'He may endeavour to force me against my will. What then? Do you promise to come to my assistance?'
Again, Roger was entirely frank with her. 'This, Madame, is our programme. Unless Malderini delays for some reason, he and his friends will make their attempt to kidnap General Boneparte while you are supping with him. Under my orders the guards, who will have been disposed about the casino in an ambush, will suddenly appear on the scene and defeat the attempt. Having killed Malderini, I shall then convey the other prisoners under escort back to Venice, leaving you alone with the General.'
'Then it is your intention to leave me at his mercy.'
'Permit me to observe,' replied Roger quietly, 'that you are a well-made woman, whereas he is much below the size of an average man. He is, in fact, shorter than yourself, although admittedly more muscular. Moreover, I am inclined to the belief that few men, large or small, derive much pleasure from taking a woman against her will. He has great personality. I should not be at all surprised if you find yourself strongly attracted to him. If so, well and good. If not, then you must risk the other thing, or accept the alternative.'
The alternative,' she repeated. 'What is that?"
Roger stood up. Why, that since I brought you here without your permission I am responsible for you. As I shall not be here at the time when General Boneparte might seek to take advantage of you, it is for me to prevent such a situation ever arising/
'What do you mean? I do not understand.'
'Simply that, should you not be prepared either to grant the General certain favours in the event of your finding him attractive, or repulse him if you do not, then I must take you back to the Malderini Palace this afternoon.'
No!' she exclaimed. 'No, no! Not that!'
He shrugged. 'The choice is yours, Princess. The role that I am playing at the moment is repugnant to me. But I'll not have it on my conscience that I acted the pimp for Bonepart to the extent of procuring a woman for him against her will. You are no child and, if you find his attentions distasteful, you should be capable of dealing with him. But either you face up to that as the price of being rid of the husband you hate before morning, or all I have done so far must go for nothing. I'll have to face the General's wrath when he finds I have disappointed him, and you will continue to be the slave of Malderini.'
She hesitated only an instant, then looked him squarely in the face. 'Nothing could equal the horrors to which he has subjected me. I would give myself to a sweeper rather than return to him.'
There is no question of your being called on to do anything so disagreeable,' Roger smiled. 'I cannot vouch for the attitude General Boneparte will adopt towards you, any more than I could vouch for the attitude you will adopt towards him. I had though, as a matter of fairness, to assure myself that you understood the most unpleasant turn that events might take. But the General is by no means lacking in chivalry, and if you play your cards skilfully the game should remain in your own hands. And now, I think we might partake of some refreshment.'
At his call, Crozier wheeled in a small two-tier table loaded with all sorts of cold delicacies, fruit and wine. When he had withdrawn, Roger served the Princess and resumed the conversation in a lighter vein. He told her about Boneparte's background as a young man, and of his better side: of his care to spare his wife pain from knowledge of his infidelities, of his great generosity to his family who did little but cause him annoyance of his loyalty to his friends, his thoughtfulness for his servants, and that, while he would wither with his viperish tongue men of the first rank of whose actions he disapproved, he was invariably courteous to women.
When they had finished their meal, Roger suggested that she should spend the afternoon resting in the bedroom. Then he added that he had some work to do which would take him an hour or so, after which he must return to Venice; so he would not disturb her but take leave of her now.
Instantly, she became panic-stricken and implored him to remain with her. Again she insisted that Malderini would use his crystal to find out where she was, and come out to the island to regain possession of her before Roger returned. In vain he tried to still her fears. He had intended to take the whole crew of the naval barge back to Venice and dismiss it there, so that none of them should become aware of Boneparte's visit to the casino. But now, feeling that it was just possible that there was some grounds for her fears, he decided to leave Lieutenant Bouvard and two of the sailors, as well as Crozier, as a guard; and on his promising to do that, she reluctantly agreed to his leaving her.
When he had seen her into the bedroom, in which everything necessary to a lady's toilette had been set out, he went round to the back of the boat-house. The previous day he had left there the two parcels of clothes he had bought. Having unpacked them, he collected from the boats a number of cushions and, slitting them open, used the stuffing from them to stuff the stockings, breeches, coat and hat on a framework of sticks. When he had done, he had a quite unmistakable effigy of Boneparte wearing a carnival mask. Wrapping it up in the big cloak, he hid it behind some garden chairs, then went to summon the crew of the barge.
He told Bouvard that he was leaving him there with two men and that the three of them were each to patrol a third of the islet's coast until his return. In no circumstances was anyone to be allowed to land and, if anyone attempted to, they were to be shot on sight. He then put on his mask and had the remainder of the crew row him back to Venice.
At the Embassy steps he gave each of the crew five sequins, cautioned them against talking and sent them back to the dockyard. Villetard was in his office and greeted him with much concern. All Venice was talking of the Princess Sirisha's kidnapping and, owing to the rumours which had already been spread, assumed that it had been done on General Boneparte's orders. The resentment was intense, that he should abuse his power to have carried off in broad daylight a woman to wham he had taken a fancy, and Villetard made no secret of his opinion that, unless Roger had some means of justifying his act, the General-in-Chief's rage would be unbounded when he learned that he had been made the central figure of such a scandal.
Roger needed no telling about that. He knew that to be revenged on Malderini he had taken a terrible gamble, and that there was many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip. If a single hitch occurred in his intricate plans now, by midnight he would be dead, on his way back to the Leads, or flying for his life. But what gave him greater concern at the moment was what Villetard had to say of a call that Malderini had paid him an hour earlier.
Malderini's pudgy face had been quivering with anger as he had demanded to know why, when there were a thousand other beautiful women in Venice, General Boneparte should have shown such lack of decent feeling as to have carried off the wife of a man who was on the point of rendering France an important service.
In vain Villetard had attempted to soothe him by telling him that, for his own protection he had observed the strictest secrecy about his being a French agent; and that the General-in-Chief was as yet unaware that it was he who would lead the conspirators into the trap that night. Malderini had talked of cancelling all his arrangements and, instead, going in pursuit of his wife.
Greatly surprised that he might be able to so do, Villetard had asked how he had found out where she was. To that he had replied that he was not quite certain, but he was sure she had been taken to an island with a casino on it. He had seen her there in his crystal with a tall masked man. He had yet to discover which of the many islands with casinos on them it was; but another session with his crystal might reveal that to him.