372 - (Lara Parker) - Time stands still at Collinwood, for one girl has taken a mysterious and dangerous journey into the past--a house she knew as old and deserted is now her home, and the home of the Collins family. And under this roof, unseen by all, a dangerous game of intrigue and terror is being played out.
Vicki, searching for Sarah in the Old House drawing room, encounters Matthew Morgan lookalike Ben Stokes stoking the living room fire, and immediately screams in terror, remembering when Mattew kidnapped her. Her scream brings Joshua running, and even though Vicki vouches for Stokes and explains that he resembles a man who once frightened her, Joshua sternly insists that Ben is not permitted to speak to any of the women in the house, so be broke a rule.
He promptly takes away the holiday promised to Ben tomorrow. Ben says, "Yes, sir," and gazes with hatred at Joshua. Even though Vicki continues trying to undo the damage she's done, citing unfairness, Joshua explains that Ben is an indentured servant who was serving time in a Salem jail for breaking into a farmhouse and stealing food after the war, claiming he was hungry and cold. When Vicki suggests this might be true, Joshua is annoyed--she sounds just like the liberal Barnabas and Jeremiah; if it were up to them, Ben would sit table with the family! Joshua tells Vicki that Millicent Collins and her brother Daniel are due to arrive soon for the wedding, and if all goes well, Millicent will marry Jeremiah. Vicki mutters, "But Millicent never married," raising Joshua's eyebrow, but she gives him a silly reason for saying it--she read a book about a girl named Millicent who never married. (duh!)
In the woods, Ben comes across Angelique picking leaves which she tells him are bay leaves, intended for Josette's salad. He informs her that the herb she thinks she's picking is deadly nightshade, and poisonous! Oh, no! she says, dumping the basket of leaves on the ground. Angelique begins to flirt with the poor man, commenting on his strength. He could be whipped for even talking to her, he says, which she calls cruel and ridiculous. Ben indicates that he'd love to do something violent to Joshua--someday. As they're saying goodbye, she grabs his wrist and coos that she hopes they can talk again sometime. That she actually likes talking to him surprises Ben, and a shy smile spreads over his face.
She asks him not to tell about the leaves and he promises he won't.
Vicki enters Angelique's room and is puzzled to find the toy soldier and Barnabas' handkerchief. When Angelique comes in after her leaf-gathering expedition, Vicki asks the blonde what she's doing with these items. Angelique has no idea--Sarah must have brought them in here. She visits periodically, and Angelique likes the child. Vicki is all set to either scold or talk to Sarah about leaving the items in Angelique's room, but the latter talks her out of it
--if she gets into trouble for leaving those things in Angelique's room, she might not visit her anymore--would Vicki just quietly replace the items and keep silent? Vicki agrees, accepting Angelique's gratitude, then leaves. Angelique ponders what a close call she had and decides she needs a helper who will deflect suspicion from her. She grins, then gets a vision of her "helper" splitting logs in the woods--Ben! She sits in front of the fire and begins mixing a potion.
Vicki finds Ben splitting logs in the woods and offers him an apology for getting him into trouble. He says it doesn't matter--Joshua would have found another reason to deny him his holiday--he's mean, and he'd like to grab his throat and. . .he slams the axe into the stump rather than put his threat into words.
Angelique summons Ben to come to her. He tells Vicki he feels strange and asks her to go before she gets him into further trouble. She leaves.He not only hears Angelique calling him to come to her, he sees her ghostly form appear, then disappear, before him in the woods. When he goes to Angelique's room, he says he has no idea what he's doing there. I wanted you to come, she says silkily. "You wanted me?" he asks, shocked, but, probably gratified for his luck, reaches for her lustily. Hey, if she's offering, why not? Later, she says, but first, a drink. After that? he asks. We shall see, she promises. He quickly downs her potion. I feel strange, he says. She smiles in triumph. He no longer has a will of his own, she informs him. He will do as she orders, because he's now her slave!
NOTES: Great stuff! Thayer David was wonderful, and Angelique continues to enthrall as she seeks revenge on the man who rejected her.
373 - (Alexandra Moltke) - Time has been suspended at Collinwood while one woman makes an uncertain and frightening journey to the past, back to the year 1795. Back to the secrets which have brought so much horror and grief to the great house and those who inhabit it.
