We’re corralled together and herded quickly to a big, bright room, all cheap blue carpet and monstrous fake chandeliers. Amazing how quickly the allure wears off. Imagine if one of them were to fall on your head? Kaput, splat. I help myself to an overflowing glass of champers, the cheaper kind, and offer all the girls a glass. They each accept, and they each glug it down. They must have discovered the added numbing properties of booze. The door opens and a clutch of men enter, seven this time: a bit less suited and booted and groomed than the last lot, a bit rougher round the edges. I wonder who’s paying for this. I’ve no doubt we’re the luxury line.

The same thing happens as happened the other night – they act as if we’re not there at first, and then they click their fingers and we come to life. Why? Why are we not resisting? Why have I not even tried to slip out to go to the loo? One voice orders us to take all our clothes off; he sounds like he’s from the wrong side of the tracks. That voice holds all the power.

Nico hates to be looked at by the other girls, so when she and I are paired up, I stare at my nose, going cross-eyed, and manage to get a tense smile out of her. Again, we’re instructed to walk naked in our heels and told to touch each other, kiss each other, then told to watch. The same man who ordered us to get naked chooses one of us: the smaller of the sisters. My heartbeat fades to a whisper, my blood freezes, my veins turn into tiny rivers of ice. I notice one of the men holding back, saying nothing. He goes to the whiskey decanter set up on the baize table at the back of the room, pours himself a large measure and downs it in one. Then he walks out of the room. A few of the other men look up absently but don’t stop what they’re doing. They remind me of the boys behind the shed, egging each other on, pats on the back, all the male bonding, clichéd bullshit, except these dudes are middle-aged and the ‘fun’ appears forced, mechanical and vicious – the shared bonding only seems to aggravate them further.