He walked toward her voice and, his vision adjusting, saw her white shift in the darkness. Legs tucked beneath her, she was sitting on the reed mat in front of the altar shared by Christ and the orisha Babaluaye. He sat beside her, leaving a discreet distance between them but close enough to smell her: a female musk mingled with a scent like his when he came out of the herbal baths.

“Do your friends know you’re with me?”

“I told them I was taking a walk, but I am not sure they believed me. What about Rosaria and your uncle?”

“They think I am with Lydia, the woman who is writing the letter, but I cannot be delayed too long.”

“Then what is it you have to tell me?”

“Three things,” said Elvira Casamayor, and then fell silent. His eyes were accustomed to the blackness now and he could see her more clearly, sitting back on her heels, her hands cupping her knees, her gaze not on him but on the slant of moonlight. “No soy virgen,” she began, matter-of-factly. “I wish you to know that. I don’t know if that’s important in North America. It is here.”

“Está no importante para me,” he declared, not sure if he had said it correctly. “No soy virgen también,” he added, attempting a light-hearted tone.

“Of course you’re not. You’re a man. Don’t make jokes. I have heard it said about you yanquis that you are always making jokes. I think that is so because you yanquis are rich and do not see that most things end badly.”

“Things can end badly, even for the rich,” he said. “And the second thing?”

“What you wish me to tell you, but not because you wish it, not to please you. Pero porque es verdad. Te quiero, te amo.”

“It pleases me even if that’s not why you said it. I have never felt so pleased. And I am not making a joke. Tell me the third thing.”

“What my madrina told you is true. When I make asienta, I am mounted by the orisha. He enters me. Not my body but my spirit. He becomes my husband, and I must be faithful to him for one year. And I will be. It is very important to me to become a santera. To be a santera is to have respect, honor.”

“Sí. Entiendo.”

“You say you do, but you don’t. You understand only the words. Listen. I do not know how long it will be before I become asientada, but I do not think very long. If you and I are married, that will be a torment, no?”