At first they had no need of them, then as dinner was finished except for the coffee and they still sat talking, Jenkins had lit the candles and drawn the curtains over the portholes to shut out the last glimmer of the sinking sun.

It was extraordinary, Yamina had thought, that she was conversing in a very civilised manner with the man who had raged at her earlier in the day and who was her enemy not only in view of his nationality but also because she had intruded upon his life.

And yet she realised Lord Castleford was making a tremendous effort to ignore the awkward circumstances they found themselves in.

Instead he talked to her of his travels, of his recent visit to Persia, which she had found absorbingly interesting and of some of the dangerous situations he had encountered during his diplomatic life.

Her large dark eyes were fixed on his face as he talked and it would have been difficult for any man not to be flattered by her attention or to fail to appreciate how lovely she looked.

“I am afraid that tonight at any rate,” she had said when Lord Castleford joined her for dinner, “I cannot offer you a change of wardrobe.”

“You look very attractive!” he said.

Then, as if he felt that he had been too complimentary, he added,

“As I am quite certain you fully realise.”

Yamina looked at him from under her long dark lashes and there had been a hint of amusement in her eyes.

“It is a pity to spoil such a pretty speech,” she said, “and quite an eloquent one for an Englishman!”

Lord Castleford had laughed.

“You are quite determined to make me, and all my countrymen, obnoxious!” he said. “Perhaps one day we will surprise you when you least expect it.”

“While you were dressing I was wondering what you are like when you are not on your guard,” Yamina said. “You give me the impression that you are always afraid that your words will be misconstrued or perhaps listened to by unauthorised persons. Therefore you choose them as carefully as another man chooses his wines.”

“Perhaps that is a rather good description of what it means to be a diplomat,” Lord Castleford said.

“Surely you find it somewhat restricting?” Yamina suggested. “Do you never long to run wild, to say anything that comes into your head, to be completely natural and very very undiplomatic?”

“I am trained to be self-controlled,” Lord Castleford replied.

Then, meeting Yamina’s eyes, he laughed again.

“I admit that when you first appeared out of that trunk you took me unawares. But I think, if you are honest, you prefer me when I discipline both my tongue and my anger.”

“I will tell you the answer to that assumption,” Yamina replied, “when we have grown to know each other a little better.”

It was something that had already begun to happen, she thought, by the end of dinner.