How to use "had" in a sentence

I had expected to be alone

Elliot, another friend of his, was moving into the house after Leona had gone

She called Brion later that afternoon to ask if Aron had arrived.

I also think of all the adventures I've had with different friends

At nine-fifteen, he called Leona to check if he had arrived, but he hadn't

Brion had waited long enough.

She suddenly had an idea

Perhaps Aron had sent an email to one of his friends saying where he was going?

Aron had an email address - but what was it? She found his name, but had to answer a secret question to read his emails

After Brion had called the Aspen police, the head officer, Adam Crider, started the rescue operation

Mrs Ralston had written it down on a piece of paper

Aron had given it to her in a hurry and made a mistake.

He had found a list of email addresses for Aron's climbing friends

He wanted to check immediately, but he had to leave for Australia that day

She wanted to check the license-plate number she had given Brion

By early afternoon, Elliot had received an email from Steve Pratchett, the most important of Aron's climbing friends

Steve had climbed for many years

Another friend, Jason, had sent Steve a list of all the canyons Aron said he wanted to hike in Canyonlands

Finally, they had the correct number

I haven't had any clean water since eight o'clock yesterday morning, only urine

Already that morning, his men had searched the top and centre of the area and found nothing.

By 10.00 am, the good news had reached Elliot, Steve, and Mrs Ralston

This morning, I had to amputate my arm to escape

In that first month, I had five operations

By this time, I had a prosthetic arm

Thoughts of the people I love had kept me alive

If I wanted to see them again, I had to survive

It was dark and we knew that we had to stay in the water for the night

It only had a table and five chairs in the middle

It had pictures by famous painters on the walls and glass cases with beautiful shells from the sea.

I had enough information to write a new book

Ned Land had no time to answer this question

We had to wait six days for the water to rise before the ship could leave

It had soft white sand and 200-foot-tall palm trees

The Captain had everything he needed lo protect himself and his men

He also had everything he needed to keep us prisoners.

They had large glass heads with special tanks filled with air, so we could breathe.

I had a small telescope with me, so I put it up to my eye to see what he was looking at

Captain Nemo was upset about something, and he had the power to tell us what to do

He had white bandages on his head

The Indian Ocean had the most beautiful rocks, plants and fish in the world

But Captain Nemo had another reason for our walk

They also had tools to dig with

"I think he's a scientist who never had any success

We only had small knives to fight them with

Ned Land had his harpoon with him, but he was very busy trying to collect as many oysters as he could.

It had a pearl inside it as big as a coconut

But the Red Sea had no exit

I had no choice

I had respect for him as a scientist, but he murdered those men on the other ship!

For most of that time I enjoyed it, but now I had to leave.

Alice's sister had a book, but Alice had nothing with her

It had a very small key on it.

The bottle had 'DRINK ME' on it in large letters

She had some and it was very nice

So she had some more.

He had his best clothes on, and in one hand he had a white hat.

She had the White Rabbit's hat in her hand.

She had to swim.

The Dodo had to think about it

But the chocolates were too big for the small birds, and they had to eat them very slowly

She had to put one arm out of the window and one foot in the fireplace.

There were ten of them, and they had red diamonds on their clothes

The Queen had only one answer to problems

He had a paper in his hand and looked very important

He had a teacup in one hand, and some bread-and-butter in the other hand.

He had a strange look on his face, and he came and told me to put on my football suit

We had our first game, and I was frightened

He had a car, and sometimes he gave me a ride to the practice field

But one day when he had to change a wheel on the car, I helped him.

She had a big smile on her face, and she held my hand.

And we had a good year - the best year, Forrest! Good luck, boy!'

The place where I had to live was just a bit better than the rooms at the university, but the food was not

Then, and in the months to come, I just had to do the things that I was told to do

But the men had other things to do

His foot got too bad to play football, and he had to leave the university

And this meant that the enemy was able to come back and find us, so we had to get out fast.

It started to rain one day, and it didn't stop for two months! But we still had to look for enemy soldiers - and one day we found them

There was blood all over him and he had two bullets in his stomach.

There were about two thousand people waiting for us at San Francisco airport when we got off the plane! What a surprise! A lot of them had beards and long hair

Just before I left the hospital in Danang, I had a letter from her

The men had beards, and the women had long, untidy hair

I had my harmonica in my pocket, so I took it out and started to play.

You can guess what I had to do, can't you? I had to throw away my medal with the other American soldiers

A minute later, I had my arms round her and we were both crying

She came across to the bar after work, and we had a drink and talked.

I had another hour before I had to catch the bus again, so I went across and watched him

Somehow, when I was helping Miss Welch to escape from the jungle, her dress came off and I had to run into the trees to hide her

Mr Tribble and I got there early, and I had to play chess all day.

And by that night we had hundreds and hundreds of shrimps in our nets!

At the end of that year, we had thirty thousand dollars!

But Jenny only did what she had to do

And at the end of that year we had seventy-five thousand dollars.

The business was doing well, but I asked myself, 'What are you doing all this for?' And I knew that I had to get away.

This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice

Those who nominated and elected me did so with full knowledge that I had made this and many similar declarations, and had never recanted them

It is safe to assert that no government proper ever had a provision in its organic law for its own termination

My office had one wall that was covered in glass

He was a sensitive man who had suffered

He told me that he had not known him for very long

He told me that Mr Slinkton had taken his two nieces to Italy for their health

It was there that one of them had died

He had returned to England afterwards with his other niece

a man called Beckwith had started an insurance policy with the company

Very early that morning someone else had come to see me at my house

I walked with her to the hand-carriage before she had time to object.

He had a slight limp

He was surprised that his niece had gone

I had a very important appointment at Middle Temple

You see, the last time you went to see Mr Sampson, I had already been to see him myself - I went to his house very early that morning

'You asked Mr Sampson several times if he had any news about Meltham

The late summer and autumn had the heaviest rain of the year.

Later that night she tried to get a bed at Cooley's lodging house in Thrawl Street, but she had to leave because she had no money

The street had only one gas lamp

He had a lantern, and he showed Constable Mizen a deep cut in the woman's neck.

She was about 1.58m tall, and had dark brown hair

She had a comb, a white handkerchief, and a broken piece of looking-glass

These were all the possessions she had

She lived in workhouses and, when she had the money to pay, in lodging houses

And her father said, 'I don't think she had any enemies

The police had no other clues to help them find the killer

On August 31st the Star newspaper had a sensational headline:

On the ground floor Mrs Hardiman had a cat meat shop

She also had a packing case business in the cellar at the back of the house

The inspector saw a piece of muslin and two small combs that the murderer had put near her feet

She had dark brown hair and blue eyes

Once she had children, but one died and another was disabled

But her taste for alcohol dominated her life, and eventually she had to walk the streets as a prostitute.

She had a fight with a woman about a piece of soap and got a black eye

He had a dark complexion and was only a little taller than Annie

She had, the impression he was over forty and perhaps foreign.

The man had a parcel wrapped in newspaper

What was going on? Later, Inspector Abbeline had a good theory

He examined the dead woman and saw that she had a deep cut in her throat

He thought the woman had died between twenty to thirty minutes before

She had curly dark-brown hair, a pale complexion, and light grey eyes

He had seen her for the last time on September 25th

very probably disturbed the killer, so he only had time to cut his victim's throat

She looked about forty, and had dark brown hair under her black bonnet

This apron had an important part to play in the murder.

The couple were talking quietly, and the woman had her hand on the man's chest

He wore a grey cap with a peak, a red handkerchief around his neck, and had the appearance of a sailor

It was the same dark, silent square of 14 minutes before, when he had walked around it

Unfortunately he had not worked for some months so the couple could not pay the rent, and Mary had returned to prostitution

He visited her around 7.30-7.45 on the evening of Thursday, November 8th to tell her he had no work and could not give her any money

When Barnett left at about 8 p.m., Mary knew she had to go out into the streets to earn some money

He had a bottle of beer in his hand

'I hope it will be a fine day tomorrow,' Mary had told Mrs Prater the morning before, 'as I want to go to the Lord Mayor's Show.' At 10.45 on Friday morning Mary's landlord, John McCarthy, was checking his accounts in his shop at 27 Dorset Street

He had to wait for some bloodhound dogs to arrive

The strong heat from the fire had melted part of a kettle

In the ashes Abbeline found some women's clothing, which Maria Harvey had left in the room

Why had the Ripper burnt them? When Abbeline discovered only one small piece of candle in the room, he thought that the killer had made a fire with the clothes because he needed more light to do his terrible work.

This time Jack the Ripper had time to finish his crime without interruption

Schwartz said the man had a small moustache

He had a black tie and a big gold watch chain

It had been in the water for about a month

He had killed other women in the same way

But he had only arrived in England the year before, so how could he know the area as well as the Ripper? And is it possible that Jack the Ripper changed from savagely killing prostitutes to poisoning barmaids?

He had a morbid interest in the Ripper murders all his life, and it is possible that he sent 'Ripper' letters to the police

Was it because Mrs Lewis's testimony appeared in the newspapers only after the inquest? When he read the report, he realised that she had seen him opposite Miller's Court

So he had to go to the police before they found him and asked him why he was there

In fact, Hutchinson had known Mary about three years, so he certainly knew that she had her own room

If Hutchinson was the Ripper, why did he stop killing? We know that by 1891 he had moved away from Whitechapel

But Abbeline had been wrong about George Chapman.

But he had a very good alibi, which proved his innocence.

This was published on October 1st, the day that the world finally had a name for the Whitechapel killer.

Inspector Abbeline and his colleagues had to read all of them

He worked very hard and nearly had a nervous breakdown.

