Tai-Pan

  “No!” Yin-hsi said. “We have terribly lost face. Oh dear. I must disgust Father. Perhaps you’d better sell me to a gravedigger.”

  “Huh!” May-may said. “I’d give him what-for if I was well. Don’t worry, Yin-hsi. He hasn’t even seen you yet. I keep telling you. He’s a barbarian. Disgusting to go to a whorehouse when you’re here, and even Ah Sam.”

  “I quite agree. Oh, the bad man!”

  “They’re all bad, dear,” May-may said. “I’m hoping that he’s so tired he won’t send you away as I expect him to. Just sleep in his bed. With Father, we have to work up to things. Even at his age he’s still very shy about love.”

  “Does he know that I’m not a virgin?” Yin-hsi was caressing May-may’s head.

  “He’s much too young yet to need virgins to excite him, dear Sister. And much too old to have the patience yet to teach a virgin in the ways of love again. Just say to him, ‘Supreme Lady sent me.’”

  Yin-hsi repeated the English words again.

  “You’re very pretty, Sister. Run along, now. Wait an hour, then go to him.” May-may closed her eyes and settled contentedly in the bed.

  Yin-hsi gazed down at Struan. One of his arms lay carelessly across the pillow and he was sound asleep. The curtains on the cabin portholes were drawn tightly against the morning. It was very quiet.

  Yin-hsi took off her pajamas and slid gingerly under the covers beside Struan.

  The warmth of the bed excited her.

  She waited breathlessly, but he did not awaken. She moved closer and gently put a hand on his arm and waited. Still he did not awaken. She moved even closer and put her arm across his chest and let it rest there. And waited.

  Through the mist of his dreams Struan knew that May-may was beside him. He could smell her perfume and feel her close, and he was content that the fever was far in the past and that she was well again. They were together in the sun and he could sense her well-being. He asked her what she would like for her birthday and she just laughed and pressed close in the sun, which was dark and curious and unreal but beautiful. Then they were very close and he listened to her chattering and then they were swimming together and he found this strange for he knew that she could not swim and he wondered when she had learned. Then they were lying naked on the beach, side by side, the length of her touching him. Then she began shivering and he was terrified that she had fever again and there was the monk with his bloodstained robes and the cup, and the cup took May-may’s fever away and then there was darkness. But the clouds were above and it was dark when it should have been day and Fong was shouting from the waves, “Tai-fung!” Then they ran from the clouds and were in bed, safe together.

  He stirred in his sleep and half awoke and felt the warm, tender body touching him, and his hand strayed and he cupped her breast and felt the shiver run through her and through him.

  He lay in the gloaming of the room on the threshold of awakening. Her breast was soft in his hand and he felt the hardness of the nipple.

  Then he opened his eyes.

  Yin-hsi smiled demurely.

  Struan braced himself on an elbow. “God’s blood, what the devil are you doing here?”

  Yin-hsi blinked at him uncomprehendingly. “Sup-reem—Lady—sen’ me.”

  “Eh?” Struan tried to clear his head. “Sup-reem Lady sen’ me, Tai-Pan.”

  “Eh? May-may? May-may? Is she out of her head?” He pointed to the door. “Off you go.”

  Yin-hsi shook her head. “Sup-reem Lady sen’ me.”

  “I dinna care if you’ve been sent by the queen of England! Off you go!”

  Yin-hsi pouted. “Sup-r’m Lady sen’ me!” And she planted her head firmly on the pillow and glared at him.

  Struan began to laugh.

  Yin-hsi was bewildered. My goodness, Supreme Lady was right. Barbarians are astounding. But I’m not moving from this bed! How dare you go to a whorehouse and make me lose face in front of Tai-tai? Am I a rotten old hag, for goodness sake? Oh no, Tai-Pan! I’m not moving! I’m very nice and I’m Second Sister and Second Lady in your house and that’s that!

  “By the gods,” Struan said, pulling himself together. “I’m going to marry May-may if it’s the last thing I do. And the pox on everyone!”

  He lay back and mulled what he and May-may would do at home in England. She’ll be the toast of London … so long as she never wears any European clothes. Together we’ll rock the society of England. Now I have to hurry home. Perhaps I can destroy the Foreign Secretary mysel’! Or block Whalen. Aye. Now the key to Hong Kong’s in London. So home—and the sooner the better.

