“Fire not ice,” he went on, speaking quietly with what might almost have passed for gentleness. “I seem to remember a Fairytale about an ice maiden whose heart never beat until the thaws came.”

His hand rested over her heart and then, unexpectedly, he lifted her up in his arms and carried her into her own cave. He set her down gently on the bed and as she looked up at him, too weary even to feel afraid, he bent his head and kissed her lightly on the forehead.

“Sleep well, Ice Maiden,” he murmured and left her.

Skye slept late to wake with that querulous, irritating feeling that something had gone wrong. As she opened her eyes to find Neengai waiting patiently in the corner, she remembered what had happened the night before.

She wanted in that moment to wail aloud as the Indian women would wail when they were bereaved or upset.

How, she asked herself, could she have been so stupid, so weak and so futile as to have victory within her grasp and let it escape her?

She could hardly credit her own foolishness. To think at this moment she might have been safely in Jācara having breakfast aboard the yacht!

Then she remembered the other alternatives – of being shot down by El Diablo’s guards or, worse still, captured.

She shook herself mentally. He had played on her feelings and he had outwitted her with a cunning and a cleverness that it shamed her to remember.

And then, when she was once again his prisoner and in his power, he had lovingly touched her with a mixture of passion, charm and self-control that left her utterly and completely bewildered.

Why did he not force himself upon her and make her completely his?

He desired her, she was sure of that and yet he denied himself what was his right by law and conquest.

When Neengai brought in her breakfast tray, the first thing Skye saw were two letters lying on it. For a moment she stared at them as if they were ghosts and then she remembered that in the forged letter El Diablo had sent in her name to Captain Maclean he had said that letters would be called for at regular intervals.

Excitedly Skye opened the first envelope, which was addressed to her in Captain Maclean’s writing.

He wrote,

“Dear Miss Standish,

I am delighted to hear that you are enjoying your stay up country. Everything is going on well here. The crew has been cleaning the ship and everything is in good order for your return.

I am sending with this a letter that arrived for you this morning and, if there is anything else you require, will you let me know?

Hoping that we shall be seeing you soon,

I remain,

Yours faithfully,

Angus Maclean.”