The Diary Of Pamela D.

'Don't be silly!' Tessa told her. 'He's just waiting until you're married. You watch, he'll turn into Mr. Casanova Hot-Lips the moment he carries you over the threshold.'

This depiction of Theo evoked a scandalized laugh from Pamela.

'Casanova Hot-Lips? Where on earth do you get such ideas from?'

'From watching you at the supper-table,' she replied, watching Pamela's blush with unrepentant gratification. 'It took almost half an hour for that pucker to leave your face-'

'You-!' Pamela, beet red, gave her a swat. 'I wasn't puckering-'

'Were too, were too.'

The two were silent for a while after that, looking out upon the tarn, the stone-wall-latticed rolling green hills dotted with sheep, cattle and a few horses, and the wood beyond which surrounded the estate.

'It's so beautiful here,' Tessa breathed at last. 'To think that you get to spend your whole entire life here, having children and raising them, having all this space for them to play and grow up in. You've got to be the luckiest person I know.'

There was an underlying sadness to what she was saying that caught Pamela's attention, and she remembered little hints dropped by Ellie, Doris and Theo, that Tessa wasn't happy with her own life.

'What?' Pamela said quietly, nudging shoulders to get her attention. 'Out with it. By the way, aren't we supposed to be calling each other Tess and Pam?'

Tessa smiled, but there was little humour in it. Keeping her gaze fixed into the distance, she said, 'I'd rather we kept things just as they are between us- I feel as though we have something special, you know? No one else besides you and Auntie Ellie and Auntie Doris calls me Tessa.' She sighed, seemed to come to some sort of decision, and began speaking.

'All right. You're going to notice something sooner or later anyway, so I might as well tell you now. I got sent here by my parents because I'm pregnant.'

Pamela could tell at once that Tessa was anything but happy about it, so she said nothing, waiting for her friend to continue when she was ready.

'David- David Priestly, that's the father's name- he wanted me to go straight out and get an abortion. He accused me of trying to trap him, and he hit me-' she wiped at her angry tears which betrayed the depth of her hurt even if her voice didn't. 'We were so careful- I mean, we were using almost every form of birth-control known to Man and I still got pregnant. But he and I had talked about it before, like what would I do if I got caught. He knew before we started going out together how I felt about abortion, but that never stopped him. Then when I finally told him, he called me an opportunist and a slut. We were out for a drive when I told him, and he just stopped the car and told me to get out. I was so stunned that I just sat there. That's when he hit me. Not a slap, not with the flat of his hand, but with his fist. Then, he leaned across, opened the car door, and shoved me out with his foot.' She took a deep breath that was all but a sob. 'God, I was such a mess! I was staggering around, half out of it with shock, covered with blood, and I was alone in the middle of nowhere . . . and nobody would stop and pick me up except the police.' She huffed. 'The only reason they did was because at first they thought I was drunk or something, and they were going to arrest me.