We could feel a gentle breeze from our rear as we approached the open door. We were amazed when we looked into the room. The carpet had been rolled ba...k to one wall and a large steel plate was resting on four bricks at the corners. Upon this steel plate was a circle of rocks and a pile of sand, and upon the sand was a widely spread sheet of red hot coals.There was a tripod above the coals that was supporting a shallow pot containing a boiling liquid that would occasionally bubble over and drip. ‘Let’s go back now,’ she told him, tugging on his arm. ‘There’s too many sexy women down this way. Wouldn’t want you getting distracted.’ Doug caught her around the waist and pulled her up to face him. Putting his mouth very close to hers, and looking deep into those dark blue, almost violet eyes, he whispered, ‘Like that could ever happen.’ And he sealed it with a warm kiss, filled with all the passion he could convey in a public place. When they broke away, she had a shy smile on her soft. They tried everything: a different mix of chemo, radiation. We contemplated more surgery.Finally, when her doctors found it in her spinal fluid and said the next stop was her brain, we knew her time was almost up. I pleaded with her to continue with the treatments, but McKayla firmly told me that she didn't want any more."If I go through all that—the surgery, the chemo, the radiation—what's that going to get me?" she asked through teary eyes. "Another month? Two? And for what? Feeling like shit. Filling the kettle, she was effusive in her thanks, "You don't know how grateful I am. You must let me give you a cup of coffee, at the very least."Recognising that he had been caught, Derek gave in with good grace. When they were sitting in the breakfast room with their coffee, Molly broached the subject she most wanted to grill Derek about."You two, you and Shulah, were having me on about her being given to you as a slave, weren't you?" she asked."Slave is the wrong term," said Derek.