PART 6: Room Of Dust & Mysteries (Kathryn/Cecillia/Julia/Carolyn)

Kathryn brushed some cobwebs from her face as she looked around the progress they'd made in Quentin's room. It wasn't much but she wasn't discouraged. The room had been locked up for decades and it was filled with nooks and crannies and an immense number of interesting things.

When I offered to help Mrs. Stoddard yesterday afternoon at the library, I didn't know she'd be calling with a plan this morning, she thought.

She'd left work in the early afternoon and come straight to Collinwood. Lots of cleaning supplies had been brought up and she'd been shown Quentin's room. They had borrowed David's transistor radio and it was playing low in the background because of a weak signal.

"This place doesn't feel connected to the rest of the present day world," Kathryn said.

Now I really feel like a member of this family and that their ancient secrets are my secrets too, she thought.

Julia Hoffman had gone to Collinwood early this morning to tell Elizabeth that she had continued to look through old records at the Old House with little progress. She hadn't expected to find anything but wanted to be thorough. She had agreed to come to Collinwood in the afternoon to look for clues in Quentin's room while Kathryn, Cecillia and Carolyn started to clean it.
Now she was crawling on her hands and knees around the desk and also the chair where the skeleton had been found.

Elizabeth thought she'd seen a gun and a wedding band here, she thought. I doubt if I could get much information from the gun, but the wedding band might indicate something. I found nothing to indicate that Judith Collins had ever married either, but there must be some reason the Collinsport History records at the library would say that she had.

There were huge dustballs and cobwebs everywhere, but Julia didn't mind when she had an interesting project such as this one. She almost missed the slim gold band that blended in with the dusty oriental rug on the floor.

"Carolyn would you hand me the small flash light and the magnifying glass that are in the outside pocket of my bag, please?"

Carolyn was more or less observing everyone else's behavior more so then actually doing any type of investigating herself. She was still shook up over the previous night's ordeal, and mainly just wanted this all to be over and done with, no matter who worked on completing it all. She was in half daze, staring out the old, dusty window when Julia questioned her for help.

"Most certainly Julia," Carolyn replied, reaching to get the items that Julia had requested. "Have you found something of interest," she asked, handing the items to Julia who was on the floor with an intrigued look on her face.

As she waited on Julia to reply, Carolyn caught a glimpse of Cecillia nearly knocking over a vase, which was quickly steadied by Kathryn. "The last thing we need is for Quentin's things to be broken," she thought.

"Yes, I believe I have," Julia said as she began looking at the inside of the ring. She shone the small flashlight on it and then moved over to the windows so she could look through the magnifying glass at the inscription. "Your mother thought she noticed a wedding band fall to the floor when she moved the body.....yes.....it's inscribed 'JC to Rev GT 1897'."

Julia stood up and said to the three young women, "The skeleton must have been the Reverand Gregory Trask who supposedly disappeared somewhere on the estate of Collinwood. There seems to have been a gun involved; I'm going to continue looking for it."

"The Collins family didn't seem to be too....umm...proud and intent on recording Judith's marriage," Kathryn said. "Whoever shut this room off must have known the body was in here, surely. Maybe they thought nothing would ever come of it, but it sounds like it's been bothering Quentin."

She continued carefully cleaning the objects on a small bookshelf set deep into the wall. There were several objects of silver and she took them to a table and sat down to polish them to a gleam. "This urn has a bluish silvery powdery inside," she said to Julia. "I'll leave it and you can examine it later if you want."

"This is fascinating, isn't it Cecillia? Your ancestor, Quentin actually lived in this room and still wants to be here at times."

"Yes, I suppose that you could call it fascinating; I find it so extraordinary, really." Cecillia gave the urn a quick looking over, but then shifted her attention to other things in the room. Being in Quentin's room - in the same condition of which he left it - was definitely a chance of a lifetime; to be in her own great grandfathers little "world" was far more intriguing then any history book that ever existed.

"I hope that you can get some of these things polished up to new Kathryn; these things are far too spectacular to just leave all tarnished and dusty." A stack of books were hidden under the bed, which Cecillia wouldn't have normally seen, had she not have been picking up an item off of the floor.

Reaching about to her limit, Cecillia managed to retrieve the dusty books, which looked like journals. As she flipped the pages, most of what was written was far beyond her understanding. "Julia, do you have any idea what the stuff in this one journal means? It looks like some sort of chemist or scientists writing. I didn't know that Quentin did such things . . ."

Julia Hoffman had used the fireplace poker to reach under the desk and pull out the old gun that must have been kicked under it when Elizabeth and Joe had removed the skeleton. She made sure that it was empty, held it up for the others to glance at it and then put it in a plastic bag.

Glancing through the journals that Cecillia showed her she answered after a few moments. "This is quite advanced for the time period, Cecillia. These aren't everyday experiments that were done in schools at the time; there's something almost....supernatural... about the nature of the inquiries. The knowledge of chemistry is quite sophisticated."

"Well, that is quite interesting Julia," Cecillia said, taking the journals back. I wish that I could decipher the name which is inscribed on this one, as it doesn't look like Quentin's, but I can't. "Carolyn, do you think that I can keep these - for light reading if nothing else; it's not like they are any good if just left in this old room anyway . . . "

Carolyn was still looking out of the window, Kathryn was tinkering with antiques, and Julia went back to her investigating, leaving Cecillia sitting on the edge of Quentin's bed, captivated by the journals.

"Hmm? Oh yes, the journals; I suppose that you can keep them, though I guess you should ask Mother first, though I have no objections," Carolyn said, smiling at Cecillia.

Realizing that it probably looked bad for her to just stand around doing anything, Carolyn walked over to Kathryn, "So, have you found anything up here of much interest? I know it's such an overwhelming mess, but I take it that this is kind of your sorta thing?"

"Yes, there are some exquisite things here and many of them are quite valuable. Quentin Collins had very good taste," Kathryn answered.

"I know that I've spent a lot of time on just these few pieces, but they really do deserve the care and attention. The antique-restorer and beauty-lover in me would like to see these items shared with the world. But they seem to belong in this room and to Quentin still. For some reason, he isn't totally done here. Many of these pieces may have sentimental value for him....kind of a touchstone to a world he isn't ready to let go of. It's all rather charming and romantic in a way, even though there is a serious situation going on here."

She had noticed that Carolyn seemed moody and troubled. "I can sense that Quentin's visits disturb you Carolyn. I hope he'll be pleased with our efforts here and not startle you so badly again."

~ end scene ~