The search ended on the 18th, and the police admitted they had not found the smallest clue

The townspeople, who had never seen him before, watched with interest as he stopped for water at a fountain

He did not see a young boy run out with a note that the innkeeper had quickly written

He knocked on the doors of people's houses, but news of his arrival had quickly spread and nobody would offer him shelter from the cold

The Bishop of Digne was a kind old man who, many years earlier, had given his palace to the town hospital

Jean Valjean's face, which had been hard and fierce, suddenly softened

When he woke up, the cathedral clock was striking two, but he had not woken because of this

He had woken because the bed was too comfortable; he had not slept in a proper bed for twenty years

Life had been unjust to him, and he was angry

In 1795, he had lost his job as a tree-cutter

At that time he was looking after his sister, whose husband had died, and her seven children

Out of work, and with no food in the house, he had been arrested for trying to steal a loaf of bread

The world had been unfair to him, and he wanted revenge

Then, remembering the silver on the bishop's table, he had an idea.

The bishop had not closed it.

He had never before seen such peace, such kindness, such trust.

The bishop, who had been bending sadly over a plant damaged by the basket, looked up and said gently, 'I think I was wrong to keep the silver for so long

The bishop, meanwhile, had moved towards the group of men and was smiling at Jean Valjean.

'And he told you,' the bishop finished the sentence for him, 'that an old priest had given it to him? Yes, he was telling the truth.'

When he had been angry at the world, he had felt calm and sure of himself

But now, for the first time in twenty years, a man had shown him great kindness, and he did not know what to feel.

Suddenly he shivered, as if he had become aware for the first time of the icy wind

Then, his heart full of grief for what he had done, he buried his face in his hands and, for the first time in nineteen years, he cried.

'When the young woman had sat down next to her, the red-haired woman introduced herself

'I used to work in Paris, but my husband died and I lost my job.' She could not tell Mme Thenardier the truth, which was that she had been made pregnant by a young man who had then abandoned her

I had to carry her and she's fallen asleep.' As she spoke these words, she gave her daughter a loving kiss, which woke her up

By the age of five, Cosette had become a thin, pale-faced, silent child

Misery had made her ugly and only her beautiful blue eyes remained.

The Thenardiers did not feel guilty about treating Cosette badly because Fantine had stopped sending them regular payments.

When Fantine first arrived in Montreuil, she had immediately found work in a factory

By the following winter, her debts had increased

The Thenardiers wrote her a frightening letter in which they told her that Cosette had no clothes, and that they needed ten francs immediately to buy her a new dress

The Thenardiers, however, were very angry - they had wanted money, not clothes

She approached them without thinking, and discovered that they had gathered around a travelling dentist

What could she do? She had sold her hair and her teeth; what else could she sell? And then she decided that she had no other choice: she would have to sell herself.

Madeleine had arrived mysteriously in Montreuil one December evening in 1815

He had no money but he had a revolutionary idea: he knew a cheap and efficient method of manufacturing glass

He had always been suspicious of M

Madeleine, and was sure that he had seen him somewhere before, many years earlier

Fantine trembled, as confused as Javert had been

The man who had just saved her from prison was also the man who had caused all her troubles

The devil had suddenly decided to be kind, and she did not know what to think.

'I honestly didn't know that you had lost your job, but I'll try to help you now

After all her pain and suffering she had, for the first time in her life, found kindness in another human being

Thenardier, thinking that Fantine had suddenly become rich, wrote back and demanded 500 francs

The weeks passed and, although she was happier than she had been for a long time, Fantine caught a fever

Months of poverty and misery had made her ill, and she soon became so weak that she was unable to leave her bed.

Madeleine was making preparations to leave for Montfermeil and to fetch Cosette himself, he had a visitor

He'd changed his name to Champmathieu and had lived for several years in the village of Ailly-le-Haut-Cloche

She had a high fever, and was coughing badly, but she still had only one thing on her mind.

Madeleine - as we shall continue to call him for this part of the story - knew that he could not let Champmathieu go to prison for crimes he had not committed

He would lose everything that he had worked so hard to achieve

It took him more than twelve hours, and when he arrived, he discovered that Champmathieu's trial had already started

When he had persuaded the court of the truth of his confession, he was faced with a shocked but respectful silence.

When he had gone, the judge immediately allowed Champmathieu to leave the court a free man

Champmathieu went home in a state of total confusion, thinking all men mad and understanding nothing of what had happened.

Fantine, thinking that the inspector had come for her, gripped M

Fantine, who had heard what M

The bars of his window had been broken during the night

All the children in Montfermeil had gazed with wonder at this doll, but nobody in the village had enough money to buy it.

She had soon left the colourful lights and the happy laughter of the village behind her, and was running down the hill into the frightening darkness of the wood

She did not notice the coin that Mme Thenardier had given her for the bread fall out of her pocket into the water

But the bucket was so heavy that, after a dozen steps, she had to stop for a rest

She could tell from his clothes that he probably had no money.

Cosette, who had forgotten about the bread, came out from under the table.

But before she could deliver the blow the old man, who had seen everything, interrupted her.

Cosette, who had returned to her place under the table, looked up from her knitting and watched them sadly

'1500 francs,' Thenardier, who had already done his arithmetic, replied.

She had the strange but comforting feeling that she was somehow travelling closer to God.

He then carried Cosette, who was sleeping in his arms, along a dark corridor and up some stairs to the room he had rented since his escape from Montreuil

He felt sad that Fantine had not lived to see her child again, but happy that he had been able to rescue her child from the terrible Thenardiers

He bent and kissed the sleeping child's forehead just as, nine months earlier, he had kissed her mother's.

For twenty-five years he had been alone in the world

Nothing had ever touched his heart until he had rescued Cosette

Now, he discovered the greatest joy he had ever known by just standing beside her bed and looking at her innocent, trusting little face

He had discovered love.

After escaping from Montreuil, Jean Valjean had taken all his money from the bank and buried it in a forest near Montfermeil

Although he was rich, he had chosen a room in a poor part of Paris, where nobody would find him

Although he had only seen the beggar's face for a second, it had seemed strangely familiar.

He would be able to climb the wall on his own, but how could he carry Cosette? Suddenly, he had an idea

At last, the soldiers gave up their search and went back in the direction they had come

The robber pulled the body from the pile of bodies and saw that he had rescued a French officer

The man had a terrible wound in his head, but he was still alive.

Pontmercy, wanting his son to have a good life, had sadly given him to M

Gillenormand always told him that his father had been no good - that he was a poor soldier and a drunk who had abandoned him after his mother's death

His father, a brave officer who had fought for Napoleon and nearly died at the Battle of Waterloo, had really loved him and his mother very much

His father had just died

A poor man, Georges Pontmercy had left his son nothing apart from a letter:

They had a big quarrel, and M

For the next three years, Marius lived in a small room in an old, damp-walled building on the outskirts of Paris - the same room that Valjean and Cosette had lived in eight years earlier

He rarely bought new clothes, but he was proud of the fact that he had never been in debt

He hated his grandfather for the unjust, cruel way he had treated his poor father

Life was hard for him, but he never forgot the promise he had made his father: that he would find Thenardier, the man who had saved his father's life, and help him in any way he could.

As a result, he had no girlfriend, but he was happy with his books.

While walking around his part of the city, Marius had noticed in elderly man and a young girl in the Luxembourg Gardens

The man, who was perhaps sixty, had white hair and a serious but friendly-looking face

She was very thin, almost ugly, but Marius noticed that she had lovely blue eyes

Enjolras had often seen the couple, too.

When he returned, one summer morning six months later, he saw the same couple sitting on the same bench, but something amazing had happened

The man was the same, but the thin, plain girl of six months earlier had become a beautiful young woman

Her rough black dress had been replaced by one of fine black silk

She had soft brown hair, pale, smooth skin, deep blue eyes and a lovely smile that lit up her face like sunshine.

A second later she looked away and Marius walked on but, in a strange way, he knew his life had changed

What he had experienced in that moment was not the honest, innocent gaze of a child

He was sure, this time, that she had watched him as he passed

He suddenly realized that, in his feverish state, he had forgotten about the old man

Something had happened at the far end of the Gardens

Leblanc and his daughter had risen from their bench and were slowly walking in his direction

He gazed after her until she had disappeared from sight, then rose to his feet and walked around, laughing and talking to himself

Leblanc had begun to suspect what was happening because often, when Marius appeared, he got to his feet and walked away, taking his daughter with him

Leblanc and his daughter had just left

Leblanc and had simply fallen out of his pocket, but Marius was unaware of this

As well as the joy of seeing her in the Gardens, he now had the pleasure of following her home

Without 'Ursula', his life had become meaningless, work disgusted him, walking tired him, solitude bored him.

The girls had already disappeared from sight

He also noticed that each of them had similar spelling mistakes

She looked cold and ill, and when she spoke, Marius saw that she had lost several of her teeth

Marius rose to his feet, sure that he had seen the girl somewhere before.

But my eldest daughter will tell you that my wife is sick and none of us have had any food for four days

Marius realized at once that the handwriting, the yellow paper and the smell of cheap tobacco was the same as in the four letters he had read the previous evening

He now had five letters, all the work of one author: the man who lived with his family in the next room.

The Jondrette family had been Marius's neighbours for many months, but he had never before paid much attention to them

This was why he had failed to recognize the two daughters when they had run into him on the street

Marius had lived for five years without much money, but he had never been really poor

He had heard them and seen them, but had paid them no attention, and he suddenly felt guilty.

'If they had had another neighbour,' he thought, 'one who had noticed their suffering, perhaps they could have been rescued by now.'

In the bright mist that clouded his vision, Marius could hardly see the features of the sweet face that had lit his life for six months and had then disappeared, filling his life with darkness

And now the vision had reappeared!

When Marius had recovered some of his senses, he saw that she seemed a little paler than before

'She had an accident in the machine-shop where she works for six sous an hour, 'Jondrette explained

But he was too late; their carriage had already gone

She had not entered the room, but was still standing in the half-light of the corridor.

Marius considered her offer, then had an idea

If he had, he wouldn't be coming back here again

Although Marius was a dreamer and not a man of action, he knew immediately that he had to save M

There was only one thing to do: he had to tell the police.

