Pamela was thoughtful for a long moment. Much became clear to her from Heather's story, but what was becoming clearer to her were the man's ambiguities. Which was the real Theo? The young, impulsive, headstrong reveller and capricious, selfish, sometimes dangerous free spirit or the conservative, reserved, gentle man who kept to his business and to himself, expressing himself in infrequent acts of kindness; even tenderness?
The four started involuntarily as a flock of ducks exploded from a thick copse at the North end of the tarn.
Taking a cautious look around, Heather said, 'If you don't mind, Pamela, I'd feel better if you went back inside. Paul, will you go with her and tell the Chief Inspector to come out here and join me?'
Within moments the place was like a hornet's nest. Armed police wearing helmets and bullet proof vests came seemingly from nowhere and began combing the spot where the ducks had been disturbed. Pamela discovered that for the first time she was looking forward to getting away from the Dewhurst estate, that her life and her new home were becoming blighted by Albert Askrigg. She found herself wishing fervently that Theo would do something, that he would somehow take charge of the situation, that he would flush Albert out of hiding and deal with him and put an end to the instability and uncertainty that were eroding life at Dewhurst Manor.
That evening, as she was clearing the supper dishes from the dining room table, Theo approached her, his look guarded.
'I understand you were to have gone to Hornsea on Saturday,' he said quietly. 'There has been a change of plan. You'll be staying home.'
Pamela gaped at him, devastated. 'What? But I've been waiting to go since Christmas! It's all I've been looking forward to.' She began crying. 'I've got to get out of here for a while. It's only for a week. Please.'
'I'm sorry, but it's completely out of the question,' Theo told her, an unfamiliar hard edge to his voice.
'But why?'
He looked away from her, as if unwilling to speak. But he said, 'Do you want your friend, Tessa, to be put at risk as well?'
'What? Of course not!'
'Then you will remain here.'
Pamela went to her room where she cried her heart out. It wasn't fair! She had been looking forward to this trip, at first to see her friend, Tessa. Then, as the spectre of Albert Askrigg raised its pall over her life, she began to experience a growing need to escape. Day by day, it seemed, the threat of Albert Askrigg was growing, menacing her at every turn. She was becoming afraid to sleep, and would lay awake nights wondering if there were hidden passages in the mansion by which he might steal upon her, unseen and unheard, in the middle of the night, a nightmare shadow that was not a shadow.