Welcome, Betsy Durkin--the first of the multiple Vickis.
Barnabas, looks trim and rested, has been released from Windcliff. Instead of returning to the Old House or even Collinwood, he goes straight to the House by the Sea. He and Nicholas argue about the experiment. Barnabas points out that Eve's body already has started to deteriorate, but Nicholas doesn't care. He tells Barn that he has removed Angelique's influence over him so that he can help Julia. (How Nicholas has done this isn’t explained--Nicholas doesn’t even know where Angelique sleeps during the day. Maybe the Master has taken a hand, and Nicholas is just taking all the credit.) Nicholas warns him, If you don’t cooperate, I will kill Adam. It’s that simple. Nicholas does pay Barnabas a backhanded compliment by observing, If I were an ordinary man, you would make a good enemy--I would even be afraid of you. But as you know, he adds, I’m not an ordinary man. He tells Barnabas, Consider yourself and Julia as my employees. Your payment will be your continued life. Remember, you have forty-eight hours. We can only imagine how Barnabas, a gentleman born and bred, bridles at being anyone’s employee.
That night, or maybe the next, Nicholas brings Maggie to the House by the Sea. He offers her a brandy in a metal cup that he tells her is "from long before your Christ" and that can be used to tell the future. He gives her an opal to put in the cup. Maggie says that opals are bad luck, but she drops the opal in, and he gazes into the cup. His affable manner abruptly changes. You will have a long and happy life, he tells her in a flat voice. It sounds as if that upsets you, Maggie comments, puzzled. Quickly recovering, Nicholas replies gallantly, Of course not, as long as you spend it with me. He tells her that he must leave Collinsport shortly--forever--and wants her to marry him and come with him. She says she wants to, even though she doesn't love him. Don't take too long to decide, Nicholas warns her.
Maggie visits Vicki at Collinwood and tells her that she is going to marry Nicholas. Vicki is very upset at this news, and her reaction makes Maggie angry. After Maggie storms out, Vicki decides there's only one way to stop the marriage--by bearding the lion in his den.
Vicki goes to the House by the Sea and threatens to stop the marriage, either by telling Maggie what Nicholas truly is or by talking her out of it. Nicholas gets threatening, but Vicki stands firm. Nicholas gets her to hold off, and in the end she tells him that his behavior will determine whether she tells Maggie all. (It's nice to have feisty Vicki back again, even if temporarily.)
After she leaves, Nicholas wonders to himself, Why didn’t I just use my powers to make her forget she had been to see me? My love for Maggie must be making me more human. Then he realizes, I have a better way to keep her from revealing everything to Maggie--a way that cannot be traced back to me. Going down to his cellar, he starts prying up the stone slabs in the floor.
Vicki is back at Collinwood when the front doors fly open to reveal a man's silhouette in the doorway. She is positively effusive when it turns out to be Barnabas--this is the first time she has seen him since he left Windcliff. He has some of Eric Lang's notebooks with him and explains that he and Julia are working on a biography of Lang.
Back at the House by the Sea, Nicholas has unearthed a coffin. When he opens it, we see Tom Jennings, still staked. Nicholas revives him by removing the stake (no squishy sound, though--I was disappointed). Evidently not a very bright vampire, Tom recoils at the sight of the bloody stake. Nicholas tells him, As long as you obey me, you have nothing to fear.
Late that night, Vicki has just turned out her light and is falling asleep when the curtains open and Tom steals into her room. Why he doesn’t use his bat powers is a mystery to me, but she wakes up screaming when she sees him leaning over her, fangs bared and eager to strike....
(I have to say that DB always seemed to enjoy the vampire bit.)
