Nunfield had taken the couch on the other side of Lucien. As the serving girls entered, he said, "Tonight's theme is Turkish. Personally, I like it when the tarts dress as nuns-the habits leave so much to the imagination. But many of our brethren prefer the obvious." He beckoned to a server carrying a jug. The woman leaned forward and poured wine into their goblets, her lush breasts swaying behind the veils that floated above her torso.

"Lovely creatures, aren't they?" Appreciatively, Mace caressed a round buttock. The woman gave a throaty chuckle and rubbed against his hand. "Roderick is in charge of arranging for the girls, and he has excellent taste."

"Are they professionals?" Lucien asked, unsurprised to learn that Roderick was chief pimp.

"Most are, but not all." Mace gave a satyr's smile. "Some are women of the highest rank, the sort one might meet in the queen's drawing room. That is why they are masked. If you had a sister, you might find her here. Or a wife."

Lucien suppressed a surge of distaste. "A tantalizing thought. What a pity that I have neither."

Mace raised his goblet "To debauchery!" After a challenging glance, he drained his cup with one swallow. Lucien did likewise. When in Rome…

Another serving girl arrived bearing a platter of steaming sausages that had been shaped to resemble phalluses. Lucien took one and bit off the end. The things he did for his country.

The feast rapidly degenerated into a latter-day version of a Roman orgy. Whenever possible, the food was formed into suggestive shapes, and wine and spirits flowed freely.

As the night progressed, giggling serving girls were pulled onto the couches. Some of the couples, including Nunfield and a busty brunette, engaged right there; others rose and stumbled off toward the private chambers that lined an adjacent hallway. After Mace disappeared with one of the women, Lucien rose and surreptiously slipped away into the gardens, feeling that he couldn't bear another minute of the fetid atmosphere.

The chilly air was refreshing, though he still felt dizzy from the amount of alcohol he had consumed. Matching Mace drink for drink was enough to strain even the hardest head.

He wandered through the moonlit paths, automatically noting the layout in case the knowledge might someday prove useful. When he climbed a stone staircase to the top of the wall, he discovered that the castle was not on an island. The water that he had crossed was a moon-silvered river that curled halfway around the hill. The castle itself was probably a remnant of Norman times that had been rebuilt by-the Hellions.

The gardens were beautifully laid out, though the obscene statues rapidly became tedious. Once he turned a sharp corner and walked into a marble Venus who was bending to remove a thorn from her foot. She had been placed in midpath so that any newcomer would collide with her naked buttocks.

He found that he was not the only wanderer when he came across Lord Ives contemplating a statue of Zeus raping a swan. Lucien gestured toward the figures. "Call me a puritan, but I can't imagine becoming aroused by a swan. Unless I was a swan too, of course."

The young man grinned. "Leda would have been safe from me as well. Those Greek gods were a randy lot."

The men fell in together and continued along the path. Lucien said, "Taking a break to regain your strength before the next encounter?"

Ives hesitated, then gave an embarrassed laugh. "I was considering going home early, actually. You'll probably think I'm foolish, but I didn't really enjoy myself with the girl I chose. I kept thinking I'd rather be with Cleo."

"I don't think you're foolish." Lucien thought of Jane, who had more sensuality in one teasing glance than all of the underdressed serving girls put together. "Passion without emotion might satisfy the body, but the pleasure is gone as quickly as it came, leaving emptiness."

"That's it exactly. I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels that way." Ives grimaced. "If Cleo learned that I had bedded another woman, she'd leave me. She's not a Cyprian, you know. There are other men who would be willing to pay more for her favors, but she chose me because she preferred my company."

"If you feel strongly about the girl, perhaps you should drop out of the Hellions."

Ives nodded as if the suggestion confirmed his own thoughts. "I think you're right. It's foolish to risk losing something valuable for the sake of a few minutes' pleasure with a female whose name I won't remember in the morning."

Deciding to do some research, Lucien asked, "Do the Hellions take the rituals seriously?"

"Perhaps Mace does a bit-he's a pagan at heart-but it's really only for amusement. Most of us joined for the entertainment and the girls."

Their meanderings had brought them back to the chapel, where the sounds of carousal had faded. In the west the moon was setting. "When and how do people go home?" Lucien asked.

