“What was Nightwine doing then?” I asked.
“Not much of anything, I believe. He had been stationed in Hong Kong, but had gotten in trouble enough there to move to the mainland. He called one day to see me, and apparently, Cyrus saw him leave.”
I sat forward quickly. “What did the Guv do?”
“He burst in the door and started barking at me in voluble Cantonese. My grasp is not good and I only caught every tenth word, but enough to know I didn’t like what he said. Who was he to come into my house and make insinuations about my friends? What was he to me but a glorified gardener, after all? I argued back. And you won’t guess what he said.”
“What?” I demanded. “What did he say?”
“He said, ‘Haud yer wiest, woman!’”
We both suddenly smiled. I could imagine this huge, agitated Chinaman telling her to hold her tongue in broad Scots, as if I were there myself.
“Well, of course, he had to come clean about being a Scotsman and then to admit that his interests extended beyond my garden. At the moment, he was in a spot, because he had come to Canton to study Chinese boxing, which is not taught to foreigners, but by the same token, I could not exactly be seen in polite society on the arm of a Chinaman, now could I? Our growing relationship had to remain a secret. Then there was Sebastian, whom once attracted is more difficult to get rid of than blight.”
“I see a fight coming on,” I commented.
She frowned. “Are you going to tell the story or shall I, Thomas?”
“You tell it in your own way, Mrs. Ashleigh, but please don’t drag it out. It’s killing me. I do not think I can stand the suspense.”
“One Saturday afternoon Sebastian came calling with flowers and chocolate and, as I suspected, a ring. I don’t believe he really wanted to marry me, but there was no other way for him to legally get to my money without it. Once my name was on a document he could systematically drain everything Colin had left me. Sebastian wouldn’t be denied his attempt at man’s most grand gesture. He went down on one knee in front of me.
“‘Get your foul knee up off that clean floor,’ a voice bellowed in the hall. Cyrus stood there in the sleeveless tunic he wore when he worked in the garden.
“Sebastian did not seem that surprised to meet his old adversary in my parlor. That’s when I realized that as much as it was about the money I had, it was more about doing Cyrus out of what he wanted.
“The next I knew the two of them were destroying my house in an attempt to defeat each other. They knocked over tables and upset chairs. I tried yelling over the din but it made little difference. Paintings were knocked from walls, pots overturned, and bric-a-brac shattered. An old suit of armor that Colin had purchased in his university days fell to pieces on the marble floor with an appalling din. I stepped outside and asked a neighbor to send for the police.
“The fight ended when they ran out of things to break, and both of them were bloody and disreputable. By that time several sparrows escaped from a broken cage were flying about the room and the only piece of furniture that was not damaged was the grand piano, though they had given it a valiant effort. I gave them both the thorough tongue-lashing they deserved.
“The next I knew, the police entered the room, or rather, the English army officers who guarded our island. They seemed to disapprove of everyone, even me, as if I had engaged them to start a fracas, and began to question us individually. Then a Chinese magistrate in a tasseled hat entered and pointed to Cyrus. He questioned nobody at all but barked an order and a squad of Chinese soldiers entered and took him away. Not to be outdone, the British soldiers promptly took Sebastian in for questioning.”
“My word,” I exclaimed. “So, what happened then?”
“Sebastian came two days later, showing a scratch on the cheek and a split lip. He had been to his tailor and barber, who had done their best for him. We had a long chat and I told him I was not the fool he evidently thought me to be. I sent him off with a flea in his ear. He was a rascal and a charming one, but a woman who marries a rascal deserves the misery that she gets.”
“And Mr. Barker?” I prompted.
“He disappeared for several days. I hired a solicitor and even spoke with a few officials but one cannot circumvent the imperial court system. One morning I received a message and called a palanquin to the magistrate’s house in the middle of Canton. Cyrus was seated in the dust, chained to a cangue.”
“What is a cangue?”
“It is a heavy wooden structure built like a door that is locked about a prisoner’s neck. He cannot feed himself or sleep or even drink while he is locked in it. Cyrus had been beaten, as well. One eye was enormously swelled and bleeding.”
“Didn’t they realize he was a British citizen?” I asked.
“Apparently there had been no precedent for a Westerner to break the law while dressed as a Chinaman. The magistrate declared that he was in fact a peasant who just happened to look rather foreign. It allowed them to save face and execute justice swiftly.”
“But how could the magistrate rule without a trial with witnesses and barristers?”
“You have to understand Chinese law. Cyrus, declared Chinese, was guilty of breaching the peace. Order was restored and the guilty punished. The English were responsible for punishing foreign prisoners and the Chinese their own. That was the end of it.”
“How long was he in the cangue?”
“Three days. By the third day, he had passed out completely. It was summer and very hot. He was finally released into my care. I had him carried back to Shameen in a litter. He was bedridden for two weeks, but you know, he has told me he never regretted it. He stopped Sebastian from proposing to me. And I got what I wanted, as well.”
“What was that?” I asked.
“We cut off his pigtail and made a Scotsman of him again. It was like a rebirth.”
“Did Nightwine finally leave Canton when he realized he couldn’t marry you?”
“He took an assignment in Peking and began intriguing there. Sebastian can thrive just about anywhere. He always sinks to the lowest spot and puts down roots. In this case he learned how to bribe the imperial eunuchs within the Forbidden City to get what he wanted.”
“Which was?”
“Which was Cyrus’s head upon a platter.”
“Literally?” I demanded.
“Literally enough. Six months later we received an announcement from Peking ordering Shi Shi Ji to the palace. You recall, he had been declared Chinese, and was therefore under the jurisdiction of the Ching government.”
“The Dowager Empress! But that’s who gave him Harm. How did that come about?” I demanded. I had been trying to get the story from Barker for two years.
“I’m afraid I cannot tell you,” she said. “It is his story to tell. And frankly, it is no story for a woman.”
I thought about what she said and retreated from the questions I wanted to ask. Instead, I brought the matter back to the present situation.
“This feud between Mr. Barker and Nightwine isn’t all about his brother, then.”
“No, it isn’t. Every time they meet something happens between them to add tension to the spring, so to speak. It’s going to break sooner or later.”
“Not sooner or later, ma’am. This time. Mr. Barker said it himself. McClain’s death: it’s like his brother died all over again. I don’t need a gift for prophecy to see that disaster is in the air.”
She set her cup down delicately. “You’re supposed to reassure me that everything is all right, Thomas, not to rattle my nerves even further.”
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“Do your best to be there,” she said, her eyes boring into mine. “I don’t believe you can stop either one of them, but at least be there. At his elbow, if you can. He’ll need a friend beside him.”