In her room, Angelique tells Ben he is now bonded to her, unbreakably, and she plans to use his strength when she has none to use. He knows he must obey her. She tells him to get an unbroken spider's web from an oak tree--she's going to make a dress of it. He lasciviously expresses a desire to see her in that spider web dress, but she says it's for the headless clay figure she shows him. Love is headless, replaced by the heart, and her plan is to make Josette love Jeremiah. She already has the latter's handkerchief and now needs a lock of his hair to complete the spell. Ben laughs at her, insisting Barnabas and Josette are to marry. No, Angelique says venemously, because when Barnabas finds out Josette has been unfaithful to him, he's going to hate her, and then she, Angelique, will comfort Barnabas in her room. Ben threatens to tell--Barnabas has been kind to him--but she strikes him mute as a reminder of the hold she has over him.
He will never speak again if he betrays her, she warns. He calls her a witch, and she agrees, smiling proudly--and he is her helper!
Millicent Collins arrives. She's a rich (New York real estate, la di da) giggly, silly blonde with bouncing curls. Joshua hopes for a marriage between her and Jeremiah, to ensure Millicent's money remains in the family. Millicent even calls Joshua witty, saying the Maine quiet has helped her nerves.
Joshua uses the opportunity to push the idea of her moving to Maine, then suggests Jeremiah take Millicent to see the recovering Barnabas. Millicent is concerned about catching whatever it is Barnabas had (she's very delicate), but Jeremiah wiggles out of it (and his brother's matchmaking attempts) by saying he's coming down with a cold. Vicki comes in and of course mutters, "Carolyn" when she sees the new arrival. Millicent giggles, batting her eyelashes at Jeremiah.
Jeremiah tells Vicki that he's glad her memory is returning--her remembrance of her friend Carolyn is encouraging. Vicki tells him she thinks she is there to change something, although she has no idea what. He envies Vicki her freedom from family ties, with no past, and no one attempting to arrange her life for her. He feels he has known her in some other time and place, although he doesn't believe in such things. Vicki says she does, and he calls her a romantic. He, on the other hand, is a realist--imagine him married to Millicent?
Vicki says she has a feeling that Millicent will never marry. Jeremiah says he's perplexed by Vicki, and finds her very interesting. Joshua comes in and icily informs Vicki she will be responsible for Daniel as well as Sarah, and he is sure that will leave her little free time for herself. After Vicki leaves, Jeremiah accuses Joshua of being rude. He will NOT be pushed to marry Millicent, and although Joshua cares greatly about keeping Millicent's money in the family, Jeremiah couldn't care less. Think of Millicent with an open mind, advises Joshua, she'll be around for a while. Jeremiah accuses his brother of never giving up, and Joshua smiles in agreement.
In her room, Angelique tries on one of Josette's bonnets, which she pilfered from her mistress. Ben says the hat doesn't go with the rest of her, but she brags that she's stolen Josette's things before and Josette has some many, so what's a French bonnet? Ben has brought in Jeremiah's usual bedtime toddy, and she slips a sleeping potion into it. He wishes she could carry out the rest of it, but she says a lady can't go into a gentleman's room (but she sure let a gentleman, Barnabas, into her room in Martinique, didn't she?), and she fully plans to be a lady--Barnabas will never be ashamed of her. She has studied, watched, her table manners are as good as Josette's, she can tell the finest silks by feel, and when she leaves that house, it will be in her own carriage! (Sounds like she's setting a trap for the money, not just the man.)
Ben brings Jeremiah the toddy, and waits nervously until he tastes it and pronounces it fine. Ben feared he would taste the difference. Angelique pins Jeremiah's handkerchief about the clay figure's waist. "Yes, Miss Josette, no Miss Josette," she says to herself--well, Josette gives her orders in her own room, but here, in Angelique's room, I give the orders, and I'm fashioning a life for Josette that she is going to loathe! She wonders where Ben is; she's waiting for him.
Ben slips off Jeremiah's ring, then uses a knife to cut off a lock of his hair. Angelique winds the hair around in the ring. She is going to create a cobweb of love, which will trap Josette. She takes the branch with the spider's web, drapes it over the figure and pulls it down, leaving the web draping the figure.
Then she ties a "belt"--Jeremiah's hair--around the clay doll's waist. Grinning triumphantly, Angelique says, "Josette loves Jeremiah" three times.
NOTES: So the trap is set. Note how jealous Angelique is of Josette, how she despises being ordered around by her, and boasts of stealing her clothing and her suitors. One wonders if Angelique doesn't love Barnabas because he's wealthy, more than because of the man he is. Something to think about.
Love, Robin
