Poor Magda is forced to take the two villains to Barn's coffin. She turns to leave, but Aristede insists she has to stay and watch. You haven’t been dismissed, Aristede says sharply. Are you going to make me wait around to see what’s going to happen? Magda asks indignantly. A sensitive gypsy? Aristede sneers. A gypsy with a heart? Barnabas is my friend, Magda says. As well as your enemy, Aristede points out. Yes, but he don’t deserve to die this way, Magda argues. Aristede finds a stake, perfectly shaped and pointy, just lying on the floor. We will need some protection, he tells J/P. [LOL!] It’s day now, J/P points out. Barnabas can’t hurt you. Aristede reminds him, The vampire disappeared while I was looking at him. All I could hear was the sound of a bat flying around. That was in the nighttime, J/P reminds him. He is powerless in the day. How can we be sure? Aristede frets. Keep your stake if you’re so afraid, but open the coffin, J/P orders him. Again Magda turns to leave. J/P puts his hand on her arm to stop her. We aren’t done with you yet, he says sharply, and we haven’t seen what we came to see as of yet. Aristede opens the coffin--which turns out to be empty.
Aristede is furious and ready to beat Barnabas's whereabouts out of Magda with the mallet, but J/P intervenes. He's sure Barn will tell Magda where his new hiding place is, and she can take them there tomorrow. Meanwhile, they ransack the Old House. Aristede is annoyed about having to work until J/P reminds him about the deadline and about what might happen to an unemployed Aristede. They find the very same Collins Family History that traveled back to 1795 with Vicki. J/P is quite taken with the possibility of time travel.
I guess Charity is wearing a yellow robe when she has her nightmare about Quentin and Tessie. Furious with jealousy, she decides to consult Magda about it.
Meanwhile, J/P and Aristede are also consulting Magda, and not very nicely, about the Collins Family History. She insists, I never saw that book before. I don’t know nothing about it. Aristede warns her, When you lie to him, you lie to Count Petofi. You’ve heard of his powers. Didn’t anyone tell you about the shadow Count Petofi can cast, a shadow that isn’t your own, but follows you? [spoiler][A long time from now, Angelique will use such a shadow to follow Jeb Hawkes.][/spoiler]
Charity finds Quentin lying in the woods, just regaining consciousness, with torn and bloody clothes (yes, chest hair!) but physically unharmed. Quentin! she cries. She kneels beside him and asks, What happened? I must get help, she decides, getting to her feet. But she is horrified to discover, just a few steps away, the girl from her dream, whose clothes are also torn and bloody. But she is in much worse shape and can say only a single word, the same word that Charity just said: Quentin....
