“And would I not be a fool to trust your word? Can you really expect me to relinquish the spoils of victory so easily? A victory that I had almost thought was lost to me when you ran away from me in Berkeley Square.”

“My Lord, I command you to do – as I say,” Gretna asserted with a little quiver in her voice.

In answer Lord Wroxhall unclasped the black cloak he was wearing and she saw that beneath it he was dressed in a velvet coat with embroidered collar and that his waistcoat buttons were of sapphires and diamonds.

She guessed then that he had come straight to the yacht from some social function, perhaps the theatre or perhaps a dinner when everyone afterwards would swear that he was in particularly good form and could not in any way be connected with the disappearance of a certain notorious lady.

As Gretna stood watching him, he tidied his cravat and then turned towards her, a smile on his thick protruding lips.

“We are going on a little trip together, my dear,” he declared. “So let’s enjoy ourselves. Tomorrow, or perhaps the next day, it will be realised that we have both disappeared. What will the gossips say, I wonder? That you succumbed eventually to my ardency.”

“I will go on no trip – with you, my Lord,” Gretna cried.

“You have no choice in the matter,” he replied softly. “You have come here unasked and uninvited, but nothing, I assure you, could give me greater pleasure. I was to have returned to Brighthelmstone tonight. Now I shall do nothing of the sort. This is my yacht, the Captain will obey my orders whatever they may be. The world is before us. Where would you wish to go? To Spain? The Mediterranean? Or even perhaps to some golden island that we need only return from when we are tired of one another?”

He stood in front of her speaking slowly and silkily and all the time his eyes were devouring her, taking in every detail of her little frightened face and the sudden quickening movement of her breasts beneath the laces of her gown.

“You cannot – mean that, my Lord,” Gretna stammered. “You know full well I hate and detest you. I have given you my word that I will not betray your perfidy. Tease me – no longer, but – let us return.”

“I am not teasing you,” he answered. “I am telling you what we are about to do. A honeymoon, little Gretna! A honeymoon such as you have never dreamed possible. But we have no need of a Parson, you and I. The legal ties will be but an encumbrance when love no longer interests us and we wish to be rid of each other.”

“I would not – marry you if you went down on your knees – to ask me,” Gretna stormed.