gestured at Max. “Besides, I’ve come to trust only canines.”
Pevsner ignored that. “How is your . . . wound?”
“My leg is coming along just fine. My ass, not so good. Thank you for asking.”
“You are absolutely impossible!”
“Does that mean you’re not going to offer me a drink?”
“Now that I see you don’t have some floozy with you, I would be honored if you would have a glass of champagne with Anna and me.” Pevsner gestured toward the open door of the library.
“Where’s the statue?” Castillo said, looking around the foyer. “I would have thought it would be at the foot of the stairs.”
“What statue?” Pevsner asked automatically, and then his face showed that he understood he was about to have his chain pulled.
“Of Lenin,” Castillo said. “To prove you didn’t buy this place because of your admiration for the late
He threw Pevsner a stiff-armed Nazi salute.
“Charley, you’re not teasing him already?” a tall, svelte blonde asked in Russian as they walked into the library.
“Teasing him?” Castillo replied as he walked to her and kissed her cheek. “If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, and has a house made from the same plans as Hermann Goering’s hunting lodge . . .”
“We didn’t realize that until we bought the place, and you know it,” she said, laughing. Her attention went to Castillo’s arms. “What are you doing with that puppy?”
“Trying to get rid of it,” Castillo said. “You don’t happen to know of some kind and gentle young lady of thirteen or so who would take it off my hands, do you?”
“You’re serious? You brought that for Elena? What is it?”
Castillo gestured at Max.
“A little version of him. By way of Marburg, Germany, and Vienna,” Castillo said, looking at Pevsner as he spoke, and not being surprised when he saw that Pevsner’s eyes had turned to ice.
“Let me see it,” Anna said, taking the puppy from Castillo, then holding it up and rubbing noses with it. “Charley, he’s precious! Elena will be crazy with him. Thank you so much!”
“The small horse is the father?” Pevsner asked, indicating Max. “It will grow to be the same?”
“Yes, indeed.”
Anna picked up a telephone, waited a moment, and then said, “Will you ask the children to join us in the library, please?” She hung up and turned to Castillo. “Alek said you might be bringing someone with you and . . .”
“I know,” Castillo said. “Your husband always thinks the worst of me.”
“If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck . . .” Pevsner said.
Castillo laughed.
A maid rolled a bar service into the room.
“What can we offer you, Charley?”
“I’m feeling Russian. Is that vodka I see?”
“How do you want it?” Pevsner asked.
“In a glass would be nice,” Castillo said straight-faced.
Anna laughed.
“I meant, from the freezer, or with ice, or room temperature,” Pevsner said, shaking his head.
“From the freezer, please,” Castillo said.
Pevsner wagged a rather imperious finger at the maid and told her in Spanish to bring a bottle from the freezer.
“Your Spanish is getting better,” Castillo said.
“Better than what?” Pevsner asked suspiciously.
“Better than it was,” Castillo replied.
“What does he eat?” Anna asked.
“Puppy chow,” Castillo said, and took a plastic zip-top bag from his jacket pocket and laid it on a small table. “I have more in the hotel. And I am assured it can be found in any supermarket in the country. This is Royal Canine Puppy Chow For Very Large Dogs. Max loves it.”
“I’ll have to write that down,” Anna said, and went to an escritoire that looked as if it belonged in the Louvre and did so.
“I have a little trouble picturing you, Friend Charley, traveling the globe and caring for a puppy,” Pevsner said.
“He brings out the paternal instinct in me,” Castillo said piously.
“What were you doing in Germany. Visiting home?”
“Actually, I had to go to a funeral.”
“How sad,” Anna said. “Family?”
“Employee,” Castillo said. He met Pevsner’s eyes. “He died suddenly.”
Three adolescents entered the room and politely, shyly, made their manners to Castillo. The girl kissed his cheek and the older boy shook his hand.
“Oh, where did that puppy come from?” Elena Pevsner said. She took him from her mother, matter-of-factly held him up to examine his belly, and finished. “He’s adorable. What’s his name?”
“That’s up to you, sweetheart,” Castillo said.
It took her a moment to take his meaning. “Really?”
Castillo nodded.
“Oh, Charley, thank you ever so much!”
“Honey,” Castillo said, picking up the bag of puppy chow. “Why don’t you take him someplace, get two bowls, put the bowls on newspaper, put water in one, and this in the other?”
“How much do I give him?”
“Honey, you’re lucky. Dogs are like people. Some are pigs and eat whatever is put in front of them—then get sick and throw it up. The others, like Max and Nameless here, are gentlemen. They take only what they need, when they need it.”
The maid appeared with a bottle of vodka encased in ice.
“Can Max come?” Aleksandr, the oldest boy, asked.
“If I can have him back,” Castillo said.
The children left the room. Max trotted after them.
“That was a very nice thing for you to do, Charley,” Pevsner said as he handed Castillo a small glass of the vodka. “Thank you.”
“My son has his brother,” Castillo said. “I thought Elena would like one.”
“You saw your son?” Anna asked.
“His grandfather brought him to our ranch for quail hunting. I hunted with him, and then I started to teach him how to fly.”
“And he doesn’t know?” Anna asked softly.
Castillo shook his head.
“Oh, Charley!” Anna said, and went to him and laid her hand on his cheek and kissed him. “I am so sorry.”
Castillo shrugged.
“Me, too, but that’s how it is.”
“Would you think me terribly cynical if I suspected there’s more to your visit than bringing the children a puppy?” Pevsner asked.
“Alek!” Anna said warningly.
