As he spoke he moved nearer to her, and when he had finished speaking, Mistral realised that he was very near. She looked up at him, her eyes wide with horror.

‘Do not touch me or I swear I will kill you.’

The Rajah threw back his head and laughed.

‘You are extremely entertaining,’ he said. ‘I see that I shall be very amused by you. And now I will give you ten minutes in which to prepare yourself for me. By the divan you will find some diaphanous garments – such as our dancing girls wear. It delights me to see white women in our traditional garb. You will put them on. Do not be perturbed if they are more revealing than the cumbersome clothes with which you disguise your natural charms.’ He paused and looked down at her, and Mistral saw the lust in his eyes. ‘Change quickly, and, as we say in my country, await your Lord and Master.’

He moved silently across the room towards a sliding panel in the wall, which led to his own apartment. He touched the spring, then he looked back at Mistral.

‘You will have ten minutes in which to prepare yourself, most beautiful Mademoiselle Fântóme,’ he said clearly. ‘If you are not ready by then, you will find me a most experienced lady’s maid.’

12

Mistral put her hands to her eyes. For a moment she thought she might faint, but with a sense of desperation she knew that, if she did, she would be lost forever. ‘Ten minutes,’ the Rajah had said, and already a minute of it must have gone.

She felt panic rising within her again. She wanted to scream, to beat with her fists on the door, yet common sense told her that it would do no good. She was conscious of a strange thudding sound and realised that it was her own heart beating as if it would burst from the fragile confines of her body.

She must do something and quickly. She thought of the windows and ran to the one nearest to her, pulling aside the heavily embroidered curtains. She opened the window and looked out and knew immediately why the Rajah had not feared she might escape that way.

Most windows in the South of France opened on to a balcony, but those in this room were the exception. Outside there was a narrow ledge and then a sheer drop into the garden below.

Mistral could just see the road. For a moment she contemplated screaming in case someone might be passing. But even as she parted her lips, she realised how hopeless it would be.

Everything was quiet and still and there appeared to be no one about. But even if there were and she screamed, long before anyone could come to her assistance the Rajah would be able to pull her back in the room and to explain away any enquiries which might be made downstairs.