Then, when everything had been explained, Javert thought for a moment

Outside it had stopped snowing, and a full moon was growing steadily brighter above the mist

Jondrette, who had just come in, was shaking snow from his shoes.

Jondrette quietly told his wife to dismiss the carriage, and when she had left the room, turned back to his visitor.

At this signal, which he had pre-arranged with his friends, three men armed with metal poles rushed into the room

Marius, however, who had been going to fire the gun as a signal for the police to arrive, shook so much that he almost fell off the cupboard.

On top of the cupboard, by his feet, he noticed the piece of paper that the elder daughter had written on: Be careful! The police are coming!

He immediately saw what he had to do

When everybody had been arrested and taken from the room, Javert noticed the prisoner, who was standing, head bowed, by the window

He turned to speak to another policeman but, when he looked back, he saw that the prisoner had gone

He sent money every Monday to Thenardier, who was in prison, which meant that he had even less money for himself

Still wearing the same rags, with the same bold look in her eyes and the same rough voice, she had somehow become more beautiful

They had only gone a few steps when Eponine stopped and said, 'You remember you promised me something?'

All he had in the world was the five-franc piece he intended to give her father in prison

That evening, Cosette was alone in the house which Jean Valjean had bought about a year earlier

Valjean had gone away on business for a couple of days, and Cosette was in the downstairs sitting room, playing the piano.

She had never read anything like this before, and it affected her deeply.

She remembered the handsome young man she had seen so often in the Luxembourg Gardens

She sat on the bench where she had found the notebook and, moments later, had the strange feeling that she was being watched

When everything had been said, she laid her head on his shoulder and asked, 'What's your name?'

For six weeks, he had known nothing but uncomplicated happiness

She asked, as he had done, 'What's the matter?'

He was unhappy about many things - about losing his teeth, about the political situation but, most of all, about the fact that he had not seen his grandson for four years, since their big quarrel

'Who said you had to go away? You left me - your grandfather! - to join in those street protests against the government, I suppose

He had just reached the door, however, when M

Gillenormand listened carefully and, when Marius had finished, he laughed.

The proud young man had closed the door and gone.

Marius opened a drawer and took out the two guns which Inspector Javert had lent him in February

At nine o'clock that evening, Marius crept into the garden of Cosette's house, but she was not there waiting for him as she had promised

Now she was gone, he told himself, he had no future

Charles X, who had become king in 1824, believed that he had total power over the French people

He was a strong supporter of the Catholic church and the aristocracy, and he took away the freedoms that Napoleon had given the ordinary citizens

The General had been very popular with the people of France because of his love for Napoleon

Enjolras had been joined by many strangers as he and his friends had run shouting along the street

There was a tall, grey-haired man whom nobody knew, but whose strong, brave face had impressed everybody

One of these children was Eponine, who had dressed like a boy so that no one would tell her to go home

When they found a letter in his pocket which proved that he had been sent to spy on them, they tied him to a post inside the inn,

He had only one thought in his mind: he wanted to die.

Marius saw a soldier attacking Enjolras, who had fallen backwards and was calling for help

Marius, who had thrown away his guns and was now without a weapon, began to move towards a barrel of gunpowder he had seen near the door of the wine shop

Within seconds, the soldiers had left the barricade, leaving their dead and wounded behind, and were running into the darkness at the far end of the street.

I've had it since yesterday

Just as Marius thought that her sad soul had finally left her body, she slowly opened her eyes, and said in a voice so sweet that it seemed already to come from another world, 'You know, M

Then he returned to the wine shop, and opened the letter that she had given him

She was going with her father to England, and his grandfather had refused to give his permission for him to marry

Nothing had changed, and he decided that he had one last duty to perform: he must send Cosette a final message and tell her of his death

I hurried to see you, but you had gone

For the first time in their life together, he and Cosette had quarrelled

She had not wanted to leave the house, but she had eventually obeyed him

They had left quickly, at nightfall, bringing their servant, Toussaint, with them, but very little luggage

Cosette had brought her letter case and blotter with her, Valjean his box of child's clothing and the old National Guard uniform which all respectable men possessed, and which he had worn under a previous identity.

Cosette, however, did not leave her bedroom the next day, and Jean Valjean had dinner alone

As long as he had Cosette, he would be happy, and it did not matter where they lived

In her unhappy state of mind, Cosette had forgotten to remove the page that she had used to blot the letter she had written to Marius

She had left it on the cupboard and the mirror, reflecting the backwards handwriting, made the message clearly visible.

He had suffered terribly over the years and, until now, he had survived every disaster

But this was the worst thing that had ever happened to him - someone was threatening to rob him of the only person he loved!

His anger and misery of minutes before had been replaced by a terrible calmness

He remembered clearly the young man in the Luxembourg Gardens who had shown such great interest in Cosette, and he was certain that this was the man she had written to.

Oh, and one more thing before you go,'Valjean said when the boy had handed him the letter

If he kept the letter in his pocket, Cosette would never know what had happened to the other man, and life with her would continue the same as before

But his happiness had no sooner returned than it disappeared again in a cloud of despair

In his heart he knew he had no choice

After a long discussion with his friends, Enjolras decided that the married men (there were five of them) had to leave.

'You can wear these.' Enjolras pointed to the National Guard uniforms that had been taken off the dead soldiers.

Marius went pale at the thought of having to choose which man had to die

Jean Valjean, who had arrived unnoticed at the barricade, had been listening to the argument and had quickly understood the situation.

The barricade was stronger than it had been for the first assault, and the rebels were at their positions, guns loaded and ready for action

The rebels fired their guns but, when the smoke had cleared, they saw the soldiers, unharmed, steadily aiming the cannon at the barricade

Within half an hour the sound of gunfire in other places had stopped, and the rebels knew that they were alone

He had only gone a few steps, however, when he turned and looked at Valjean

The rebels fought long and hard to defend the stronghold, but finally they had to withdraw to the low wall outside the wine shop

Marius had indeed been taken prisoner, but not by the soldiers

It was Jean Valjean's hand that had caught him as he fell

Valjean had taken no part in the battle

He had been looking after wounded men while bullets flew all around him

When Marius had been hit, Valjean ran to him at once, grabbed him before he fell and carried his unconscious body into a small alley behind the wine shop

And then he had a sudden idea!

Ahead of him lay total darkness, but he had to go on

He could not see where he was going, but he knew he had to follow the downward slope of the passages towards the river.

Sometimes the roof of the passages was so low that he had to bend down as he walked

Valjean ate the bread and, opening the wallet, found a note which Marius had written:

He did not know what part of the city he was passing under or how far he had come

At one point he had to walk waist-deep through water, and almost sank as the ground turned to sand beneath his feet

He had to bend as the roof of the tunnel became lower, but when he reached the light, Valjean stopped and gave a cry of despair

Valjean did not show that he recognized the man, and saw with relief that Thenardier had not recognized him.

He had been more interested in catching Thenardier, who had escaped from prison and was known to be in the area.

When they had got back into the carriage, however, Valjean said, 'Inspector, will you do one last thing for me before you arrest me?'

The poor man, unable to understand the kindness and gentle nature of the man he had spent his whole life hating, had taken his own life by jumping from a bridge

The old man walked to the window and, while he complained to the night about the pain and grief his grandson had caused him, the doctor arrived

But he had to spend the next two months resting because of the damage to his shoulder

Marius, meanwhile, tried to make sense of what had happened to him

He thought about Enjolras and Eponine, and wondered why Cosette's father had been at the barricade

He could not understand why nobody could tell him how he had been saved

All he knew was that he had been brought to his grandfather's house in a carriage

He noticed his grandfather's tenderness towards him, but he could not forget the old man's unfairness and cruelty to his father, who had died penniless and unloved

He could not believe that this was the same man he had seen at the barricade all those months ago - it seemed like a bad dream to him.

He was, without doubt, a bad man, but Marius had promised his father to find him and help him

The only thing they discovered was that Mme Thenardier had died, and that her husband had escaped from prison and disappeared with his surviving daughter, Azelma.

Second, there was the mysterious stranger who had saved his life

It was the happiest night of Cosette's life, spoilt only by one thing: the fact that her guardian - whom she still thought of as her father - went home before the feast had started, saying that he felt ill

She had Marius, and she would be happy with him for the rest of her life!

He remembered the little girl he had rescued from the Thenardiers ten years earlier, and felt sad that he was no longer the most important man in her life

That he was Jean Valjean, a criminal who had spent nineteen years in prison and who had stolen silver candlesticks from a trusting and kind-hearted bishop

'If I had continued to keep my secret to myself, I would have destroyed my own heart,' Valjean replied

Cosette was the only family I ever had

It was cold and damp, but a fire had been lit and two armchairs had been placed in front of it

When he refused to kiss her cheek, she began to feel unhappy, afraid that she had done something to offend him

One evening in April, he called at the usual time but was told that Cosette had gone out with her husband

When he arrived, he discovered that the fire had not been lit, and the armchairs had been left near the door

One evening he discovered there were no chairs in the room at all - he and Cosette had to stand in the cold for their whole meeting

Valjean replied that he was very well, but that he had business to attend to

Apart from the details about his life that Valjean had confessed to him, he knew that Valjean had killed Inspector Javert at the barricade

His private investigations into the old man's past had also revealed an even more disgusting fact

He had discovered that Valjean's money really belonged to somebody called Monsieur Madeleine, a wealthy manufacturer from Montreuil who had mysteriously disappeared

He persuaded Cosette, therefore, not to use any of the money her guardian had given her, and to live on the money that he had started to earn as a lawyer

Cosette had not been happy about this

She could not understand why her father, as she still thought of Valjean, had stopped visiting her

He had tried without success to find the man who had saved his father's lite at Waterloo, and now the man had come to him! He immediately asked the servant to show the man in.

However, Marius had a shock when he saw the man - he did not recognize him at all! He was an old man with a big nose, glasses and neat grey hair

Marius had only read the letter quickly, and could not remember the details, so he said, 'Go on.'

And you once had an inn in Montfermeil.'

