She had never before dined alone with a man other than her father and she found it an experience that was definitely intriguing.

It seemed to her that, as she and Lord Castleford sat at the table in the centre of the cabin, they were, as it were, on an island by themselves.

Outside there was to all intents and purposes an angry and a dangerous sea.

For the moment they were isolated, two people who had been brought together by Fate and who in consequence could not help exploring each other as if they were each of them a piece of unknown land.

‘We are without maps, without compasses, without anything but our own instincts to tell us what is true or false,’ Yamina told herself.

She smiled without realising it, so that Lord Castleford said,

“Tell me what is amusing you?”

“Us!” Yamina answered truthfully. “The fact that we are here together knowing nothing of each other personally and yet undoubtedly prejudiced because we are on opposite sides of a war!”

“I see what you are trying to say,” he replied, “and that is why war is wrong, unnecessary and completely primitive!”

He looked across the table at Yamina and said,

“When I was in St. Petersburg four years ago, I was entertained royally by the Czar and many distinguished Russians. I liked to think that I had made many real friends amongst them. Yet because a Russian Ambassador chose to be deliberately aggressive and needled the Turks into defiance I have lost friendships I should have valued all my life.”

“The situation is absurd if one thinks about it like that,” Yamina agreed, “but I am sure that when the war is over you will be able to go back to Russia and pick up the threads where you left off.”

“I wonder if that will be possible?” Lord Castleford said reflectively.

“I am sure it will be,” Yamina replied. “It may take a little time, but that is what happens when one becomes involved in international events.”

“No, that is what happens when Governments use force instead of diplomacy!”

“So you look upon yourself as a man of peace?”

“I do indeed!” he answered.

Yamina raised her glass.

“Then I drink to your future!” she said. “For all women seek peace and hate war!”

They talked at the table until Jenkins came to take away the coffee cups and leave a decanter of port and a glass beside one of the armchairs for Lord Castleford.

They sat on talking and duelling with each other verbally, until without meaning to, Yamina’s eyelids drooped a little and she stifled a yawn.

“You are tired,” Lord Castleford said. “It has been an exhausting day for you and one that involved you in many conflicting emotions, the worst, I imagine, being fear!”