vertically through the left side of her face leaving her eye partially closed.
The pastor asked her how it felt to know that her films were still being watched by millions of people on the internet. Eva said, 'Since coming to Christ and being born again in the spirit, I know that the person they are watching isn't me. But aside from that, people should know that a lot of what I did was forced on me by contracts I was too frightened to break. Even in my state of sin, much of the time I wasn't consenting, I was letting myself be abused, and anyone who watches those films is a party to that.' Pausing to wipe away a tear, she collected herself and straightened her shoulders. 'But my real message is that the dividing line is clear - if you're watching pornography you're not with God, and if you're not with God, well, I don't have to tell you whose company you're keeping.'
'Can I help you, madam?'
A slender, red-headed boy of no more than sixteen hovered nearby. His bright yellow T-shirt read: TEAM MCG: on mission for God.
'No thank you,' Jenny said. 'I'm just looking.'
'I can recommend Eva's book. Lots of people say it's changed their lives. She certainly changed mine.'
Jenny placed Fallen Angel back on the shelf. 'Maybe I'll call by on my way out.'
She turned to go.
'Is this your first visit?' the boy asked.
'Yes,' Jenny answered, more abruptly than she had intended.
Unfazed, the boy said, 'My name's Freddy. Pleased to meet you.'
He held out a pale, freckled hand.
'Jenny Cooper.'
Freddy gave her a warm smile. 'Welcome to MCG, Jenny. We're a church, but not as you know it. You'll find everything here's very relaxed. There are no particular rules about how to behave, but if you've got any questions just ask anyone wearing a team shirt. Is there anything you'd like to know?'
Jenny asked, 'Did you say you knew Eva Donaldson?'
'She was one of the first people I met here. She was leader of my study group.' A hint of sadness entered Freddy's bright expression. 'She was a beautiful person. We all miss her very much.'
Freddy's sincerity ignited a feeling of maternal warmth inside her, and Jenny found herself wishing her son could be a little more like him. 'Why don't I take the book now?' she said. 'I don't suppose you'll be able to move in here later.'
'You know how many people we're hoping for tonight? Five thousand.'
'You're kidding. Is it that many every week?'
Lighting up, Freddy said, 'It's usually closer to three but Pastor Bobby's here - he's on a world tour. He's opening new churches in Amsterdam, Hamburg, Moscow and Sydney.'
A roar of applause issued from the auditorium as the choir reached the end of their number. The bookshelves shook with the vibration of stamping feet.
'We'd better hurry,' the boy said. 'You don't want to miss the start.'
The body of the church was the size of a small aircraft hangar and set out like an amphitheatre. Five thousand seats were arranged on a gently sloping floor facing a raised, semi-circular stage, on which stood a choir dressed in shiny purple robes alongside a twelve-piece band. Two big screens suspended on cables from the ceiling announced, 'Bobby DeMont - World Tour'. Jenny found an end-of-row seat as the man himself jogged out of the wings, his startling image filling the big screens. In his late forties, slim, tanned and with thick walnut-coloured hair, Bobby DeMont wore a suit and tie and silver-tipped cowboy boots which glinted under the lights. The preacher soaked up the applause like a movie star, bowing to each section of the auditorium in turn before holding up his outspread hands and closing his eyes.
'Dear Lord, I am truly humbled to be here today.'
'A-men,' the audience thundered in reply.
'Now, as you all know,' Bobby began, strutting to and fro across the stage, his homely southern accent picked up by an invisible microphone and relayed with perfect clarity through a network of speakers, 'it's been a little over fifteen years since a young country pastor from the back hills of West Virginia answered God's call to set up shop in the big city. Bobby, the Lord said to me that evening in my itty- bitty tin-shack church in Oakville, much as you love these good people you grew up with, I'm gonna to take you on a journey. I'm gonna take you on a journey to a city you've never been to before, the