Marius, meanwhile, was grateful for finally having the chance to help Thenardier, and therefore to keep the promise he had made to his father

Thenardier sat down and told Marius about the time he had helped Valjean to escape from the Paris sewer.

'He was carrying the body of a man he had robbed and killed,' Thenardier said

When Thenardier had left, unable to believe his good fortune, Marius ran to find Cosette and told her everything immediately.

If you had known the truth, you would have felt obliged to be good to me, a worthless criminal

As he spoke, Valjean's breathing became more painful and he had difficulty moving his arms

This good woman had a little red riding hood made for her

As she was going through the wood, she met with a wolf, who had a very great mind to eat her up, but he dared not, because of some woodcutters working nearby in the forest

The wolf pulled the bobbin, and the door opened, and then he immediately fell upon the good woman and ate her up in a moment, for it been more than three days since he had eaten

Little Red Riding Hood, hearing the big voice of the wolf, was at first afraid; but believing her grandmother had a cold and was hoarse, answered, "It is your grandchild Little Red Riding Hood, who has brought you a cake and a little pot of butter mother sends you."

Mrs Dawson was bleeding from her nose and mouth; she also had marks on her face

Both times she had the scissors with her, and both times witnesses testified that she said 'I will kill him.'

You know that Sophie is sleeping in her usual position at the top of the stairs and that she never makes a noise in the night, and you wish, for the first time, that you also had a dog

I told them I had a pain in my side, and the doctors thought it was my appendix

"You said it was easy!" he shouts again and recalls the first time his brother had told him about the plan.

He had about three hundred bucks left in the world

"How? How did you find us? You only had a few hours to get the money."

Junior said that to walk there was stupid, because they had a car, and despite all of Owen's arguments, the teenager did not change his mind.

And yes, the last time they came to the forest, it was a bit cold, and they had nothing to do.

However, Jimmy had a talent

He could cut and shuffle the deck like he had eight arms instead of two, and he could remember every card he saw in a split second and could use his fingers and little tricks to put the cards where he wanted them in the deck.

Oh boy, what a talent! What a skill Jimmy had!

And he had something else too.

He had a choice

Sala and her friend Niki pushed past the people who had gathered in the rain outside the meat-growing laboratory

Government agents had just arrived, so the crowd would soon be forced to leave

It was March 15, and she had been going out with Cham for exactly one year

She could say with her hand on her heart that this year - her eighteenth - had been the best so far

The little chip under her skin lit up for a second, showing how many energy units she had left

Everyone was given one hundred energy units a week, and they had to be careful not to use them too quickly

And then someone had opened the door, making the whole illusion break up

Sala had been so surprised she'd almost screamed

Sala had stared

"Oh! That's OK," Sala had replied quickly

She didn't know where those words had come from

But Cham had come in and closed the door, and they had started to talk

Sala had soon found out that he lived near her, in an earth apartment

By the time they left the simulator, she'd fallen in love - and luckily for her, so had Cham.

Sala had no idea

"Yes!" Sala had never had a pod experience

Most of them had at least forty floors above ground - these were called "sky apartments." Below ground, there were often another ten floors, for "earth apartments." The government had started building under the ground long ago, because the land inside the city was so limited.

She had a hat pulled low over her face, so it was partly hidden, but Sala could just see her green eyes.

The woman had already jumped back onto the speeding walkway

"I've had a great time, and I can't wait to go swimming with dolphins."

Usually, Cham had plenty to say, and loved making everyone laugh.

It had taken years for Gran to make her garden because it was so difficult to find soil or plants, but she had made some soil with rotten vegetables and fruit, and slowly found bits and pieces here and there

Sala had never seen anything from beyond the city

Oh, we had a lot of fun!" Gran laughed gently

Such adventures had been normal then, but they seemed almost magical now.

Gran had a chip buried under her skin like everyone else, but she wore a bracelet to hide it as a small way of protesting about the government's tight control over everyone.

The conversation with Gran had gotten her thinking.

"I had enough money for one, and you just had to say you were interested in Pod Life

They had never argued before

We argued, and I told Apat we had to leave early," she finished miserably

"Oh! No." Sala's thoughts had been so full of Cham and Pod Life that she'd almost forgotten about it

What if he wouldn't forgive her? She had really shouted at him, and now she felt awful

It wasn't far to Cham's apartment block, but another storm had gathered

Cham's parents had furnished it nicely, and there were plenty of lights to make it bright

But it was crowded because Cham had two younger sisters, and Sala knew they all hated living deep underground - especially Cham's dad Tian.

"Gran said she thought it had come from..

Cham had so many things to consider, far more than her.

Another one! The news had spread about Pod Life, and other students had been discussing it all weekend

They had almost reached Sala's exit, so she gathered her things together and said goodbye to Niki

It was the woman who had given her the fruit.

I'll see you again, the woman had said: well, then, there was really nothing to do but wait.

The following afternoon, as Sala walked up and down in her little room, waiting to go with Cham for their pod experience, she had a strange feeling in her stomach

Sala had seen it before, of course, from a distance - but she'd never been so close to it.

The door recognized that they had tickets, and let them in

Sala did the same with another dolphin and they had a lot of fun, diving down through the water and back up to the surface with a splash.

Then a face she had seen before

The big dolphin had only touched her gently, and looked into her eyes

Her legs had stopped trembling, more or less, and she wanted to get out of there

They'd never had to make a big decision like this before, and she wished with all her heart that he wasn't making her choose

It was a delicious dinner - Mom had brought home some top-quality meat from the laboratory, and Gran had added some vegetables from her garden

She had to consider Cham's future, not just her own

A few days had passed since Sala's decision, and she was feeling happy about it

She chose one that Cham had recommended, about the Oil Wars

Sala did as the woman had said: she turned and walked down the street

She found Gran sitting with Mom, talking and drinking tea; for once, Mom had got home from work early.

I still smile when I think of all the fun we had as children, playing on the beach and in the forest

When they had all cried and hugged each other, it was the first thing that Sala thought of.

Cham was enthusiastic, but he didn't seem to think the news had anything to do with him

He had cool blue eyes and super-white teeth.

At last, when Dani and Tian had nothing more to ask, Leti smiled and spoke quietly to another technician, who was standing nearby

That was all they had to make this separation less painful.

She had been there for about thirty minutes when a woman began running on the machine next to her

Since receiving Great-Uncle Eston's letter, Gran had been very quiet

Before long, they passed through a district that Sala had never visited before

She had lost sight of the woman - where had she gone? She tried to message Cham, but nothing happened

If the woman was leading her into a trap, she now had no way of contacting anyone.

"So, was that note really from Gran's brother? Are people alive out there - outside the city? How did you get the note across the force field?" She had so many questions.

"But we had to use it

All the things that Gran had talked about

Sala half-wanted to rush home to tell Gran and Mom what had happened, but she didn't want to lose any of her remaining time with Cham

She had to be so careful..

She'd never considered it before, when she'd had nothing to hide

The whole way back from the earth apartment, Sala had been asking herself if it was OK to tell Cham about the rebellion

Keep very, very quiet, Wena had said

But Wena knew that Sala had told Cham about the rose fruit, didn't she? Anyway, Sala needed to tell Cham to try and persuade him not to go into a pod.

When they had talked about it before, she had felt left out; not jealous, exactly, because she was sure that she didn't want to join them

Now, that feeling had gone

By the time, they had all said goodbye, and Sala had gotten home, evening had fallen

In the end, they had just an hour or two at his apartment before he left

But she was so good at just melting away, disappearing before Sala had time to realize she was going

Now they had nothing

"Coming!" Sala left her room and found that Gran had just prepared some fresh juice.

She would find Wena, no matter what Cham had said

The lights had been turned off; soon she was in complete darkness, so she turned on the lights on her virtual interface to guide her

The old sofa had been pushed against one wall, but there was no metal table or chairs

Sala rushed into the room that she had seen on her previous visit

All the screens had been taken away

The group had gone.

Any kind of rebellion had to keep moving so that no one could discover it."

It was good to know that they could do something to test Eston's letter; but even so, it wouldn't tell them where Wena and Oban's group had gone

How had he forgotten?

Where was Cham, the real Cham? She had to invent something fast

Something had happened to Cham

Terrified, Sala rushed from her room as soon as she and Cham had finished talking.

Of course, they would have seen that Cham had changed! And they'd permit him to leave the pod at once if they thought it was damaging him.

Cham had a new virtual hobby now - riding - and he talked happily about going out on horses and competing in races with Ding and Palo

So much had changed in just a few short weeks

but on the other, her life with Cham had never felt more uncertain.

Cham's test days had arrived at last, and Sala had joined Dani, Tian, and Cham's two sisters at the pod center for their first Contact Hour with him

She had to try

She just had to hope that no one was listening in on their conversation.

During the Oil Wars, they had to train us how to keep our minds strong, in case we were caught by people who wanted to change the way we thought."

Everyone knew that the government had cruel and terrible ways of forcing people to speak

There had to be an answer

There had to be!

She thought about all the wonderful times they'd had together

It had been so much fun, in spite of their lives being so limited

She thought of everything that she, Mom, and Gran had talked about over and over

And then, just before daybreak, she had an idea

It was Zee, who had guided Cham and Sala through their dolphin experience

Cham sat down and looked at the pictures that his sisters had drawn for him, then answered his parents' questions about the tests

What was that look in his eyes? A challenge or just a question? Whichever it was, Sala knew the moment had come.

"I had a long discussion with Mom and Gran last night." She paused

This, Gran had taught her, was what she must think of.

What would I be today if I had not gone to Monte Carlo with Mrs Van Hopper? I would have lived another life

Everyone who left the restaurant had to walk past this seat.

His face was pale and his dark eyes had a sad, lost look

But if he had a home like Manderley, he would never leave it

De Winter had not answered Mrs Van Hopper's question

At last she had to stop

My job was to talk to them, light their cigarettes and tidy the room after they had gone.

