Page 45 of Vistaria Has Fallen

Her father lifted a finger. “You stay away from the army from now on, Minerva. It’s too dangerous. I can’t lock you up behind palisades because you’rea grown woman. I wish to God I could. I want you to promise me.”

Her smile faded. “I can’t promise that, Dad.”

He stared at her, surprised. “Why not?”

She put her hands together in her lap. “There’s a man. A captain in the army.”

“With you, there’salwaysa man, Minnie. D’you think just because I’m your father I’m deaf, dumb and blind?”

“This is different.”

“Calli, help me,” he pleaded.

“I can’t,” Calli said. “I believe her. This is different.”

He scrubbed his hand backward and forwards through his hair. “Oh hell’s bells,” he muttered. “Minnie, don’t you understand that hanging around with army personnel is liable to get you into trouble?”

“It already has.”

“I could ship you back to America,” he said. “I’m considering sending your mother home, anyway. The climate here isn’thelping her.”

“I’d just leave home,” Minnie said. Her tone was gentle.

He growled a little under his breath.

Minnie’s passive, truthful answers were driving Josh into an unaccustomed corner. Calli put a hand on her uncle’s forearm. “I’ll watch out for her, Uncle Josh, and we will be careful. We know, better than you, the dangers here.”

“Do you? Are you so sure?” he shot back. “I was in Vietnamwhen the communists rolled their way through town. Revolutions are the ugliest events in the world. Terrible things can happen. No one is spared.”

Calli tried to keep her gaze steady. “I will watch out for her.”

“You already have, I know,” he said, relenting. Then he straightened and put his hand over her own. “Stay away from Nicolás Escobedo, Calli. I can see there’s a connection there, onlyhe is a far different sort of trouble than an army captain. When revolutions happen, the heads of government tend to end up dead and so do their kith and kin. Stay away from him.”

“That’s an easy promise to make,” Calli assured him.

Josh considered this for a moment, then looked at Minnie. “An army captain, huh? And Vistarian. Here’s me hoping you’d settle for a Wall Street guru, when you finallytook the plunge, to look after me in my old age.”

* * * * *

In the cooler evenings, Minnie’s mother sat with them at the dining table and tonight Beryl even cooked a little. She talked of her return to the States and it seemed the impending departure energized her. It saddened Calli that Beryl’s health prevented her from enjoying the beauty of Vistaria. The return to the States would do hergood, though.

They were still eating when a child came to the door bearing a huge bouquet of vivid colored flowers. She curtsied when Minnie answered the door and held out the flowers with a lovely smile.

Minnie took them and read the card tucked in amongst them. “Ah!” She held them out to Calli. “They’re for you.” She smiled.

Calli opened the little card.

Thank you, Miss Calli. D.

She lookedat Minnie. “You knew.”

“He said he might. I encouraged him like mad.” She giggled. “They don’t have a delivery service here, so he had to pay a local kid.”

Calli looked at the flowers. Many of them she could not name. They were gorgeous. Beryl exclaimed over them while Calli got water and a vase.

“Whatever is this D person thanking you for?” Beryl asked.

“Calli saved his life,” Minnie said.