"I didn't know you... I hadn't heard that you were engaged."
"At the moment, actually, I'm not," Clete said.
"I don't understand," Lauffer confessed, a little uncomfortably.
Enrico came back into the room carrying not the expected whiskey glasses, but a telephone, a large French-looking instrument.
"It is Padre Welner, Se¤or," he said as he walked to a plug mounted on the wall beside the bed and plugged it in.
He took the receiver from its cradle and held it out to Clete. Clete walked to the bed, sat down, and took the receiver from Enrico.
"What can I do for you, Father?"
"I have been busily taking care of my pastoral duties, and I thought you might he interested in learning the result," the priest announced cheerfully.
If he had bad news, he wouldn't be so cheerful!
"Absolutely!"
"First of all, I called on the Bishop, to explain the role you and Father Denilo would like him to take in the mass tomorrow. And the subject somehow turned to the waiving of the banns of marriage, which is permitted under canon-ical law when a bishop determines there are extraordinary circumstances. In these extraordinary circumstances-"
"You told him the circumstances?" Clete interrupted.
"Not in specific detail. I think the Bishop formed the impression that I had learned of the extraordinary circumstances through the confessional booth; and of course, he could not ask me to reveal matter I had learned in my role as con-fessor. In any event, the Bishop feels that he can in good conscience permit your marriage in fourteen days. He also indicated that if you asked him to officiate, he would grant your request."
"And what do we do about her father?"
"That proved less of a problem than I thought. After I spoke to Claudia, she telephoned him and asked him to reconsider his decision not to come to Estancia Santo Catalina. She told him that I was here and wanted to speak to him about you and Dorotea." The priest laughed.
"That's funny?"
"Se¤or Mallin responded that Claudia should thank me very much indeed for my interest, but to tell me there was no longer cause for my concern. He was already aware of your regrettable and impossible interest in Dorotea and had taken the necessary steps to bring the situation under control."
"And?" Clete asked, chuckling.
Why am I laughing?
"At that point, Claudia told him that I was standing beside her, and why didn't he tell me that himself?"
"And?"
"He did so. I had to correct his belief that the situation was under his con-trol, and to explain his options, as I saw them."
"Which are?"
"The one he chose is to accept your invitation to stay with you at Estancia San Pedro y San Pablo tonight. Tomorrow, his family will be seated in the family pews-to the right of the altar-of La Capilla Nuestra Se¤ora de los Milagros. With the exception, of course, of Dorotea."
"They're coming out here?"
Welner ignored the question.
"During the mass, Dorotea will be seated beside you on the chairs-in front of the family pews-reserved for el Patron of Estancia San Pedro y San Pablo and his wife. When the service is over, she will take your arm and the two of you will lead the exit procession of the laity. Immediately afterward, she will stand beside you at the head of the reception line, as you greet your guests."
"He went along with this?" Clete asked incredulously. "You said they're coming out here today?"
"They are at this moment en route and should be here within the hour. But let me finish. I told Se¤or Mallin that Dorotea's prominent role in the ceremony should suggest to just about everyone present that the relationship between you and Dorotea is long-standing, has had all along the approval of the respective families, and that because of your recent loss, there is nothing really extraordi-nary in your electing to have a small, private wedding in two weeks here at the Estancia."
"You're an amazing fellow, Padre."