The Diary Of Pamela D.

'Well? What do you think?'

She ventured a timid look at him. 'You want my honest opinion?'

Frowning, he said, 'Of course.'

Swallowing, mustering her courage, she said, 'It looks more like a museum than a pub. It's far too cluttered. Everything's badly in need of cleaning but everything in here, including the building, isn't made of the sort of thing that shows dirt. I mean, can't you smell it? And those windows over there, the ones that have been bricked in? They need to be opened up again to let some light in here. And there should be some sort of counter running along the entire wall, so people can see in and out-'

'Those windows were bricked in because to do so was far cheaper than making the needed structural repairs to that wall.'

Surprised at her own audacity, she said, 'Did business drop off when you did that?'

Giving her a gauging look, he said, 'As a matter of fact it did. Ever since then I've been trying to find ways to turn things around.'

Speaking with certainty, while wondering where that certainty was coming from, she said, 'Then you should get the work done, otherwise you're just going to keep losing money.'

Theo glanced past her shoulder, causing her to notice that the barkeep and patrons were listening very closely to every word, their expressions somehow . . . hopeful?

He took a deep breath, let it out slowly. 'All right. You may begin by getting estimates for all the work you want done and all the changes you'd like to make. When you're ready I'll take a look at what you've done and we'll take it from there.'

She felt panic set in as he spoke. 'But . . . but Theo, I don't know the first thing about . . . any of that stuff!'

'For some reason,' he said, leading her back to the car, 'I think that you will have the hang of it in fairly short order.'

She was so nervous when she started the old Austin that she kept clashing gears until she managed to force herself to calm down. What did she, Pamela, know about running a business, or for that matter turning one around that was failing? Why was Theo giving her responsibility for something that she could easily wreak disaster upon? She didn't want that sort of responsibility! It simply wasn't in her nature to blithely meet the world on its own terms with the necessary confidence that went along with it. She would much rather he let her stay a maid. As a maid she was happy in her work; happy and safely inconspicuous. All she had to do was work hard and trust that the world would keep at a safe distance, that her comfortable routine would go on forever.