“I’m sorry.”
“Cletus, did you mean it when you said you would show me the Guest House?”
“Of course.”
“You also said ‘anytime.’ I could be there in fifteen minutes.”
“Why don’t you come over, Monica? I’ll show you my etchings.”
“Oh, that sounds delightfully wicked. I’ll be right there.”
Or maybe Granduncle Guillermo’s dirty pictures.
“I’m driving myself,” Monica said. “And I’d really rather not drive home to drop the car off and look for a cab. Is there room in your garage?”
There was only one car in the basement garage, which was large enough for four cars, a Fiat sedan used by Señora Pellano.
“Yes, there is.”
“Then be a dear and have it open when I get there, will you? We don’t want people talking, do we? Or would you prefer that I take a taxi?”
“I’ll have the gates and the garage open.”
“Fifteen minutes,” she said, and hung up.
He hung up the telephone and turned to find Señora Pellano looking at him.
“I’m to have a guest,” he began. “She wants to park her car in the garage.”
“I’ll have Ernesto open it.”
“I can do that.”
“And I’ll set out some agua mineral con gas and some ice in the reception room,” she said. “Unless you would prefer it in the apartment? Señor Cletus?”
“The reception room will be fine, thank you.”
“And then I will say good night, Señor Cletus.”
“Thank you, Señora Pellano.”
“I hope you have a good alarm clock,” Monica said, looking at him over the rim of the scotch and water he had made her. “I absolutely have to be home by seven. If I’m not, the children are liable to wake up and ask where Mommy is.”
Children? Of course, children. She’s a married woman. Married women have children.
This is not the smartest thing you have ever done, Clete. It may turn out to be the dumbest. But there doesn’t seem to be any question that you are about to return to the ranks of the sexually active.
Maybe that will put the Virgin Princess out of your mind.
“I think there’s one in the apartment. Shall we go have a look?”
“Splendid idea,” Monica said. “And why don’t I carry this tray along with us, so you won’t have to wake the servants?”
She picked up the tray with the ice and soda water on it, smiled at him, and waited for him to show her the way to the bedroom.
[FOUR]
4730 Avenida Libertador