Love love love Dameon's proto-leisure suit--a pale gray sort of collarless jacket that belts in front (via a button) and matching bell-bottom trousers, with a sort of mustard-colored shirt and mustard-print scarf. Bruno almost outdoes him in a maroon turtleneck with powder-blue matching weskit and bell-bottom trousers.This is quite a comedown from the good old days of 1795, which featured Naomi's gorgeous gowns. Ah well...
Trask, the Collins butler, has returned to Collinwood after, he tells Quentin, dealing with a “crisis” in his brother’s family. (Although Trask is the butler in parallel time, a crisis in any Trask family seems understandable.) He had wired Hoffman to say he was returning, but apparently Quentin has sent Hoffman to stay with friends [Grayson Hall was also working on House of Dark Shadows], so no one knew. Trask (in a sober, dark butler-type suit) tut-tuts about how disorderly the house has gotten in her absence. Hoffman would never have allowed the furniture to be placed differently from how Miss Angelique [he should call her Mrs. Collins] wanted it, he frets. (The fireplace is clean again--maybe Trask has been cleaning it!) While he's tidying up the fold-up liquor cabinet (a prominent feature of the drawing room), Quentin mentions seeing Dameon Edwards. Luckily Trask's back is turned so Quentin doesn't see that he almost drops a glass on hearing this news. Apparently Dameon was once an almost daily visitor at Collinwood--but about a year ago he abruptly stopped coming. I know no more than anyone else, Trask says--which is nothing. Why do you want to know, sir? Quentin says it’s sheer curiosity. He also tells Trask that Angelique’s twin, Alexis, is staying at Collinwood.
Poor Amy--up past her bedtime, surely!--sees Dameon. Quentin tells Trask about it, and it makes Trask very nervous.
Blood on the floor, bloodstained music! Was Dameon murdered at Collinwood? Quentin wonders, and well he might.
Quentin goes to the cottage to tell Bruno that Dameon is is dead--and he saw a ghost. Bruno lights a cigarette, but the gesture fails to cover his nervousness. I’m enjoying seeing you scared, Quentin comments. I think you knew Dameon was dead, and that Dameon is trying to tell us something important. Bruno says, Now if you will excuse me, I was entertaining someone very important--namely myself. You’ll never be able to take away the look on your face the first time I mentioned Dameon, Quentin says, then leaves. After he leaves, Bruno keeps playing, but is definitely upset.
Trask leaves Amy alone, and Dameon appears to her again. This time he smiles at her, then turns sad as he silently beckons her to follow him. She keeps trying to get him to talk, but he leads her through the servants’ door. Quentin returns from baiting Bruno and finds Amy’s suitcase in the hall, but not herself. Trask comes down with the car keys. Quentin is angry that he left the little girl alone under the circumstances. They decide to search. Trask rushes back upstairs, and Quentin goes through the servants’ door.
The parallel-time Collinwood basement looks very much like its counterpart in our time, filled with dusty odds and ends. Dameon leads the way downstairs, still beckoning Amy to follow. He crosses a wide space and moves toward the back wall.
Upstairs, neither Trask nor Quentin have found Amy. Quentin yells some more, and Trask goes back upstairs. Quentin looks toward the servants’ door, wondering what is happening.
As Dameon waits for Amy near the back wall, she gets nervous. I don’t want to go any farther, she says. He beckons again--then walks directly through a niche with shelves and disappears. As she finally realizes what Dameon is, Amy screams with all her might....