  He turned his head on the pillow and looked at Yin-hsi, and really saw her for the first time. She was very desirable. Her perfume was as exquisite as her skin.

  “Ah, lassie, I’m sorely tempted,” he said.

  She nestled closer to him.

  CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

  The White Witch staggered into harbor just before noon. Her foremast was gone and there was a tangle of broken spars and twisted rigging on the main deck.

  Brock came alongside in a cutter as she nosed for her moorings.

  “By God, someone’s to pay!” he roared as he came on deck, knowing instinctively from the shattered unreefed sails that were strewn among the halyards that the ship had been carrying too much canvas. “Wot be happened?”

  “Day, sir,” Michaelmas said. He was a hard, pock-marked first mate. “I took over for Mr. Gorth. Till I knowed wot was in yor mind.” There was a lash in his huge fist. “We run into squall two hour out’ve Macao. Godrotting squall almost turned us on our beam end. Carried mast away, and blew us’n off course for fifty league.”

  Brock bunched a fist and shook it in the man’s face. “Doan thee knowed enough to see squall? Doan thee knowed enough to reef in this season?”

  “Yus, Mr. Brock,” Michaelmas said without fear. “But the squall come up alee. Doan curse me for squall, by God!”

  Brock’s fist smashed him against the gunnel and he collapsed to the deck unconscious.

  “Pennyworth!” Brock bellowed to the second mate, a thickset burly young man. “You be captain till further orders! Get storm anchors out. We be in for dirty weather.” Then he saw Culum on the quarterdeck. The seamen scattered as he climbed over the rigging and walked up the short gangway. He loomed over Culum.

  “Morning, Mr. Brock. I wanted—”

  “Where be Mrs. Brock?”

  “Below, sir. It wasn’t Mr. Michaelmas’ fault. And I wanted—”

  “Shut thy face!” Brock snarled and then contemptuously turned his back on Culum. Culum boiled at the insult; Brock would never turn his back on the Tai-Pan.

  “No one be allowed ashore!” Brock shouted. “Get this mess cleaned up, Pennyworth, or you’ll be beached like that bugger Michaelmas. Get him off my ship!” He whirled back on Culum. “I be talking to thee right smartly.”

  “I’d like to talk now.”

  “One more word afore I’m ready and I’ll grind thee to dust.”

  Culum followed Brock below and wished that the Tai-Pan were there. Oh God, how can I handle Brock? Why did we have to run into that cursed squall?

  Tess was standing at the door to her cabin. She smiled tentatively and curtsied, but Brock shoved past and opened the main cabin door and slammed it behind him.

  “Oh, God help us, darling,” Tess cried to Culum.

  “Don’t worry. We’ll be all right.” Culum tried to level his voice and he desperately wished he had a pistol. He went to a rack and pulled out a belaying pin and motioned Tess into the cabin. “Don’t worry. He made a holy oath. He promised.”

  “Let’s run while we’ve the chance,” she begged.

  “Can’t run now, darling,” Culum said. “Don’t worry. It’s best to have it out now. We must.”

  “So you let Tess slip out and that bugger pull wool over thy face, eh?” Brock was saying.

  “Yus.” Liza said, and she was trying to contain her panic. “I were watching carefu
l an’ I never thort, but they did an’ I be at fault. But they’s married, lad, and there baint naught we—”

  “I be deciding that, by God! Wot happened with Gorth?”

  She told him all she knew. “It were Gorth wot challenged Dirk Struan,” she said. She was terrified, not only for herself but even more for Tess and Culum and her man. If Tyler be going after that devil like this’n, he be a goner. “It were Gorth, Tyler. He called the Tai-Pan terrible names. An’ hit him with lash. In public he did. I tol’ Gorth to wait—to come here and get thee—but he hit me and left.”

  “Wot?”

  She pulled her hair away from her right ear. It was puffed and black, and the inside was caked with dried blood. “It still hurt something terrible.” She undid her blouse. Her chest was hideously bruised. “He did this. Yor son. He be a right devil and thee knowed it.”

  “By God Liza. If he … if I knowed … it be best he be dead. But not by assassins and not without honor, by God.” His face terrible, he drew a mug of ale from the barrel and Liza thanked God that she’d had the foresight to have a fresh keg ready.

  “The doctor be sure about the pox? That young bugger?”

