A wisp of a woman in a flowing shift hobbled out onto a balcony and leaned over the rail, studying me intensely as if I were some sort of rare squirrel that had ventured onto the property.
“Inverness? Is that in Switzerland?”
The old man rolled his eyes. “Scotland, you fool. You must be the dimmest heap of flesh ever to weave.”
His insult slid right past me. My heart was already on a train to Britain. But then it was like the vultures swooped down and plucked away my hope. What if this turned out to be another wild goose chase? What if I got there and found out Karla was actually in Newfoundland or Labrador?
“You know this for sure? That she’s in Inverness.”
“Look at you.” The old man’s gaze drilled into me. “She’s all you care about, isn’t she?”
I couldn’t deny that.
“Let me tell you something then, that you may not like to hear. I am ten years ‘out of the closet,’ as they say. But back in the day, men like me took great pains to disguise our sexual proclivities. Some of us married women. Our wives bore children. I have a daughter. An only child named Hanna. She’s forty-six now and she once was married to a terrible man named Edmund.”
“Oh my God! You’re Karla’s grandfather?”
“But I’ve little contact with the family ever since Hanna left him. I don’t even hear from Hanna anymore. She’s not been right in the head, but who can blame her after being with Edmund. You can imagine how an extremist like him felt about a man of my predilections. I must be the devil personified in that household, and Hanna certainly suffered by association.”
“Does Karla know … in Root … who you are?”
“Of course she knows. I actually participated in their family life when she was small. I used to travel to Rome for holidays and they even came to Geneva once. That, of course, was before I came out.”
Luther, the physio-therapist, came striding out of the building.
“You two having a nice chat? Listen, Arthur. I am needed down at the main hospital. They have no one to work with the burn cases today. So we’ll have to reschedule our session. I know much you are heartbroken. How much you love this shoulder torture.” He winked. “Good to meet you James. Au revoir!”
He wheeled about and crossed the patio to the street. I gazed up at the crown of a willow, its leaves exposing their silvery undersides in the changeable wind
“Inverness,” I said. “It sounds so far away.”
“Why would you ever want to go there, boy? What good would it do Karla? One glimpse of you and Edmund would beat her raw simply for attracting the attentions of a male.”
“Jeez! I don’t get why she doesn’t just leave.”
“She has a younger sister. Isobel. If Karla left, there would be no one to protect the little one.”
“Protect her from … Edmund?”
“And not just the beating. That’s not the worst of it. No one will say for sure, but I suspect there was molestation as well. It was a crime that Hanna was unable to gain custody of those girls.”
“You know this and you just let it happen? Why don’t you report him?”
“To whom? Who would listen? He is a leader in his church. He is calm and chaste in the court room, polite to the judges, and exceptionally well-groomed.”
“So letting them live with that monster, that’s better?”
The old man shrugged. “Karla is a Weaver. She has Root to help her cope with hardships. It’s good enough for me. Why not her?”
