"Of course, but I also have other business with your father."

Alonso reached for an empanada. "Tomorrow they will announce the winner."

"And you say you don't know much about it."

"He is my father."

I swung around in front of him and brought my face close to his. "I have some information that may be of interest to him-about the bidding. Do you think you could arrange a private meeting tonight?"

"For you, I will try," he said.

The meeting arranged and the reception winding down, Alonso and I scurried to the Secretary's office and settled on the couch in the waiting room. The tap, tap, tap of a man's compact heels sounded in the hallway, the volume of their beat ever increasing until they stopped abruptly. Secretary Elvira Perez entered. He was short and thickset, with shiny black hair and eyes like those of a lynx-quick and concentrated.

I stood and extended my hand. "Senor Elvira Perez. It is an honor to meet you."

"Senorita Walker," he said, giving my hand a delicate squeeze and motioning toward his office. "My pleasure. Please, come in."

He opened the door to a s.p.a.cious office-of perhaps seven hundred square feet-with a rectangular red carpet emblazoned with the government seal, a desk situated two-thirds of the way from the entrance, and oil portraits of distinguished-looking men lining the walls. Secretary Elvira Perez motioned for Alonso and me to seat ourselves in the thick-armed wooden chairs in front of his desk.

He eased into the carved high-back chair behind his desk. "You are from Iron Mountain Mining, Senorita Walker?"

"Yes, sir. As you know, we submitted a bid on the iron contract."

"We had many bids. I regret to inform you that yours was not the highest."

"Yes, I know."

Mr. Elvira Perez tucked his steepled fingers under his chin. "May I ask how you learned this?"

"Not from Alonso, I can a.s.sure you."

He and his son exchanged amused glances. The Secretary looked to me. "I a.s.sume that means you will not tell me how you learned."

"I'm sorry, senor. I can't."

"Do you also know that we will announce the winning bid tomorrow?"

"That is why I wished to speak with you this evening."

Mr. Elvira Perez interwove his fingers and rested his hands on his desk. "Yes?"

I looked down at my lap and demurely raised my eyes. "I believe I can bring in a better bid."

"From your company?"

"No, sir. My company has made its best offer."

"Then from whom?"

"A Dutch company."

The Secretary tilted his head questioningly. "If it is not your company, why involve yourself?"

"I have several reasons. Most would not interest you. Except perhaps one: your son." I smiled at Alonso, who sat back in his chair, his eyes bright with mirth. I looked back to Secretary Elvira Perez. "I am here alone, and he helped me when I needed a.s.sistance. I should like to repay the kindness."

Mr. Elvira Perez spread his interlocked hands, flipping his thumbs up. "Is it truly as simple as that?"

"I have no financial connection to this Dutch company, sir, if that is what you're asking."

"And what can you tell me of it?"

"It is based in Holland but also has a U.S. office. By happenstance, a contact of mine learned they have great interest."

"This all sounds very vague." Mr. Elvira Perez tossed his head in a show of impatience or perhaps exasperation.

"I know your time is valuable, senor." I leaned forward on my chair. "I offer you the same discretion I am affording the source of my information."

"I would have to reopen the bidding to even consider this."

I knew from Philip's report that his department had manipulated the bidding period to allow a Mexican company to win the contract. "Yes, I understand you may not wish to open the bidding a second time."

Even if Mr. Elvira Perez wondered how I had gathered this intelligence, he showed not the least discomfort at my insinuation that the bidding had been fixed. Or perhaps he cared little about that. Still, I was an American, and he probably preferred not to alienate American business interests. He shifted in his chair and drummed his fingertips on his desk. "And you think this would be worth my trouble?"

Secretary Elvira Perez appeared anxious to be done with me. I could think of only one way to convince him that what I desired most was to serve his interests. "You could name the figure that would make it worth your trouble, sir."

The Secretary ma.s.saged the tuft of beard below the center of his bottom lip and regarded me with somber, inquiring eyes.

I returned his gaze, softening the lines around my eyes and mouth into respectful complaisance.

