My Splendid Concubine (46 page)

Pulling Ayaou to her feet, Robert attempted to follow Un
cle Bark. She held onto his arm and was like an anchor. Letting go, she took a few steps in the opposite direction. He turned to follow and saw her bend and pick up the shotgun. It had been hidden in the brush. “Go find my sister!” she said, and fumbled in her pocket and brought out a handful of shotgun shells.

“
I can’t leave you here.”

“
I have this.” She shook the shotgun. Before he left, he made sure she had reloaded.

When Robert found Uncle Bark, the old man was battling a giant who stood a foot taller than him and weighed a good two hundred pounds more. The man was pounding at Uncle Bark
’s machete with a cutlass. He was driving Uncle Bark to his knees.

Robert ran up behind Uncle Bark and shot the pirate in the chest. The giant staggered back with blood pumping out of his chest like a geyser. Robert fired two more shots into his heart. The giant collapsed to his knees, swayed back and fort
h and fell like a tree.

“
The others are escaping.” Uncle Bark wiped his forehead with the back of a hand. His thin shirt was soaked in sweat and blood. It was plastered to his skin.

Ayaou appeared from the creek. She was walking like a drunk. Robert caught her an
d took the shotgun. He handed it to Uncle Bark. “Can you use this?” he asked.

The old man nodded. With Ayaou lean
ing against Robert, they walked toward the cottage.

Fear of what he might find curdled Robert
’s thoughts. As the cottage appeared, he stopped and said, “Keep Ayaou here.” Uncle Bark nodded. The old man’s head swiveled around taking in everything as he searched for danger. The barrel of the shotgun pointed where his eyes looked.

With every step Robert took toward the cottage, his legs and arms grew heavier. Tongues of flame danced from the window
s, and the heat beat at him. If Shao-mei was in there, he thought, it was too late. Keeping a safe distance from the fire, he circled behind the cottage. His steps faltered when he saw Shao-mei.

A violent shiver went through him. A cry of agony stuck in his throat. He stumbled forward thre
e more steps and stood over her with the air sealed in his lungs. He had to struggle to keep breathing. His knees gave. He collapsed next to her. A sob escaped.

She was on her back with her belly slit open. His swe
et Shao-mei and the child he wished had never happened were both dead. The guilt he felt doubled him over. He rested his face against her cheek. She was still warm.

Ayaou came with Uncle Bark supporting h
er. When she saw Shao-mei, she screamed, broke free and stumbled to her sister’s side.

All the signs looked like Shao-mei had been raped repeatedly b
efore she’d been murdered. The markings in the leaves made it obvious she’d put up a fight.

He
heard the sound of insane laughter from the direction of the creek. Leaping up, he ran. Uncle Bark followed. When Robert reached the water, he saw the flat-bottomed boat drifting toward the river with several men in it. The laughter was coming from the man standing in the boat’s stern. He was dressed in bright-red pantaloons. A dark forest of hair covered his bare chest.

When Robert recognized him
, blood rushed to his head bringing rage with it. Reason fled and hate drove him into the water. He plowed after the boat. Once he closed the gap, he saw the hole in Ward’s face. The mercenary looked into Robert’s eyes. Ward’s teeth flashed and his tongue snaked in and out of the wound like a fat, mangled, blood sausage.

“
She was always mine, Hart,” the grotesquely scarred face said.

Robert
’s gut felt as if he had swallowed ground glass. My God, Ward believed he had killed Ayaou. The bastard had killed the wrong girl.

“
I’ve collected what belonged to me!” Ward laughed as if he were insane. “I fucked her good! She was juicy—a hot bitch! This is what you get when you steal from me! The reason I’m letting you live is so you will pay for the rest of your life for cheating me of the virginity that was rightfully mine.”

Robert raised his weapon and started firing. Tears blinded his v
ision. His arm shook so hard he couldn’t aim. His shots went wild. He still managed to hit one of the men, who fell from the boat to float face down in the water. Another man raised a musket and aimed it at Robert. Ward shoved the barrel down. It fired into the creek. Ward cursed, and said, “I don’t want him dead. I want him to burn in hell with me.”

The shotgun blasted
from behind Robert as Uncle Bark fired both barrels. They were wasted shots. Ward’s boat was out of range. Robert continued to wade into the creek until the water was to his chin. He kept cocking the pistol and pulling the trigger on empty chambers. Then Uncle Bark’s arms came from behind and wrapped around him. Robert thrashed about screaming. He wanted to go after Ward and rip his heart out. With an effort, Uncle Bark dragged him back to shore.

Ward
’s boat drifted out of sight, but his insane laugh stayed behind lingering in the hot air. Robert hated himself for missing the monster.

He tried to break loose and run
into the creek again, but two pairs of arms held him now. Ayaou had joined Uncle Bark in restraining him. He continued to yell until his throat was raw.

They were back in Ningpo before midnight. Shao-mei had been wrapped tightly in a fishing net from Uncle Bark’s boat. They carried her through the gloomy, shrouded streets inside that net. They went straight to the Ningpo house and put her on a table in the center of the room where Robert had taught her poetry.

“
I must clean my sister and dress her properly,” Ayaou said. “She would not want to be seen like this.” She started to unwrap Shao-mei from the net. There was no emotion in her eyes. She was in shock as he was.

“
No,” Robert said. “Uncle Bark, take Ayaou upstairs.”

Ayaou struggled.
“I have to do my duty.”

“
It can wait until morning,” Uncle Bark said.

“
Her body will be hard by morning. It will be difficult to dress her. She might break.”

“
Morning is close. It will be all right.” Uncle Bark guided Ayaou upstairs. She went without protest.

