The Lighthouse Road(8)

" 'Nest of harlots,' you say?"



She closed her parasol and stood before him. "Call them whatever you want."



"Please, sit down."



She sat on the bench beside him, crossed her legs and adjusted her skirts.



"Vaclav has informed you of my reason for being here, is that right?"



"He's a pig."



Hosea sat back and looked at her. A smile played across his face. "I'll save you the trouble of a lifetime of discovery and tell you that all men are pigs."



"You think I don't know that?"



"How old are you, Ava?"



"I'm thirteen."



"Thirteen."



"I'll be fourteen at Christmastime."



"Tell me, how did you end up in the employment of Vaclav Hruby?"



"I'm his slave is more like it."



"Is your tongue always so sharp?"



"I'm sorry. I don't mean to be wise."



"So you're unhappy working for Vaclav?"



"It could be worse."



"Yes, I suppose it could always be worse." Hosea tried to read the meaning of her quips. "I wonder, has Vaclav spoken of me?"



She uncrossed her legs and put her elbows on her knees. In that



pose she looked every bit the child she was. "He said you want to adopt me. Move me up to Minnesota." She looked over her shoulder at him. "Is that far away?"



"Minnesota? No, not far at all. Where I live — I should say where I'll soon live — is on a lake much like this one —" he gestured at the wide waters of Lake Michigan "—a lake called Superior. Though the town is much smaller than Chicago. The whole of it would fit in Lincoln Park." He looked south. " Might fit twice."



"I don't mind a small town. I was born up in a small town in Wisconsin."



"What happened that you ended up an orphan?"



"Can't say. I never knew my parents. I was born into that godawful orphanage. I ran away as soon as I thought to."



"And came to Chicago? Why?"



"I stole two dollars from the orphanage. Chicago is as far away as I could get."



"I see."



"Don't think I'm a thief. It's the only time I ever stole anything. I had to. The headmaster at the orphanage was awful. I've worked for Vaclav for two years and never stole a red cent. And I could have. It would be easy."



"That's good. That's good. I wouldn't want to adopt a thief."



"Why do you want to adopt anyone?"



Hosea looked at her, knew from the look in her eyes that it would be easiest to tell her the whole truth now, that any omission or lie would come back to haunt him tenfold. "I hope you'll let me ask you a question, and I hope you'll be honest. I put great stock in honesty."



"Okay," she said.



"I want to know what life has been like for you at Vaclav's."



She looked at him, confused.



"You've been a hostess, yes? And worked in the coatroom I see. Anything else?"



"Oh! No, nothing else. Well—"



"You must be completely honest, remember."



She didn't so much as flinch when she said, "I said Vaclav was a pig."



"Do you mean to say he has made you available to his clients?"



"He made me available to himself, is what I mean."



"Dear God," Hosea whispered. "You poor child."



"It was nothing the headmaster at the orphanage hadn't done."



Hosea put his hand on hers and looked her firmly in the eyes. "I want you to know that I will never, ever treat you that way. I will protect you as though you were my own flesh and blood."



"Why?" she said.



"Why?" he repeated.



"You don't even know me."



"Do you have any idea what fate awaits you at Vaclav's? Do you know what your life would be like a year from now?" He stood up and buttoned his coat. "I can offer you a life free of that fate. I would like to." He knelt before her. "Tell me, Ava: Why haven't you run away from Vaclav?"



"It's a warm bed and hot food."



"There's more to life than that."



She looked at him as though she were the adult. "Not when you don't have it. Let me ask you a question, Mister Grimm: How do I know you're honest as you say you are? You said yourself all men are pigs. You just spent two days tangled up with some of Vaclav's best girls."



"A fair question. Fair indeed." He stood again. "I am a man of resources, Ava. I've traveled to all the corners of the world. I'm educated." Now he sat next to her. "I'm not religious, even if I once was, but I do have a meditative streak. Places such as Vaclav's serve as my Asclepieions. Places where I can restore myself." He paused, considered whether to continue in such a vein but thought better of it. "All of which is to say that though I have my— how shall I say this?— uncouth tendencies, I am also a man more capable than most to subvert those tendencies. I am, at heart, a simple man." He nodded his head in self-approval. "I have enemies, though. It's probably not a good idea for me to be in Chicago in the first place. But I needed to see Vaclav. I needed to see about you." He straightened up. "I have represented myself to the people of Gunflint as a family man. They expect me to return with my daughter."