After the waiter had gone, I put the note in my pocket

Monte Carlo had begun to bore her

I told him about my father, who had been a painter

When my father had died very suddenly, my mother had lived only a few weeks after him.

I suddenly realized that we had been sitting at the table for more than an hour

He had asked me to go out with him in his car.

For the first time, I wished that I had not come.

If he loved his home so much, why had he left it?

I picked up the book he had given me

I remembered what Mrs Van Hopper had told me about de Winter's wife.

'It was dreadful,' she had said

I was twenty-one and de Winter was the first man I had ever loved

Mrs Van Hopper had been in bed for about ten days

She asked me what I had been doing.

Every day I had lunch with him at his table.

If we had driven round-in circles, I would not have cared

I wish I was wearing a lot of make-up and had expensive clothes.'

I had said the words, at last

If you had not been here, I would have left long ago

I had never felt more alone.

He had kissed me.

I had to play cards with Mrs Van Hopper that afternoon, but I was still happy

When we had finished our game, Mrs Van Hopper said, 'Tell me, is Max de Winter still in the hotel?'

Somehow, she and her beauty had not died.

In my bedroom was a book that Rebecca had held in her hands

Rebecca had called him Max

I thought of all the letters Rebecca had written to her husband

They must have been full of the life they had shared.

And I had to call him Maxim.

Two days later, everything had changed

Mrs Van Hopper had read a letter from her daughter at breakfast

We had dinner upstairs and Mrs Van Hopper went to bed early

I had not seen Maxim all day

I had forgotten all about Mrs Van Hopper

Maxim had not said anything to me about love

He had said we would get married

But he had not said that he loved me

He had loved Rebecca, of course

Maxim sat in a chair by the fire reading the letters that had been waiting for him

In Italy we had walked about in the evenings, or gone for a drive

Suddenly I shivered as though a door had opened behind me

Someone else had sat in my chair

Someone else had poured coffee and stroked the dog

The dog, Jasper, came to me because in the past he had come to Rebecca.

I had slept well and came downstairs a little after nine o'clock

To my surprise, I found that Maxim had nearly finished his breakfast.

I had thought we would spend our first morning at Manderley together.

I had thought that perhaps we would walk down to the sea, or sit under the great tree on the lawn.

I could not tell Frith that I had never seen the morning-room

Maxim had not shown it to me the night before.

Someone had chosen everything in this room with the greatest care

Each chair, each rug, each small ornament had been put there to make the room perfect.

They were the same flowers we had seen in the drive

I had seen that tall sloping writing before

I suddenly realized what I had said.

'I wondered if you had seen the menus for the day

Here she had chosen her guests and written letters to her friends

Beatrice and her husband had arrived

And Maxim had not come back

I knew then that I had walked right round the house

I knew then that she had been watching me, laughing at my fear

Maxim had told me how hard Frank Crawley worked for Manderley

The men began to talk together and I had to answer Beatrice's questions.

I realized what I had said

Rebecca had been drowned in the bay

I did not know what had happened down in the bay

Maxim had told me nothing

I had never asked him about Rebecca's death.

I wished we hadn't had visitors so soon

She asked me how I had met Maxim

I told her about Mrs Van Hopper and how surprised she had been.

He had a terrible time,' Beatrice said

'My dear child,' Beatrice answered slowly, 'I thought Maxim had told you

I was not sure what Beatrice had said and I thought it better not to ask.

We had reached the top of a small hill

I had never been in so beautiful a place

The bushes made an arch over our heads so that we had to bend down

Then we saw that Jasper had gone

He had small, stupid looking eyes

His face was fat and round and he had thick, red lips.

The grass round the little house had grown very long

The windows had pieces of wood over them

'I had to get some string for Jasper

'If you had listened to me, we would be home by now

If you had my memories, you would not go there either

His eyes had a dark, lost look

I had to run to keep up with him now

When the servants had gone, I looked at Maxim's face

The colour had come back into it

Rebecca had worn that raincoat

She had left the handkerchief in the pocket

I had gone down into the bay

I had reminded Maxim of the past

She had been charming, interested in everyone

I could not tell the woman that Maxim had never spoken about the ball.

We all had tea in the rose-garden

I had said her name at last

'Rebecca.' I had said it aloud.

She had a cloud of dark hair

And she had such a lovely dress.'

I sat in the library after my visitor had gone

'I did not know you had dances here.'

She had moonlight picnics on the shore.'

I had been thinking about that terrible night for so long.

The sea had carried her forty miles up the coast

Maxim had to identify the body.'

But I had to ask Frank one more question.

Frank had told me to forget the past

He did not sit at Rebecca's desk and touch the things she had touched

Beatrice, Maxim's sister, had promised to give me a wedding present

Beatrice had sent me four big books about painting

She knew that I enjoyed sketching and she had really tried to please me.

'Well, Mrs Danvers had better come and see me

I felt she had known the truth all the time.

'I never thought that Mrs de Winter had broken the ornament,' said Mrs Danvers

Maxim had to go up to London at the end of June

It was the first time that I had been left alone at Manderley

Maxim had arrived safely in London after a good journey

As I sat there I felt happier than I had ever been at Manderley

I had not wanted Maxim to go to London, but now I was glad to be alone.

She had eyes like a snake

When I looked back, Ben had gone

But I had a strange feeling that someone was watching me

I had never seen it before and I hoped the visitor did not want to stay to tea.

But who was the man? And why had he come when Maxim was away in London?

Jasper had moved towards the drawing-room, wagging his tail.

'But I had better be going

Mrs Danvers had gone

He had certainly been to Manderley before

Had Favell known Rebecca? What had he been doing in the west wing? There were some very valuable things in the house

I was again in the corridor where I had stood on my first morning at Manderley

The room, a bedroom, was the most beautiful I had ever seen

Yes, I was standing at the window where I had seen Mrs Danvers and Favell.

When I came in, I heard she had gone down to the bay

The wind was blowing harder, and still she had not come back.

I saw at once that the boat had gone.'

I had slept badly

What have you been doing with yourself? Have you done much sketching? Did you like the books I sent you? Have you had anyone to stay?'

I had forgotten that Beatrice asked so many questions.

'No, we've had no one to stay

She had promised to meet her husband, Giles, at the station.

Beatrice's questions had made me feel tired too.

'I've had a long day,' Maxim answered

Frank Crawley had come to lunch and the three of us were hoping to have a quiet afternoon

We had to go back into the house to welcome the visitors

You had better ask Frank Crawley

I looked through the books that Beatrice had given me

It was a drawing of a costume which I had sketched and then thrown away.

'I thought you had thrown it away by mistake.'

I wished I had thought of the idea myself.

Perhaps Maxim's anger had frightened her a little.

Her name was Caroline de Winter and she had been famous for her beauty

I was glad that I had chosen my costume at last

I had never seen the old house looking so lovely.

On the day of the Ball, Maxim and I had lunch with Frank

My dress and the wig had arrived and they both looked perfect

The band had arrived and we welcomed the men

Then suddenly, it was tea-time and Beatrice and her husband, Giles, had arrived.

She's had the dress made in London.'

Manderley had been made into a place of light and beauty, just for me.

Yes, her dress was exactly like mine and she had the same curled hair

She had heard what had happened

After Clarice had gone, someone knocked at the door

She had planned this

She had known what would happen.

Maxim had gone with Frank to stand in the drive

No one had any idea about..

The lights had been turned off

It was almost light now and a bird had started to sing

Clarice had brought me some tea

He had not come to bed at all

It had failed after only three months

He had never loved me

I had a bath, dressed and went downstairs

The servants had been very busy

The flowers had gone

I had to talk to Maxim

I had to explain about last night.

Perhaps Maxim had left me and would never come back

A fog had come up from the sea

One of the shutters in the west wing had been pulled back

She had planned all this to happen

'We had better go down,' she said in her usual voice

I felt as though I had just woken up from a long sleep

Then for the first time I realized that Maxim had not gone away

I had heard his voice and he was down there in the bay

The fog had almost gone now

Manderley was a place of safety and looked more beautiful than I had ever seen it

I still had a strange feeling of fear in my heart

Someone had been in the boat with Rebecca that night.

The door had opened

I stood beside Maxim and I had no feelings at all

He had never kissed me like this before.

This is what I had wanted him to say, every day and every night

I would never tell people all the terrible things she had told me.'

He had never loved her, never, never.

'She had a flat in London

I knew what had happened as soon as they came back

'She had a cousin, an awful man, called Jack Favell

"If I had a child, Max," she said, "Everyone would think it was yours

I had to get water from the sea to clean the place.

In a few minutes it had covered my feet

Rebecca had not won, she had lost.

He asked me if I had made a mistake about the other body.'

When I woke up in the morning, Maxim had already gone out

I wondered why I had been frightened of the servants before.

'I suppose Mrs de Winter had to go down into the cabin for something

I had a sudden feeling that Frank knew the truth.

When they had gone, he came back to me on the terrace.

All the papers said that Rebecca's body had been found after the Fancy Dress Ball

They said how everyone had loved Rebecca

They all said that Maxim had married his young, second wife within a year of Rebecca's death

We had no more phone calls from reporters and no visitors

'I wish you had stayed at Manderley.'

I wondered whether Maxim had seen him.

The sea-cocks had been turned full on.'

He could not know how much Maxim had told me

I tried to stand up but my legs were so weak that I had to lean against a chair

'I think I had better see Mr Favell,' I said

I could not think why Favell had come.

I wondered if he had been drinking.

If I had two or three thousand pounds, I could live quite well

Tell me whether you think the writer had decided to kill herself.' Colonel Julyan took the note and read it slowly.

Someone had seen it all happen - someone who was often down there in the bay - Ben.

I wished that Maxim had not hit him

I knew why Rebecca had gone to a doctor

I knew what she had wanted to tell Favell

Rebecca had been pregnant when she died

She had been going to have a child

It was the one clear proof that Rebecca had not killed herself.

We began to kiss each other, like guilty lovers who had never kissed before.

