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until he told her to stop. He threw her onto her back on the mattress, pulled up his pants, and left the room. He slammed the door behind him, but left the light on. Giancarla curled up into a huddled ball of misery, sobbing and crying, wondering how long she was going to be left down here.
    It was not long. She heard the door open again and turned her head to see who had come in.
    It was Nicholas. He still looked grim and angry, but he had brought with him a bottle of water. He tossed it onto the mattress next to her, and Giancarla scrambled to grab it. She twisted the cap off and drank deeply, trying to wash the saltiness and the stickiness from her mouth. When she had drained the last drop of it she laid the bottle aside.
    “Thank you,” she sniffled. Nicholas just stood there staring down at her, his arms folded. He said nothing. Giancarla kept silent for a moment, and then burst into tears again.
    “Oh, my darling,” she sobbed. “I am so sorry… so very sorry…”
    “Shut up,” Nicholas snapped. “I do not want to hear any more of your lies.”
    “You won’t,” Giancarla shook her head. “I will never, ever lie to you again, my darling. I will be a good and faithful wife to you from now on.”
    “I do not believe you,” Nicholas shrugged. “You are sorry now because you have been caught and punished. How long will that last? A month? A week? A day? You have been caught before, and punished before, and always you say that you are sorry and you will not do it again, and always you forget your lessons and do it again. I am done with you. I am sending you away.”
    “What?” Giancarla wailed. “You can’t mean that! You can’t!”
    “I can and I do.” Nicholas smiled. The smile was as unreassuring as Boris’ smile. “There was more than just water in that bottle you drank,” he said. “Soon you will fall asleep, and I will be done with you. You have brought nothing but trouble and disgrace to my family and to me. I will not let you disgrace me further with a divorce. People will be told that you have gone to live with my family for a while. You have no friends, only acquaintances. Soon even they will forget all about you.”
    Cold terror struck Giancarla. She tried to say something, to plead, to beg for mercy, but a heaviness was taking over her body. She couldn’t think to form the words, and couldn’t have spoken them if she could have formed them. Slowly, as if in a nightmare, she collapsed onto the dusty old mattress.

Chapter Four
    Giancarla struggled towards wakefulness. It felt as if she was trying to swim upwards from a cold, dark depth to the sunlight and air overhead. She dimly recalled… or imagined… trying to do that several times in the past, but always before she had failed, sinking back down into unconsciousness to the things that scuttled about in the darkness below, waiting for her. This time, that did not happen. She kept getting closer and closer to the wan light overhead. Soon she would break the surface and be able to breathe again.
    The first thing she was aware of was the noise. She could hear the cries of women in pain or distress. Sometimes, she would hear one of them shriek. She stirred. Now she was aware that she was hungry and thirsty and there was a foul, metallic taste in her mouth. She tried to stretch out and discovered that she could not. She was lying on some hard, flat surface, and when she tried to extend her legs her feet came up against some hard metal grill. When she pushed against it, her head bumped into something just as unyielding. Still not fully awake, she opened her eyes, blinking and squinting, trying to clear her blurred vision. Then a woman shrieked nearby. Giancarla sat up abruptly, only to strike her head against metal bars. The sharp pain of the impact brought tears and stars to her eyes. She curled up on the hard surface under her, whimpering and clutching her head. She dimly realized that she was naked, and wondered for a moment if she was