“I’ve talked to her. I’ve tried to beg her to come with us. I’ve even said I’d stay.”

“You mustn’t. You must get home. You must live like you was meant to live. Dr. Fenwick will come and when you are married to him, you’ll wonder why you ever put it off so long.”

We said a tense goodbye to Henrietta. A few other women had decided to stay and those who were doing so left that night.

I could not believe that I was losing her. For so long we had been together. I was hurt and bewildered that she could go thus. She knew my feelings and wanted to explain, but she obviously could not bring herself to.

“It’s love, that’s what it is,” said Eliza. That gets stronger than friendship. Every other thing’s forgotten when a man beckons to his mate. “

We went with Henrietta out of the hospital. We watched her make her way down the incline to the shore. We saw her getting into the caique.

Then I stared, for Dr. Adair had joined her and was standing beside her.

Eliza turned to me.

“I told you so. I knew it.”

“What?” I said, although I knew.

“She’s gone off with him. All he had to do was raise his finger and she’s off, forsaking her friends … everyone. Well, that’s the way of the world.”

“She is going to Philippe Lablanche.”

“That’s a likely tale.”

“It was what she told me.”

“She didn’t want you to know the truth. She was under his spell. I saw that plain as plum duff without the plums. She’s gone off with him.

Oh, the little fool. And we’ll not be here when he throws her off.

He’s took her . I reckon he was after you as well. I know his sort.

Gawd help our little Henrietta. “

“I don’t believe it. She would have told me. She distinctly said Philippe.”

“He was waiting for her, wasn’t he?

“Course she’ll tell you it’s Philippe. She wouldn’t want you to know the truth. I’ve seen it coming. I know life, I do. She’s gone off for a few weeks … a few days … perhaps a few hours with our mysterious gentleman, and she thinks that worth while!”

“Surely neither of them would do such a thing.”

“What do you mean neither of them? He’s a rogue and she’s a fool.

He’s out for everything he can get and she’s been working up to this for weeks. “

“Perhaps I should try to find her, bring her back.”

important to me than anything. You go home. You’ll have Eliza with you. She’s better than I am . “

“Don’t stay here, Henrietta.”

“I must.”

“You haven’t told me everything.”

She was silent.

“There are some things one can’t talk of. One can’t explain one’s feelings. This is something I have to do on my own.”

“Have you seriously thought of what you are doing?”

“I’ve thought of nothing else for ages. I’m not waiting until tomorrow. I’m going tonight.”

“I can’t believe this. I feel completely shattered.”

“I put off telling you. I should have done so before. But you know me.

If I don’t like doing something, I pretend it doesn’t exist. I’ve always been like that. “

“Perhaps I had better stay with you.”

She looked at me in alarm.

“No, no. You must go home. Eliza’s going with you. Oh, Anna, won’t Jane and Polly be pleased. And Lily too.

They’ll kill the fatted calf. “

“Henrietta, is there something you want to tell me?”

She shook her head.

“No … no. I must do this, Anna. Please try to understand and one day … soon perhaps … I’ll come and see you.

Then I’ll tell you everything. Then you’ll understand. “

She embraced me, holding me tightly in silence, for we were both too emotional for words.

I found Eliza and told her what Henrietta had told me.

She said: “I saw it coming. I knew it. Poor Henrietta, she doesn’t know what she’s letting herself in for.”

“I’ve talked to her. I’ve tried to beg her to come with us. I’ve even said I’d stay.”

“You mustn’t. You must get home. You must live like you was meant to live. Dr. Fenwick will come and when you are married to him, you’ll wonder why you ever put it off so long.”

We said a tense goodbye to Henrietta. A few other women had decided to stay and those who were doing so left that night.

I could not believe that I was losing her. For so long we had been together. I was hurt and bewildered that she could go thus. She knew my feelings and wanted to explain, but she obviously could not bring herself to.

“It’s love, that’s what it is,” said Eliza.

“That gets stronger than friendship. Every other thing’s forgotten when a man beckons to his mate.”

We went with Henrietta out of the hospital. We watched her make her way down the incline to the shore. We saw her getting into the caique.

Then I stared, for Dr. Adair had joined her and was standing beside her.

Eliza turned to me.

“I told you so. I knew it.”

“What?” I said, although I knew.

“She’s gone off with him. All he had to do was raise his finger and she’s off, forsaking her friends … everyone. Well, that’s the way of the world.”

“She is going to Philippe Lablanche.”

“That’s a likely tale.”

“It was what she told me.”

“She didn’t want you to know the truth. She was under his spell. I saw that plain as plum duff without the plums. She’s gone off with him.

Oh, the little fool. And we’ll not be here when he throws her off.

He’s took her . I reckon he was after you as well. I know his sort.

Gawd help our little Henrietta. “

“I don’t believe it. She would have told me. She distinctly said Philippe.”

“He was waiting for her, wasn’t he?

“Course she’ll tell you it’s Philippe. She wouldn’t want you to know the truth. I’ve seen it coming. I know life, I do. She’s gone off for a few weeks … a few days … perhaps a few hours with our mysterious gentleman, and she thinks that worth while!”

“Surely neither of them would do such a thing.”

“What do you mean neither of them? He’s a rogue and she’s a fool.

