" We laughed as she led meto her front room. I looked around at the small dingy place she calledhome and hoped that I wasn't going to upset her. As we...sat I took her handand turned to face her. "Emma there is something I need to tell you." Shepulled her hand away in horror as she stared at me tears forming in hereyes. "No, no don't cry please, Emma will you move in with me?" And thatwas it I had blurted it out, and was waiting for an answer, it seemed likehours passed before she began to smile. I was thinking that I was going to learn something new. She asked, “How many of you have a girlfriend or a boyfriend?”In my mind, I was thinking, “Why is she asking that? What will she do knowing about our relationship status?”After a while when I finished questioning this in my mind, I saw ALL the hands were raised except mine. To avoid the embarrassment of being the only single, in a class of love doves, I also raised my hand.I raised my hand thinking about my best friend Milli. She was more. The meeting which he was watching was getting intimate now, the female running her hands seductively over the famed armor of the male, the male promising to make her the queen of Italia. Italia indeed! Cesare, the self centred leader of the Papal (and for political purposes, Borgia) was too wily a creature to be held by a woman, even if she was Lucrezia Borgia, daughter of the most haughty Pope ever to disgrace the Holy See, who had made his daughter a female mirror of himself, his chains of. Dan, his mind in a turmoil, lay awake for a long time. The soft touch ofhis silken gown, and the sensitivity of his studded earlobes, kept himsensually aware of all that had happened in the past few hours.Strangely enough, he realized that he felt really attracted to Max. "Imustn't think that way," he admonished himself. "He would only hate meif he really knew that I am not a woman." Max's face continued to haunthim in his dreams.CHAPTER 7On Saturday, the last day of the jamboree, Dan was not.