My Splendid Concubine (62 page)

“
Robert, mark my words, before we leave China we will be rich, powerful men. Our names will be in the history books.”

Robert couldn
’t imagine how that was going to happen.

Chapter 37

The rebels attacking Canton had been defeated.

After Horatio
Lay returned to Shanghai, Robert wrote a letter to Ayaou in Macau. He had difficulty forming the Chinese characters, because his hand trembled as he wrote it. For that reason, he kept the note brief.

“
Ayaou,” he wrote, “it’s time to come home. I miss you. You are always in my thoughts. Bring Guan-jiah too.”

It was difficult to stop from pouring his feelings into the letter. In the last line,
he told Ayaou to bring Fooyen, as she would make a good nanny for Anna. He sent five hundred yuan for Ayaou to give to her cousins to help repair the junk.

A week later, his boat-girl was back.

She stood before him in the bedroom looking like the
slender girl he’d first met during that battle with the Taipings years earlier. He’d forgotten the ocean scent of her hair, and it made him dizzy. “I’ve missed your beauty,” he said, “and your smell.”

“
You are a crazy man,” she replied. “I am no beauty. My face is not round and pale like a full moon. You have forgotten how large my feet are. I have high cheekbones and dark skin. In China, this means I am ugly.”

“
But I’m not Chinese. I see beauty from a different standard. You are everything I want in a woman.” He pulled her close feeling the familiar curve of her spine—something he’d dreamed of daily. His starved hands slipped under her clothing to explore the smooth warmth of her body.

They made love for hours like drunken sailors who had been without rum
too long.

The next morning, Ayaou was fascinated when he took her on a tour of the new house he had bought. He started with the front entrance. The house was long and deep. Three large rooms were on the ground floor. Between each room was an open garden courtyard. The previous owners had abandoned the house and never returned, and the plants had died.

The kitchen was behind the third garden. Behind the kitc
hen was another courtyard where the servants hung the laundry. A twelve-foot-high wall surrounded the house. A gate at the front opened to the street.

“
This house would hold all the boat people from my village,” she said, her voice filled with awe. She twisted one way then another, as if she were painting the images into her memory. “We might be able to drag our boats here from the river and keep them safe from floods.”

“
How many people are in your village?” he asked, afraid of the answer.

“
Do you remember the people you saved from the Longhaired Bandits the first time we met?” she replied. “Double that.”

The thought of hi
s house filled with so many people sent a violent shiver through him. He imagined chickens and roosters running wild and there would be droppings everywhere. Babies would be toddling about without diapers. The floor would never be the same. He shook off the images and guided her through the last of the downstairs rooms.

The servants
’ quarters were behind the last courtyard, and covered walkways ran along both sides of the house to the back. Two stairways led to the second level. One set of stairs came from the kitchen and the other from the walkway to the right of the third hall. Each stairway was outfitted with a two-inch thick wood hatch that could be dropped in place and locked to close off the upper floor.

The family sitting room on the second floor was at the front of the house, with the main bedroom in the back. There were six bedrooms. As nanny, Fooyen would be sleeping in Anna
’s room. Robert had turned one bedroom into an office and another into a library.

“
I feel like a princess,” Ayaou said. “I do not deserve this.”

The tone of her vo
ice told him she was thrilled, and that was enough to fill him with pride. “You are wrong,” he said. “We both deserve this. You can have a hot bath anytime you want without going to a bathhouse or heating the water. The servants will do the work for you.”

“
A true luxury,” she said. “One I will never get used to.”

He told her that he would have a party in two weeks. He
’d invited the governor general, the Hoppo of Canton, members of the Yamen, the Tartar general, military officers, Parkes and the other members of the commission, and all the foreign consuls in Canton. “I’m going to show you off. You are worth more than gold.”

“
Do not be silly,” she replied. “If you turned me into gold, I will be stiff and cold in bed. Having this celebration is the right thing for your career. In China, personal connections are a true treasure. I suggest providing good food, because China is an eating culture. A party without different types of food will be bad so make sure to order delicacies such as stewed bear paws, deep-fried snakes, marinated sparrows and duck feet.”

His stomach lurched at the thought of marinated sparrows. He
’d seen a street vendor selling fried sparrows with the beaks and feathers still on. “Ayaou, half my guests will be Westerners. They will not eat such things. If I put a feathered sparrow on a Frenchman or Briton’s plate, they will be offended. They might get sick.”

“
But what about the Chinese guests?” she asked. “You do not want to disappoint them, do you?”

