She hesitated and then rose to her feet slowly. “Okay.”
My heart leaped. “Wonderful. Let’s go.”
“I’m Catherine.”
Catherine didn’t suit her at all. She was Violet. “Colin,” I replied and offered her my hand. “Are you hungry, Catherine?”
“Yes,” she replied, smiling and dropping her eyes to the ground.
“Well, the café isn’t far.” She walked beside me, leaving a gap approximately a foot from me. I didn’t like it. “How long have you been living out here, Catherine?”
“Um, a year almost.”
“That long?” How on earth could her so-called family allow her to sleep on the dirty, dangerous streets for even one night? “A beautiful young woman like yourself shouldn’t be sleeping in the cold. You should be looked after. Cherished.”
Violet blushed, hiding her face behind her hair. Her shyness was endearing. It wasn’t something I was used to. Mother was a very strong and forceful person. The other women that I had encountered sold themselves on a daily basis. Violet was the first sweet and innocent woman I had met.
“Where is the café?” she asked.
“Not far. You’ve never been?”
She shook her head. “No, I stick to the other side of town, where there’s more people.”
“This side isn’t bad, Catherine, just a little neglected. The café is decent.”
She looked back over her shoulder and bit her lip. Was she considering running back? The streets were deserted, with the exception of a few homeless people littered in shop doorways.
“How far?” she asked again and glanced back behind her. My van was in sight, just a few feet away. We were almost there. “I think I should go back.”
We were by the back door. I reached into my pocket and unlocked the van. Violet gasped as the door clicked unlocked and the sidelights flashed. “What…?” She shook her head and her eyes widened.
“It’s okay, Violet. I’m going to take care of you.”
“Violet? What? I’m not…” She took a step back, glancing over her shoulder, looking where to run. I sighed. She didn’t understand what I was trying to do, what I was trying to save her from—yet. Her body trembled and she flopped to the ground. I did a double take. She’d fainted. Quickly opening the back door, I picked her up and laid her inside.
***
I carried her slender frame and placed her down on the sofa. She had woken up as I carried her down the stairs and had been crying ever since. She looked around, eyeing the room in shock. Even though she was crying, shaking, and had makeup running down her face, she was still a very beautiful woman. “Violet?”
“N-Not Vi-Violet. I’m not,” she said, stuttering and gasping for breath.
“Please stop crying, Violet,” I said. “Calm down. Everything is going to be all right.”
She took a few deep breaths, concentrating hard as she tried to relax. Her occasional sobs pierced through me like a knife. Strong women didn’t cry. Mother had never cried. “What do you want from me?” she whispered.
“A family.”
Her eyes widened in horror. “I’m not having your baby!”
“A baby? I never said I want that.” Did I want a child? No. Certainly not now and not with someone I barely knew. “Violet, I don’t want a child. A family isn’t defined by offspring. I want the five of us to be a family. I will take care of you all, and in return you will take care of me.” That was how a family functioned.
“What? Five? What five?”
“That’ll come later. Please make yourself at home here. I built this for you, for all of you. Violet, don’t be afraid of me. I want to help you, to care for you.”
“Why do you keep calling me that?”
I frowned. “Your name?”
“Yes.”
“Well, because it’s your name,” I replied and smiled. “Now, I’ll come down for breakfast at eight in the morning and again for dinner at six thirty in the evening. I’m afraid my work will keep me away in the week, so it will only be the weekends where we will eat lunch together.” Violet stared at me with a blank expression, her mouth hanging open in the most unladylike way. “Please do not look at me like that.”
Her mouth snapped shut. “Why are you doing this?”
Sighing, I stood up. Which part had I not been clear on? “I’ve explained that. I would like a family and I would like to save my family from…” I stopped, searching for the appropriate word to make her understand. “Corruption, pain, humiliation.”
“Oh,” she replied, taking me by surprise. Was she understanding now? “I don’t feel those things. I just want to go.”