Honor Bound (Honor Bound 1)

“I saw your little friend around here a moment ago,” she said. “I can’t imagine what happened to her.”

“What little friend?” Peter asked.

I think you’re crocked, Peter. And now that I’ve thought about that, that cloud of fumes around you is not eau de cologne.

“I think, Señorita Carzino-Cormano,” Clete said, “that it was time for the lady in question’s bottle. But I appreciate your interest in my personal life.”

Hauptmann Freiherr von Wachtstein bowed and clicked his heels.

“It has been a pleasure to see you again, Teniente,” he said. “But now duty calls.”

“The pleasure has been mine, mi Capitán,” Clete said.

“Watch out for bandits coming out of the sun, Clete,” Peter said.

He is crocked. Why else would he say something like that? And why the hell is he shitfaced now? At this hour, and with all the brass around?

“What did you say?” Isabela asked.

“I will try, mi Capitán,” Clete said.

“We always say, in the Luftwaffe, that it is the ones you don’t see that get you,” Peter said.

“We say much the same thing in the Marine Corps,” Clete said. “And that has been my personal experience.”

Peter made another curt bow of his head and clicked his heels, and let Alicia lead him to the library. Clete saw Enrico waiting for them there.

[TWO]

Wearing a splendiferous uniform complete with saber, el Coronel Jorge Guillermo Frade appeared then, under the firm control of Señora Carzino-Cormano.

“Cletus, what are you doing standing out here?” Claudia demanded. “Your place is with the family.”

“Probably counting his blessings,” Frade said, and before Claudia could stop him, went on. “I rather hoped you would wear your uniform with your decorations.”

“I don’t have my uniforms with me,” Clete said.

“Pity,” he said. “I took the trouble to look it up in the Encyclopaedia Britannica. The Corps of Marines dress uniform is splendid.”

He’s crocked too. Is that the local custom? Is this thing going to be sort of an Argentinean Irish wake?

“Come with us, Cletus,” Claudia said, taking his arm and leading them both across the room.

[THREE]

The Basilica of St. Pilar

Recoleta Square

Buenos Aires

1325 19 December 1942

In the ecumenical belief that any religion is better than none, when Martha Howell was for some reason unavailable to drag Clete and the girls to Midland’s Trinity Episcopal Church, she permitted Juanita the housekeeper to drag them to the Roman Catholic parish known in Midland as the Mexican Catholic Church. Clete was therefore no stranger to a Roman Catholic mass celebrated by Spanish-speaking clergy.

It w

as, however, his first high requiem mass; and while he expected the ceremony to run long—the personal participation of the Cardinal Archbishop brought at least five other bishops, an abbot, and a platoon of other magnificently robed clergy to the Basilica—he never imagined it would go on as long as it did.