  “He has no pox and he baint a bugger. He’s thy son-in-law!”

  “I knowed that. God curse him!”

  “Tyler, forgive they two. I be beggin’ thee. He be a good boy and he be terrible in love with Tess and she be happy and—”

  “Hold thy tongue!” Brock gulped the beer and slammed the tankard down. “Dirk be planning all this’n. I knowed it. T’ spite me! First he be out to destroy my eldest son—and then takes away me marrying my girl proper. God curse Struan! He even tooked that from me!” He hurled the tankard against the bulkhead. “We be burying Gorth at sea today.”

  “Tyler, luv,” Liza began. She touched his arm. “Tyler, luv, there be somethin’ else. It must be sayed. Thee’s got to forgive—thee’s a lot to forgive. About Nagrek.”

  “Eh?”

  “Gorth tol’ me what thee and him did to Nagrek. That be terrible—but he be deserving it. ’Cause he laid with Tess. He did. But Culum doan know, it seem. So thy girl be saved from a terrible fate.”

  The muscles around Brock’s eye socket began twitching fiercely. “Wot be thee sayin’?”

  “It be true, Tyler,” Liza said, and then her torment broke. “At least give they a chance. It were thy oath, afore God. And God helped us’n with Tess, lad. Forgive they.” She buried her head in her arms and sobbed convulsively.

  Brock’s lips moved but no sound came out. He lumbered to his feet, crossed the corridor, and then he was standing before Culum and Tess.

  He saw the terror in Tess’s eyes. This hurt him and made him cruel. “Thee choosed to go again’ my wish. Three month, I sayed. But thee—”

  “Oh, Da’—oh, Da’—”

  “Mr. Brock. Can I—”

  “Shut thy face. Thee’ll get thy say soon enough! And thee, Tess, thee choosed to run off like a cheap doxy. Very well. Go say goodbye to thy ma. Then thee’s out of our life and ashore with thy man.”

  “Oh, Da’, please listen—”

  “Go on! I wan’ t’talk to him.”

  “I baint leaving!” Tess shouted hysterically. She picked up the belaying pin. “Thee’ll not touch ’im. I’ll kill thee!”

  He snatched the belaying pin out of her hands before she knew he had moved. “Out you go and ashore.” Brock was watching himself as though in a nightmare; he wanted to forgive and he wanted her arms around him, but some depraved other self was driving him and he could not resist. “Out, by God!”

  “It’s all right, darling,” Culum said. “Go along and pack your bags.” She backed out of the cabin, then scurried away.

  Brock kicked the door to. “I swore to give thee berth and safe harbor. But that were when you be wedding proper.”

  “Listen, Mr. Brock—”

  “You listen, by God, or I’ll crush thee like bedbug.” A thread of saliva trickled from a corner of his mouth. “I sayed to thee fair, man t’man, if three month were agreeable. Thee sayed yes. But thee broke thy word. I sayed, ‘Be honest, lad.’”

  Culum said nothing. He prayed for strength and knew that he was beaten. But he would try, by God.

  “Did thee or didn’t thee?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then I be thinkin’ I be absolved from oath.”

  “Can I speak now?”

  “I baint finished. But even though thee cheated, thee’s wed. Will thee answer question? Afore God? Then we be even.”

  “Of course.” Culum wanted to tell Brock about the pox and the whorehouse and the why of it.

  “Afore God?”

  “Yes. I’ve nothing to hide and—”

  Brock cut him short. “Did thy father plan all this’n? Put elopement into thy head? Knowing it be making Gorth mad? Knowing this’n’d make Gorth so mad he be challenging him in public so thy Da’ be able to fight him fair and square? Did thee go t’whorehouse drunken, not knowing where thee be, with whom thee be? Thee doan have to answer. It’s writ in thy face.”

  “Yes—but you must listen. There’s a lot—”

  “Thee’s got thy safe harbor from me. But I’ll tell thee square, I’m after thy Da’. I’m after Noble House. I be never resting till they’s broke. Now thy only harbor be in Brock and Sons. Only there, Culum godrotting Struan! And till that day thee’s dead afore my face. Thee and Tess.”

  He hurled the door open.

  “You haven’t heard my side!” Culum shouted. “That’s not fair!”

  “Doan thee talk about ‘fair,’” Brock said. “I asked thee to thy face. Three month! I sayed ‘Be honest, lad.’ But thee still broke thy word. Thee’s no honor afore me, by God!”

