‘Good work,’ Dennis announced ten minutes later, having weaved between people, altering a grip here, straightening a back there. ‘Now we’re going to do a very simple sequence in pairs. Cleo, come here a second.’

Cleo stepped forward, clutching her foil.

‘The first person, who we’ll call the ‘attacker’, will jab left,’ Dennis explained, demonstrating the action in slow motion. ‘They’ll be blocked by the second person the ‘defender’, that’s you Cleo.’

He pulled her foil towards him, showing the arc of the block.

‘Following this, the attacker will tap the defender’s left shoulder.’ He did this carefully. ‘OK, Cleo?’

She nodded and they went through the sequence again, only this time a bit faster.

‘Excellent.’ Dennis nodded. ‘Three moves. Here are your partners.’

He quickly split everyone into pairs. ‘Keep on until I call out and then the attacker becomes the defender and vice versa.’

Venus was paired first with Polly and then Greg. After a while she began to feel more confident handling her sword.

Dennis set a range of other increasingly complex sequences. The final one consisted of nine foil strokes and involved fighting on the move.

‘I want you to spread out much more this time,’ Dennis explained. ‘Get the feel of combining motion with sword-handling.’

Dennis indicated for Venus to pair up with Franco. Venus felt her chest tighten but there was no trace of any negative emotion on Franco’s face. He seemed nonplussed.

‘Shall I be the attacker first?’ Venus asked, still being very wary of him.

‘Whatever,’ said Franco with a shrug.

Venus straightened up and held her sword upright, ready to begin. Franco followed suit. Venus cut forward.

By her fifth turn as the attacker they were both moving pretty fluidly. Venus was pushing forward, Franco inching backwards in defence like Dennis had instructed.

After they changed roles, it took Venus a while to get used to the stepping backwards, but after three goes she was beginning to feel quietly pleased with herself.

On the fourth go, Franco was due to end the sequence by pushing Venus’s foil aside, but as Venus began to relax, his foil suddenly came crashing down towards her face. She was totally off her guard. His foil whipped through the air and caught her on the cheek. Its tip bit into her skin and she winced with pain as a searing bolt of pain flashed across her face.

‘What are you doing?’ she asked in shock, grasping her cheek.

‘Sorry,’ muttered Franco, ‘Dennis was right about accidents.’

‘That wasn’t an accident,’ Venus hissed.

‘What do you mean?’ Franco suddenly looked very aggressive.

‘I know your game,’ seethed Venus.

‘Don’t know what you’re on about,’ he replied coldly.

Something in Venus suddenly snapped. He must know she was shadowing him and this was his way of warning her to back off. Well, she wasn’t frightened of him.

Without hesitation, she gripped her foil and swung it towards Franco’s face.

He blocked her stroke. ‘What are you doing?’ He spat out the words.

Venus pulled her foil away and went for a jab against his stomach. But he was equal to it and blocked her again. Venus’s temper was boiling over. She quickly checked behind her. The rest of the group were scattered over a wide area and Dennis was a long way away.

‘You’re crazy,’ Franco snarled.

Venus turned and began aiming a series of quick blows in Franco’s direction. forcing him to move backwards.

Venus jabbed and cut in quick succession. Franco’s reflexes denied each stroke, but a few seconds later, he was backed up against a tree.

‘Run out of space, have you?’ she hissed, rapidly aiming several cuts at him.

Franco unexpectedly pushed off from the tree and went on the offensive. Now Venus found herself back stepping, blocking blows that were raining down towards her.

As his foil came down again, Venus was waiting for him. Her sword smashed against his. She equalled him for strength and they both held their ground, their Foils pressing against each other, their faces nearly touching, both desperately attempting to push the other backwards.

Venus suddenly pulled back to give Franco a sense she was weakening. He took the bait and moved forward sensing victory, but was taken by complete surprise when she lunged and knocked him backwards. As he fell, she high kicked the foil out of his hands. He toppled onto the ground as the foil flew over his head.

‘I guess Dennis was right about accidents,’ snarled Venus.

Franco stood up and stomped over to retrieve his sword, which was lying beside a gorse bush. Venus’s cheek burned with pain. But she wasn’t going to let Franco see her discomfort.

‘And stop there!’ called Dennis. ‘All foils back to me now.’

Venus glared at Franco as she walked off towards the others and threw her sword into the box. Dennis caught her elbow and swung her round to face him.

‘How did you pick that up?’ he asked, pointing to the weal on her cheek.

‘I fell,’ she explained, ‘against a tree … scratched myself.’

‘Doesn’t look like a scratch,’ Dennis said with a questioning stare. He looked at Franco who was sulkily returning his sword to the box. ‘Does it hurt? Do you need first aid?’

‘It’s nothing,’ Venus replied.

Dennis let go of her and she dropped her Foil into the wooden box. She was about to walk off when she spotted Franco staring at her furiously.

Venus knew that things with him had changed forever.

They were enemies now.