69

Before Angela could reply, the cellar lights clicked on and she was able to look at her prison for the first time. Seconds later, a guard strode down the stairs and walked across the stone floor to Marietta’s cell. He was carrying towels, two buckets of warm water and a pair of white robes.

‘It’s time,’ he ordered. ‘Get ready; and be quick about it. The first members have already arrived, and we don’t want to keep them waiting.’

He tossed a towel and a robe on to the bed, gave Marietta a malicious grin, and left her to wash. Next, he stood at the entrance to Angela’s cell. Stepping forward, he threw the robe and towel on to her bed, said something to her in Italian, then turned and left the cellar.

‘What did he say to me?’ Angela asked, once the cellar door had rumbled closed.

For a few moments, Marietta didn’t respond. Then she gave a heavy sigh. ‘He told you that the show was about to start,’ she replied, ‘and we’d both have starring roles. I think they’re going to kill us both.’

The girl’s voice sounded flat and resigned, as if she’d somehow managed to come to terms with the inevitability of her fate.

‘I know,’ Angela replied, her voice choked with emotion. ‘They told me we’d die together tonight.’

For a minute or so there was silence in the cellar, then Angela spoke again.

‘What are you going to do?’ she asked. ‘Will you cooperate with them?’

Marietta’s voice broke into sobs. ‘I’m going to do exactly what they tell me,’ she said finally, and Angela could hear her starting to wash in the adjacent cell. ‘What else can I do? If I don’t obey their instructions, that bastard guard will send a couple of his men down here to rape or beat me. If I do as I’m told, I’ll only get raped during the ceremony itself. And I’ve seen what happens down here, so I suggest you cooperate as well. In the end, it’ll make it easier for you.’

‘Dear God,’ Angela murmured, as the appalling inevitability of their situation hit home.