The Palace of Heavenly Pleasure (83 page)

‘Join me at the
yamen,
' said the Mandarin, draping the cloak over his head, ‘as soon as you're done. There may be some changes to those plans I discussed with you.'

Major Lin, Ren Ren lounging beside him, watched until the Mandarin, led by Mother Liu, had disappeared down the secret stairs. When they were out of sight, Ren Ren tapped on the door of one of the rooms leading off the gallery. The door opened, and Ren Ren's sinister assistant, Monkey, stepped into the light. ‘Now then, Major, you asked for us to come here,' said Ren Ren. ‘What exactly was it that you wanted us to do for you?'

*   *   *

‘Forgive me, forgive me,' Helen Frances was weeping in Henry's arms, ‘I tried, but he didn't—he wouldn't … He just looked at me, examined me, like I was some sort of animal that disgusted him … and he left, without—without doing anything … And now they're all going to die because I didn't … Oh, God, Henry, forgive me…'

She felt his kisses on her cheeks, her eyes, her ears, the tight pull of his arms round her shoulders. ‘Nobody's going to die,' he said. ‘It was just a game. A bloody game. One of the Mandarin's bloody games.'

‘I would have done it,' she moaned. ‘I would have done. I wanted to do it. Don't you see? I betrayed you. Oh, God—but he just walked away.'

‘Nonsense,' Henry said. ‘Nonsense. You had to steel yourself, that's all. You did what you had to do. You were bloody brave.'

‘Hold me,' she whispered. ‘Just hold me. Don't leave me again.'

And probably, after a while, her anguish might have subsided in his familiar embrace—but at that moment, with a crash, the door burst open and, through the curtains, she made out the shapes of three men forcing entry into the room. Immediately Henry leaped to his feet to confront the intruders, and she watched in horror as one of the figures kick-boxed with his foot and Henry's head crashed back against the bedpost. She had been too startled even to scream for help, and it was too late now, for rough hands were pulling her from the bed. She felt a stunning blow to her head, and she dropped on her knees. A kick in her back sent her sprawling over the carpet. She felt herself retching. Dizzily she was aware that she was being turned over on her back. She gagged as a rough cloth was forced tightly into her mouth and for a while she could not breathe. Strong hands pinioned her shoulders and arms to the floor. Someone slapped her again, and she opened her eyes to see a pockmarked Chinese face grinning over her. She saw Henry, also gagged, struggling against ropes that tied him to the bedpost. His eyes were angry white fires, screaming in their impotence. A tall figure in a white uniform stepped into view, and for a moment she felt a surge of relief when she recognised the handsome, familiar features of Major Lin, but then she saw the wolfish sneer, and the reptilian eyes, which coldly surveyed her nakedness; she saw him unbuckle and drop his belt to the floor and his fingers fumble with the buttons of his trousers.

And she screamed, and kicked with her lower body, but only moans came through the gag, and another man caught her feet and wrenched her legs apart. Lights exploded as she was slapped, again and again. She felt a heavy, stifling weight on her belly and chest, the scratch of thick serge and the cut of brass buttons on her breasts. The sour smell of garlic filled her nostrils and a man's breath blew on her cheek; and when she could focus, she saw the hate-filled eyes of Major Lin inches from her face. She felt his exploring fingers, and with all her strength she tried to shake away her attacker, but the other men's hands held her legs and arms fast to the ground and she could not move. She gasped at the sudden fiery pain. Major Lin, like a demented animal, was thrusting inside her, tearing flesh, splitting tissue, pushing deeper through the resisting folds. He grunted over her as he pushed; his spittle dripped on her face, and an explosion of pain ripped through her lower body as he broke the last obstacle, and her blood became the lubricant for his burning thrusts into her womb. She felt the hard thing inside her, violating her, ravishing her, jarring the very breath out of her body as it intensified its thrusts. It was as if time had stopped and she was caught in a slow-motion nightmare defined by pain and shame.

Over the shoulder of her ravisher she saw the beams of the ceiling, the pockmarked Chinese who was holding her down, and Henry at the corner of her vision, his face purple with his efforts to break his bonds, his eyes bulging despair and hate and wordlessly shrieking messages to her that she could not understand. Yet they might have been inhabitants of another planet for all their relevance to her now. Whatever was happening to her was an internal drama. Every painful thrust diminished her, tearing away another shred of the little self-esteem that remained to her.

