Vistaria Has Fallen (The Vistaria Affair/Vistaria Has Fallen #1)(11)

That had been before they reached el Hotel Imperial.

Duardo waited in the cavernous foyer with its white stone walls, gorgeous Persian carpets and heavy mahogany furniture. He wore what Calli assumed was the formal dress uniform of the Vistarian army—dark green pants, a white dress shirt and waist-length jacket. The cut reminded her of the black costumes the men had been wearing last evening. She had seen hundreds more of them on their way to the hotel. At his neck Duardo wore a green and red ribbon in a flat, formalized knot, with a gold pin through the middle. The breast of his jacket held a row of medals and ribbons. Black stripes on the sleeves of the jacket replicated the red ones he had been wearing when Calli met him.

He walked toward them and Minnie sighed, coming to a halt. “Now isn’t that the sexiest man alive?”

Duardo smiled at them both. “My pleasure it is to see you again this evening.” He came to formal attention in front of them and bowed from the waist in greeting to Calli. He did the same to Minnie, then reached into his jacket and withdrew a single blood-red carnation and presented it to her.

“Oh, how lovely!” she declared.

He lifted a finger toward her hair. “For your hair.”

She laughed and ran her fingers through her hair. “It’s not long enough to hold a flower.”

He laughed, too. “I forgot. I only remember your eyes and that red is your color.”

“Never mind,” she said. “I know just where to put it.” She broke off all but an inch of stem and pushed the flower into her cleavage, so it nestled between her breasts and the low vee of her gown. The flower matched the color of the swirls on her dress.

“Perfection,” Duardo declared, studying the effect with close attention.

Calli hid her smile and surveyed the hotel. It was an older building. It was well-maintained and reeked of money. The few women in the foyer glittered with jewels and costly dresses. Every man there, except for hotel staff, wore military dress. There was not a single civilian male in sight.

“What is the party for?” Calli asked Duardo.

“Tonight is the birthday party for our beloved General Maxim Blanco Alonso,” Duardo answered with pride.

“Nothing to do with the fiesta then?”

“Most certainly not. General Blanco is very...correct. Very...” He tugged on the bottom of his jacket. “Un perfecto caballero.”

Calli got the sense of his meaning from the tug of his jacket and the squaring of his shoulders. Upright, dignified. Proper. A gentleman. “Best bibs and tuckers and all that?” she asked with a mock English accent.

“Qué?” Duardo asked.

“Nothing,” she assured him. “Forget it. I’m teasing.” Calli was glad, now, Minnie had insisted on buying the gown she wore. Minnie had assured her Vistarians were formal in the evenings. Calli hadn’t understood what she meant. Now she did.

“Shall we?” Duardo asked, holding out his arms to them.

Calli let her fingers rest inside his elbow. They walked around the islands of low, heavy furniture in the center of the foyer toward a grand archway framing a stone staircase. Many more people ascended the stairs ahead of them. Most of them wore uniforms and seemed to know each other.

They climbed the staircase a step at a time, for progress at the top was slow. Duardo and Minnie chatted in low voices, laughing and taking no notice of their surroundings. Duardo had his hand on Minnie’s waist. Calli looked behind her when they paused for a longer moment, halfway up the flight. The stairs were thick with dark-haired, olive-skinned men and a few Vistarian women. Calli glanced at Minnie. Despite her dark hair and petite stature, Minnie was a sharp contrast to everyone else. Her skin was pale and her pixie-like features and huge eyes with their pale brown coloring marked her as foreign. A stranger and the only non-Vistarian standing on the staircase except for Calli herself.

Calli considered the effect of her own gown and coloring. Straw-blonde hair, white skin, green eyes and a gown that added to the effect of insubstantial lightness. She pressed her lips together, her heart fluttering. She must stand out like sore thumb amongst these people.

Uncomfortable, Calli worried it over as they ascended the last few stairs and arrived before the big doors that were their destination. In her heels, Calli was as tall as many of the men. She could see between heads and through the doors. A formal greeting line was causing the delay.

Beyond the line was a large ballroom, decorated in red and green bunting, plus the blue Wisteria color that must be Vistaria’s national color. More people waited inside. More soldiers. More dark-eyed, sultry Vistarian women.

Calli leaned over and caught Minnie’s eye. “What have you got us into?” she whispered.

“Only the party of the year,” Minnie assured her.

“Screw that. Do you realize we’re the only Americans here?”

Minnie looked puzzled. “So?”

Duardo patted Calli’s fingers where they rested on the inside of his arm. “It will be alright,” he assured her. “You are with me.”

“Duardo, no offense, but I got chucked in jail last night because your fellow Vistarians took exception to me being in their country. Now we’re stepping inside a room full of patriotic Vistarians.”

“These are good Vistarians.” He was frowning, now, too. “They know Americans help us. They would not be rude.”