Autumn had arrived.

He had never heard of us

I had a bath, dressed and then woke Maxim

It seemed so long since I had used it

We had breakfast together and I went out on to the terrace

It had never looked more beautiful

We had lunch somewhere and reached London at about three o'clock

She had no reason to

'I had no idea there was any question of that

She had come to me the week before

She had come back to hear the result

She had very little pain at that time

The X-rays showed that she could never have had a child

We had dinner in a restaurant and Maxim phoned Frank.

By a quarter to seven, she had gone.'

I was glad that Mrs Danvers had gone

The gardens had gone and the dark woods came up to the walls of the house.

But Danny had been dead more than a year.

He had thick dark hair like Danny's, a nose that resembled Danny's, and a rather delicate jawline like Danny's too.

Unaware that she was staring at him, the boy put one hand to his mouth and bit gently on his bent thumb knuckle, which Danny had begun to do a year or so before he died

Without success, Tina had tried to break him of that bad habit.

She still had not adjusted to the loss of her only child, because she'd never wanted - or tried - to adjust to it

Seizing on this boy's resemblance to her Danny, she was too easily able to fantasize that there had been no loss in the first place.

The police and the morticians had advised her that Danny was so badly torn up, so horribly mangled, that she was better off not looking at him

Sickened, grief-stricken, she had taken their advice, and Danny's funeral had been a closed-coffin service

Perhaps he had wandered away from the wrecked bus and had been found miles from the scene of the accident, without identification, unable to tell anyone who he was or where he came from

That was possible, wasn't it? She had seen similar stories in the movies

As they stared at each other through two windows and through the strange sulphurous light, she had the feeling that they were making contact across an immense gulf of space and time and destiny

After the initial shock, after the funeral, she had begun to cope with the trauma

Gradually, day by day, week by week, she had put Danny behind her, with sorrow, with guilt, with tears and much bitterness, but also with firmness and determination

She had taken several steps up in her career during the past year, and she had relied on hard work as a sort of morphine, using it to dull her pain until the wound fully healed.

But then, a few weeks ago, she had begun to slip back into the dreadful condition in which she'd wallowed immediately after she'd received news of the accident

This boy in the station wagon was not the first that she had imagined was Danny; in recent weeks, she had seen her lost son in other cars, in schoolyards past which she had been driving, on public streets, in a movie theater.

She half convinced herself that the dream was a premonition of Danny's eventual return to her, that somehow he had survived and would be coming back into her arms one day soon.

Nevertheless, she knew that when she had the dream again, she would find new hope in it as she had so many times before.

She had loved Danny with all her heart, but he was gone

The boy in the Chevy had lost interest in her

She wasn't a dancer anymore; now she worked behind the curtain, in the production end of the show, but she still felt physically and psychologically best when she weighed no more than she had weighed when she'd been a performer.

Peanut-butter toast had been one of Danny's favorite foods, even when he was a toddler and was especially picky about what he would eat

When he was very young, he had called it "neenut putter."

Tina Evans sat straight up in bed, certain that she had heard a noise in the house

The sound she'd heard had come as she was waking, a real noise, not an imagined one.

She had been jumpy lately

On four or five occasions during the past two weeks, she had taken the pistol from the nightstand and searched the place, room by room, but she hadn't found anyone

Maybe what she'd heard tonight had been the thunder from the dream.

She remained on guard for a few minutes, but the night was so peaceful that at last she had to admit she was alone

That was how it had been during the last months of their life together

He had been seething with hostility, always seeking an excuse to vent his anger on her.

Because Tina had loved Michael to the end, she'd been hurt and saddened by the dissolution of their relationship

Admittedly, she had also been relieved when it was finally over.

She had lost her child and her husband in the same year, the man first, and then the boy, the son to the grave and the husband to the winds of change

During the twelve years of their marriage, Tina had become a different and more complex person than she'd been on their wedding day, but Michael hadn't changed at all - and didn't like the woman that she had become

She wasn't sleepy now, but she knew she had to get more rest

In other years that date had meant nothing special

For fifteen years, ever since she turned eighteen, two years before she married Michael, Tina Evans had lived and worked in Las Vegas

Going to and from the showroom, the crowd had to pass all the craps tables and blackjack tables and roulette wheels and glittering ranks of slot machines, and that was where the profit was made

Five years ago, however, on her twenty-eighth birthday, she began to realize that she had, if she was lucky, ten years left as a show dancer, and she decided to establish herself in the business in another capacity, to avoid being washed up at thirty-eight

Almost a year ago, shortly after Danny had died, Tina had been offered a directing and co-producing job on a huge ten-million-dollar extravaganza to be staged in the two-thousand-seat main showroom of the Golden Pyramid, one of the largest and plushest hotels on the Strip

At first, it had seemed terribly wrong that such a wonderful opportunity should come her way before she'd even had time to mourn her boy, as if the Fates were so shallow and insensitive as to think that they could balance the scales and offset Danny's death merely by presenting her with a chance at her dream job

The tricky spelling of the title was not Tina's idea, but most of the rest of the program was her creation, and she remained pleased with what she had wrought

This year had passed in a blur of twelve- and fourteen-hour days, with no vacations and rarely a weekend off.

Nevertheless, even as preoccupied with Magyck! As she was, she had adjusted to Danny's death only with great difficulty

A month ago, for the first time, she'd thought that at last she had begun to overcome her grief

She would never forget him, that sweet child who had been such a large part of her, but she would no longer have to live her life around the gaping hole that he had left in it

That's what she had thought a month ago

For a week or two, she had continued to make progress toward acceptance

Then the new dreams began, and they were far worse than the dream that she'd had immediately after Danny had been killed.

Perhaps her anxiety about the public's reaction to Magyck! Was causing her to recall the greater anxiety she had felt about Danny

She had good reason to be suffering from anxiety attacks

In the meantime, she absolutely had to get some sleep

Something had fallen over in another part of the house

Whatever it had been..

It had been knocked over

What if they came, lights flashing and sirens screaming - and found no one? If she had summoned the police every time that she imagined hearing a prowler in the house during the past two weeks, they would have decided long ago that she was scramble-brained

Now she had no choice.

A little more than a year before he had died, Danny had begun sleeping at the opposite end of the small house from the master bedroom, in what had once been the den

Not long after his tenth birthday, the boy had asked for more space and privacy than was provided by his original, tiny quarters

Michael and Tina had helped him move his belongings to the den, then had shifted the couch, armchair, coffee table, and television from the den into the quarters the boy had previously occupied.

She and Michael hadn't yet begun to raise their voices to each other; their disagreements had been conducted in normal tones, sometimes even in whispers, yet Danny probably had heard enough to know they were having problems.

She had been sorry that he'd had to know, but she hadn't said a word to him; she'd offered no explanations, no reassurances

Now, anxious to complete her search for the burglar - who was beginning to look as imaginary as all the other burglars she had stalked on other nights - she opened the door to Danny's bedroom

In spite of what she had heard, she was alone in the house.

As she stared at the contents of the musky closet - the boy's shoes, his jeans, dress slacks, shirts, sweaters, his blue Dodgers' baseball cap, the small blue suit he had worn on special occasions - a lump rose in her throat

Although the funeral had been more than a year ago, she had not yet been able to dispose of Danny's belongings

His clothes weren't the only things that she had kept: His entire room was exactly as he had left it

The walls were decorated with evenly spaced posters - three baseball stars, five hideous monsters from horror movies - that Danny had carefully arranged.

Respecting his preference for neatness, Tina had instructed Mrs

Neddler, the cleaning lady who came in twice a week, to vacuum and dust his unused bedroom as if nothing had happened to him

As long as she left his things undisturbed, she could continue to entertain the hope that Danny was not dead, that he was just away somewhere for a while, and that he would shortly pick up his life where he had left off

She had to let the dead rest in peace

Danny had liked to draw, and the easel, complete with a box of pencils and pens and paints, had been a birthday gift when he was nine

Danny had left it at the far end of the room, beyond the bed, against the wall, and that was where it had stood the last time that Tina had been here

An Electronic Battleship game had stood on that table, as Danny had left it, ready for play, but the easel had toppled into it and knocked it to the floor.

Apparently, that was the noise she had heard

But she couldn't imagine what had knocked the easel over

She was positive that nothing had been written on the board when Danny had gone away on that scouting trip

And it had been blank the last time she'd been in this room.

In one of her terrible seizures of grief, in a moment of crazy dark despair, had she come into this room and unknowingly printed those words on Danny's chalkboard?

If she had left this message, she must be having blackouts, temporary amnesia of which she was totally unaware

And the obvious reference that those two words made to the bus accident in which he had perished?

Danny, of course, had been writing about something else, and the dark interpretation that could be drawn from those two words now, after his death, was just a macabre coincidence.

She was wide-awake, but she had to get some sleep

Grimacing at the bitterness of the spirits, wondering why Michael had extolled this brand's smoothness, she hesitated, then poured another ounce

It was so huge that a DC-9 airliner could be rolled onto it without using half the space available - a feat that had been accomplished as part of a production number on a similar stage at a hotel in Reno several years ago

Joel Bandiri, Tina's co-producer, had watched the show from a booth in the first tier, the VIP row, where high rollers and other friends of the hotel would be seated every night of the run

He had plowed some of his substantial earnings into Las Vegas real estate, parts of two hotels, an automobile dealership, and a slot-machine casino downtown

He was so rich that he could retire and live the rest of his life in the high style and splendor for which he had a taste

He had seen Tina's work in some lounges around town, and he had surprised her when he'd offered her the chance to co-produce Magyck! At first, she hadn't been sure if she should take the job

Joel had convinced her that she'd have no difficulty matching his pace or meeting his standards, and that she was equal to the challenge

He had become not just a valued business associate, but a good friend as well, a big brother.

