Heart of Lies (27 page)

Margaret acknowledged his thanks with a wave of her hand. “Maddy’s an easy child to love. She has a good heart, once she lets it out of the box. I know she’s not really one of us, ’tis to say she’s not from the workin’ class people. But she tries hard to fit right in, and we all love her for it. I’ve done her no favors, Mr. Hoffman. She’s paid her way, and worked besides. We’ve been glad to have her.”

“I know how lucky she is to have you.” The irony of the situation did not escape him. As a child, he’d been introduced to a new life by a foster family. Now his daughter was having the same experience, by traveling in the other direction: down the social ladder. But maybe Maddy was getting what she needed.

“I suppose, then, that you’ll be takin’ her away from us?”

Leo stood up and walked over to study a faded botanical print hang
ing on the wall, his discomfort apparent. “That had been my original thought. I was going to send Maddy away, perhaps to Switzerland, to a really fine boarding school. You see, I’m only here in the States temporarily. My business will take me in many different directions over the next few months. It may be years before I can actually settle down. And that can’t be helped. There are certain circumstances beyond my control.”

Rubbish
, thought Mrs. O’Connor. But she said nothing. Leo was not finished.

“The one thing that became clear to me, listening to Maddy tonight, was that she wants very much to stay here. I think I’ll probably be in Europe. With the Americans. So it will be difficult, perhaps impossible, for me to visit.”

He turned to face the plump Irishwoman. “You see, Mrs. O’Connor, I loved my wife. And when she died…I’m not sure I have anything left to give Maddy, except money, and I can do that from a distance. I think perhaps she should stay here with you.”

Margaret stared hard at him, a mixture of reproach and sympathy coloring her scowl. “You’re nothin’ but a coward if ya leave that poor girl. I lost my Patrick ten years ago. Ya can’t run away from yer pain, Mr. Leo Hoffman. So just stop running.”

It was a moment before Leo answered. “I could give you some excuse. Something close to the truth: that before I can come back, I have to fulfill another commitment. But the real truth is that you and I are made differently, Mrs. O’Connor. I’m no good, take my word for it. And please, take care of her for me.” He started for the door.

“But wait,” she called after him. “Ya can’t just leave. Ya have to say goodbye to the child. Good Lord, how will we find ya?”

“I’ll be in touch.” He closed the door behind him.

“Holy Mother of God,” whispered Margaret O’Connor, her eyes still on the door. “The man has the devil in him, worse than I’ve ever seen it. If that’s what lovin’ a woman does to a man, I want no part of it for me boys. Saints preserve them.”

“Where’s my father?”

Margaret looked up from the mass of eggs she was scrambling to see Maddy in the doorway. The child wore the dress she’d slept in, its elegance now diminished by many wrinkles and several splashes of mud.

Margaret thought about all the ruses she could use to put off answering Maddy’s question. Breakfast. Laundry. The butcher had to be paid before noon today or she’d lose her good credit.

Maddy did not move. She didn’t even blink.

Margaret turned off the gas. The eggs could be reheated. Small hearts broke quickly.

“Come and sit down, Maddy. Do ya fancy some tea?”

Maddy shook her head. She padded over to the table in stocking feet and sat down, with all the dignity of a princess royal. Then she asked her question again.

“Where’s my father?”

“And is Katherine still sleeping then?”

“Yes.”

“That one could sleep through an earthquake, wouldn’t ya say, Maddy? And she may do it someday, if ya listen to her. She’ll be travelin’ to far-off lands.” She fixed herself a cup of tea as she spoke, and threw in an extra lump of sugar. Damn the budget. Today she needed it.

Maddy sat, hands folded in front of her, as patient as a stone. Margaret took a place across from her, adultlike. The truth would hurt, but it best be out. Let her get used to it while she had other things to do. Tears were best saved for the pillow.

“Well, Maddy, I’m afraid he’s left.” She saw Maddy’s nostrils quiver, but other than that, she showed no reaction.
How much suffering can such a small soul take?

“It’s not that he doesn’t love ya, Maddy. He does. These things are hard to explain, and even harder to understand. I know I’ve told ya this before, but he sent ya here to try and save ya from being killed, same as yer mum. He didn’t know what a wicked thing that Amelia was. And ya know, people can’t just jump from country to country when they want to. It’s not like catchin’ the bus uptown, darlin’. A person has to have special permissions to come in and out of another country. If you sneak in, and they catch ya, why, they ship ya out and never let ya back in. Or send ya to jail. Or worse. Believe me, we know about these things, we Irish. Your dad couldn’t just come along.”
So he says.

