She turned away from him as she spoke and stood holding onto a nearby chair as if for support. It could not be true, she thought.

He could not be suggesting such a thing to her. What would her mother have said?

“Is it because we have not known each other very long that this has come as a surprise to you?” the Marquis asked. “Or is perhaps your little head full of romantic notions and you do not think that you are in love?”

He smiled that strange cynical smile of his and then, drawing nearer to her, almost before she was aware of it, put out his hand gently and touched the smooth roundness of her neck.

Just for a moment he seemed to clasp it as a man might clasp the soft feathers of a bird that was anxious to fly away from him and then his fingers moved upwards and cupped her chin to turn her face up to his.

“Shall I make you fall in love with me?” he asked in his deep voice.

Her eyes were held by his.

For a moment she could think of nothing and see nothing save the dark depths in his eyes where it seemed to her that she saw a flicker of fire.

Then before she could move, before she could realise what was happening, his lips were on hers.

She felt him take her in his arms and it seemed as if the whole world vanished and she herself ceased to exist.

She no longer had any entity or willpower, she was no longer a person but a part of him.

She felt as if his kiss took not only her mouth but her whole body into his keeping. She felt as if he suddenly dived with her from a high cliff into the deep green waters of the ocean and that they went down together into a bottomless world that they might never return from.

How long he held her captive she had no idea.

She only knew that, as he released her, she was trembling all over and yet hardly conscious of what her thoughts or feelings were.

“Would it be very hard to love me, little Gretna?” he asked and there was a note of triumph in his voice as if he was a conqueror aware of how complete his conquest was.

In answer Gretna put her fingers up to her lips as if to make sure that her mouth was still there after he had taken possession of it.

“No! No!” she cried, but her voice was stifled in her throat. “You don’t – understand. Please – please – let me – go.”

She would have run from him, but his hands were on her shoulders.

“Tell me what troubles you and I will try to understand,” he suggested. “You must learn to trust me. Then I promise you we shall deal very well together.”

“I must – go! I-I must go!” Gretna pleaded.