12Anya Moskeive ducked under a spider web; she padded under a fallen board. Once she was out in the middle of an old, dusty, tumbled down lobby, slowly turned, and looking high up into the domed ceiling.
"What was this place used for?" she asked the government official in her smooth, steady voice.
The Frenchman quickly ceased arranging his moustache and replied in his thickly accented English, "Oui, this mademoiselle, was the, how do you say, home of a newspaper, the next part was a series of offices, a couple of apartments, and beyond was a factory."
Anya nodded as she lifted up her long, fashionable skirt, and picked her way across and around fallen boards.
"Anya," her also American lawyer asked, "Darling, are you sure you want to do this?"
The young lady turned around exasperatedly and answered, "Jason Horton, if I was not sure I would not have sold my house in New York City, or my summer home."
"But, darling, please…"
"Jason, shut up."
"What is mademoiselle planning on doing?" the French official asked. He wondered why this rich American would move to this tiered French city.
"How far does this building run?" she asked as Jason explained her plan
"You mean how long it is?"
"Yes, I suppose." She answered, as her lawyer walked through the dusty room to join her.
"The whole block long, and nearly a third of one wide, two stories and an attic."
"Wonderful," Anya finished. "I will have my lawyer send you the check."
"Anya, darling," Jason took her arm and led her out, "please reconsider…"
When the Frenchman returned to his office, the first thing he said was to his secretary.
"She bought it?" his pretty, young secretary asked.
"Le mademoiselle americane?"
"Oui!"
"What was she planning on doing with an old abandoned building?" the lady asked, sitting on the official's desk.
"Her lawyer said that she wanted to live there!" he said, falling into his desk chair.
"Mon dieu!"
Back at Anya's hotel, she and Jason sat in the corner of the saloon.
"Anya, before your crazy scheme gets off the ground-"
"It already is. I'm sending in quite a few people in tomorrow to make this place livable. I've already drawn up the blueprints."
"Darling, please reconsider, we could get your New York house back, and we could start a family…"
"Jason, is that an indirect way of asking me to marry you?"
"In a way."
"No, again no." and the girl slowly drank her champagne.