“Why for so good change, heya?” she asked innocently, knowing that Elder Sister had gone to see her yesterday.
“I dinna ken,” he said. “I saw Horatio just before I left. He brought her some flowers. By the way, she thanks you for the things you sent her. What did you send?”
“Mangoes and some herb tea my doctor recommended. Ah Sam went two, three days ago.” May-may rested a moment. Even talking was a great strain for her. She must be very strong today, she told herself firmly.
There is much to do today, and tomorrow there is fever again. Oh well, at least now no problem for Ma-ree—she’s rescued. So easy now that Elder Sister has explained to her what all young girls in houses are taught—that with care and meticulous acting and tears of pretended pain and fear, and the final modest telltale stains cautiously placed, a girl can, if necessary, be virgin ten times for ten different men.
Ah Sam came in and kowtowed, and muttered something to her. May-may brightened. “Oh, very good, Ah Sam! You may go.”
Then to Struan, “Tai-Pan, I need some taels of silver, please.”
“How many?”
“Lots. I am impoverished. Your old mother’s very fond of you. Wat for you ask such things?”
“If you hurry up and get better, I’ll give you all the taels you need.”
“You give me great face, Tai-Pan. Hugest face. Twenty thousand taels for medicine cure—ayeee yah, I am worth like an empress lady to you.”
“Gordon told you?”
“No. I was listen at door. Of course! Do you think your old mother likes not to know what doctor says and you say, heya?” She glanced at the doorway.
Struan turned to see a lovely young girl bowing gracefully. Her hair was coiled in a thick, dark snake atop her exquisite head and adorned with jade ornaments and flowers. Her almond-shaped face was like purest alabaster.
‘This is Yin-hsi,” May-may said. “She is my sister.”
“I did na ken you had one, lass. She’s very pretty.”
“Yes, but, well, she’s not really sister, Tai-Pan. Chinese ladies often call each other ‘sister.’ It’s politeness. Yin-hsi’s your birthday present.”
“What?”
“I bought her for birthday.”
“Have you taken leave of your senses?”
“Oh, Tai-Pan, you are very trying sometimes badly,” May-may said, beginning to cry. “Your birthday is in four monthses. At that time I would have been heavy with child so I arranged search for a ‘sister.’ It has been difficult to decide bestest choice. She is bestest, and now because I am sick I give her now and na wait. You dinna like her?”
“Good God, lass! Dinna cry, May-may. Listen. Dinna cry . . . Of course I like your sister. But you dinna buy girls as birthday presents, for the love of God!”
“Why not?”
“Well, because you just dinna.”
“She’s very nice—I want her for my sister. I was going to teach her for the four monthses, but now . . .” She broke out sobbing again.
Yin-hsi hurried from the doorway and knelt beside May-may and held her hand and dried her tears solicitously and helped her to drink a little tea. May-may had warned her that barbarians were sometimes strange and showed their happiness by shouting and cursing, but not to worry.
“Look, Tai-Pan, how pretty she is!” May-may said. “You like her, surely?”
“That’s na the point, May-may. Of course I like her.”
“Then that’s settled, then.” May-may closed her eyes and lay back in her nest of pillows.
“It’s na settled, then.”
She summoned a final broadside. “It is, and I’ll na argue with you any more, by God! I paid huge monies and she’s bestest and I canna send her away for she’ll lose all face and she’d have to hang herself.”
“Dinna be ridiculous!”
“I promise you she will, Tai-Pan. Everyone knows I was lockings for a new sister for me and for you, and if you send her away her face is finished. Fantastical finished. She’ll hang herself, truly!”
“Dinna cry, lassie. Please.”
“But you dinna like my birthday present to you.”
“I like her and you need na send her away,” he said quickly—anything to stop the tears. “Keep her here. She’ll—she’ll be a sister to you, and when you’re well we’ll—we’ll find her a good husband. Eh? There’s nae need to cry. Come on, lassie, now stop the tears.”
At length May-may stopped weeping and lay back again. Her outburst had sapped too much of her precious energy. But it was worth the price, she exulted. Now Yin-hsi will stay. If I die, he will be in good hands. If I live, she will be my sister and the second sister in his household, for of course he will want her. Of course he will want her, she told herself as she drifted away. She’s so pretty.
Ah Sam came in. “Mass’er. Young Mass’er outside. See can?”
Struan was alarmed by May-may’s dreadful pallor. “Get doctor plentee quick-quick, savvy?”
“Savvy, Mass’er.” Struan bleakly left the room. Ah Sam closed the door after him and knelt beside the bed and said to Yin-hsi, “Second Mother, I should change Supreme Lady’s dressings before the doctor comes.”
“Yes. I will help you, Ah Sam,” Yin-hsi said. “Father certainly is a strange giant. If Supreme Lady and you hadn’t warned me, I would have been very frightened.”
“Father’s very nice. For a barbarian. Of course, Supreme Lady and I have been training him.” Ah Sam frowned at May-may, who was deep in sleep. “She looks very bad indeed.”
“Yes. But my astrologer foretold good tidings, so we must be patient.”
“Hello, Culum,” Struan said as he came into the beautiful walled garden forecourt.
“Hello, Tai-Pan. I hope you don’t mind my coming here.” Culum rose from the willow-shaded seat and took out a letter. “This just arrived and—well, instead of sending Lo Chum I thought I’d like to see how you were. And find out how she is.”
Struan took the letter. It was marked “Personal, Private and Urgent” and came from Morely Skinner.
“She lost the bairn the day before yesterday,” he said.
“How terrible!” Culum said. “Has the cinchona come?”
Struan shook his head. “Sit down, lad.” He tore open the letter. Morley Skinner wrote that he had intended to withhold the “repudiation” news until Struan’s return—he felt it dangerous to release it in his absence—but that now it was imperative to publish the report immediately: “A frigate from England arrived this morning. My informant on the flagship said that the admiral was delighted with the private Admiralty dispatch he received and was heard to say, ‘It’s about bloody time, by God. With any luck we’ll be north within the month.’ This can only mean that he, too, is privy to the news and that Whalen’s arrival is imminent. I cannot stress too highly the necessity of your return. By the way, I hear there’s a curious private codicil to the Longstaff-Ching-so agreement over Canton’s ransom. Last, I hope you have been able to prove, one way or another, the value of cinchona bark. I regret that, as far as I know, none is to be found here. I am, sir, your most humble servant, Morley Skinner.”
May-may’ll na last another fever spell, Struan thought, anguished. That’s the truth and you have to face it. Tomorrow she’ll be dead—unless the cinchona arrives. And who knows if it really will cure her?
If she dies you must save Hong Kong. If she lives you must save Hong Kong. But why? Why na leave that cursed island as it was before? You may be wrong—Hong Kong may na be necessary to Britain. What do you prove by your mad crusade to open up China and bring her into the world on your terms, in your way? Leave China to her own joss and go home. With May-may if she lives. Let Culum find his own level as Tai-Pan. One day you’ll die and then The Noble House will find its own level. That’s law—God’s law, nature’s law, and the law of joss.