“After I pawn it, how much will I have? It’ll last me for what, a few days? Soon I’d be selling myself rather than my grandmother’s pearls.”
He had to admit he was impressed with her calm assessment of the situation. He knew towns like this one. Insignificant, suffocating townswith roads that didn’t lead anywhere. But most girls in those towns prayed for a man to take them away from there; they pinned their hopes on love and marriage. This girl was no fool.
Once again, he calculated the benefits of enlisting an assistant. She didn’t have a loose tongue, or she’d have already talked to her aunt. How courageous was the annoying mite? Would she go back on her word and betray him later? He’d have to be quick and run away before she grew a conscience.
“I’ve thought about what you said, and I believe, considering the risk and work that this entails, it would be best if I retained two-thirds of any money we might be able to obtain,” he told her. “I’m sure you’ll find that is a generous offer.”
“Generous? Don’t make me laugh.”
“One-third is a good offer for someone who has never participated in a similar venture.”
“Half. The risk is mine. If we’re found out, you can scam another woman, but I’ll be kicked out of the house,” she replied with a maddening assuredness.
“Still, it’s I who will do much of the work.”
“You talk as if you need to sow a tobacco field from dusk until dawn, when all you need to do is make love to a woman. That’s no art.”
“Perhaps all you’ve enjoyed are the fumbling hands of teenagers and houseboys who can’t dance, but it’s an art when it’s done correctly.”
She blushed at that, but he thought it was more out of anger than injured modesty. “I don’t sleep with Fito.”
“Who’s your sweetheart?”
“No one,” she said, and she did so simply. It was a fact, like the color of her eyes or the loose dark curls tumbling down her back.
“That’s a pity. You’re pretty enough.”
The words were spoken honestly, but she shook her head. “You don’t need to compliment me to get what you want, and even if you did, I wouldn’t budge. Half and half, sir,” she said, and stretched out her hand.
He vacillated, doubting the alliance. He knew nothing about the girl, but then he seemed to know even less about her aunt, and that was a problem. He simply hadn’t had enough time to learn her secrets, and now he was here and must proceed.
They shook hands.
7
Cándido arrived after the rainhad ceased. He came with a bouquet under his arm and a wan smile. Perla was in no mood to talk to anyone. Ulises’s well-mannered kiss on the hand had reminded her of other times, of another man. The memory of Norberto Bustillo wounded her pride.
Perhaps she should have been more polite to Ulises; she might have received his sign of affection with tenderness. But even if he had not reminded her of that long-lost beau, the fact was that she did not want sweet words and clumsily recited lines of poems. Neither did she seek the awkward, secretive affairs of her past. She was unsure what she wanted. The yearning in her heart was a putrefied wound.
In a way, she supposed she wished to erase the years she’d spent trapped in the prison that her father had fabricated, to return to thebeginning and carve a different path. To pretend he had not existed, that her sister had not existed either. To have been born in another family, with other surnames, even if the thought was sacrilegious and wounded her pride in a wholly different way.
She was Perla Hildegarda Inclán Arnao; no matter if her family had fallen on challenging times, the people of Puerco Ahogado remembered their former glory.
She received Cándido’s flowers with tired fingers. She detested roses and was partial to the purity of lilies. Cándido never could remember her favorite flower. Besides, he’d appeared without an invitation, and made himself at home too quickly, sitting upon her favorite easy chair with his legs extended and a relaxed air that further increased her irritation, for it hinted at an intimacy they did not share.
“You’re awfully quiet this evening,” he said, with his hat on his lap. She had not bothered to put it away for him or called the maid to assist with this task. He was there without an invitation, and she did not wish to show him anything but the most minimal cordiality.
“I don’t know what you’d wish to talk about,” she replied. “It’s you who are paying me a visit, and I imagine you have something on your mind. Unless you simply wanted to stroll down the street and stretch your legs.”
“I wanted to have a serious talk with you. You and I have avoided the question of marriage, but it’s about time we settled it. We could announce our engagement in a month and be wed before the year is out.”
“I haven’t avoided anything,” she said crisply. “We’ve discussed my preferences and my thoughts on marriage, and I’ve been clear on the matter.”
“That’s not true. You’ve never let me put the question to you. Well, I’m doing it now. I know you don’t wish to live with Lulú, but then again, my house is much grander than this one, and it makes sense that we’d live there. Of course, you may care for it as you see fit, and order Lulú around if you wish. As for money, we both know there will beplenty of it if we combine our bank accounts, and you may purchase for yourself the fripperies you haven’t been able to enjoy. I have most of my teeth and my hair and my health, which is enough once you’re over forty and far from a youngster.”
The marriage proposal, plain and practical, disgusted Perla not only because of what was being said, but because of Cándido’s self-assured, smug face.
Cándido and Perla had known each other for many years. He’d worked for her father before he worked for her, handling legal and money matters. Time had ensured a familiarity between them, and a frankness greater than what she shared with most of the people of Puerco Ahogado. Listening to him speak, she realized he thought he understood her thoroughly, which disturbed her.
