“That will be nothing new,” Skye flashed at him.

“I am very thick-skinned,” he retorted quietly, “and also very obstinate.”

She took the earring from him and clipped it onto her ear. It was heavy but quite comfortable. She put on the other and then she stood pouting a little because once again he had asserted his authority.

“They suit you,” he said approvingly and added with a sudden gleam of humour, “You need not thank me.”

“I will wear these because you make me,” Skye replied, “but one day I shall be in a position to give them back to you.”

“On the day that I am tired of you and you get your divorce?” he queried. “It is a long way off, so we need not trouble about it.”

Skye suddenly stamped her foot.

“Why, oh why,” she cried miserably, “must you be so bestial? It gives you pleasure to torture me and I know I am a fool to mind, but I cannot stay here for ever – how can I?”

The last words were spoken pleadingly, the cry of a child frightened of the dark.

Suddenly El Diablo reached out and took her hands in his.

“So you can feel something beside a murderous hatred!” he said. “You amuse me when you are angry, but perhaps I like you best when you forget that you are an Amazon and become a little girl who has been frightened. Then your eyes plead with me and your lips are no longer bitter. My present was meant to make you happy because there is a fiesta tonight and we are going to enjoy ourselves. Listen! The music is beginning. Shall we go down to it?”

He was suddenly surprisingly human. There was no arrogance in his voice now. Instead he was trying to charm her into a good humour, tempting her with a treat, perhaps in his own way apologising for his cruelty.

Slowly Skye drew her hands from his.

“Yes, let’s go to the fiesta,” she said and smiled.

Chapter 8

Skye walked ahead of El Diablo through the open door, but as she reached the terrace she found that she must wait a moment so that her eyes could grow accustomed to the darkness.

The moon had not yet risen and, when El Diablo joined her, she was glad to find that he held an electric torch in one hand. It cast a yellow circle of light before them.

But when they reached the steps, he slipped his arm through hers.

The camp was deserted. They walked through it, passing the empty huts and tents, coming out onto the rough grass of the grazing ground.

It was then that Skye saw the first signs of the fiesta.