@}-'-,-'-,---

It had been a long time since Julia had dressed for a man, at least one that appreciated her efforts. Looking into her mirror she took a quick inventory. Make-up? The new liner and shadow lived up to the ads, her hazel eyes looking large and luminous, check. Hair? She urged a stray auburn curl into place, check. Dress? She moved first one way, and then the other, watching as the skirt swirled lightly into place, noting that the color brought out fire highlights in her hair, and the material clung in all the right places, check. A quick glance at her watch showed her that Daniel would be here soon, and she picked up her purse and gloves and hurried down the stairs.

At the bottom of the stairs, she looked at the clock to confirm the time on her watch, and found that she was being watched. "Julia."

"Barnabas, what are you doing here?"

"Liz invited me to supper this evening, didn't you remember?"

Julia shook her head. "My mind has been on other things the last few days."

"You look very nice." Barnabas’ glance was warm.

For five years Julia had loved Barnabas Collins, had taken the small words and compliments and tucked them into her heart, like a young girl storing linens away in her hope chest. Tonight wasn't supposed to be about him, it was supposed to be her night, hers and Daniel's, so why did he have to be here?"

Just then a knock sounded on the door, and Julia jumped, and turned around, taking her coat as she headed to the door. "Thank you. I'm sorry, I have a date..."

Barnabas had a glimpse of a tall man, man, his Nordic heritage on his rough-cut face and in his blond hair liberally sprinkled with gray, before Julia called goodnight over her shoulder and closed the door behind her.

@}-‘-,-‘-,---

Candlelight kindly softened the effects of time, and the piano playing songs of the past in the corner of the room completed the illusion that the clock had been turned back by a quarter of a century.

“Have I told you that you are as beautiful as the day I met you?”

Julia smiled. “Since the first time we met, we were in old Doc Hanson’s waiting room, you with a sprained wrist and me with the chicken pox, I’m not sure that’s not much of a compliment.”

“I mean it to be. You’re beautiful.”

Julia blushed. “Thank you, and may I return the compliment?”

“You may if you change the beautiful to distinguished.” Daniel smiled at her. "It's been a long time since we were on a date together. I think I asked you to marry me." Daniel said.

"And I turned you down." Julia answered softly.

They were quiet, each studying the other. Julia broke the silence first with the thought that was on both their minds. "Do you still miss Teresa?"

"I always will." Daniel reached over and took her hand, and Julia's heart began to beat hard. "Who's the man?"

Julia blinked her mind racing. "What man?"

Daniel's eyes crinkled at the corners. "The man who finally made you forget your career."

"What makes you think that there's a man or that I've forgotten my career?" Julia countered.

Daniel's eyes locked with hers, and he asked. "What's his name?"

Julia was about to ask "What man?" again, but Daniel asked, "Is it the man in the foyer?"

Julia searched Daniel's eyes, looking for a sign that she had hurt him, but found only curiosity. "Yes, that was Barnabas Collins. How did you know?"

Daniel asked, "That he was the man, or that there was a man?"

Julia shrugged in an attempt to appear nonchalant. "Either, both."

"The look on his face for the first, as for the second…five years ago I received a letter and you're excited that you might have found the blood disease to finally put your name in the medical history books, and in the next letter, you've taken time off from Wyndcliffe, and the disease...and the presumed cure...aren't mentioned again. Your letters that were even regular in your med school days are suddenly sporadic and filled with information about this family you now live with, information about everybody except for this Barnabas Collins whom you mention only occasionally and in a way that makes me wonder why. Julia, it was so unlike you, I knew immediately that you had fallen in love."

Julia shook her head slightly. "Then you knew before I did."

"Your career has always made headlines, and you've been quiet, no articles, papers in the last few years... have you put your career on hold?" Daniel asked.

Julia thought about the experiments on Barnabas, Adam, Eve, the lives she saved, past, present, and future. "No, my career has only changed paths."

"You love him?"

"I love him." Julia felt as though a burden had fallen off her shoulders. "That's the first time I've said it aloud."

Daniel looked startled. "You never told him? Why?"

"He wouldn't want to hear it."

Daniel's eyes held compassion. "You didn't used to be afraid of the thorns. Isn't he worth it?"

Julia shook her head. "He only wants what he can't have. I wouldn't be able to stay once I told him."

"Are you sure that he wouldn't want to hear it? He didn't look very pleased to see me. And it could change things."

Julia laughed. "I'm sure it would."

She leaned toward him. "It's good to see you again. I haven't laughed like that in a long time."

Daniel took her hand. "Ah, so he doesn't make you laugh. I would have proposed again if I had known that."

"Barnabas kept you away?"

Daniel shrugged. "Not Barnabas, you. The chance to give you what you wanted, what you deserve."

They were both silent, staring at each other. "Then we're both free?" he asked.

The ghost of Teresa sat at the table with them, and Barnabas Collins' spirit hovered near.

"We're both free." Julia answered.

@}-‘-,-‘-,---

Carolyn came out of the drawing room. "Julia’s left already? I was hoping to meet…"

She looked at Barnabas' face and the mischievous smile on her own faded. She had expected a reaction from him, and had even thought that it would be fun to see the stiff cousin from England lose his cool over Julia, but she wasn't prepared for the look on his face and teasing him suddenly became the last thing on her mind.

