“The time grows nearer.”
“Yes, my darling.”
Lakshmi had returned to the room wrapped in towels which covered the nakedness of her tiny frame. Both Jon and Christine were stricken with horror as they saw the terrible scars across her back which told of vicious beatings to a child not yet having reached her puberty. Damodar gazed upon her with a look that told them that he also bore such scars.
“Perhaps you would like to bathe as well,” she took her seat on the sofa alongside him.
“In less than an hour, we will be in a situation that would make the notion ludicrous,” Damodar smiled. “No, let us keep watch over our friends here so that nothing can possibly go wrong.”
At once they could hear a commotion in the hall outside. Jon realized that there were guests arriving at the suite down th
