The Diary Of Pamela D.

'There's little bits and pieces from my childhood, from the orphanages, from foster care and group homes and living on the streets . . . there's old Father Mugford and the Catholic Mission, and the old lady I used to work for at the Skylark Motor Inn, my old apartment . . .

'Before I came here, that was my life. Now it doesn't seem real anymore. You know, when I first got here, I was afraid that this was all a dream, that one day I was going to wake up and find myself back in my old apartment, about to be evicted. But just this last while, it feels like it's exactly the other way around, as though my life before was the dream, and this is the reality. I don't know. Am I making any sense?'

'Did you know the end of your nose twitches when you talk? No wonder Theo fell in love with you. You're his little bunny rabbit.

'Of course I know exactly what you're talking about! How do you think it is for me now that I'm here?'

'Tom must love the way your nostrils flare,' Pamela jibed.

'They do not!'

'You want me to get a mirror and show you?'

'No!'

'I've got one right here.'

'Get lost! I'll take your word for it. Here, hurry up and try this dress on before I decide to steal it.'

That evening, as the household and guests sat down to supper in the seldom-used banquet room, Pamela felt as though her belly was fully of butterflies. Theo and she would not be sleeping together tonight. She would instead be sleeping with Tessa, safe from temptation. 'We made it this far,' Theo had told her. 'Let's not fall down at the last moment.'

He was right, of course. The temptation had almost become too much to bear. But she knew she wasn't going to get a wink of sleep- Tessa was almost as keyed up as she was. Oh, tomorrow looked like it was going to be a long day. She was probably going to fall asleep on her wedding night!

'What's the big rush?' she told herself. 'We'll have out entire lives ahead of us.'

The banquet room, Pamela realized, was actually the main dining room, judging by the way the kitchen opened into it. She had wondered for a long time what lay in this part of the house- when facing the mansion from the rear, the kitchen lay on the far right, the banquet room extending to the left to a point just past the middle. Beyond were more rooms she had never explored, that had been under lock and key (so she had been told) for almost two decades. But the present occupants of the house weren't exactly wealthy leisure-class who spent all their time pursuing various diversions. At one time, Mrs. Dewhurst had told her, there had been a gun room full of weapons and trophies (a euphemism for endangered species that had been shot dead to appease some ancient relative's blood-lust), a room full of priceless art objects that had been pillaged from various "primitive" cultures, and other rooms which were filled with relics of the old colonial days.