“It is the truth,” El Diablo answered lightly, “but don’t let it stop you from killing me. What is Mariposa to you? When you go back to your playgrounds in England and America, you will forget that the place so much as exists.”

“If you think I shall ever forget what I have suffered here at your hands, then you are mistaken,” Skye snapped.

“And what have I done? Married you before a Priest and then left you untouched and unharmed, unless you count a few stolen kisses. Perhaps that is really why you are angry with me. For the sins I have not committed.”

He was taunting her, but Skye refused to reply, only lifting her head a little higher with what she hoped was a disdainful expression on her face.

El Diablo laughed and shrugged his shoulders.

“Well, why not take your revenge? The gun is in your hand. You have only to pull the trigger.”

“That is what I meant to do a few minutes ago,” Skye said, “but now I am prepared to spare your life if you will help me to get free.”

“Why should I let you go when I like having you here? Think what that admission means! There is someone in the world who really wants you, who appreciates your company, someone who isn’t interested in your dollars but in you. Besides you should be grateful to me for teaching you how to kiss!”

Again he was, Skye realised, deliberately provoking her.

“I warn you that you can go too far,” she said sharply. “You have a temper, but so have I.”

“Had it been as quick as mine, I should be dead by now,” El Diablo said with a faint smile. “I have always struck first and thought afterwards. You are more balanced, you have thought first and now you will not kill me.”

“Don’t be too sure of that. If I cannot escape any other way, I shall.”

“I am beginning to think that we are here for the night,” El Diablo said. “May I smoke?”

“No!”

He shifted his shoulders again and crossed his feet.

There was something about his negligent attitude and the faint smile on his lips that annoyed Skye beyond endurance.

“Go to the door and call a man,” she commanded. “Tell him to saddle up two horses. I shall be aiming at your back, so don’t try any tricks.”

He did not move and after a second she said,

“At once!”

“No!”

The word was spoken softly and now El Diablo took his hands out of his pockets and walked forward towards the table.”

“Keep back. I swear I will shoot – if you come any nearer.”

“Wasn’t it a murderer that you called me?” he asked softly. “Yet I had nothing to gain by a man’s death. He died through no act of personal vengeance. But you are not the stuff, Skye, of which murderers are made.”