She came out of the bathroom-much sooner than he expected-as he was stomping his feet in the boots.
"Those boots are a disgrace," she said.
"I like them."
"What and when are you going to do about telling Daddy?"
"What, I don't know. When, next week. I really have to go to the estancia."
"Why don't you talk to your Uncle Humberto? Or Claudia?"
"You want them to know?"
"Everybody is going to know, darling, sooner or later," Dorotea said with unanswerable logic.
"OK. You're right. Claudia, I think."
"Call me when you have something to tell me," she said. "And now, put me in a cab."
"I love you, Princess," Clete said.
"I should hope so. I don't do what we just did with just anybody."
She kissed him, rather chastely, on the lips, and walked to the door and waited for him to open it.
"Antonio will know what we've been up to," he said mischievously.
"Everybody will soon know what we've been up to," she said. "But I would rather that Daddy learned it from you."
Holding hands, they descended the stairway to the foyer.
"There are cars here," he said. "Hell, I can send you home in a Rolls Royce."
"A taxi will do nicely, thank you just the same," she said.
As they reached the door, Enrico, now in a suit, appeared from nowhere.
"Se¤orita Mallin requires a taxi," Clete said.
"I will have the chaffeur take her. Of if you wish, Se¤or Clete, I will take her myself."
"A taxi, please," Dorotea said.
"S¡, Se¤orita," Enrico said. He turned toward an umbrella stand, and when he turned back, Clete saw he was holding a double-barreled twelve-bore verti-cally beside his leg.
"Is that necessary?" Clete asked.
Enrico ignored the question.
"I'll find a taxi. You and the Se¤orita wait here."
He crossed the narrow area between the house and the fence, went through the gate, stepped out onto Avenida Coronel Diaz, and flagged down a taxi, a Model A Ford with the upper body painted yellow.
When the door was open, he motioned for Clete to bring Dorotea.
"Why did I have to fall in love with a man people are trying to kill?" Dorotea asked. She did not seem at all frightened. "Darling, telephone me just as soon as you talk to Claudia."
"OK."