huh... :/
So, Kitty paces in Josette's room, likely biting her fingernails down to the cuticle in anxiety of waiting, suddenly has Josette's wedding dress on, morphs into the portrait, which later Barnabas joins her and then suddenly they're back in 1795 but separated. It's episode 884-886. And later on so much teamwork ruined by those pesky Leviathans...
And as you all likely know by now... well... I have another Doctor lined up for them! :)