"Silence!"
Mme Arnaud's tungsten-steel voice ripped thought the steamy air of the dining room just after 10pm on one of the hottest Sundays of the summer so far. Even this late in the day the temperature was in the high 20s - but that voice was more than enough to chill me to the bone.
I could tell from the way she was looking at me, that mad smirk, that she was about to announce something to my disadvantage. Around the big table were Mme's eldest daughter, Julie, her younger sister, Delphine, three of their friends from college (Francoise, Maxine and Chloe), and six of the dance academy's star pupils - all of whom had taken part in the grande finale of the dance festival the previous night. Everyone had been drinking champagne and there was a slightly crazy atmosphere in the house.
"We've all had an exciting week with our young Vietnamese guests, and I am delighted to tell you that myself and our six brightest stars here have all been invited on a return visit to Viet Nam next autumn!" Mme A announced. Big deal, I thought.
There was some rather muted applause: I knew that the daughters of the house and their friends were not on the best terms with their parents' dance students, who tended to be a bit standoffish, and terribly aware for their beauty and their talent. Never the less no-one could fail to be impressed by these six gorgeous creatures, stunning even in their civvies with their cheekbones and long necks and exquisite shoulders.
"But I have less happy news as well. I have to tell you that, as we are now back to normal, that my task in correcting the behaviour of our English guest ..." (with hands on hips she swivelled around to cast me a glance) "...will have to be redoubled in vigour, as he has taken advantage of our many distractions over the past few days, and his vile little habit is once again rampant!"
As she was saying this I was sitting, as usual, at a smaller table at the far end of the main dining table - separated, an outcast, perching on a small child's chair, with my back to the rest of the company.
I wanted to shout out that she was lying - I had managed to go three nights without wetting my bedding, thanks to a clever little catheter made by Delphine and Julie. They had had so much fun, finding plastic tubes small enough to fit snugly over my most private part, and to stay on all night.
We had eventually had some success with a plastic disposable syringe, a bit of tape and length of clear plastic tubing. Very much to my discomfort I could now see that this cunning apparatus was being pulled out of a supermarket carrier bag by Mme Arnaud.
We had been found out. She held up the device, which leaked several drops of something onto the table cloth as it untangled.
"He has been using this disgusting thing...", added the fierce Madame, at which she tossed the tubes into the dustbin. "But unfortunately for him, and those who helped him, it leaked onto the floorboards."
The phrase "those who helped him" was a new and shocking departure. So, did she know that two of her own daughters were taking pity on me, behind her back? Would she punish them, as well?
"Of course I noticed the one of father's syringes was missing from his drawer, and I also know that only one person in this house knew they were there. Stand up Delphine, and explain yourself."
Of the three sisters, Delphine had been the kindest and also the bravest - and yet she was also the most afraid of her terrible mother. She was a slight girl with very pale skin, dark green-brown eyes which occasionally flashed defiance, a wide mouth filled with beautiful teeth which occasionally would chew on strands of her long dark brown hair.
She was a misfit like me, she was disliked by her twin sister Florence (who was very conventional, intolerant and out with her rich but boring boyfriend). But she loved and was loved by their big sister, Julie, the hippy one, 23 years old, my other ally in this weird house of horrors.
I was expecting Julie to speak up in defence of Delphine, to take the blame, to defy this ghastly mother - but she did not.
Mme Arnaud knew that she still had full power over these two, and she used it, mercilessly. "Delphine, stay there. Julie, you too were involved, stand next to your treacherous sister."
The two girls, who both now looked so young and frail in their flimsy summer clothes, stood next to each other by their mother. Neither looked at each other, nor at me. They both stared down. All the colour seemed to have drained out of them, so that despite their regular sunbathing, their thin limbs looked pale.
"You know what I will do," Mme A continued. "You have seen what I do to our dirty visitor, and I will do the same to you. I will thrash you both, here in front of your friends, just as you were by me not so long ago, that day you were sent home from school."
"You will both lean over the dresser, you will remove your shorts and underclothes and you will receive, each of you, ten stokes on your backsides. I will use my slipper as before, but I will hit harder, as you are now both old enough to receive the full dose."
I could hardly bear to look at my two friends. Delphine was now sobbing, and tears were streaming even down the face of clever, witty, smart, sexy, lovely Julie. They shuffled across the floor to the dresser, and Delphine, as though she were following some internal programming, leant over, lifted her skirt, and stretched her arms out in front of her.
Now, I was already getting terribly mixed feelings: I was already seeing my two dear conspirators, their bottoms stripped of clothing and quivering, reddening, as the strokes of the slipper rained down on them. I was seeing this before it happened, and it excited me.
How on earth could this pathetic, vicious little woman hold such power over these smart, beautiful young women? I was pondering this tricky question when Mme A dropped her next bombshell: "All of this will happen to you immediately - unless!"
She paused for maximum effect. For the first time I recognised that drawl in her voice - as well as being mad, she was most certainly drunk, and this was amplifying her madness. Most of the other girls round the table were now glaring at me, muttering angrily, clearly furious that I had dropped their lovely friends into this mess.
Mme continued: "Unless, that is, you both confess to your misdemeanours, renounce the one you were trying to help, and henceforth assist me in every possible way in his rehabilitation into decent human society. Clearly this wicked creature somehow charmed you, but I cannot for the world understand how he did it."
"So, Delphine? JUlie? What have you to say?"
There was silence, then some sniffling and sobbing, and much wringing of hands and shifting of feet.
