"So I have been told. I prefer to think of myself as a simple priest, a simple shepherd, encouraging the erring members of my flock to do the right thing," Welner said with outrageous piety, then added: "And Se¤or Mallin didn't really have much of a choice, did he?"
"He could have said no." Clete said, laughing. "Not only no but 'over my dead body.'"
"But that, my son, might have been misinterpreted by some people-as matters of this kind often are. The word might have been whispered around the Jockey Club that 'there goes poor Henry Mallin. Foolish chap, thinking he was onto a good thing, practically threw his daughter at Cletus Frade, who, after sampling the merchandise decided he'd rather not endow the young lady with all his worldly goods.' He would, I knew, find something like that hard to take."
"Good God! You didn't say anything like that to him, did you?"
"Let us say that I suggested to Se¤or Mallin that it would really look better all around if you appeared eager to take his daughter as your bride. You are pre-pared to do that, aren't you, Cletus? To eagerly endow Dorotea with all your worldly goods?"
"Of course," Clete said, chuckling.
"Good. Now that you've had a chance to consider how many worldly goods you now possess, I was a little concerned that you might have had second thoughts."
"I hope you're kidding."
"Another reason I called, Cletus, is that Claudia suggested there is proba-bly a ring which might be suitable for Dorotea in your father's strongbox."
"What strongbox?" Clete asked, and turned to Enrico. "Is there a strongbox around here?"
"In the library, Se¤or Clete."
"Enrico says there's a strongbox in the library."
"That's probably it. Why don't you have a look? I think it would be nice when I come for dinner- Did I mention that Claudia suggested you ask me to dinner?"
"Why don't you have dinner with us, Father?"
"Thank you very much. Very kind of you. It would be nice, as I was saying, if when I come over there, Dorotea had an engagement ring on her finger. And even more for people to notice tomorrow morning."
"Christ, you're something."
"I'll be over there, probably, before your fianc‚e and her family arrive," the priest said, and the line went dead.
Clete put the receiver back in its cradle and stood up.
"Show me the strongbox, Enrico," he said, and then turned to Lauffer. "I have just been informed that my fianc‚e and her family will be joining us for dinner. I know, a moment ago, I told you I was not engaged. A moment ago, I wasn't. Now I am."
"Well, then let me be the first to offer my congratulations," Lauffer said.
Chapter Fourteen
[ONE]
Estancia San Pedro y San Pablo
Near Pila, Buenos Aires Province
1805 11 April 1943
The strongbox turned out to be just that, a metal box reinforced with thick wrought-iron bands, and closed with two enormous padlocks. It was concealed in a huge leather trunk set against one wall of the library. After Enrico showed it to Clete, he retrieved the padlock keys from behind a set of Compton 's Pic-ture Encyclopedia.
The strongbox held two small wooden boxes, resting on top of what ap-peared to be legal documents. Clete picked up the first box and started to open it.
"Where's that whiskey you promised us, Enrico?" he asked.
Inside was a collection of discarded male jewelry, cuff links, studs, pocket watches, wristwatches, tie pins, tie clips, and rings. The watches and rings had tags tied to them, identifying their owners. Clete looked at several of them. There was one huge gold ring with maybe a dozen half-carat diamonds sur-rounding a deeply engraved Frade family crest; its tag read Guillermo Jorge Frade.
That looks just like something Uncle Willy would wear.