“
Leave the menu to Guan-jiah and the cooks,” he said. “They know what to do. Cooking isn’t your responsibility any longer. What we are going to do is buy you the best silk gown for this occasion. I want you to look like a Manchu princess.”

“
Impossible,” she replied. “I am not a Manchu.”

He ignored her. After all, she was smiling when she said it.

He started to have doubts about her joining the dinner party. He wasn’t sure how the others would react. He hadn’t forgotten how the missionaries in Ningpo had talked behind Hollister’s back about Me-ta-tae.

At the same time, he didn
’t want to act as if he were embarrassed about her either. Just having these thoughts bothered him. It took an effort to keep his features composed so she would not guess his thoughts.

“
Do not forget,” she said, “I am not a princess.”

“
Nevertheless,” he replied, “you will be dressed like one.”

The party was planned for a Saturday evening during a full moon.

After he
had accepted the job with the Imperial government, he promoted Guan-jiah. Instead of being the only servant, Guan-jiah managed more than a dozen. Robert didn’t want to leave the courtyards full of dead plants, so he also made Guan-jiah responsible for landscaping the gardens.

When Guan-jiah finished the first courtyard, he called Robert to see it. “What do you think, Master?”

“
I’m speechless.” He was amazed and didn’t know what to say. It was early evening and a half-moon was glowing in the sky. He stood in the garden’s center and felt as if he were in the mountains surrounded by a forest.

“
How did you do it?” he asked.

“
Do what, Master?”

“
Design this space so it feels ten times larger than it is. I can see the moon and the stars. I like that. These trees and plants don’t block the view.”

“
My plan would have failed if the trees were thick enough to cover the beauty of the night sky.” Guan-jiah pointed at the open space that revealed the moon. “I made sure not to fill that part of the sky.”

Robert studied the pile of boulders. They looked as if they were leaning against the side of a mountain. There had been a fountain there. Now there was a waterfall with a brook flowing through the boulders. Behind the boulders was a tall stand of bamboo that hid the house. Other, smaller trees were planted among the climbing pile of boulders and the scene looked as if it had been plucked from the wilderness. In fact, it felt as if the house didn
’t exist. “Who did you learn this from?” he asked, as the garden calmed him.

“
From Li Liwen,” Guan-jiah replied. “He lived during the seventeenth century, and Shen Fu, who lived at the end of the eighteenth century. Liwen said, ‘First, we look at the hills in the painting; then we look at the painting in the hills.’

“
Look at the rockery.” Guan-jiah pointed at the pile of boulders. How could anyone call them a pile when they looked like the forces of nature put them there? Many were larger than a man was. Robert wondered how the Chinese workers managed to get them in here.

“
If you look around, Master, nowhere will you find a straight line. When you reach the center of the garden, you are surrounded by nature as if you were in the mountains. To the Chinese, the mountains and rivers are alive. We can see the dragon’s back along the winding ridges of the mountains, and the dragon’s tail where the mountains merge into the plains or the sea.

“
My goal was to capture that essence, so you can surround yourself with tranquility. Shen Fu said, ‘show the large in the small and the small in the large, provide for the real in the unreal and for the unreal in the real,’ and that is what I attempted to do.

“
Of course, I am no master, and we still have to train the trees to get the right look. That will take time. To make sure you wouldn’t see any walls, I had creepers planted. I am sorry to say that in the daylight you can still see some of the house but at night it is what I imagined.”

“
You have created magic, Guan-jiah. You never fail to amaze.”

“
I dreamed that one-day I would do something like this for my family. Since this garden was completed, I have carried Anna here daily, so she is not separated from nature. I want her to appreciate the small things in life by learning how to grow flowers.”

Robert imagined Guan-jiah in
the garden with Anna. The image filled his eyes with tears. He turned so the eunuch couldn’t see. He spent so many hours at work that he didn’t have much time left for his family.

“
What you have done is a miracle,” he said, careful to keep the emotion out of his voice. “This garden suggests a wild place. It is as if you tamed nature. Thank you, Guan-jiah. I will be proud to show this to my guests.”

“
It is regrettable that I cannot finish the other courtyards before the party.”

“
You have done enough, my friend.”

Guan-jiah blushed. He cleared his throat.
“Master, it is Ayaou.”

“
What do you mean?” Robert was alarmed. Was something wrong with his lover? Maybe she was pregnant again.

“
Master, she is a boat person. She will not know how to act.”

