“Someone once played with me as I meant to play with you. She made me love her, crazily, madly, passionately. But she was not woman enough to give herself to me or to let our love be the beautiful, glorious thing nature had intended it to be. I asked her first to marry me and then, when she was married to someone else, to run away with me, but she preferred to keep me as a plaything.

“Later, when I learnt that she was also untruthful and a coward, I saw her for what she was and hated her and everything she stood for in an empty vicious social life. But because of what she had done to me I vowed revenge on all women and, when I saw you, because you were a little like her and because you were English, I wanted to make you suffer! I decided to make you fall in love with me so that I could gloat over your misery, laugh at your desires and mock you when you pleaded for my kisses.

“But everything went wrong. You didn’t fall in love with me. I fell in love with you.”

El Diablo took a step towards Skye as she sat looking up at him, her eyes very wide, both hands laid against her breast, as if to quell the sudden leap of her heart.

“I love you.” His voice was deep and compellingly sincere. “I love you as I have never loved a woman before and as I shall never love a woman again. But because of that love, because I know myself for what I am and you for what you are, I will not keep you here. You must go back to the world you know, to the quietness and security of England, to the easy, undangerous democracy of America.”

“Can you really believe – I want that sort of existence?” Skye asked breathlessly.

“You think you don’t want it now,” El Diablo replied, “but you have no idea of what your life here will be when you cannot escape from it. This is my world, this is where I belong, this is where my work lies. I shall never leave Mariposa.”

“And this is – where I want to stay too,” Skye said.

“With me?” El Diablo asked. “My little sweet, have you forgotten what I am like? I shall not change overnight because I love you. I shall still be cruel and overbearing, autocratic and bad-tempered. You have seen some of the worst of me, do you really believe you could be happy with that, day after day, year after year?”

“I love you,” Skye replied softly; “I love you – just as you are. I don’t want you any different. I wouldn’t love you if you were. I only want – El Diablo!”