But now that she knew who he was it explained so much. And yet why, if he was British and hated so many things that belonged to England, had he singled her out to bring her here?

Was there some obscure idea of revenge about it? By punishing her did he feel that he was punishing the Englishwoman whom he hated, of whom he spoke so scathingly, of whom he had always had something disparaging to say?

Was the fair-haired woman in the photograph the reason for his bitterness?

Skye gave a little sigh. It was all too difficult to understand. She only knew one thing – she felt a new shyness and a new embarrassment about El Diablo. She almost wished that she had not discovered the truth about him!

Yet late that evening, when he had come striding into the outer cave where she was waiting, she thought that she must be mistaken. The air of autocratic authority and virile purposefulness about him, the quick grace with which he moved were all utterly un-English.

“Everything is arranged,” he had said, throwing his rebenque and gloves down on the chair.

He bent towards her and taking her chin in his fingers raised her face to his and had kissed her lightly on the lips.

“I am late, but it won’t take me more than a few minutes to change, and then we will have dinner.”

He did not wait for her to reply and was gone before she could think of what to say to him. There was an easy familiarity in his greeting that made her burn with indignation.

She was only the woman who must wait for him, her feelings unimportant and unconsidered. He treated her as an Eastern Potentate might treat his concubine. And he was British!

She longed to accuse him of it, to hurl fresh terms of abuse at him for his treatment of her. Yet she knew that she was afraid. She dared not tell him that she had been spying on him and dared not confess that she had inadvertently forced open a drawer that he kept locked.

She looked at his whip on the chair and shuddered. The weals on her back were fading, but she knew that even when they were gone the memory of them would never be erased from her mind.

Restlessly she rose to her feet and walked across the cave. She had done so a hundred times already since she had been waiting for El Diablo’s return and now she felt that she could not keep still any more than she could keep her mind steady or calm enough to consider the whole situation in the light of her new knowledge.

“Are you hungry? I am sorry to keep you waiting.”