"Most sleep off their excesses here, but I'm going to leave now. Would you like to go back to London in my curricle?"

Lucien hesitated, tempted, then shook his head. "That would be uncivil for my first time. I'll stay until the others leave."

The men said their farewells and Lucien reentered the banqueting hall. After the freshness of the night, the rank, overheated atmosphere was choking. Sleeping bodies littered the couches and floor, male and female tangled together. In one corner, Westley lay on his back giggling while a nude woman trickled wine into his mouth. No one else seemed to be awake.

Lucien was looking for a quiet spot to sleep away the rest of the night when Nunfield emerged from one of the private rooms, moving with the exaggerated care of the extremely drunk. Clinging to his arm was a lusty-looking wench wearing a half-mask of pheasant feathers and not much else.

"Lucifer! I've been looking for you." Nunfield hic-cuped. "You've got to go with Lola. She's 'ceptionally skilled."

"Thank you, darling," she purred, her eyes gleaming behind the slits of the mask. "I do aim to please." She stretched out a sinuous hand and caught Lucien's wrist.

"Come with me and I'll try to live up to Nunny's recommendation."

Lucien was looking for a way to refuse when he saw the sharpness of Nunfield's gaze. To decline would be conspicuous, so he must appear to go along with the suggestion. Once he was alone with the woman, he would disengage as he had done at Chiswick's house. Donning the facade of drunkenness, he said with heavy gallantry, "It will be my pleasure, Madame Lola." He offered his arm and almost overbalanced in the process.

Deftly she caught his elbow and guided him toward a private chamber. He felt Nunfield's gaze boring into his back as they crossed the hall, picking their way around slumbering bodies.

The chamber contained a chaise wide enough for two. Lola tossed aside her mask and pushed Lucien down so that he was sitting on the edge. Then she straddled his lap and wrapped herself around him for a fevered kiss. As Nunfield had said, she was exceptionally skilled. Yet he sensed that under her extravagant display of passion was a nature as cold and calculating as that of a reptile.

Feeling repelled, he broke away and said Wearily, "A pity I didn't meet you earlier, Lola, before I used up all my energy." He gave a hiccup for good measure. "Sorry. Sh… should have drunk less."

He was about to remove her from his lap when she ran a hand down his torso. The unprincipled brigand attached to his body began to harden under the expert manipulation of her fingers.

She gave a crow of satisfaction. "Don't worry, mate, there's life in the old lad yet. Lola will take care of everything." From the flinty light in her eyes, he guessed that she secretly despised men and enjoyed seeing them helpless in the throes of lust. Most men would not notice or care about her private opinions, for her blatantly carnal behavior was the stuff of male fantasies. But not of his. Oh, God, not his. He wanted to walk out, yet he knew he should maintain his rakish role.

While he teetered between duty and inclination, Lola pressed him back across the chaise. Then she lifted the hem of his monk's robe and attacked the buttons of his trousers. When her heated mouth closed over him, raw desire surged through his veins, paralyzing his judgment and will. It had been a long time, too long, since he had lain with a woman, and his body would no longer be denied.

Lola's ministrations brought him to culmination in a matter of minutes, yet there was nothing satisfying about the physical release. No sooner had his ravening hunger been appeased then desolation overwhelmed him.

What was he doing here with a vulgar tart? Why did he think his hidden schemes were necessary to his country? Britain had survived centuries without him and would endure long after he was gone. He was a fool to think his actions could ever make a difference; his life's work was as futile as cold ashes.

He tried to counter his despair by invoking the memories of friends and family, but he instantly stopped, feeling too soiled to be worthy of the recollections. What would Jane think if she saw him now? His stomach churned at the thought, leaving the bitter taste of bile in his mouth.

To continue such thoughts would lead to madness. Painfully, he clamped down on his emotions, forcing them back into the hidden chamber that had saved him time and time again.

When a semblance of sanity had returned, he opened his eyes. Lola was sprawled on the chaise beside him, looking sleepy and pleased with herself. Though he couldn't bring himself to touch her, he made the sort of remarks a man was expected to make under such circumstances, thanking the woman who had served him and flattering her skill. Her report to Mace and Nunfield should be unexceptionable, and that was what mattered. Wasn't it?