“Don’t be so ridiculous!” Lord Castleford said sharply. “The war will not last for ever and then I imagine you can return home.”

“I will return to Russia,” Yamina agreed, “and I suppose something may be left of our house in Balaclava, but I doubt it!”

She did not say how frightening the future felt for her without her father and mother and with really no home left to go to.

She had never cared for her relations and the necessity of living with her uncle or cousins was something that she had considered and then set on one side until she was forced to make a choice in the matter.

Whatever happened now the future was rather bleak and she felt that she was to all intents and purposes alone in the world.

It could never be the same without her father, without the companionship that had meant so much to both of them these last few years.

Her face must have been very expressive for after a moment Lord Castleford said,

“It is always worrying to make decisions before one has to. Let’s concern ourselves for the moment with trying to get out of this mess. I cannot help feeling that we ought to be intelligent enough not to make any mistakes and above all not to be discovered!”

“My father used to say there was no problem that the mind could not solve,” Yamina said.

“I agree with him,” Lord Castleford answered, “and that is why we must plan everything carefully. We must take no chances of any sort and most of all we must never be taken by surprise.”

As he spoke, he walked across the cabin to shoot home the bolt on the inside of the door.

“The Stewards have duplicate keys,” he said as if in explanation. “It would be easy for them to enter at any time. It is essential that we always remember to bolt ourselves in.”

“Yes, of course,” Yamina agreed.

She too rose from the armchair and walked to the porthole to look out, not to sea but upwards, as if she suspected that someone might lower himself from an upper deck and look in on them.

“I think we are safe from prying eyes,” Lord Castleford said with a little smile.

“I hope so,” Yamina replied. “But sailors climb about on ropes and there is always the chance that they might look in while doing so.”

“I think it is unlikely,” Lord Castleford said. “However, we must keep our voices low unless I wish to explain to anyone outside that I talk to myself!”

“Which is a sign of madness!”

“I admit to feeling that I was going a little mad when I first saw the silks moving in the trunk. I thought my present from the Sultan’s favourite might be an animal or a bird of some sort.”