"My first," he lied, and she snorted.
Alicia kissed him, and then Isabela made smacking noises as far from his cheek as she could manage.
"You all right, Enrico?" Claudia asked, and went to the bar. "Do as I say, not as I do," she said, and poured a half-inch of scotch in a glass and tossed it down.
"Life will be empty without el Coronel," Enrico said.
"You have Se¤or Cletus to take care of now," Claudia said.
"With my life, Se¤ora," Enrico said simply.
"I wondered how you were going to handle Beatrice asking the Germans to come here," Claudia said.
"I'm indisposed," Clete said. "Humberto set this up."
"They're downstairs, exuding condolences and charm," she said.
Clete looked at Alicia. She nodded, signifying that Peter von Wachtstein was among them.
"We don't know that the Germans are responsible... ," Isabelle said.
"Jesus Christ, Isabela, not you and el Coronel Per¢n... ," Clete flared.
Claudia touched his arm to stop him.
"What did you mean, about Colonel Per¢n?" Claudia asked.
"I stopped by Uncle Willy's house last night. He was there. And having just come back from Germany, he finds it impossible to believe that..."
"Juan Domingo was your father's best friend."
"So he said."
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"And you got off on the wrong foot."
Clete shrugged.
"He's going to be at the estancia over the weekend. You really should make an effort to get to know him."
"You mean come out there? Why?"
"You didn't know there's going to be a requiem mass at Nuestra Se¤ora de los Milagros for your father on Sunday?"
"Not until just now, I didn't. What's that all about?"
"The people on the estancia naturally expect it. And there will be a number of other people. Your father's-our-close friends. A private mass, so to speak, as opposed to what they did here today. There will be about forty people, count-ing wives and family."
"And I have to go, naturally?"
Going out there would give me a chance to go to the radio station. And the sooner I do that, the better.
"Of course you must, Cletus. You're the new Patron of Estancia San Pedro y San Pablo. You'd better start getting used to that."
"That's not going to be easy."
"The people of your estancia, many of whom have never seen you, will ex-pect to see their Patron there."