Free The City of Palaces by Michael Nava Page B

you worry about which charity is being feted? Really, Miguel, first things first. In any event, the charity is entirely respectable. It’s the foundling home. First Lady Carmen’s pet project. You know she is as barren as the Sahara herself so she likes to go and coo at the babies that have been abandoned there by their slattern mothers. You must come.”
    Sarmiento shrugged. “I do not wish to meet other women.”
    â€œThen come because your Doña Alicia may be there.”
    â€œHow do you know that?”
    â€œShe also is a patron of the orphanage.”
    â€œYes,” Sarmiento acknowledged, thinking of Alicia’s many godchildren. “That’s true. She is.”
    â€œI will be at your apartment Saturday night at nine on the point. Be dressed and ready.” He gulped his drink and stood up. “ Hasta sábado , Primo.”
    â€œUntil then,” Sarmiento said.
    A licia and her three sisters took tea with their mother in her yellow salon every afternoon. Alicia always arrived first, followed by her sisters, and then her mother. So when she entered the room today, she was surprised to find La Niña already present. Under her mother’s gimlet-eyed gaze, the servants nervously set out the tea service and hastily retreated. Her mother glanced up at her and said, “Who is this man in whose company you have been seen by half the city?”
    Alicia sat down on a gilded chair from the reign of Louis XV. “You are referring, no doubt, to my friend Doctor Miguel Sarmiento.”
    Her mother looked at her with hooded eyes, like an ancient bird of prey. “Your friend? An unmarried reprobate? Do not imagine, my good daughter, that your unfortunate condition puts you beyond the reach of scandal.”
    â€œI assure you, Mother, Miguel Sarmiento is no reprobate,” she replied hotly. “He is a sensitive, honorable man who assists me in my charity.”
    â€œHe is a lunatic’s son who was forced to leave México a decade ago under a cloud.”
    â€œHe went to study medicine in Germany and France.”
    â€œThat isn’t what the gossips say,” her mother observed.
    â€œSince when do you listen to the gossips?”
    Her mother frowned. “When they are gossiping about my daughter.” She raised a hand to prevent Alicia from replying. “Listen to me, Daughter. I have permitted you unusual freedom to do your good works, but there is a limit to my liberality.”
    â€œWill you lock me up in my room?” Alicia asked coolly.
    â€œDon’t be a fool!” her mother snapped. “You have become the laughingstock of the city, throwing yourself like a lovelorn girl at a man who has no interest in you. I am merely attempting to save you and this family from further embarrassment.”
    Alicia’s face burned with shame. “Is that what the gossips say? That I am throwing myself at him?”
    â€œLike a hideous witch pursing a handsome prince,” her mother replied. “That is what they say.” La Niña sighed. “I am sorry to repeat it, but I want you to hear what is whispered behind your back.”
    â€œBut it is not true, Mother. I am not pursing him. He is my friend,” she said, sounding pitiable even to herself, like a little girl begging to be allowed to keep a stray kitten.
    â€œYet you have seen fit not to introduce me to this friend of yours,” her mother replied.
    Alicia, remembering how carefully she had arranged Miguel’s visit to the palace when her mother would be out, had no satisfactory response.
    Her mother, noting her discomfiture, continued. “I do not blame you for wanting the attentions of a man. You are normal, after all, notwithstanding your misfortune. But what you are doing with this doctor is not permitted, Alicia. It is also unnecessary. Even as you are, there are men who would gladly have you as their wife in exchange for the social prestige you would