“Why don’t you be a good girl and put your bathing suit back on, and then we can talk?”

“All right.” A few moments passed. Then she said, “You can relax now.”

I turned around and nodded my thanks curtly. She made me feel as awkward as hell, even now that she was wearing her costume again. Avoiding the sight of beautiful young women when they were naked: that was a new thing for me.

“As a matter of fact, I’m glad you’re here,” she said. “This morning she was kind of suicidal.”

“Kind of?”

“Kind of, yeah. What I mean is that she threatened to shoot herself if I didn’t promise her that I wouldn’t see Max anymore.”

“And did you?”

“Did I what?”

“Promise not to see him anymore?”

“No, of course I didn’t. I mean that’s just emotional blackmail.”

“Mmm-hmm. Does she have a gun?”

“Silly question, in this house. There’s a gun cupboard in the tower with enough weaponry to start another revolution. But as it happens, she has her own gun. Ernest gave it to her. I guess he thought he could spare her one.”

“Think she’d ever do it?”

“I don’t know. That’s why I mentioned it just now, I suppose. I really don’t know. She and Ernest used to talk about suicide. All the time. And she wonders why I want to go out with Max instead of hanging around here.”

“When exactly is Hemingway coming back here?”

“July, I think. He’d be back here now, except for the fact that he’s in a hospital in Nairobi.”

“I guess one of those animals must have fought back.”

“No, it was a plane crash. Or a bush fire. Maybe both. I don’t know. But he was pretty bad for a while.”

“What happens when he does come back? Are he and your mother involved?”

“Christ no. Ernest has a wife, Mary. Although I don’t think something like that would stop them. Besides, she’s seeing someone, I think. Noreen, I mean. Anyway, she’s bought a house in Marianao and we’re supposed to move into it sometime in the next month or two.”

Dinah found a pack of cigarettes, lit one, and blew smoke down at the ground and away from me. “I’m going to marry him, and there’s nothing she or anyone else can do about it.”

“Except shoot herself. People have shot themselves for less.”

Dinah made a face. It matched the one I might have made when she told me that Noreen was seeing someone.

“And what do you think?” she asked. “About me and Max.”

“Would it make the slightest difference if I told you?”

She shook her head. “So what did you and he talk about?”

“He offered me a job.”

“Are you going to take it?”