“
Nonsense.” He was relieved that it wasn’t serious. “All she has to do is show up and wear the gown that is being made for her. Instruct her to sit, eat and look lovely. That shouldn’t be difficult. I don’t want to hear anymore about this. Just do your job, Guan-jiah. After all, you are the house manager.

“
Does that mean I manage the concubines too?”

“
Of course,” Robert said, “but don’t let them know.” He didn’t bother to say that Ayaou would be his only concubine.

Chapter 38

As Robert walked through the main rooms on the ground floor, he watched the servants decorate the house and prepare food. “Guan-jiah,” he said, “I haven’t seen any musicians. Where is the opera troupe?” He felt nervous. It was the afternoon of the day before his first dinner party. He had planned carefully, but worried that something would go wrong, as if the house might catch fire. He wanted the evening to be perfect.

“
Mistress Ayaou cancelled them, Master,” Guan-jiah replied.

“
Why?”

“
Ayaou said she was going to perform for the guests.”

“
No!” His stomach did a flip-flop and his face went numb. He couldn’t think. He had to shake his head to get his mind working. “Guan-jiah, find any available entertainment and get them here within the hour. Pay double if needed.”

He fought
panic as he hurried upstairs to find Ayaou standing in front of a tall dressing mirror. Stopping in the doorway, he struggled to compose himself. He didn’t want to say anything until the words coming out of his mouth were not controlled by anger. When he felt he was ready, he walked into the room.

White powder caked Ayaou
’s face. Her mouth looked like a giant cherry. Her eyes met his in the mirror. He forced a smile to hide his true emotions and stared at his image in the mirror thinking he looked like a buffoon.

She
continued to slip into the same dance clothes she’d worn that time at Ward’s house in Shanghai. Since her hips were wider now, she struggled with the silk pants getting them on. His breath caught in his throat. Watching her dress was like stepping back to that time several years earlier when she had been on the auction block for sale to the highest bidder.

His
world had been different then, and he’d been easily fooled.

She glanced over her shoulder. Her eyes were alive with excit
ement. “Give me a moment, and I will be done,” she said, turning back to the mirror.

If she performed tonight, the Western women would be sca
ndalized, and their men would have difficulty keeping their tongues in their mouths. He was sure they’d treat Ayaou like a whore. There was a strong chance some of his male guests would offer to buy a night with her.

“
Ayaou,” he said, “what are you planning to do? Why aren’t you putting on that silk gown we bought, the one similar to what the Imperial concubines wear for a formal audience inside the Forbidden City?”

“
I am dressing like this to entertain your guests. After I sing and dance, I will come upstairs and change into the gown. Lend me a hand, Robert. I am having trouble getting dressed.”

Guan-jiah had been right. Growing up as a boat girl had not pr
ovided Ayaou with opportunities to see how the wealthy and powerful lived or entertained. She came from peasant stock, trained to be a concubine, to please the man who bought her. She didn’t know any other way.

What could he do? He didn
’t want to see her hurt and decided to take a drastic step. There wasn’t time for anything else.

He picked up a handkerchief and handed it to her.
“Wipe that powder off your face and change into the gown, or you’ll have to stay here in the bedroom during the party. That outfit doesn’t fit anymore. You’ll look ridiculous.”

“
Am I the hostess?” she asked, looking confused. “Am I to make everyone happy? What is wrong with dressing like this? You loved it the first time you saw me wearing it. You even told me so when we made love in Ward’s cellar. I know I am taller and heavier but not by that much. I can fit.”

“
Some other time, Ayaou.”

“
Why not this time?”

“
Well, many of my guests are—” He tried to choose the right words. He was entering a pool of lice and had no idea how Ayaou was going to react. “They are not Chinese,” he said.

“
That is why it is a good idea to offer them something truly Chinese.”

“
You don’t understand. Westerners are judgmental. They wouldn’t appreciate—”

She cut him off.
“I am sure they would like my dancing. You enjoyed it. Remember? It was what made you fall in love with me. It is why you were willing to pay a fortune for me to be your concubine.”

He didn
’t want to tell her that at Ward’s the intent had been for her to look like a high-class, desirable whore to drive the price higher. She had been meat for sale.

H
er expression soured telling him that she had guessed his thoughts. Backing away, she held a hand out to ward him off. She looked devastated. Her lips trembled. “You are ashamed of me.”

“
No,” he said. What she said was true but also not true. He was ashamed of the woman she had been raised to be, but he wasn’t ashamed of her. Not counting Guan-jiah, she was one of the most sensible people he knew. The truth was that he needed time to think.