Empire and Honor (Honor Bound 7)

4730 Avenida Libertador General San Martín

Buenos Aires, Argentina

1415 20 October 1945

Still wondering what kind of races could be held in what had to be the mansion’s attic, Jimmy finally reached the top of the third flight of stairs, which ended facing a door. He pushed it open and found himself at the off-the-street end of a cavernous room that stretched across the entire floor. Huge doors opened onto a large balcony.

Everyone who had been at lunch was in the room, plus servants and nannies. There were also an infant and a little boy who Jimmy decided were Clete and Dorotea’s kids.

And Elsa.

She was standing, with von Dattenberg, at the far end of the room, on the balcony.

She was wearing a dress—a pale blue dress, a real dress—not an insignia-less WAC officer’s uniform skirt.

She was even more beautiful than Jimmy remembered.

As he watched, von Dattenberg touched her arm and nodded toward Jimmy, as if to say, “There he is.”

Elsa looked, and then smiled brightly at him.

Too brightly.

He knew from that moment that he was not going to spend the rest of his life with Elsa von Wachtstein.

I’m probably not even going to have dinner with her.

Not that I would want to anyway.

If you make a horse’s ass of yourself with somebody, you want to get away from them, not have dinner.

Von Dattenberg put his hand on Elsa’s arm and led her across the room to him.

“I understand you know each other,” von Dattenberg said.

“Jimmy,” Elsa said, “what a pleasant surprise. Willi just told me that you were here.”

Surprise, sure. Pleasant? I don’t think so.

I think the last person in the world you wanted to see here, Baroness, was Second Lieutenant James D. Cronley Jr.

She kissed his cheek with all the passion of a Sunday school teacher kissing one of her students.

“And here I am,” Jimmy said.

“I didn’t expect to see you here.”

I never would have guessed from that dazzling smile.

“Well, life is full of surprises, isn’t it?”

“What are you doing here?” Elsa asked.

“I don’t think he can tell you,” von Dattenberg said.

“Oh.”

“Elsa told me how kind you were to her in Marburg, Jimmy,” von Dattenberg said.