She smiled. "Until Flying Heels, Moonbeam, and Lady Grace come across
the finish line One, Two, and Three at Churchill Downs on Derby Day."
I grinned at her. "Considering that trio of turtles, Tomboy, it may be
for years and it may be forever."
She held up her glass in a sort of a toast. "Or," she said, "'Til death
do us part!"
A little bitterly I said, "One might think that Barcelona doesn't trust
me."
She replied, "It isn't a matter of trust. Barcelona holds you among his
very closest friends. He is well aware of the fact that you would do
anything for him, that you prize his friendship so highly yourself that
you would go to the most desperate lengths to keep it firm and true. Yet
he realizes that the simple desire he has recently expressed does place
you in a delicate mental attitude. You are likely to feel that he
shouldn't have expressed this desire since you feel obligated to fulfill
it. He feels that maybe this obligation to maintain friendship at all
costs may cause resentment. Since Barcelona does not want you to resent
him, he sent me to be your companion in the hope that I might get some
forewarning should your friendship for him begin to weaken."
* * * * *
Just why in this day and age she didn't just come out and say--or
think--flatly that she was there to keep me in line, I don't know. But
there she was, talking all around the main point and delivering the
information by long-winded inference.
Even so, without her Pittsburgh stogie, Tomboy Taylor was a mighty
attractive dish, and I knew that she could also be a bright and
interesting conversationalist if she wanted to be. Under other
circumstances I might have enjoyed the company, but it was no pleasure
to know that every grain of her one hundred and fourteen pounds
avoirdupois was Barcelona's Personal Property. At that moment I realized
that I was not too much concerned with what Barcelona's reaction might
be. Instead, I was wishing that things were different so that any
activity between us would be for our own personal gain and pleasure
rather than the order of or the fight against one Joseph Barcelona.
There was one consolation. Tomboy Taylor had not come equipped with a
box of Pittsburgh stogies with which to make my appreciation of beauty
throw up its lunch.