Maddy still stared at her, immobile.
Please, Lord, help me make sense of the thing to this child. Help me find the words
, Margaret prayed. She’d spent the better part of the night awake, thinking about everything Leo Hoffman had said to her, trying to come up with some explanation to offer his daughter as to why he’d abandoned her again. A reason other than the fact that her father was a brokenhearted cow
ard, too caught up in his own suffering to face his pain for the sake of his daughter.

“We had a good talk last night, yer dad and me. He told me all about how he had to ship ya off to America to keep you safe, expectin’ to be able to join ya any day. And ya know dear, he did write. Lots and lots. ’Twas that awful woman kept yer father’s letters away from ya.”

That made an impression. “He wrote to me? He said that?”

“Aye, and it broke his heart you never wrote back. ‘Not that I could blame her, Mrs. O’Connor,’ he told me. ‘Maddy had every reason to be angry at me. But every day away from her was an eternity.’”

Maddy leaned forward. “He said that?”

God forgive me.
“That he did. And he said he’d thought he’d take ya to Switzerland, in Europe, but he could tell from talkin’ to ya last night that you wanted to be here with us. So that’s what’s going to happen, while he’s away.”

“But where is he, Mrs. O’Connor?” Now the tears appeared, quickly filling her eyes and then trickling down her face. “Where did he go? Why did he leave?”

Margaret steeled herself. From what she could piece together, after sifting through every word Leo had said, the story she was about to tell Maddy could be something like the truth.

“It’s a complicated business. Ya see, America is a marvelous place. And all over the world, people dream about comin’ here to live. But if they let everyone in who wanted to be here, why, soon we’d be living like chickens in a hen house, one on top of the other, scratchin’ around for food and water and nobody happy about it.

“But knowin’ that so many people do want to come to America, sometimes the men runnin’ this country will put out a sort of ‘help
wanted’ sign. That’s what happened back in the 1860s, when America was fightin’ the Civil War. You’ve studied about that, haven’t ya? In school?”

Transfixed, Maddy nodded.

“Well, back then, an able-bodied Irishman could come to America, and become a citizen Maddy, meaning he could vote and bring in family and really make a life here, if he just agreed to fight for a couple of years in the Union Army, to beat the Confederates. So, many did.”
And they mostly died. She’ll figure that part out soon enough.

“But we aren’t at war now. There’s no Civil War. We’re not even fighting Hitler. Why would the government want my father to do that? Anything like that?”

Margaret could hear the panic in the child’s voice. She reached across the table and patted her hand. “Well, we’re not fighting Hitler yet. But in sneaky ways, we’re tryin’ to help our friends in Europe. Yer dad’s going to Europe with the Americans who are already there. Same thing happened last time, you know. Americans joined up with Canadian troops and jumped in early to fight the Kaiser.”

Maddy appeared to be sorting all of this information out in her mind. “And that’s the only way he’ll be allowed to stay here with us? If he goes to fight in the war first?”

“Aye, lass. That’s the situation. Now, there, don’t be cryin’. Yer father is a brave man. To think, he’s willin’ to be a soldier if it means he can come home to you.”

She got up and moved around to where Maddy now lay, arms crossed, head down, her shoulders shaking with sobs. “But what if he dies?” she managed to wail. “What good will it have done then, Mrs. O’Connor?”

Margaret stroked her back. “He won’t die, lass. He might not even be in the real fightin’, a man as smart as yer dad. He’ll likely have one of them desk jobs, helping soldiers keep track of their shoe laces and such.”

“What about soldiers and shoe laces?” Katherine stormed into the kitchen. “What happened last night? Maddy, why are you crying? What’s going on?”

For once Margaret O’Connor was glad her daughter acted like a bulldog with a bone when it came to getting an answer to a question. “Maddy will tell ya all about it, Mary Kate. Now, go wash yer face, dear. That’s a love. I’ve a house full of people who’ll be wakin’ up and expectin’ a meal in less time than I care to think about. And you two need to be gettin’ ready for school.”

Leo stared up at the gilt and paneled ceiling, his head supported by the generous volume of several goose-down pillows, and tried to remember where he was.
Oh yes. The suite at the Waldorf. New York. Amelia.

Maddy.

He sat up. The gin he’d consumed the night before began to exact its punishment. What time was it? He squinted through bloodshot eyes, trying to focus on the clock sitting on the mantelpiece across the room. Only eleven. He still had a few hours.

First he had to make a phone call.

The girls of St. Agnes piled out the double oak doors of the school’s main entrance at precisely three o’clock, cascading like a blue-and-white waterfall down the stone steps and out into the street. Maddy and Katherine walked down the stairs together, both lost in thought,
both sure they were thinking about the same thing. Neither looked up until a slightly older girl stopped in her tracks near the bottom of the stairs, forcing Maddy and Katherine to pull up short.

