Book One, Preparations Summary

The closer Bart's birthday gets, the more activity in Foxworth Hall. In "Preparations," there are many details to prepare the mansion for its first party. Bart asks Jory and Melody to perform a ballet at his birthday party. Melodie refuses due to the pregnancy, but sister Cindy steps in to take her place. Cindy has some ballet training but is certainly not the professional Melodie is. She stopped taking ballet lessons at age 12 because Bart always ridiculed her dancing. Cindy surprises her family by telling them she has resumed classes at her all-girl school, comfortable dancing there since Bart is no where around to criticize her.

Catherine is nervous about the dance Cindy and Jory plan to perform but convinces herself that the fear is not intuition, but instead anxiety from all the haunting memories she was experiencing in...