He reached for his pen and a slip of paper and dashed out a line. Holding the paper before me, he said, "Can your party have its bid on my desk by ten tomorrow morning?"

Studying the number, I said, "I can convey the message that they must if they wish to be considered."

He crumpled the paper in his fist, pocketed it, and stood. "Now, what you have come for, senorita. The view from my office is lovely this time of night."

Mr. Elvira Perez was obviously signaling that our meeting was over-and that I should pretend it had never even happened. But this only confirmed my hunch that he considered it a fruitful exchange and that my mission had been accomplished.

LOVE, SO HARD TO RESIST.

MEXICO CITY-NOVEMBER 1902-JANUARY 1903

Three days later, on the last day of November, I hurried to Philip and Saskia's room at the arranged hour.

Saskia let me in, and we traded kisses on the cheeks.

Philip turned from the window and strode to me, hands extended. "My dear May."

"I shall miss both of you terribly," I said, clutching Philip's hands.

Philip lifted my hands and kissed both of them. "I will never be able to thank you enough."

"I'm delighted I could be of a.s.sistance," I said, my cheeks warming with the pride and contentedness of having handily delivered a favor.

Saskia hugged me. "I hope your dear husband won't be dismayed by your delay."

"I'm sure Rudolph will understand."

They turned to leave.

"Oh, one more thing," I said. "Philip, did I give you the notes I took on the train?"

He paused and looked at me, his hand on the doork.n.o.b. "No. Why?"

"I can't seem to find them."

"Well, they're of no consequence now."

And then they left me standing alone in their room. Save for the rumpled bedcovers and the lingering scent of Saskia's peppery carnation perfume, no sign of their presence remained. I looked around-at the dresser and coffee table devoid of any personal effects, at the curtains billowing over the windows from which Philip had so often gazed at the city. I missed them already.

My goodness, I thought, I nearly forgot: I wanted to admire the lobby's Art Nouveau design with them. I dashed out the door and trotted down the stairs, reaching them just as they neared the lobby exit.

"Philip, Saskia," I called out.

As they turned toward me I saw, through the lobby doors, Secretary Elvira Perez. Had he come to see them off?

Philip frowned at me. Saskia's eyes widened with alarm.

"Oh, excuse me," I said, feigning surprise in hopes of creating the impression I'd mistaken them for someone else. That, however, seemed implausible in view of their singularity-not just one, but two distinctively large-sized and well-dressed foreigners. I spun around and retreated, praying that the reflection on the outside gla.s.s had prevented Mr. Elvira Perez from recognizing me.

I could have kicked myself for the stupidity of it all. After pulling off such a coup, I'd allowed myself to slip at the last possible moment. Still, the winner of the bid had been publicly announced, and the Mexican government was unlikely to pa.s.s up such good money. No, I calculated, Philip's contract was safe, despite my lapse.

Although Philip and Saskia had offered to stay on (for we feared that leaving at the same time would arouse suspicion), I had insisted on their departing first. Why not avail myself of the opportunity to see more of Mexico and enjoy Alonso's company? So, with Alonso as my guide and companion, I proceeded on a whirlwind tour of Mexico City's many offerings: the remains of a once-exalted Aztec temple; the city's European-style plazas br.i.m.m.i.n.g with life; such beautiful churches as the Basilica de Santa Maria de Guadalupe; and restaurants-every day a charming new restaurant. We dined with government officials at arranged dinners; with Alonso's a.s.sociates at casual, spontaneous gatherings; and twice alone, all the while conversing in the pressed manner of suddenly intimate travelers sharing borrowed time. Night after night, we breezed up and down Avenida Dieciseis de Septiembre, dining, dancing, and stealing kisses in dim doorways.

I was scheduled to board the train for New York one week after Philip and Saskia had departed. But a complication had arisen. Against my better judgment, contrary even to my will, and despite my married status, I was falling in love with Alonso. And he with me.

"Don't leave yet." He leaned across the s.p.a.ce between our carriage seats and enfolded my hands in his. "We have just begun to see into each other's depths."