She had a clear vision of herself being whipped in the hall of her school; everyone she knew was pointing at her naked body, reviling her for her foulness and laughing at the dirt that covered her. Major Lin climaxed and she felt her deepest parts running with his polluting, defiling liquid. The thrusting stopped, and the weight became heavier on her chest as he relaxed. The hard rod that had scorched and torn the inside of her had transformed into a soft, revolting stuffing of meat, swilling in a disgusting gravy of sperm and blood. She felt a trickle of the cold emission seeping on to her thigh, and began to gag with shame and self-hatred. How could she ever be clean again?

Major Lin pushed himself to his feet and pulled on his trousers. He gave one last, sneering glance at the girl he had raped. She was lying where he had left her. Ren Ren and Monkey no longer bothered to hold her now. She still lay with her legs apart. Her thighs were smeared with blood and there was a slime of pink liquid trickling on to the wooden floor. Lin spat, and his phlegm landed on her stomach. She did not react. He turned to Manners, whose struggles had also subsided.

‘The da ren ordered me not to harm you,' he said to the gagged man, ‘but he said nothing about your whore. That's what you made her, isn't it, when you gave her to the Mandarin? So you can look upon what I did just now as merely another bit of business for her. As you gave business to my whore a while back. I think we can consider ourselves even now, Ma Na Si.'

He turned to leave, then stopped as if he had suddenly remembered something. He reached in his pocket and withdrew a few copper coins. ‘I am being remiss,' he said. ‘I haven't paid you for her services.' He flung the coins on the floor by Henry's, feet.

He left without another word.

Leaving Helen Frances to Ren Ren and Monkey. With great ceremony they tossed one of the coins. Monkey guessed tails, so it fell to Ren Ren to pinion Helen Frances's shoulders while the other took his reward. Monkey pulled his pyjamas down and knelt between her legs sniffing humorously. He made great play of lapping like a dog, then his excitement getting the better of him, he hurled himself on the recumbent body. Both Ren Ren and Monkey turned when they heard the noises from the bedpost. Henry was violently, and again impotently, struggling against his bonds. He was trying to shout too, because muffled sounds were coming through his gag. Ren Ren and Monkey laughed, and went back to their play.

Again Helen Frances felt the pain, the invasion of her body and the defilement. This time, weakened and broken by her shame, she did not struggle to resist, but Henry saw the tears running down her cheeks. They flowed in haphazard runnels across the bruises and the smeared makeup. Monkey's thin haunches wriggled and it was over.

Ren Ren sneered. ‘Don't think that I'm going in that polluted hole, not after you animals have used it. Turn her over,' he said.

Roughly Ren Ren and Monkey rolled her on to her front. Ren Ren pulled her into a crouching position so that her bottom faced him and he, too, removed his trousers, adjusting himself between her parted thighs—but this time when they moved her the gag had slipped from her mouth. In her dazed state it took her some moments to realise that her mouth was free, but the intense agony of the new indignity that was being inflicted on her, and even more the horror when she understood what it was, made her scream, a piercing shriek that echoed around the walls of the room and penetrated the whole corridor outside. She screamed and screamed again until Monkey had beaten her into silence and replaced the gag—but by then others on the floor had been alerted and they heard the drumming of feet outside.

The doctor was the first through the door, followed by Nellie, and Fan Yimei. Ren Ren reacted quickly, pulling himself away from his victim and bounding to his feet—but they saw clearly enough what he had been doing. Helen Frances still crouched in the position in which he had been abusing her. They saw her nakedness and the ruin of her painted face. They saw the blood, and the bruises, and the foulness that stained the floor. They saw the drooping manhoods of the two trouserless Chinese men, the blood and filth that smeared their thighs; they observed the truculence on their guilty faces.

‘My God. My God,' whispered Airton, leaning in shock against the wall. Nellie was already by Helen Frances's side, folding the girl into her arms, staring defiantly at Ren Ren as she did so. Fan Yimei stood hesitantly by the door.

‘I can't believe this depravity,' shouted Airton, rage overtaking him. He directed the main force of his anger at Henry, ignoring the fact that he was bound and gagged. ‘What sort of monster are you?' he cried. ‘Was this—was this your bargain? My God, man! You told the Mandarin I'd agreed to this?'

Ren Ren and Monkey exchanged amused glances.