  He strode away and Culum stared after him, his anguish and relief and shame and hate wrenching him. “You’re not fair,” he said, his voice hurting him.

  Brock came on deck and the crew kept their distance. “Pennyworth!”

  The second mate turned away from supervising the sorting out of spars and broken rigging and clambered warily over toward Brock.

  “Find Struan,” Brock said. “Tell him I be waiting for he at Happy Valley. Twixt his wharf and mine.” He stopped, and his face twisted into a mirthless smile. “No. At knoll in Happy Valley. Yus. His knoll wot were. Tell him I be waiting for he at the knoll in Happy Valley—like he wanted to go again’ Gorth. Understand?”

  “Yes, sir.” Pennyworth bit his lip. “Yes, sir.”

  “And if you whisper this to any man but he, by the Lord God, I’ll cut thy balls off.” Brock started down the gangway. “Who’s to get the ship squared away, sir?”

  “Thee. Yo’re cap’n o’ the White Witch. After thee delivers message.” Struan was contemplating Yin-hsi. She was still asleep beside him. He compared her with May-may. And May-may with his Chinese mistress of years ago. And the three of them with Ronalda, his only wife. So different. Yet so much the same in so many ways. And he wondered why the three Orientals excited him more than Ronalda who was his love—until he knew May-may. And he asked himself what love was.

  He knew that the three Chinese had much in common: an unbelievable silkiness of skin and a humor and a belongingness and a worldliness beyond anything that he had experienced. But May-may far excelled the other two. She was perfect.

  He touched Yin-hsi affectionately. She stirred but did not awaken. He carefully slid out of bed and looked out the portholes to check the sky. The overcast was heavier. He dressed and went below.

  “So,” May-may said. She was sitting up in bed, exquisite.

  “So,” he said.

  “Where’s my sister?”

  “‘Sup-reem Lady sen’ me.’”

  “Huh!” May-may said and tossed her head. “You’re just lustful mendacity and you do na adore your old mother any more.”

  “True,” Struan said, teasing her. She looked more beautiful than ever, and the gauntness of her face seemed to suit her. “I think I’ll pack you off!”
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  “Ayeee yah! See if I care!”

  He laughed and lifted her up in his arms.

  “Be careful, Tai-Pan,” she said. “Did you enjoy Yin-hsi? I’m so pleased you did. I can tell.”

  “How would you like to be Tai-tai?”

  “Wat?”

  “Well, if you’re na interested, that’s the last we’ll say about it.”

  “Oh no, Tai-Pan! You mean Tai-tai? Real Tai-tai, according to customs? Oh, you’re na teasing me? Please dinna tease me about so important thing.”

  “I’m na teasing, May-may.” He sat on the chair with her in his arms. “We’re going home. Together. We’ll take the first clipper available and be married on the way home. In a few months.”

  “Oh, wonderful.” She hugged him. “Let me go a minute.”

  He released her, and wobbling slightly, she walked over to the bed. “There. I am almost well again.”

  “You get into bed now,” he said.

  “You really mean marry? According to your customs? And to mine?”

  “Aye. Both, if you wish.”

  She knelt gracefully in front of him and touched her forehead to the carpet and kowtowed. “I swear I will be worthy to be Tai-tai.”

  He raised her up quickly and put her into the bed. “Dinna do that, lassie.”

  “I kowtow because you give me the hugest fantastical great face on earth.” She hugged him again and then pushed him away a little and laughed. “How you like birthday present, heya? Is that why you marry your poor old mother?”

  “Nay and aye. It’s just the thought.”

  “She’s nice. I like her very gracious much. I’m glad you like her too.”

  “Where did you find her?”

  “She was a concubine in a house of a mandarin who died six months ago. Did I tell you she was eighteen? His house fell on bad times, so Tai-tai asked a marriage broker to find a good match for her. I heard about her and interviewed her.”

  “When? In Macao?”

  “Oh no. Two, three months ago.” May-may snuggled closer. “I talk to her in Canton. Jin-qua’s Tai-tai tol’ me about her. When I became with child I thought, Ah, very good, so I sent for her. Because my man is lustful and instead of staying home perhaps goes to whorehouse. You promise na to go, but last night you go whorehouse. Dirty turtle droppings!”