Alone in the drawing room with Chris, Carolyn asks him why he stopped the séance. With a sigh, he decides to tell the truth: I don't know why I stopped it, he says. Something just came over me. I felt I had to do it--I don't know why. [I can think of a very good reason for this--but I'm not sure it was what the writers had in mind so early in this story line.] Chris is upset that Carolyn said something about a curse. [But again, so early in this story, can he know the reason for the curse?]
Roger returns from-- well, somewhere, and Carolyn introduces Chris to him. Roger gives Carolyn an affectionate kiss. He always seems fonder of his niece than of his own son.
Tonight it's David's turn to have the phone in his room. Amy walks in to tell him that _He_ is very angry. David is also annoyed because he's been trying to speak to Quentin on the phone but hears only someone breathing. Amy takes the phone and gets instructions again. Quentin spoke to me, she reports. He said _she_ would try to stop us. He wants us to find him--and tonight.
Roger is in the drawing room when behind him, a large book suddenly falls from the piano to the floor. Roger turns around to look, picks up the book and opens it. Tucked inside is a piece of paper, a letter. He gazes down at it, puzzled. Carolyn comes in and asks what he’s got. He tells her, It's a letter addressed to my father, Jamison, dated 1887. He must have been a boy, Roger muses. [The writers must not have worked out their chronology yet, because we will learn soon that [spoiler]Jamison was ten in 1897[/spoiler].] He reads the letter aloud for Carolyn’s (and our) benefit:
Dear Jamison, you must return to Collinwood. I need your help. You must intercede with Oscar. [A long time from now, the writers will regain their senses and change Oscar's name.] Only you can save me.
It’s signed "Quentin," Roger says. I don’t know much about him--he spent most of his time abroad. [The writers didn’t have other things worked out yet, either, because we learn nothing more about “Oscar”‘s trouble--whatever it was.] Carolyn realizes that Magda must have pushed the book off the piano--but why? Roger and Carolyn speculate about what the letter might mean. Stop them! Carolyn suddenly bursts out, then pauses in astonishment. I don’t know why said that, or what it means, she says. It was Magda speaking through me--a warning. I don’t understand, Roger says. Carolyn explains urgently, Magda is still here, speaking through me, warning us! Someone in the house is in danger, and it could be any one of us!
Amy tells David that Quentin wants them to go to the storage room. Amy is excited that they might actually meet a real ghost! Suddenly they hear Roger talking to Carolyn in the hallway. Apparently Magda’s warning has brought on one of Roger’s sporadic parenting fits. Are you all right? Roger asks him. David is puzzled at the question or at Roger’s paternal feelings or both. Roger says, Never mind--you should be asleep. David says, I woke up and couldn't sleep, so I decided to read. Well, go back to sleep, Roger tells him and turns off the light. He leaves, missing Amy hiding behind the door. She's about to sneak out of the room when Roger returns to tell David, If you need me tonight, just come to me. David is even more puzzled, but he agrees, and Roger leaves. Amy emerges, relieved that Roger didn't see her--because then she and David couldn't have any fun at all. David says thoughtfully, My father was acting really strangely. He never says goodnight, and this asking if I was all right business.… They decide to wait until everyone is asleep.
Downstairs, Roger and Carolyn continue their conversation. Roger isn't sure why he was concerned about David. It was just a feeling, he says.
Much later, Amy and David, flashlight in hand, approach the door to the West Wing--but Magda interferes, first by knocking the flashlight out of David's hand, then by pushing him away from the door. David reminds Amy, Quentin did tell us someone would try to stop us--some woman--so it was probably her or her ghost. I’m scared, Amy confesses. I’m a little scared too, David admits, but not too scared to go on. You’re more scared because you’re a girl, he adds at his patronizing worst. The door to the West Wing is now locked, but David knows another, secret, way in.
At 4:00 a.m., Roger and Carolyn are still in the drawing room! David and Amy are listening outside the double doors. They dash over to the servants’ door under the stairs when they realize Roger and Carolyn are about to come out. Of course, Roger offers Carolyn sleeping pills. No thanks, she says. I’m exhausted--perhaps I'll sleep. Goodnight, Kitten, Roger says fondly and kisses her. He turns off the foyer lights. Finally they both head upstairs.
When the coast is clear, David and Amy emerge from the servants’ entrance and go into the drawing room. David moves a red velvet armchair and opens a secret panel in the wall, revealing an unlit passage that we will see again many times. Politely he ushers Amy into the passage ahead of him, leaving the chair pulled away from the wall. But as they close the panel, they don’t see that all by itself, the chair moves back against the wall, blocking their route out. David and Amy walk up a flight of stairs into the West Wing. Still in the lead, David comments, I thought I heard something. Suddenly, a tall clock suddenly falls in front of them, startling them almost out of their wits. _She_ must have done that, David figures as they climb over the clock. Whoever she is, she wants us to go back! Maybe we should, suggests the frightened Amy. We should go on, David insists. Will you take my hand? Amy asks. He does. They enter the storage room, still holding hands. Apparently nothing has changed since their last visit. They call to Quentin. When there’s no reply, they call out to “anyone.” He isn't here, David sighs, disappointed. I was so sure, Amy says. We should leave, David suggests. The door closes. It’s also locked, and David can't get it open. Try! Amy pleads, but it’s no use. We're locked in, they realize. They gaze at each other in terror, two little kids locked in the dark....