The girl pointed at a man waiting on the sidewalk a few feet from where the parade of girls began to fan out in different directions.

“Who’s that?” she asked loudly, her question aimed at no one in particular. “He looks like Gary Cooper.”

“Maddy, it’s him.” Katherine whispered, not taking her eyes off Leo.

The older girl turned and faced them.

“It’s who?”

“That’s my father,” Maddy answered.

“It is?” The older girl looked skeptical. “I didn’t think you even had a father. Everyone says—”

“JUST SHUT UP.” Katherine shoved her red head up into the taller girl’s startled face. “Don’t go repeating stupid stories when you don’t even know the FACTS.”

“Okay, okay. Calm down, you little heathen.”

Maddy ignored them. She just stared at her father. He looked back at her. They both seemed afraid to move.

“Go on.” Katherine bumped Maddy with a shoulder. “He’s not here to see me. I’ll take your books.”

Leo watched as Maddy handed her books to her friend then walked toward him, every step laden with uncertainty. She looked so much like Martha. The resemblance was killing him.

She stopped when she was still a few feet away, eyes wary, and Leo had the sense that if he moved too suddenly she might flee. Not that he would blame her if she did.

“Bonjour, ma princesse.
”

He thought he saw something like joy flicker through her eyes before they filled again with suspicion. “Mrs. O’Connor said you were gone.”

“Well, I was able to get a little more time before I have to leave. I thought we might go for a walk now, if you like.”

Maddy glanced back at Katherine, who gave her a look clearly communicating,
what are you waiting for?
She turned back to Leo.

“I have a lot of homework”

“We’ll make sure you have time to do it all.”

“I usually help Mrs. O’Connor with dinner on Tuesdays.”

“I asked her permission to take you out this afternoon.”

“You did?”

He knelt down, as close as he dared get to her. “Yes, Maddy, I did. And I’d like to spend time with you every day, if you like, until after Christmas. We can go to for a walk in the park, or to the zoo, or even shopping at one of the department stores.”

She flinched. “No shopping.”

How could he be so stupid?
Martha died the last time they went shopping. “Right you are. No shopping. How about I help you and Mrs. O’Connor make dinner?”

To his relief, Maddy laughed. “You can’t cook.”

He stood up. “Oh yes, I can. I can make Chinese chicken and rice. And roast beef.”

“Biscuits?”

“Maybe you’ll have to show me how to make biscuits.”

She gave him another look of amused skepticism, then popped out with, “Can we go to the movies?”

“Sure. Do you go to the movies a lot?”

“No. Only sometimes. But I love to go.”

“Then let’s go. We can go to a movie now, if you want.”

“Can Katherine come?”

“Today?”

Maddy hesitated. “Well, maybe tomorrow. Maybe we could be together, just the two of us, today.”

Leo smiled down at his daughter. He held out his hand. She looked at it for a fraction of a moment. It was the longest moment of Leo’s entire life.

Then she put her little gloved hand in his.

He began to walk, keeping his stride short to keep pace with hers. “What movie would you like to see?”

“Not a war movie.” She looked up at him. “Mrs. O’Connor said that you left last night because you have to go and fight in the war. She said that even though the Americans aren’t in the war, that they’re trying to help the British people, so that some soldiers are going over to Europe, and that the only way that you’d be allowed to stay here in America with us is if you first go help out in the war. She said it was just like when some of the people in her family first came to this country in the American Civil War. When they first came, she said, right off their boats, they had to leave to go fight in the Union Army if they wanted to come back and live in New York. Is that true? Do you have to go fight?”

Thank you, Mrs. O’Connor.
“Yes, that’s all true. I do have to go help out in the war before I can come back to live in New York with you.”

Her voice dropped to a whisper. “But what if you die?”

Leo knelt down again and cupped her small face in his hands. His love for his child surged within him, like a lion roaring a challenge to the sun.

“Maddy, my little love, I’m not going to die. I’m going to help the British and the French beat the Nazis. And in two years, I will come home, and we will live together. And I’ll make sure that you are never, never alone again.”

Her frightened eyes searched his, looking for the reassurance she needed. She must have seen something there that helped, for at last she whispered, “Okay.”

“Okay.” He wrapped his arms around her. “I love you, Maddy.”

He heard her sniffle. “And I love you, Papa.”

Leo closed his eyes and held her close. He would get through the next two years alive. He would get back to his daughter. And then love would give them a second chance.      a cognizant original v5 release november 24 2010