"You're making it hard for me. I must travel to London as soon as possible."

"Those people in London can wait." He stroked his thumbs over my fingers. "Stay with me."

My heart thumped. I could picture my dear Rudolph's pleading eyes. How anxiously he waited for me, even as I'd repeatedly postponed my return to him. It was just that he'd bored me so the last few years, carping about ridiculous matters: the prudence of my hiring such an "outrageously expensive" dressmaker; why ever I needed to see Sarah Bernhardt play Lady Macbeth a second time; and my "lax management" of the cook's schedule. Still, I'd pledged myself to him, remade my life around him. He was my Baron, I his Baroness. "No, Alonso, I must leave."

He clutched my hands tight in his and locked his eyes on mine. "You know I adore you. Tell me you don't love me."

My throat constricted against the lump expanding in it. Ah, love-it is so hard to resist: the electricity of the lover's fingertip touch; the ecstatic embrace that melts one to the core; the utter exhilaration of two-become-one. Under the gaze of his soft, pool-deep eyes, my heart fluttered with joyful antic.i.p.ation. Alonso-as sure-footed and self-a.s.sured as a mountaineer-had braved his way into my heart. I felt at home beside him; he'd freed my soul. I wondered: With him might I regain a glimmer of the happiness I'd known with Johnny? Through my watery eyes, his face blurred to shimmering bronze. "My life is elsewhere, but my heart is here with you."

He leapt up and came to sit at my side, putting one arm around my shoulder, the other on my thigh. "Then stay. Make a new life here, mi amor."

I leaned on his shoulder and tangled my arm in his. "You're not going to let me go, are you?"

He nuzzled his face to mine and brushed his lips over my cheek, around my earlobe, down my neck. "Come away on a holiday with me. Let me drink you in some more. And then, if you still wish, I will let you go."

I dared not tell Philip and Saskia that I planned to spend two weeks in Cuernavaca with Alonso. Instead, I sent them a telegram: CIRc.u.mSTANCES REQUIRE ME TO STAY AND KEEP UP APPEARANCES STOP PLEASE ALERT RUDOLPH TO DELAY STOP.

Both Alonso and I preferred a private and leisurely holiday after our hectic sightseeing and the many hours spent with his a.s.sociates and companions in Mexico City. Fortunately, his family's vacation home in central Cuernavaca afforded ample opportunities for relaxed meals for two and romantic strolls around the picturesque city.

A day before the end of our two-week stay, we sat breakfasting on his east-facing veranda. The sun coaxed gold-orange hues from the surrounding adobe walls and warmed the metal of my chair and the iron rail I draped my arm over. As the cathedral bells finished tolling ten o'clock, I reached across the table and cupped my hand over his. "Being here-with you-is like dancing on clouds. I could stay forever."

Alonso looked down at my hand. "I am supposed to return for work on Monday and be home with my family for Christmas."

"You see," I said, wondering if I could ever tear myself away from him, "we can't hide from the world forever."

He turned my hand palm-up and wove his fingers in mine. "No, but we can make the world ours."

At that moment I wished only to shut out the rest of the world, to make this place with Alonso the whole of my world. "Then let's stay through Christmas. Pretend this paradise will never end."

He stood and pulled me into his embrace, tightening his muscular arms around my waist and bringing his lips to my ear. "You are my paradise, mi dulce."

The Sat.u.r.day after Christmas Alonso called to me from the door. "Florence, a message has come for you."

"Bring it here, please." I sat before the bedroom vanity, brushing out my hair. I loved the light in Mexico, the way its warm glow brought out the chestnut and amber tones in my hair.

Alonso walked into the bedroom and handed me an envelope addressed to Florence Walker. "Were you expecting something?"

"Perhaps it's from the jeweler, though I don't know why he didn't address it to you." (Alonso was having me fitted for an aquamarine ring.) I slipped my finger under the flap and extracted the note.

Alonso picked up the brush and ran it through my hair, looking over my shoulder.

I read the note quickly, aware of Alonso's eyes on it.

Dear Miss Walker,