Meanwhile, Father Boris was now handling the sale of the stones, and she had also made frequent «investments in business deals» with him. Milla wasn't sure whether there were really business deals, or whether he had run low on the cash he used to gamble. But most of Father Boris's deals had turned a profit. In fact, half a dozen times Mae Su had returned from Baotou with the stones Milla had given her to sell.
And she stayed busy in Paotow-Zi. There was Edward Edwardovich to care for, of course, which took more and more of her time as he got older.
Milla was tired when she went to sleep. She went to bed early and rose early.
It was not really a suitable life for the Countess Maria Catherine Ludmilla Zhivkov, she often told herself, or for Mrs. Edward J. Banning, wife of an officer of the U.S. Corps of Marines, but it was infinitely better than the life she would have had if Ed had not introduced her to Corporal McCoy, and if captain McCoy had not told Mae Su's Ernie about her. Without them, she would now be either a Japanese officer's mistress or a whore in a Japanese Army comfort station.
Now she had hope, if not for herself, then for Edward Edwardovich. All she had to do was be patient, and pray for God's protection until the war was over.
Zi-Ko, as the former Countess Maria Catherine Ludmilla Zhivkov was known in Paotow-Zi, was supervising the making of sausage when Song, the elder of Mae Su's boys, came into the kitchen and told her the Wise Foreigner was coming.
Milla was pleased. Paotow-Zi had few visitors. While this was desirable—or rather, the absence of visits by the authorities was desirable—Milla sometimes felt very alone.
The Wise Foreigner was an especially welcome visitor. Milla picked Edward Edwardovich up from the floor, where he was happily rubbing pork fat on his face, wiped him as clean as she could, sniffed to make sure he didn't need a fresh nappy, and carried him out of the smokehouse to greet Father Boris at the head of the path leading up from the Yellow River. (The Chinese baby-diapering technique was to allow the baby to go around naked, letting things fall where they might. Her refusal to follow it, as far as the other women in Paotow-Zi were concerned, was another proof that foreigners were indeed strange.)
Father Boris was accompanied by only Lee Tsing and one other of his usual Chinese escorts. He had referred to them, jokingly, as his altar boys.
She made a bobbing bow and kissed his ring, then waited until she and Edward Edwardovich had received his blessing before she spoke. «I didn't expect to see you so soon again,» she said. «You'll have to take potluck.»
Usually, she had a good idea when he was coming, and was thus able to prepare something like an elegant meal. He was especially fond of her chicken and chicken liver dumplings.
«We have to talk, my child,» he said.
It must be important
, Milla thought.
Usually there is nothing but Holy Mother Church more important to him than eating
.
And then the truth of that set in. Something was wrong. Gang-Cho appeared in order to receive his expected gift between wise elders. Lee Tsing opened his sheepskin coat and took a bottle of rice wine from a purse hanging across his chest. Milla saw his Mauser machine pistol under the coat.
Mae Su's uncle repaid the gift with a live chicken. Father Boris took it and handed it to Lee Tsing.
«I must discuss, Wise Brother, some personal matters with my daughter,» Father Boris said.
Gang-Cho didn't seem to mind.
Milla led Father Boris into the kitchen. They could talk in Russian, which the women making sausage did not understand. Mae Su followed them into the kitchen. «Is this personal?» she asked in Wu. Milla looked at Father Boris.
«Of course not,» he said. «And it concerns you, Mae Su, and your children. But…«
Taking his meaning—that her in-laws would hear what he had to say if they spoke Wu—the three of them left the kitchen and stood at the edge of the cliff overlooking the Yellow River.
«The Japanese Kempeitai are rounding up all white people in Baotou,» Father Boris began. «It is no longer safe for me there. Sow Key and Yon Fu have already 'left my service.' «
Milla recognized the names of the two missing «altar boys.»
«I will very much miss you, Father,» Milla thought out loud.
«It will come to the attention of the Kempeitai that the Nansen person businessman whom they cannot locate employed Sow Key and Yon Fu,» Father Boris said. «And they will look for them. Or they will go to the Kempeitai by themselves. Or the Kempeitai will inevitably learn there is a white woman—«
«And a Chinese woman with half-white children,» Mae Su interrupted, «living in Paotow-Zi.»
«Yes,» Father Boris said.
«But where will we go?» Milla asked, sick to her stomach.
«India,» Father Boris said.
«India?» Milla parroted.
«India will now permit holders of Nansen passports to enter,» Father Boris said.
Milla remembered Mae Su talking about India before they had left Shanghai.
«Through Kazakhstan?» Mae Su asked.
«Yes,» Father Boris replied, obviously surprised that Mae Su even knew the route to India.
«If you know the Kempeitai are in Baotou,» Mae Su said, «it will only be a matter of time before my uncle learns. If he doesn't already know. We will have to leave as soon as possible.»
«Immediately,» Father Boris said. «I have arranged for two horses and a cart. They're twenty kilometers downstream.»
«We will take chickens and sausage and a pig with us,» Mae Su said. «And tell my brother we are going to Baotou.»
«That probably would be best. But what do we do about Milla? How do we get her out of the village?»
«Tonight when it is dark, she will get in the cart. With Edwardovich and my children. We will leave at first light. It will be several hours before he learns we are all gone.»
«I will get him drunk tonight,» Father Boris said, practically.
«Yes,» Mae Su agreed.
Father Boris looked at Milla with sympathy. «We are in the hands of God, my child,» he said. «After we have something to eat, we will pray for His protection.»
Milla nodded.
«There is one other thing « Father Boris said. «I don't know if it is true or not, but from merchants who have come to Baotou from the Gobi Desert, I have heard that Americans are there…«
»
Americans
?» Milla asked incredulously.
«If there are, and I don't really know, perhaps they are trying to reach India, too. In numbers, sometimes, there is strength. And if there are Americans, and if we can cross the desert, it would help to be with Americans when we reach the Kazakhstan border.»
Milla thought they had as much chance to find Americans in the Gobi Desert as to be taken bodily into heaven to serve as handmaiden to the Mother of God. What were Americans doing in the
Gobi Desert
?
note 13
Supreme Headquarters
South West Pacific Ocean Area
Brisbane, Australia
0915 10 February
Second Lieutenant George Hart, USMCR, pushed open the door to the office of Lieutenant Colonel Sidney Huff and held it open until Brigadier General Fleming Pickering, USMCR, followed by Lieutenant Chambers D. Lewis III, USN, and Captain Kenneth R. McCoy, USMCR, had marched in. Everyone was far more formally dressed than they had been on Espfritu Santo. The Marines were in greens, with Sam Browne belts. The breast of Pickering's superbly tailored Marine tunic was adorned with ribbons attesting to his valor in two world wars. The breast of McCoy's equally finely tailored tunic and Hart's off-the-officer's-clothing-store-rack tunic were bare. Hart, however had the golden cords of an aide-de-camp hanging from his epaulet. Lewis was in high-collared whites, and also had the golden cords of an aide-de-camp hanging from his shoulder.