'What? But I thought . . . ? Why did you bring me here, then?'
'If you must know . . . ' Mrs. Dewhurst stopped herself briefly, watching Pamela's reaction very carefully, as though she had waited a long time to make this admission, but still wasn't entirely sure about how or whether she should make it.
Pamela swallowed, wondering what was coming.
'I had planned to adopt you,' she said into Pamela's chagrined silence. 'That was my original intent. It's a good thing I didn't, or things would have ended up a real mess all round.'
It had been weeks since Pamela had had reason to cry, but she wept now as she never had before, kneeling before Mrs. Dewhurst and burying her face in the woman's lap. 'Oh, Pamela, my dear, sweet little girl,' she said quietly through her own tears, 'I loved you from the first moment I saw you, standing on the kerb like an abandoned little waif, afraid to soil the upholstery of my car. I had been so lonely myself, and I was long past daring to hope that anything could ever break up the ice that sealed Theo's heart from the rest of the world. For years we had been living in this house like a pair of strangers- believe it or not, Dewhurst Mansion was not a happy home; not until you came along, with your innocence and your magic, and the half-starved love in you that was so desperate to get out . . .'
So that's what Theo had meant when Mrs. Dewhurst had threatened to disown him. She had really meant it, and he very probably really had hated the little usurper who threatened his complacency, if not his inheritance.
'Only a miracle,' she thought to herself over and over, 'only a miracle could have brought the two of us together.'
After composing herself and sharing some wine, Pamela suddenly felt as though she could sleep after all. She said her goodnights and went upstairs to join Tessa. When she got to the bedroom door, she noticed that Tessa had gone to bed, that the light was off. Opening the door as silently as possible, shutting it and moving towards the bed, she got undressed in the dark to avoid waking her friend. The air was cold and damp- someone, probably Tessa, had left a window open. Outside, the sound of the incessant downpour was very loud, like a dirge.
Pamela sighed to herself, feeling more relaxed and content than ever. Oh, she would sleep well tonight! Her mind was as tired as her body, and it still reeled as though she were still dancing in Theo's arms, and a hundred images of the day's activities flickered in the background of her thoughts, right alongside myriad images of what was to come tomorrow.