As Tina stood in this beautiful theater, glancing down at the colorfully costumed people milling about on the stage, then looking at Joel's rubbery face, listening as her co-producer unblushingly raved about their handiwork, she was happier than she had been in a long time

The Pyramid had been built at a cost in excess of four hundred million dollars, and the owners had made certain that every last dime showed

Tina supposed that some people would say this hotel was gross, crass, tasteless, ugly - but she loved the place because it was here that she had been given her big chance.

Thus far, the thirtieth of December had been a busy, noisy, exciting day at the Pyramid

Carol Hirson, a cocktail waitress who was a friend of Tina's, had told her about the unlucky Texans a few minutes ago

Carol had been shiny-eyed and breathless because the high rollers had tipped her with green chips, as if they'd been winning instead of losing; for bringing them half a dozen drinks, she had collected twelve hundred dollars.

She had two and a half hours to fill before she had to leave for the hotel again.

No use putting it off until Thursday, as she had planned

She had at least enough time to make a start, box up the boy's clothes, if nothing else.

When she went into Danny's bedroom, she saw at once that the easel-chalkboard had been knocked over again

Last night, after drinking the bourbon, had she come back here in some kind of fugue and...?

She had not printed those words

She had always prided herself on her toughness and her resiliency.

Someone had come into the house while she was out and had printed those two words on the chalkboard again

The only other person who had a right to be in the house was the cleaning woman, Vivienne Neddler

Vivienne had been scheduled to work this afternoon, but she'd canceled

But even if Vivienne had kept her scheduled appointment, she never would have written those words on the chalkboard

There was no sign that anyone had broken into the house, no obvious evidence of forced entry, and Michael was the only other person with a key

Shattered by the loss of his son, Michael had been irrationally vicious with Tina for months after the funeral, accusing her of being responsible for Danny's death

She had given Danny permission to go on the field trip, and as far as Michael was concerned, that had been equivalent to driving the bus off the cliff

But Danny had wanted to go to the mountains more than anything else in the world

Jaborski, the scoutmaster, had taken other groups of scouts on winter survival hikes every year for sixteen years, and no one had been even slightly injured

She'd had no way of knowing that Jaborski's seventeenth trip would end in disaster, yet Michael blamed her

She'd thought he had regained his perspective during the last few months, but evidently not.

She stared at the chalkboard, thought of the two words that had been printed there, and anger swelled in her

She stood indecisively in the center of the small kitchen, trying to find the willpower to go to Danny's room and box his clothes, as she had planned

But she had lost her nerve

Until recently, she had rarely used alcohol to calm her nerves - but now it was her cure of first resort

Once she had gotten through the premiere of Magyck! She had better start cutting back on the booze

Eighteen hundred guests had been invited - Las Vegas movers and shakers, plus high rollers from out of town

More than fifteen hundred had returned their RSVP cards.

Already, a platoon of white-coated waiters, waitresses in crisp blue uniforms, and scurrying busboys had begun serving the dinners

Wardrobe women mended tears and sewed up unraveled hems that had been discovered at the last minute

They made pleasant small talk for the next fifteen minutes, and none of it had to do with Magyck! Tina was aware that they were trying to take her mind off the show, and she appreciated their effort.

At least a year and a half, maybe two years, had passed since a man had looked at her in quite that fashion

Or perhaps this was the first time in all those months that she had been aware of being the object of such interest

Fighting with Michael, coping with the shock of separation and divorce, grieving for Danny, and putting together the show with Joel Bandiri had filled her days and nights, so she'd had no chance to think of romance.

Now that she had spent more than a year grieving for her broken marriage and for her lost son, now that Magyck! was almost behind her, she would have time to be a woman again

She had to admit that he sparked the same feelings in her that she apparently enflamed in him.

The evening was turning out to be even more interesting than she had expected.

She had lasted quite a while herself

She'd been cleaning for Tina Evans for two years, and she had been entrusted with a key nearly that long.

But Tina Evans was sympathetic; she knew how important the slot machines were to Vivienne, and she wasn't upset if Vivienne occasionally had to reschedule her visit.

Vivienne had a daughter, a son-in-law, and three grandchildren in Sacramento

For five years, ever since her sixty-fifth birthday, they had been pressuring her to live with them

After several visits there, she had decided that it must be one of the dullest cities in the world

Besides, for the past twenty-one years, ever since her Harry died, she had always taken care of herself

She had done a pretty damn good job of it too.

This display had always contained six pictures, not just four

This was the sound she had heard when she'd been in the kitchen - this clatter.

Vivienne blinked in amazement, unable to understand what she had seen

She went to the sofa and picked up the photo that had dropped onto the cushions

She had dusted it many times

Vivienne wondered if there had been a nuclear test, maybe that was what had shaken things up

Besides, the house hadn't shuddered just a minute ago; only the photos had been affected.

There were five photographs in addition to the one that had dropped onto the sofa; two were responsible for the noises that had drawn her into the living room, and the other three were those that she had seen popping off the picture hooks

The noise was louder in the corridor than it had been in the living room

Moisture had condensed on the metal and then had frozen.

The electronic squeal began to warble faster, but it was no quieter, no less bone penetrating than it had been.

The intense cold had caused the wood to contract and warp

Magyck! Was the most entertaining Vegas show that Elliot Stryker had ever seen.

The choreography was complex, and the two lead singers had strong, clear voices.

Less than ten minutes later, when the curtains opened again, the mirrors had been taken away, and the stage had been transformed into an ice rink; the second production number was done on skates against a winter backdrop so real that it made Elliot shiver.

He kept looking at Christina Evans, who was as dazzling as the show she had created.

She would have been lovely enough if her eyes had been dark, in harmony with the shade of her hair and skin, but they were crystalline blue

He was interested primarily in learning more about the mind that could create a work like Magyck! He had seen less than one-fourth of the program, yet he knew it was a hit - and far superior to others of its kind

No woman had affected him so strongly since Nancy, his wife, who had died three years ago.

These things were as they always had been, since she had first come to work here, before Danny had died.

Neither window was open, and even if one had been raised, the night wasn't frigid enough to account for the chill.

The sudden silence had an oppressive weight.

Each was hung from the ceiling on a length of fishing line, and the upper end of each line was knotted to its own eyehook that had been screwed firmly into the dry wall

The sliding closet doors began to move on their runners, and Vivienne Neddler had the feeling that some awful thing was going to come out of the dark space, its eyes as red as blood and its razor-sharp teeth gnashing

The legs at the foot rose three or four inches before crashing back into the casters, that had been put under them to protect the carpet

As abruptly as the bed had started bouncing up and down, it now stopped

Gradually Vivienne's heartbeat subsided from the hard, frantic rhythm that it had been keeping for the past couple of minutes

There had to be a logical explanation.

Except, of course, that the boy who had once slept here had been dead for a year

Vivienne had to remind herself that she didn't believe in ghosts.

Vivienne had no logical explanation for what had happened, but she knew one thing for sure: She wasn't going to tell anyone what she had seen here tonight

The final curtain came down at eight minutes till ten o'clock, and the ovation continued until after Tina's wristwatch had marked the hour

Helen Mainway chattered excitedly about the spectacular special effects, and Elliot Stryker had an endless supply of compliments as well as some astute observations about the technical aspects of the production, and Charlie Mainway poured a third bottle of Dom PS 233; rignon, and the house lights came up, and the audience reluctantly began to leave, and Tina hardly had a chance to sip her champagne because of all the people who stopped by the table to congratulate her.

By ten-thirty most of the audience had left and those who hadn't gone yet were in line, moving up the steps toward the rear doors of the showroom

The sets and props had been moved from the main floor of the stage, and eight folding tables had been set up

Knowing this feast had been laid on for the party, few of those present had eaten dinner, and most of the dancers had eaten nothing since a light lunch

Several times, she encountered Elliot Stryker, and he seemed genuinely interested in learning how the splashy stage effects had been achieved

Each time that Tina moved on to talk to someone else, she regretted leaving Elliot, and each time that she found him again, she stayed with him longer than she had before

He had such a warm smile

He had a variety of interests; among other things, he was a skier and a pilot, and he was full of funny stories about learning to ski and fly

From bitterness, pain, tragedy, and unrelenting sorrow, she had turned around to face a horizon lit by rising promise

The closet door slammed open and shut with substantially more force than it had earlier.

He was desperate to get out, and she was frantic to rescue him; but he was chained, unable to climb, and the sides of the pit were sheer and smooth, so she had no way to reach him

She had to get down to him and push the earth away from his face before he suffocated, so in blind panic she threw herself over the edge of the pit, into the terrible abyss, falling and falling-

She wasn't sure she would be able to get any more sleep, but she had to try

She remembered the two words that she had twice erased from Danny's chalkboard - NOT DEAD - and she realized that she'd forgotten to call Michael

She had to confront him with her suspicions

She had to know if he'd been in the house, in Danny's room, without her knowledge or permission.

It had to be Michael.

He would be sleeping, but she wouldn't feel guilty if she woke him, not after all the sleepless nights that he had given her

And if Michael had slipped into the house like a little boy playing a cruel prank, if he had written that message on the chalkboard, then his hatred of her was far greater than she had thought

She would call him in the morning when she had regained some of her strength.

Danny's collection of paperbacks had been pulled from the bookcase and tossed into every corner

The tubes of glue, miniature bottles of enamel, and model-crafting tools that had stood on his desk were now on the floor with everything else

A poster of one of the movie monsters had been ripped apart; it hung from the wall in several pieces

The action figures had been knocked off the headboard

The game table had been overturned

Vivienne Neddler had been in to clean last evening, but this wasn't the kind of thing that Vivienne would be capable of doing

If the mess had been here when Vivienne arrived, the old woman would have cleaned it up and would have left a note about what she'd found

Clearly, the intruder had come in after Mrs

Neddler had left.

When Tina squeezed into the narrow gap between the tables and caught Michael's attention, his reaction was far different from what she had expected

She smiled uneasily and tried to remember that she had come here to accuse him of cruelly harassing her

Every player at the table groaned, and they all had comments to make about the unlikely possibility that they might win anything from this dealer.

