"Until?" he asked, to bring her back, hiding his concern.
But she was swept up in what she had read. So the battle lines had been drawn. She knew the worst, or the best. Her enemy had made the first move and declared herself. Now she could join battle.
On her own terms. The nausea slid away.
In its place came fire. The thought that SHE had laid out the foul and possible so icily was making her sting with rage--nothing on her side, no concern for her, no tiny concession for all the love and agony and pain over Malcolm's death, nothing. Nothing. And worst of all illegitimate when they were married properly according to British law... I am assured!
Never fear, she seethed, that's branded on my memory in molten steel, and looked at Hoag again, quivering. "She said she wants to, to wait, to wait until we, you and I, we know if I'm carrying Malcolm's child or not.
She wants to make sure, that's what she wants."
"And then?"
"She doesn't say. She, she wants to wait and me to wait. There's a vague... I think she says perhaps there can be a peace, a resol--" The quivering stopped as a decision washed it away and her voice became sibilant, sizzling with venom, "I hope there will be a peace, because... because, by the Blessed Mother, I am Malcolm Struan's widow, and no one, no court, not even Tess Goddamned Struan can take that away from me!"
He covered his nervousness, saying cautiously, "We all believe you are. But you've got to be calm and not worry. If you break, she wins, you lose, whatever the truth. No need..."
The door swung open. Ah Soh waddled in. "Missee-tai-tai?"
"Ayeeyah!" Angelique flared. "Get out, why you no knock?"
Ah Soh planted her feet, secretly pleased that the foreign devil had lost her temper and so lost face. "Mess'ge, you wan', heya?
Mess'ge, Missee-tai-tai?"
"What message?"
Ah Soh shuffled up, offered the small envelope, sniffed and went away. Gornt's writing. Angelique came down from the mountain of her fury.
Inside was a card, engraved E.g. The message said, "Warmest greetings. A most intriguing Hong Kong visit. May we meet tomorrow morning? your most obedient servant, Edward Gornt."
Abruptly she felt whole again. Strong, filled with determination and hope and fight. "You're right, Doctor, but I won't break, I swear I won't, I won't for Malcolm and I won't for me, and for you and Jamie and Mr.Skye. You're a dear friend and I'm all right now. No need to discuss that woman anymore."
She smiled at him and he knew the smile was both good and bad--more danger signals. "We'll wait, we'll wait and see what the future holds. Don't worry, if I don't feel well I'll call at once." She got up and kissed Hoag on both cheeks.
"Thank you again, dear friend. Will you be dining at Count Zergeyev's?"
"Perhaps. I don't know. I'm a little tired," he said and left, hiding his foreboding.
Again she read the card. Edward's circumspect, another good sign, she thought.
If the card was intercepted or read, it gave nothing away. "Intriguing" was a good word to choose, and "obedient servant" again chosen carefully. Like the words of that woman, God rot her.
What to do?
Dress for dinner. Gather your allies. Bind them to you. Put the plans you've contrived into place. And make Yokohama your impregnable bastion against that woman.
"Ignore the gai-jin soldiers trying to find you, Hiraga, and forget Akimoto,"
Katsumata said, disgusted with the unexpected snag in his plan. "Three of us are enough. We attack tomorrow, burn the church and sink the ship.
Takeda, you take the church."
"Gladly, Sensei, but why not use Ori's plan and burn Yokohama? Hiraga is right, forget the ship, he is right, so sorry," Takeda said, inclined to his side--after all, Hiraga was the Choshu leader and wise to consider how to retreat.
"He is correct that it would be difficult to get close to a ship in this sea and wind unobserved.
Why not use Ori's plan instead, burn the whole gai-jin nest?"
Hiraga said, "Ori's plan needs time, and a south wind. I agree it's a better plan.
We should wait."
"No," Katsumata said harshly, rudely, "with courage we can do both, with courage! We can.
Both! With shishi courage!"
Hiraga was still rocked by the unforeseen soldiers, his mind slow. That he believed he had killed the scavenger bothered him not a bit--the man was motionless in the dirt when, later, he had slunk for the well head, groped down it, then blindly through the meanness of the tunnel and freezing water.
"Impossible with only three of us," he said, "and tomorrow night is too soon, whatever we decide. If the plan's to burn the Settlement we need three days to place the flamers, and fuses. I advise against haste."
He was wrapped in a quilt, naked but for a loincloth--maids were drying his clothes, sopping wet from the tunnel water. The little bungalow was cold, the wind whining around the shojis and it took much of his will to keep from shivering openly. It was hard to concentrate. He still could not understand why soldiers were searching for him. The moment he had arrived here, Katsumata had angrily asked Raiko to send spies into the Settlement to find out what had happened and the three of them made plans to escape the Three Carp in case searchers came into the Yoshiwara.
Now he was watching Katsumata pour more sak`e. Anger had tightened his already sharp features, making him seem even more dangerous: "Hiraga, my opinion is we attack tomorrow."
"My opinion," Hiraga said with equal firmness, "is we move when we have a chance of success and not before--always your advice--unless caught in the open and face death or capture.
Takeda, what is your opinion?"
"First I'd like to know what would be your plan? You know the target like no one else. What would you do?"
Hiraga drank his hot tea, pulled the quilt closer again, pretending to think, thankful that Takeda was teetering towards his position. "If I had my normal access, Akimoto and I could have all the flamers into place in three days-- I have four already prepared and hidden in my village house," he said, embellishing the story. "We need about six, eight would be best: one in each of both the two-story buildings, they're wood and tinder dry and almost burned up in the last earthquake; the gai-jin leader's house; the house next door; three or four in Drunk Town; one in each church. In the confusion we can make an escape by our boat to Yedo."
"Now how much time would that take?" Katsumata asked even more rudely and the two men shifted uneasily. "How many days, now you do not have "normal access"?"
"I can tell you that as soon as I know why the soldiers search for me," Hiraga said narrowly.
Katsumata's swords were beside him, his own swords within easy reach. The moment he had arrived he had asked Raiko for the swords she had hidden for him--in the event they had to make a sudden escape over the walls and into the paddy behind the Yoshiwara. All of them had decided it was too dangerous to hide in the tunnel.
"Takeda?"
"I propose we wait until we know what your trouble is. Then we can agree on a final plan, Sensei--but if we could do as Hiraga says I would be for that."
"We must attack tomorrow. That is our final plan."
Thinking better now, Hiraga threw out a bait. "If we could do both, sink a ship and fire the Settlement that would be best," he said to placate Katsumata. "It would be possible if we planned it, but we need more men. A few men more, Sensei," he added, using the title of respect he had so far avoided, to further flatter him. "We could get three men from Yedo.
Takeda could go, he's not known, he could bring them back in three or four days. I am marked and cannot move until the attack. You will lead us against the ship--I can tell the others where to place the flamers, can still guide them where to go and how to do it."
"It is good plan, Sensei," Takeda said, having seized on the chance of escape by boat-- never one for a suicide attack. "I will go to Yedo, and find the men."