Page 66 of Vistaria Has Fallen

She snuggled up against him, threading her arm under his and over his torso, to rest her hand against his heart. He picked up her hand, kissed her fingers. She sensed he intended to return her hand to where it had been resting. The motion was not completed. His hand grew heavy and dropped away from hers.

He slept.

* * * * *

A little later,she roused from a light slumber. Nick still lay beside her. She couldn’t tell if he slept or not. At her movement, his hand sought hers and brought it to his lips. This time he completed the act. His lips touch the back of her hand.

“That’s very Vistarian,” she said. “I like it.”

“I am Vistarian despite my coloring. Sometimes I think I am more Vistarian than my brother who has a fondness forall things American.” The tension and worry had left his voice. He simply observed a fact now.

“You mean Jose? Does he know about me, Nick? Does anyone?”

“Duardo and Minerva do.”

“My uncle suspects, I think.”

“A great many people have suspicions. Suspicion comes easily to Vistarians these days. Truth is in short supply.”

“You say you love Vistaria, yet you speak of the people so callouslysometimes.”

“Love always includes acceptance of weaknesses, haven’t you noticed? I know Vistaria and her people too well and love them too much to ignore their weaknesses. Besides, in a country this small where everyone knows a little of everyone else’s affairs, suspicion sprouts easily.”

“Cynic.”

“Realist,” he corrected.

“I’m the realist. You’re the...” She cast about for the right word.The only one that came to her wassaviorand she fell silent, confused. Sadness touched her. His talk of love had released her awareness and opened her perceptions. She couldn’t speak or find the strength to pretend nothing had changed in the last second or two.

“I’m the what?” he asked. “The doomed romantic?”

She found her voice. “Now you’re being cynical again,” she teased, pleased with thecasual tone that emerged. It hid her momentary confusion and welling sorrow. “Try to sleep.”

“Para usted, mi dama fuerte, yo trataré,” he murmured.

Calli knew enough Spanish to translate that.For you, my strong lady, I will try.

She turned away from him and lay her head back on her pillow, letting the sadness that had washed over her dominate her mind.

For only now she recognizedshewasthe doomed romantic. Yes, Nick had coaxed that side of her to re-bud and bloom and now she faced an awful truth. She loved him. Within the next day, or perhaps two if she was lucky, he would say goodbye and they would never again lie like this together.

La dama fuerte, she mentally whispered.Hold it together, Calli. Walk away with your chin up. That’s the bargain you struck, and now you mustlive with it.