He’s out for everything he can get and she’s been working up to this for weeks. “

“Perhaps I should try to find her, bring her back.”

“How? Where? She’ll be right in the heart of the city before you could get near her. His mistress … that’s what she’ll be. She won’t last long with him neither. There’s nothing we can do.”

I did not sleep all through my last night in Scutari. I lay tossing from side to side.

What were they doing now? They were together. Damien I called him Damien in my thoughts would be making love to her. He would be expert at that and poor Henrietta was innocent, inexperienced, a dreamy-eyed schoolgirl, really. She would believe it would go on forever, and for him she would be one of those lights-o’-love to be taken up for a brief spell and then discarded when he tired of them like the women in the harem. Perhaps he had a harem in that place in Constantinople? I imagined them . women in their beautiful silks, Turkish garb . those sheer baggy gauze trousers caught in at the ankles . waiting to be summoned to their lord.

To think that Henrietta had become one of those . a slave, no less. And he had tried to make me one of his band! I expect he would have liked us both to be there together.

I must stop thinking of them. Henrietta had made her choice. She must abide by it. What had she done? She had cast aside her independence, a civilized way of life, to become a slave.

Lurid pictures flashed in and out of my mind. I imagined him, talking to her across the table as he had to me. I imagined their making love; and in my imagination it was not Henrietta who shared in those erode posturings, but I. I was fighting a battle with myself. I wanted to be there. What a shameful admission! It was not true. I wanted never to see him again. I wanted to forget I had ever heard of him. But how could I? He had been part of my life for so long. I had fed my grief with tit bits of revenge. I had lived through the blankness of my life in the hope of revenging myself on him. I had endowed him with all sorts of villainies. He had been the Demon Doctor - not quite human. He had taken possession of me as surely as if he had done so physically. He was evil and yet life was so empty without him.

I thought fleetingly of Charles Fenwick. I had not felt this emptiness when I had watched him sail for home. Yet Charles was a good honest man. He was offering me a great deal, and I had turned from it. I had to be reasonable; I had to be sensible. I had to get the Demon Doctor out of my mind.

I must try to sleep, or I should be so tired in the morning and there would be a great deal to do. I forced myself to think of my homecoming. As soon as I had known, I had written to Jane and Polly telling them the date of my arrival; but I was not sure when they would receive the letter.

I should be sure of a welcome. They would kill the fatted calf, as Henrietta had said. What talk there would be. Jane, Polly, Lily, they would all want to know so much. I should have to explain about Henrietta and introduce Eliza to them.

William Clift would be travelling with us. I was to take him home. A present for Lily. What a present! I must be thankful for what I was able to do.

And it was Damien who had saved his life, and there I was back with him. It was useless to try to get him out of my mind.

I went over every detail of that day when, behind the screen, he had saved William’s life with his strange methods. No one else could have done it. No one else would have dared to do what he had done. I must not forget that nor must I forget that we had misjudged him. When we had found him wearing that turban looking magnificent he had not been indulging in erotic adventures; he had been procuring drugs which he had administered to William and others and so saved their lives.

He was satanic in some ways, but he was a good doctor. He had done many things which would be judged disreputable, but how many lives had he saved? And how many lost? Doctors could not save life all the time.

It was the very nature of their work that they must experiment.

And here he was, dominating my thoughts, keeping sleep at bay, filling me with a wretched feeling of loss. No sleep was possible that night.

The next day we boarded the ship which was to take us to Marseilles.

It was almost as battered as the Vectis and appeared to be only just seaworthy; but I was hardly aware of that. My thoughts were in Constantinople.

Those soldiers who were well enough to travel came with us, William among them. At least I found comfort in the fact that I was taking him home to Lily.

I felt very emotional as we sailed down the Bosphorus, looking back at those shores, at the minarets and towers of Constantinople and the hospital at Scutari. Eliza and I stood side by side watching.

“Lots of water flowed under the bridge since we first came,” she commented.

“I remember it well… the four of us. We had become good friends by then. How glad I am that we did.”

“Same here,” said Eliza; she was always brief when her emotions were involved.

“At least Ethel came out all right,” she went on.

“Who’d have thought it? Little Ethel! One of life’s victims. Just shows you, you can never be sure. She’s had a real starry romance. I wonder how she is? Won’t it be good to see her?”

“It will,” I agreed.

Then we went inside to our squalid and cramped quarters.

In a way it was like history repeating itself. It was not long before we were in the storm. Eliza and I went on deck and sat side by side, the waves crashing against the side of our frail craft, wondering, as we did on that other occasion, whether we would survive.

“It’s just like that other time, only now there are only two of us,” said Eliza.

“Now Ethel’s safe at home. It only goes to show you should never give up, don’t it?”

“It does indeed,” I said.

“Just think. If you hadn’t stopped her going over she’d never have met Tom, never have had that life in the country. Don’t it make you feel sort of powerful, to have had that effect on someone’s life?”

“Don’t we all have effects on each other’s lives?”

“I reckon you’ve got something there. But to have saved a life, that’s really something.”

I thought of him at that screened-off bedside, holding the bullet in his hand. I thought of his methods . willing William to feel no pain, the administration of a drug which would no doubt have been unacceptable in our hospitals at home. He had saved other lives . and lost a few. How did it feel?