‘And you—you creatures! What have you done to her? It's—monstrous! Monstrous!'

Ren Ren laughed, and Monkey giggled. This was too much for the doctor, who flung himself at Ren Ren, pushing the younger man's chest. His strength was feeble, but the carpet slipped, and both Ren Ren and Airton fell to the ground in a flurry of flailing fists. And such was the way they fell that Ren Ren, who was the stronger man, had his arms pinioned by Airton's knees, and had to shake his head to avoid the blows raining down on his face. ‘Monster! Monster! Monster!' Airton was shouting, as he struck.

Nellie screamed and there was an eruption of movement from the gagged, bound Henry. Both had seen the knife Monkey had pulled from his sleeve.

‘Edward! Behind you!' shrieked Nellie, but it was too late. In two steps Monkey had reached the struggling pair and raised the knife high above his head, ready to strike between the doctor's defenceless shoulder-blades.

A loud, cracking explosion echoed round the small room, followed by another. Monkey staggered backwards, blood seeping from a spreading red patch on his white shirt. He turned, and there was an expression of amazement on his face before he pitched forward, dead, and the knife clattered on the floor.

Fan Yimei stood in the doorway. A haze of smoke was rising from Hiram's revolver, which she held out at arm's length in her two small hands. She was shaking and the barrel of the gun was pitching up and down but she still pointed it forward into the room.

With a heave Ren Ren knocked the doctor off him and jumped to his feet. His eyes were blazing with anger and venom, his fists were clenched—but he froze when he saw Fan Yimei.

The foreigners in the room watched hypnotised as the slim girl with the revolver stared steadily at the half-naked Chinese man, her eyes fixed on his in a battle of wills. Only Henry knew what torments Ren Ren had inflicted on the girls in his power, and the terrors of his unspeakable regime—but the others could sense the deadliness of this silent exchange. For a moment it looked as if the man would gain his accustomed ascendancy over his slave. Ren Ren's lip curled into the beginnings of a cruel smile, and slowly he raised his arm, palm up, in an unspoken command for Fan Yimei to hand over the revolver. For a moment the gun wavered, but only for a moment. Nellie, who was closest to Ren Ren, saw his expression suddenly change, his head shake in disbelief, his mouth open as if to plead, and the pupils of his widening eyes dilate with fear. Then the revolver cracked again and Nellie saw his throat explode in a messy scatter of blood and bone. He toppled backwards, his body tangling with the pink hangings of the bed. The legs kicked and horrible, gurgling sounds rasped the silence, sawing on their stretched nerves. It was a long time before the twitching ceased

Fan Yimei dropped the gun. Sinking to her knees, she began to weep.

A ghastly stillness settled over the room. The doctor crouched in a prayer position where he had fallen; Nellie, Madonna-like with the recumbent body of the naked Helen Frances in her arms; Henry slumped in his bonds like a wounded St Sebastian, gaped at the twisted corpses. Frozen in attitudes of open-eyed horror, they resembled carved devotees worshipping at some hideous parody of a baroque shrine.

A film of smoke hung over the obscene tableau. Their ears still reverberated with the echoes of the gunshots—but gradually, through the ringing silence, the more familiar household noises seeped up from the stairway—a girl's cry, men's raucous laughter, and the drunken singing of Iron Man Wang's retainers revelling in the delights of the Palace of Heavenly Pleasure below.

Eighteen

The enemy officers ride horses. The sunlight gleams on their heavy guns. I wish Little Brother were here.

 

A child's voice broke the silence. ‘Mummy?'

Nellie turned in alarm. George and Jenny were hovering nervously outside the door.

All her maternal instincts welled to protect them from the horrors they had, no doubt, already glimpsed in the room, but with Helen Frances in her arms there was nothing she could do. In her anguish she screamed at her husband. ‘Edward, get them away!'

Airton turned his head blankly, still lost in his stupor, but the sight of his children galvanised him. ‘Oh, my God!' he cried, and flung himself towards them. He threw his arms around them, covered their staring eyes with his hands and pushed them back into the corridor. With a violent effort he kicked shut the door behind him, as if to keep out the butchery that had occurred there. Panting, he pulled them down the gallery towards their own room, only stopping when he realised that his grip on their wrists was hurting them. George's eyes were filling with tears. Airton knelt in front of them, covering their pale, frightened faces with his kisses.