Lady Chamberlain's Wedding-Night Diary

December 31, 1888

As I lay me down to sleep, isn't a common practice when you're married to the Marquis.

It was my wedding night, but, it was not what I expected. How was I supposed to love a man, when I am nothing more than his captive; you wouldn't have known it, as I was left completely on my own. At least for tonight, I wouldn't be bullied by him, nor would I have to lodge the chair against my door. Drowning out my active, fearful mind, is the scraping of the tall tree branches against the window pane. It is my third wedding anniversary, and I am proudly spending it alone, and if you knew my husband, you would understand; just as I had on my first night as the Marquis' wife . . . little did I realize, it wouldn't be the last.

Like Laurence himself, the manor was cold, dark and brooding, and even though he was not with me, I could feel his icy, green eyes glaring at me. Overcome by a feeling of dread, I'm

I was left to wander blindly through the cold, sterile walls of my new husband's manor. With each step I took, I heard another, softer stride behind me, walking when I walked,

"Who's there?" I called out; no one answered. "Were my ears or my eyes deceiving me?" There was someone behind me . . . I could hear them, I could feel them, but when I turned around, only the bare, naked darkness. "Show yourself! I know you are there!"

Through the tears clouding my eyes, I spotted a

Realizing on the spot - trembling hands and striking a match, are not wise; what else was I supposed to do? Stand here, alone in the dark, with God knows what hovering around me? drawn into a state of paralysis, yet somehow, forged on through the blanketed darkness. and stopping when I stopped. I looked over my shoulder, then spun around on my heels. candlestick sitting on the table in front of me, and I grabbed it, along with the long matchsticks, beside it. "Who are you?" My hands and my body began trembling, as did the darkness; it was shaking all around me, as if it were inhabited by evil. And so I did - tremors and all; I struck the match.