When the pretty maid returned with the paper and pen, Jane wrote:

Julietta, my dearest,

I am downstairs, seated among your treasures. Please may I come to you? Emmeline is gravely ill and we may be about to lose her. I think that only you can comfort me.

Jane

She handed the paper to the girl, knowing perhaps that – if the girl could read – she would look at the note, but not minding whether she did or not, even faintly aroused by the notion that this very young woman had knowledge of all that went on in Julietta’s room when Ashton was away.

Now, she was being shown into that room.

Julietta lay in an enormous bed, her hair uncoiled on the pillow, her arms bare above the sumptuous satin and brocade coverings. Even before the maid had retreated from the room Julietta sat up, revealing naked breasts, and called out Jane’s name. Jane rushed to her and took her in her arms, smelling at once the musk of the sexual banquet she had indulged in with her ‘beauty’ and made bold enough by this to find Julietta’s mouth and kiss her so deeply as to make Julietta begin to moan with pleasure and Jane thought that this kiss was like no other that she had ever had in her life.

And whatever ecstasies Julietta had indulged in only half an hour before, Signóra Sims, never sated, now pressed Jane’s hand down between her legs to show how ready she was to begin again on one of those wild hours where both women surrendered all restraint and lost themselves in an orgy of loving.

In moments, Jane was naked in the bed, her clothes thrown down carelessly on the floor. At the bedside, Julietta’s pet spaniel gazed up in sweet perplexity as Jane once again felt the melting touch of la langue de Juliette, known far and wide as the greatest bringer of pleasure a woman could ever know. And this time, because Jane had been deprived of it for so long and was so deeply frustrated by her love-making with Ross, the moment of ecstasy was so long and deep, it made Jane cry out.

Later, Jane put on her clothes and Julietta put on a satin gown and brushed her hair and the two women went down to the drawing room, with the little spaniel dog following them. It was now that Jane explained what had happened to her aunt and Julietta comforted her with the very words Jane ardently wished to hear. ‘You will save Emmeline,’ she said. ‘Now that you are in London, she will be saved. It is as simple as that.’ Then, to console them both, Julietta rang for the maid to bank up the waning fire and asked her to bring a jug of claret.

When she had done this and left and the logs were catching brightly again, Jane whispered to Julietta, ‘I believe she comes to your bed. Does she?’ and Julietta answered without embarrassment, ‘I go to her little room, sometimes in the night when Ashton is asleep.’