To reach the escalators that would carry them down to the shopping arcade on the lower level, they had to cross the entire casino

She had lost the momentum occasioned by her anger, and now she was afraid of losing the sense of purpose that had driven her to confront him

At least it wasn't like the Michael Evans she had known for the past couple of years

When they were first married, he'd been fun, charming, easygoing, but he had not been that way with her in a long time.

Her original intention had been to accuse him of ripping apart Danny's room; she had been prepared to come on strong, so that even if he didn't want her to know he'd done it, he might be rattled enough to reveal his guilt

But now, if she started making nasty accusations after he'd been so pleasant to her, she would seem to be a hysterical harpy, and if she still had any advantage left, she would quickly lose it.

He truly seemed unaware of what had happened at the house

Perhaps he'd had nothing to do with it.

But if Michael hadn't torn up Danny's room, if Michael hadn't written those words on the chalkboard, then who had?

But there at first, for a good many years, we had a great thing going

As soon as I saw you, I knew everything was going to turn out exactly like I had it figured."

"Now that you've had your fling as a producer, you're ready to settle down

These last few days, as your show's been getting ready to open, I've had the feeling you might finally realize you need something more in life, something a lot more emotionally satisfying than whatever it is you can get out of just producing stage shows."

Tina's ambition was, in part, what had led to the dissolution of their marriage

As she had struggled to move up from dancer to costumer to choreographer to lounge-revue coordinator to producer, Michael had been displeased with her commitment to work

She had never neglected him and Danny

She had been determined that neither of them would have reason to feel that his importance in her life had diminished

Danny had been wonderful; Danny had understood

She had tried to encourage him to seek advances in his own career - from dealer to floor man to pit boss to higher casino management - but he had no interest in climbing that ladder

The only way she could have held on to her husband would have been to abandon her new career, and she had refused to do that.

In time Michael had made it clear to her that, he hadn't actually ever loved the real Christina

He had adored only the showgirl, the dancer, the cute little thing that other men coveted, the pretty woman whose presence at his side had inflated his ego

Badly hurt by that discovery, she had given him the freedom that he wanted.

That was why he had been so charming

Once, long ago, she had loved him very much

Now she couldn't imagine how or why she had ever cared.

"Michael-" she began, intending to tell him that she was going to stage another show within the next year, that she didn't want to be represented by only one production at a time, and that she even had distant designs on New York and Broadway, where the return of Busby Berkeley - style musicals might be greeted with cheers.

But he was so involved with his fantasy that he wasn't aware that she had no desire to be a part of it

For years, she had been filled with hurt and bitterness

She had never vented any of her black anger because, initially, she'd wanted to hide it from Danny; she hadn't wanted to turn him against his father

Later, after Danny was dead, she'd repressed her feelings because she'd known that Michael had been truly suffering from the loss of his child, and she hadn't wanted to add to his misery

But now she vented some of the acid that had been eating at her for so long, cutting him off in midsentence.

But did you ever stop to realize what effect your absences had on Danny? If you loved family life so much, why didn't you spend all those weekends with your son?"

"So I'm not a giver, huh? Then who gave you the house you're living in? Huh? Who was it had to move into an apartment when we separated, and who was it kept the house?"

You could have had that precious time with him

Finished telling him off, she felt pleasantly wrung out, as if some evil, nervous energy had been drained from her.

She headed toward the Golden Pyramid, where she had an office, and where work was waiting to be done.

After she had driven only a block, she was forced to pull to the side of the road

She had to stop being so gloomy

She'd had enough gloom in her life

She inspected her face in the rearview mirror to see how much damage the crying jag had done

A block farther, as she waited at a red light, she realized that she still had a mystery on her hands

She was positive that Michael had not done the damage in Danny's bedroom

But then, who had done it? No one else had a key

When she had suspected Michael of doing the dirty work, she had been disturbed and distressed, but she hadn't been frightened

Michael was the only person who had ever blamed her for Danny's death

Not one other relative or acquaintance had ever suggested that she was even indirectly responsible

Which meant it had to be someone she didn't even know

She smiled when she thought of him, then picked up the sheaf of papers that Angela had given her, anxious to finish her work.

She had counted only twenty-two names when she came to an incredible message that the computer had inserted in the list.

She stared at what the computer had printed, and fear welled in her - dark, cold, oily fear.

Between the names of two high rollers were five lines of type that had nothing to do with the information she had requested:

Angela hadn't noticed this interruption in the printout because she hadn't had time to scan it.

She thought of the man in her nightmare, the man in black whose face had been lumpy with maggots, and the shadows in the corner of her office seemed darker and deeper than they had been a moment ago.

She scanned another forty names and cringed when she saw what else the computer had printed.

Angela had turned the light off

She asked the computer for the same information that Angela had requested a while ago

The names and addresses of VIP customers who had missed the opening of Magyck! - Along with the wedding anniversaries of those who were married - began to appear on the screen, scrolling upward

The laser whispered through twenty names, forty, sixty, seventy, without producing the lines about Danny that had been on the first printout

Tina waited until at least a hundred names had been listed before she decided that the system had been programmed to print the lines about Danny only one time, only on her office's first data request of the afternoon, and on no later call-up.

Just a couple of hours ago she had concluded that the person behind this harassment had to be a stranger

She remembered the complaint that Angela had made earlier

But the room had been warm when Tina had first come in to use the computer, and now it was cool

Nevertheless, the room was much cooler than it had been only minutes ago.

She had the crazy feeling that she wasn't alone

She spun around in her chair, but no one had come into the room.

She had to.

She managed to break the grip of fear that had paralyzed her, and she put her fingers on the keyboard

She intended to determine if the words about Danny had been previously programmed to print out on her machine or if they had been sent to her just seconds ago by someone at another computer in another office in the hotel's elaborately networked series of workstations.

She had an almost psychic sense that the perpetrator of this viciousness was in the building now, perhaps on the third floor with her

She had nothing to lose by trying to follow the data chain

Suddenly, as the screen began to fill with the same seven-line message that had just been wiped from it, Tina had enough

She had to get a grip on herself

She had just spoken to the computer as if she actually thought she was talking to Danny

She had to be losing her mind

I had a meeting with Charlie Mainway over coffee, downstairs in the restaurant

I had..

As he drew near, he opened his arms, as if it was the most natural thing in the world for him to hold and comfort her, as if he had held her many times before, and she leaned against him in the same spirit of familiarity

This was the first time she'd ever had the need to tap those stores for herself.

Bill Jaborski had been a wilderness expert and a scoutmaster

Every winter for sixteen years, he had taken a group of scouts to northern Nevada, beyond Reno, into the High Sierras, on a seven-day wilderness survival excursion.

Supposed to be." Her voice had grown thin and bitter

A year ago, Jaborski's excursion had included fourteen boys between the ages of twelve and eighteen

Jaborski had intended to drive the minibus off the main highway, onto an old logging trail, if conditions permitted

"They had the best wilderness clothing and the best down-lined sleeping bags, the best winter tents, plenty of charcoal and other heat sources, plenty of food, and two wilderness experts to guide them

He seemed to know that she had to go through the whole story to get it off her mind.

The bus had run off the road

killed." The bitterness in her voice dismayed her because it revealed how little she had healed

But it wasn't any recollection of your son that had you so upset when I walked in a little while ago."

She told him about the bizarre things that had been happening to her lately: the messages on Danny's chalkboard; the wreckage she'd found in the boy's room; the hateful, taunting words that appeared in the computer lists and on the monitor.

They plugged it in and tried to get it to repeat what it had done earlier, but they had no luck; the machine behaved exactly as it was meant to behave.

She had to take another small sip of cognac before she was able to say what was on her mind, and she realized that he had been right about the liquor having little effect on her

Neither of us would have been anxious to view the body even if it had been in perfect shape, so we accepted the mortician's recommendations

Aware that her answer had disappointed him, she looked down at her hands, which were laced together so tightly that her knuckles were white.

She had a sudden urge to see the Strip

"Well, I've had a lot of martial arts training

"You have a pretty high opinion of me," he said, repeating what she had said to him earlier.

Then, when I had the money, I didn't want some stranger furnishing it for me

We had a damn good time

He realized they had even more in common than he had thought

You had Danny for nearly twelve years."

Her ability to create a stylish stage show was not a fluke; she had taste and a sharp eye that instantly knew the difference between prettiness and genuine beauty, between cleverness and art

We represented some people no one else would touch, entrepreneurs who had a lot of good ideas but not much money for start-up legal fees

Elliot was amused by the effect that Tina had on him

He made a mistake blending the salad dressing and had to begin again from scratch

"Elliot, are you sure you aren't feeling those cognacs we had at my office?"

She had a throaty laugh that was not unlike Nancy's had been.

Perhaps it was too soon to tell for sure, but he was beginning to think that fate, in an uncharacteristic flush of generosity, had given him a second chance at happiness.

The mushroom salad, the fettuccine Alfredo, and the zabaglione had been excellent

While Tina and Elliot had been joking in the kitchen, even before dinner had been completely prepared, she had begun to think they might go to bed together

Suddenly it seemed to her that she had done a mad, stupid thing when she'd hidden away like a nun for two years

Of course, during the first of those two years, she'd still been married to Michael and had felt compelled to remain faithful to him, even though a separation and then a divorce had been in the works, and even though he had not felt constrained by any similar moral sense

Tina felt as if they had talked without pause all evening, speaking with quiet urgency, as if each had a vast quantity of earthshakingly important information that he must pass on to the other before they parted

Nothing had ever felt better to her than he felt at that moment.

But when he returned, she kissed him tentatively, found that nothing had changed, and pressed against him once more.

She felt as if the two of them had been here, like this, locked in an embrace, many times before.

Tina realized that she had been wrong to think that celibacy should be a part of her period of mourning

Good, healthy lovemaking with a man who cared for her would have helped her recover much faster than she had done, for sex was the antithesis of death, a joyous celebration of life, a denial of the tomb's existence.