Episode 1422

Aired: Tuesday December 7, 1971

Virginia Vestoff's voiceover: "In the strange and dangerous world of parallel time in the year 1897, Collinwood is a place of intrigue and mystery. With the death of the family matriarch, a battle has begun for control of the estate, a battle that will pit the Collins family against itself, and lead to untold treacheries...."

Carl walks up to the outside of the main house thinking "Alice and Trask....I still can't believe it. How could they be plotting against Valery like that? I don't know how I can tell her, but I have to! I have to! Maybe if there was some other way of warning her about Trask... I wouldn't put anything by my sister as far as money is concerned...and I can imagine what Trask has promised her...." Carl paces by the door without knocking, but it opens anyway. Charity stands there, and happily says "Carl! How did you know I was here?" He looks confused.

After the titles, Carl goes inside and asks Charity if Valery is around. Charity says she doesn't know, she only had come over to give Lucy some books for Jamison. Carl is acting nervous, and Charity asks him what's wrong. Carl says he has "a lot on his mind," and Charity asks him if it's anything she can help with. After a beat, he looks at her and asks "How well do you know your brother?" Charity wonders. We cut to Lucy bringing some books to Jamison in his room, telling him that "these are the ones I think you wanted, they're all about science." Jamison tells her he wanted to read more about science "after talking to cousin Harrison. He thinks the world will be very different when I grow up because of science." Lucy remarks how Harrison is "a strange but interesting man." Jamison asks her if she likes him better than Quentin, and Lucy tells Jamison he should stick to finding answers in his school books. She leaves him and walks down the hall, where she overhears an argument. Quentin and Beth are arguing in Quentin's room about "taking Jamison away." Lucy enters the room and asks "Where is Jamison going?" Beth and Quentin both stop talking.

Lucy enters the room and asks where Jamison is going, and Quentin yells that "everyone who isn't in the family should stay out of the family's business!" Lucy says that Jamison is "very much" her business since she's his governess. Beth says that since Rachel returned, she's been trying to "turn Jamison against his father" and Quentin snaps "That's an easy thing to do! Look at the way he treats the boy!" Beth counters that "a mother who abandoned him" shouldn't be allowed to "steal him away." Quentin says that Jamison "needs to get away from this place, at least for a while." Beth and Lucy demand to know why, and Quentin says "Both of you, listen to me. You know I have the best interests of that boy in my heart." They both agree to this, and Quentin says "Then trust me. Trust my reasons. With everything going on around here, it would be best for him to travel with his mother and be safe rather than here." Lucy says "Safe? What are you talking about?" Quentin answers "That's all I want to say right now. And I don't want anything leaving this room, do you both understand?" They look at each other and agree. Beth leaves, and Lucy stops a moment. She turns to Quentin and asks "Why don't you think he'll be safe here? You've never had secrets from me before." Quentin laughs and says "We both know that's not true." Lucy says she meant about Jamison. Quentin answers "I can't tell you everything, but I can tell you that I'm keeping a close watch on Mr. Gregory Trask." Lucy wonders about this as we cut back to Charity and Carl. Charity is upset, and tells Carl "I don't know how you can say that about my brother! He's always been ambitious, yes, but he'd never.... " Carl says he was shocked to hear what he heard, but adds "between you and me, my sister has a lot of anger and hate inside of her. When you combine that with ambition, you get trouble." Carl apologizes for telling her and "hurting" her, but Charity tells him she knows he means well. "How can you say a thing like that to Valery, though? She just got married!" Carl thinks this over, and says "There's got to be someone I can tell."

Lucy is returning to her room when Benjamin comes out of it. She asks him what he was doing in there, and he says "Only looking for you. I heard you brought some books for my nephew. I was...interested in seeing what they were." Lucy says that she gave the books to Jamison and they wouldn't be in her room anyway. "I thought as much," Benjamin says strangely. "But I wanted to see you to be sure." He walks away, and Lucy wonders why he's acting funny. She shrugs it off and goes into her room. Benjamin turns the corner and enters Kitty's room, where Kitty is waiting. "Did you get it?" Kitty asks. Benjamin smiles and says "Yes. It was all too easy, even though she caught me coming out of her room. I assume this will suffice for our purposes." He hands her a handkerchief with the initials "LLD" embroidered on it. Kitty smiles as she takes it and says "Yes, this should be fine. Just enough to plant the idea in doddering old Stokes' mind that he's hot on the trail of the evil Succubus! You left what I gave you in her room, did you not?" Benjamin answers "Yes. Right where Stokes should find it easily." She laughs and Benjamin kisses her hand. "You've shown me a whole new way of living," he says. She stands and kisses him, and then says "You're such a useful man, Benjamin. Just what I have always needed. And soon, if everything goes according to our plans, this entire estate will be ours, together." Benjamin smiles and repeats "Ours together," and then kisses her again.

Quentin comes downstairs and finds Carl, who tells Quentin he's waiting for Valery. Quentin says he hasn't seen her, and adds "Perhaps she's with that wonderful husband of hers." Carl says he knows she isn't, and Quentin raises an eyebrow and asks Carl how he knows that. Carl takes Quentin into the drawing room and says "I heard something tonight I don't think I should have." Quentin asks what it was, and Carl says "I know you don't hate Valery the way your brothers do, maybe I can tell you." Quentin says "Well, I can't speak for Benjamin but I'm sure Edward qualifies as a Valery hater. He practically hates everyone." Carl asks "Enough to kill them?" Quentin turns to Carl, shocked, and asks "What did you hear? And from whom?" Meanwhile, Stokes is reading in his room when he hears a strange wailing sound. He looks around and asks who is there, but there is no answer. We cut to Benjamin smiling, as he watches Kitty in a trance. She is concentrating and creating the wailing sound as we half-dissolve to Stokes becoming hypnotized by it as we see Kitty in her trance. Stokes drops his book and leaves his room. He wanders down the hallway until he reaches a door. He opens it, and enters Lucy's room, where Lucy is sleeping. He walks to her jewelry box and opens it. He takes out a silver necklace with a large silver Ankh hanging from it. He studies it for a moment, and then the wailing suddenly stops. Stokes comes out of his trance with a start, and he winds up waking Lucy. Shocked, she says "What are you doing in here?" Stokes says he doesn't know, but then holds up the necklace and says "But a much more interesting question, Miss Drew, is what are you doing with this?" She wonders what he means.