After he was alone, Robert pulled the net from Shao-mei
’s body. Uncle Bark had wrapped a blanket around her ripped and torn torso to hold her together. The baby was still inside her under that blanket. Robert didn’t want to know what gender it was so he left the blanket where it was. Guan-jiah would ask, but that didn’t matter. He didn’t know if he could tell his servant what had happened. He’d ask Uncle Bark to do it.

He pulled over a stool and sat next to her. He looked into her glassy, open-eyed stare. He expected her to turn and look at him, but she didn
’t. He closed her eyelids and caressed the side of her face. The second he touched her, he jerked his hand back. Her flesh was stiff and cold and felt as if it were rubber. There was no life. She was gone. He had not allowed himself to believe it was true until that moment.

“
I’m sorry,” he said, and the sound caught in his throat. He leaned down and rested his face on her chest. “I loved you. I never told you. I should have.” He would never hear her laugh or sing or recite poetry again. He couldn’t stand it. He avoided looking at her face and took off his jacket to cover it.

He stood beside the table and
stared at the shrouded body, and said, “I don’t want to say goodbye.” Then he fled into the kitchen where he stayed until sunrise. He was afraid that if Ward found out Ayaou was still alive, he would return to finish what he started.

It was morning when Ayaou sewed Shao-mei’s wound shut. She washed her and dressed her sister in white for the last time.

Two days later neighbors and relatives came to mourn. Ayaou
’s father, Chou Luk, was one. He took the news as if it were his fate. He remained outside the room. He didn’t want to see Shao-mei.

“
She was a sunny girl,” Chou Luk said. “A good daughter.”

Lan came. Captain Patridge
allowed the younger sister to attend the funeral. Lan and Ayaou held each other—their faces swollen from crying. Their pain added to Robert’s guilt. Ayaou might never blame him, but he couldn’t hide from himself. On top of the guilt was a hatred of Ward so intense he sometimes discovered himself unconsciously grinding his teeth. He didn’t know who he loathed more—himself for failing to protect her or Ward for his demonic cruelty. Ward deserved the name others had labeled him. He was the devil’s soldier.

Chapter 25

“It would be wise to buy the services of a Buddhist temple,” Uncle Bark said. “The monks will take care of Shao-mei’s spirit, so she enters the next life properly. I will also accompany a monk back to the cottage to escort her soul home.” His words penetrated Robert’s depression. He agreed and managed to send a written note to the consulate telling Dr. Winchester he was taking a few days off work. He didn’t explain.

The burial ce
remony for Shao-mei lasted several hours. The family and relatives burned incense, paper money and paper food for Shao-mei to take to the next life. Robert felt like an outsider and stood in the shadows behind everyone.

Uncle Bark came with a bundle of lit incense stick
s. He handed them to Robert, and took him by the hand as if he were a child and led him through the others to the front of the newly piled dirt mound where Shao-mei sat out of sight under the concrete covered earth in a granite armchair.

Guan-jiah stood on the other side of the burial mound with the river a hundred yards or so behind him. His face was puffy, his eyes red, his should
ers sagging, and his lips turned down in sadness. The eunuch was the only one who burned paper clothes, food and furniture for the unborn baby. The child would not travel to the next life with nothing.

Uncle Bark and Chou Luk had argued with Rober
t that the added expense of the burial wasn’t necessary and was reserved for the wealthy or the nobility. He didn’t care. He wanted Shao-mei to have what an armchair burial provided—a sense of wealth, comfort and dignity. He paid for it from the five hundred pounds he’d kept to pay Ward. The cemetery was below Ningpo near the river. She was sitting in the granite armchair facing east toward the sunrise.

Rob
ert squatted beside the grave—his vision blurred from tears.

“
You may say anything you wish as you place the incense on her grave,” Uncle Bark said in a soothing voice.

What could he say? That she
died for Ayaou. He’d failed to protect her and failed again to get her killer? Why was he here instead of hunting for Ward?

“
Speak to her,” Uncle Bark said. “Put aside your anger. You will feel better—to go on living is harder. She loved you. She will be at peace when she hears your words. You will have another chance to speak to her when we return in a few years to dig up her bones and have her second burial.”

Robert stared at the grave feeling
numb. The sun sunk into the earth as night arrived on silent feet.

The grieving crowd started to leave. With Uncle Bark gui
ding Ayaou, she walked slowly away like a sick old woman. Robert resolved to never let her know the truth about the child Shao-mei had carried to her grave. It was better that way. Knowing the child didn’t belong to him would only add to her grief, which was heavy enough.

What was left of the sun was erased, and a f
og stretched fingers toward the graves. The temperature cooled and dew wet his hair. A flock of blackbirds, like angels of death, flew by. The contours of the distant hills looked as if they were part of a canvas for a smeared Chinese brush painting.

He
imagined Shao-mei calling to Ayaou from the grave.

The last time he
slept with Shao-mei, she complained he was torturing her by making her wait for pleasure until after the baby was born. She’d pretended to be angry. She swore to torture him and to gain Ayaou’s help. She was more into playing than anything else. After all, she was barely sixteen, and all she had ever known from a man had been the rape. He regretted that he hadn’t given her the physical affections she had craved.

He had n
o idea what the Chinese said to their dead and decided to recite a poem he had taught her. She had liked it so much she’d memorized it.

“
Like molten gold appears the setting sun

Clouds at evening like jade-blocks pieced into one

Where is the one close and dear to my heart from whom

Without mental pain, I cannot part?
”

That evening Robert burned his Chinese robes. It would be two weeks before he returned to the consulate, and he revealed none of his pain to the others except Guan-jiah, who suffered an equal amount of agony. After all, he was going to be the child’s adopted uncle.