When his valet had left the cabin, he bolted the door behind him.

As if this was the signal she had been waiting for, Yamina came from the bathroom and Lord Castleford knew that she had been listening.

She had changed from her elaborate and revealing Turkish dress and was now wearing the blue caftan in which she looked extremely beautiful. It was edged at the neck and sleeves with pearls and turquoises and pearls were also embroidered in the silver on the velvet.

She had not taken the diamonds from her hair, which was still loose over her shoulders and, as she walked towards Lord Castleford, he thought that she might have stepped out of a Persian mosaic.

“I thought you managed that very skilfully,” she commented.

“I am, of course, gratified by your approval!” he replied sarcastically.

She gave him an amused smile and asked,

“Are you still very angry?”

“Naturally!” he replied. “At the same time I find it exhausting to lose my temper and a diplomat should always be self-controlled.”

“You were certainly not that when you first saw me in the trunk!”

“Can you be surprised?”

“Not really,” she answered, “and I think perhaps I am delighted to have disturbed your British calm and broken through that pose of aloof indifference for which your countrymen are famed.”

“Is that what you think about us in Russia?” he asked.

“But of course!” Yamina replied. “Nothing really provokes an Englishman into losing his temper – except of course a – woman!”

“You can congratulate yourself on being so successful!” Lord Castleford said. “Perhaps it would have been more effective if I had been icily calm.”

“That actually was what I expected!” Yamina said. “I am quite relieved to find you – are human after all!”

“Perhaps occasionally it is a good idea to see oneself through the eyes of the enemy,” he said. “Although I must say the hospitality I received when I was last in Russia gave me a very different picture of myself from the one you are depicting.”

“The Russians are a hospitable people and always courteous,” Yamina said. “Now we are at war you can learn a few home truths.”

“Would you really wish me to speak the truth?” Lord Castleford asked.

“Not if it means that you will be any more unpleasant than you have already,” Yamina said. “It will be hard to forget that you called me an ‘exotic houri’!”

Lord Castleford smiled.

“Shall I tell you that at the moment you do not now look in the least like it?” he asked. “In which case I may be forgiven!”

“And I hope now I don’t look indecent!”

“Shall I apologise?” he enquired.

“Do not trouble,” she replied. “It is not what people say but what they do that matters and therefore I am extremely grateful to you for not handing me over to the Captain.”