In Jane Eyre Mr. Rochester is awful, but then he turns out to be good.

Only after he has been blinded though.

Perhaps Cain is turning into a nicer person because of his troubles.

Like Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights. He is horrid and then he meets Cathy and then … oh, well, no, actually he is horrid and then he gets more horrid.

I cannot believe that I have kissed Cain. He must have hypnotized me or something. I must NEVER EVER tell anyone about this.

Not even the Tree Sisters …

It has to be my shaming secret.

I put in my Darkly Demanding Damson Diary:

On this day of the year of our Lord, a strange and unnatural urge overtook me. I have always wanted Alex the Good but I have accidentally snogged Cain the Bad.

I am so ashamed I may never Irish dance again.

Warming up my Bottom

I WOKE UP FROM a dream where Fang (smoking a pipe) was saying, “Well, which do you want—Mr. Good, Mr. Bad, or Mr. Huggy?”

When I got up, I reread my diary.

I can’t have kissed Cain.

Yes, it did happen.

There it is in black and white.

Ten pages away from Labradad.

I have accidentally snogged Cain the Bad.

No one must ever know the thing that did happen. I hid my diary on top of my acorn-legged wardrobe.

When I got to Dother Hall there was no heating on in half the school.

The Tree Sisters were all huddled together in the common room, in one chair. Jo said, “For warmth.”

Flossie said, “I’ve got my pajamas on underneath my clothes.”

Brrrrrrr. Sidone came in, dressed in a big fur coat with a Cossack hat on.

“Girls, girls, this is where the going gets tough. And the tough go and get their coats on, and gather in the woods—round the bonfire that Bob will make out of the potting shed.”

Bob came out of the boiler room with a black head. (I don’t mean he had a spot, I mean his head was black.) I noticed his T-shirt says, Do I look like a fool?

The Tree Sisters all looked at him and then we nodded at each other.

Actually, once Bob had managed to make the fire, it was jolly in the woods. There’s a clearing where some trees have been felled and it was cozy sitting there on dry logs. The potting shed was crackling merrily and embers whirled up into the air. We had school blankets round us and were reading bits out from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The only down side is that Dr. Lightowler is here. Looking at me.

Flossie said, “Why does Dr. Lightowler hate you so much?”

I said softly, “I don’t know, but I do know that she is keen as anything to see my Bottom.”

And we all laughed. But she didn’t. Can she hear everything? She can probably hear voles talking.

We are doing the bit in the play where Oberon, the King of the Fairies, and Titania, the Queen of the Fairies, have fallen out so Oberon gets Puck to put a love potion in Titania’s eyes. It makes her fall in love with stupid Bottom, who has magically grown a donkey head.