"Barnabas, are you all right?"

He quickly composed himself and smiled politely. "You were saying?"

Carolyn shook her head. "It wasn't important."

Barnabas moved so that Carolyn could precede him into the drawing room. "Do you know the man that Julia went out with?” He looked back at the front door. “He looked familiar. I thought perhaps I knew him.”

Carolyn shook her head and continued into the room. “I don’t know anything about him other than Julia said he was an old friend of hers. He’s not from around here so I doubt that you’ve met him."

The front door opened again and Maggie hurried in. "Carolyn, I just passed Julia.” She gave a quick look at Barnabas. “Is that the man you were telling me about?”

“Carolyn, what are you doing?

Barnabas turned toward the direction of Elizabeth Stoddard’s voice, and then behind him toward Carolyn, who by that time had turned the frantic wave meant to stop Maggie’s talking into a stretch and a yawn. “I’m just tired, Mother.”

Elizabeth turned to Maggie. “Amy came this afternoon and will be staying with us for a while. Would you please tell her and David that it’s almost time for supper?”

“Of course, Mrs. Stoddard.” Maggie answered.

Carolyn’s eyes lit up. “I’ll go with her.”

Barnabas let Liz precede him into the drawing room, taking his time following her. He watched the young women hurrying up the stairs unaware that he could hear snatches of their conversation.

“They’re in her room. She won’t mind if you take a look at them.”

Maggie said, "They must have cost him a fortune."

"He's a surgeon." Carolyn answered her.

"Do you think he'll…" Maggie dropped her voice lower than Barnabas could hear.

Carolyn's voice was little louder but Barnabas heard, "It's a given he'll ask, but do you think she'll…"

“An old friend,” Carolyn said. Barnabas wasn’t so sure.

All through dinner, the face of the man who had come for Julia teased Barnabas’ memory. He knew that face, but couldn’t remember from where. And why did the sight of the face make him feel the occasional twinge of something he decided was fear? Could it be that they had met this friend in the future, or in the past? Could Julia be in danger?

After dinner, Barnabas found it hard to sit in the drawing room. From what Carolyn and Maggie had said, there was something in Julia’s room that would give him a clue and he needed to see it. He wracked his brain trying to come up with a reason to go to Julia’s room, finally just excusing himself and saying he’d be right back.

Certain that everyone would think that he was merely visiting one of the bathrooms located at awkward out of the way places in the house, he hurried up the stairs and without hesitation or knock entered Julia’ room.

The scent of roses hung heavily on the air, its source drawing his attention the minute he switched on the light. He didn't need to know the language of flowers to know that these roses were special, and he crossed to them and plucked the card out from their midst. Taking it out of the envelope, he read the front, "Julia, Yours, Daniel".

Turning the card over, he saw that there was more writing yet. “‘But he that dares not grasp the thorn should never crave the rose.’* I’ve grasped the thorns and still I crave the rose. Will you marry me? You can tell me your answer tonight."

Barnabas felt the same twinge he had felt off and on all evening. He knew now why the face seemed familiar. He crossed to Julia’s desk and lifted up the photograph sitting there. He had seen it more than once in the several times he had been in Julia’s room before, but never studied it, or asked Julia who the man was. The face of the man that Julia left with smiled as smugly out at him as the real one had from the doorway, the writing at the corner of the picture the same as that on the card. “Julia, Yours, Daniel.”

@}-‘-,-‘-,---

The evening had been delightful, Daniel amusing, the dinner superb, and dancing afterwards…it had been heavenly to be in a man's arms again. It had been heavenly to feel loved again.

As they approached the house, a shadow moved at the edge of the woods, and Daniel stopped outside the door, just under the light. "A kiss?"

At Julia's nod, he pulled her close, noting the movement again of the shadow. He moved his lips against hers, "Play along."

His kiss became urgent and his hands moving lightly over her body in a suggestive way. "What are you doing?" Julia asked, suddenly short of breath.

"I could be proposing."

"It feels more like propositioning."

Daniel pulled away, and barely able to keep himself from laughing looked into Julia's eyes. "You said he wants what he can't have. I thought we might just give him reason to want you."

Julia pulled away, frowning. "I don't want him that way."

Daniel's eyebrows raised in surprise. "You aren't willing to fight for him?"

Julia shook her head. "That's tricking, not fighting."

"You're splitting hairs. But it does give me a chance doesn't it? He doesn't make you laugh, and you only want him on your own terms…"

Daniel pulled her over to a small stone bench at the edge of the drive, and pushed her shoulders so that she sat down, and then quickly he got on one knee. The shadow moved away. "He's gone now. It's just us. Julia, we made a bargain. It's twenty-five years and neither of us is married. You know I love you, and I'll do my best to make you happy, even if it's giving you to the frowning dark Barnabas Collins."

Julia could barely see Daniel in the moonlight, but in his kneeling before her, and in the warmth and strength in his hands, she could see the life he offered her. It was a good life and would be a happy life. One word and it would all be hers or it would be forever lost.

Julia hesitated, and then said the word.

@}-‘-,-‘-,---

Part Three