SQ 04 - The English Concubine (28 page)

‘Thank you. Your quick action saved the day.’

‘What has caused this?’

‘Resentments.’ Zhen shrugged. ‘We Chinese can be quick to anger about our honour and it could be anything. A blood feud, a debt of money, a woman. Perhaps my friend had enemies. Disrupting his funeral is the ultimate insult to a Chinese.’

Graves contemplated Zhen. They were all so incomprehensible. He had no answer to what had just occurred other than what Zhen told him.

Zhen signalled men to go back to the coffin. It was righted and with great difficulty returned to the shoulders of the men.

‘Allow me to bury my friend,’ he said to Graves.

Graves stepped back and the peons returned to their positions flanking the procession. All the Europeans had fled. Zhen restored a dazed Ah Soon to his position but now he walked by his side and six samsengs surrounded them. The procession, returned to order, wound slowly up the hill.

Zhen was in no doubt what had happened. Hong had tried to kill him. An act of punishment was necessary and the surest punishment was to destroy his fortune.

* * *

Robert shook Zhen’s hand warmly. He signalled to him to sit opposite him. He went to the cabinet and took out a bottle of whisky. ‘May I offer you a dram?’

Zhen smiled. He knew what this meant. He and Robert had often drunk together on evenings spent at Bukit Jagoh or at North Bridge Road. In many respects, since Zhen had been with Charlotte, Robert had assumed the mantle of brother.

‘A wee one.’

Robert laughed. He poured them both a drink and sat.

‘I have never expressed,’ Robert said, ‘my sorrow about the death of Lily. I am truly sorry, Zhen, for your loss and my own, for she was my dear niece.’

‘Life and death are a thread, the same line viewed from different sides.’

Robert nodded. Zhen was always quoting odd things and Robert, not a man of very philosophical mind, generally could not fathom any of it.

‘You also have experienced sorrow.’

‘Yes,’ Robert said.

‘I too am sorry for your loss. She has joined the river of life. And it has been returned to you in the birth of your son. It is a circle, an ever-rolling wheel.’

Again, Robert hardly knew what to reply. But he knew that these were words of sympathy and he was grateful.

‘My wife, Teresa, you remember.’

Zhen nodded. He had rarely met this woman except on public occasions but he knew who she was.

‘Well, she’s taken my boy in for the moment. Since Amber went off and got married, well, a child needs a mother and he is half brother to Andrew, my son.’

‘Indeed, a most sensible arrangement,’ Zhen said and Robert beamed, pleased.

‘Your daughter has married,’ Zhen said. He longed for news of Xia Lou and Ah Rex.

Something in his voice made Robert look at him carefully. Alex was his son, unacknowledged, but nevertheless, it must be hard.

‘Alex is a strong man. Like you.’

Zhen met Robert’s eyes.’ Thank you. I am grateful. It is sometimes …’

‘Yes, yes.’ Robert said. ‘He has become the owner of Brieswijk. Charlotte has given him the estate and intends him to have the tea plantation too. So you see, he will be a great man and you may draw pleasure from that.’

Zhen smiled at Robert. It was a great kindness.

‘As for my sister, well. I don’t know what happened between you. It is presumptuous to mention it.’

‘No, no. I would like news of her.’

‘My dear Zhen. I am not a man of great understanding of the female mind. But from my poor grasp I think that the death of Lily and your separation worked on her until she could not bear it. She has talked to me of this not at all. I merely surmise.’

‘I see.’

‘But women need affection, do they not? The constant attentions of the men in their lives. It gives them security.’ Robert shrugged. ‘I don’t know. What do I know?’

Zhen nodded. ‘You’re right. Through no fault of my own she felt neglected. And, as you say, the death of Lily.’

‘Yes, yes. I think that the gossip, the constant pressure of eyes turned on her, the whisperings, you know, have taken their toll. I have endured similar mutterings myself. But men do not really care. We are even admired the more women we have. Perhaps you have discovered that yourself. But for a woman it is not pleasant to be the constant source of scandalous gossip. Women never let up, like a dog with a bone, they keep on at her.’

Zhen found nothing to answer Robert. For a man who was not especially perspicacious about women, if that was true, he had hit on the reason. She was sick and tired of being the English concubine. All these other things – their separation at the same time as the arrival of the English sailor who clearly loved her, the death of their child which felt like a punishment for their unorthodox lives, his neglect of her when she had most needed him – all these had conspired to build up a case for departure.

Robert waited but nothing further ensued on this topic and he changed it.

‘Your daughter, too, has married.’

Zhen smiled. ‘Yes, she is expecting her first child.’

‘Many congratulations,’ Robert said, and clapped his hand on Zhen’s shoulder.

‘It hardly seems but a few years since I made your acquaintance in the old police house by the river. You were shy and spoke not at all.’

Zhen smiled. He recalled everything of that night. His first encounter with a foreigner, his first visit to the European side of the river and, more than these extraordinary things, the sound of the swish of her skirt on the floor and the sight of her in the doorway, lovely, more lovely than anything he had every seen. That night had kindled his obsessive passion for her. He glanced at Robert.

‘I remember it very well. You offered tea and sandwiches. I have never understood sandwiches.’

Robert laughed. ‘No, nor I. Abominable things.’

The two men shared a laugh and then Zhen’s face turned serious. ‘Robert, I have come to tell you of how your police may make a great arrest.’

37

‘Oh, Aunt, I am so very happy.’

Amber looked ravishing. Her eyes shone and her skin glowed.

‘I have never been so happy. To be here in this wonderful place. It’s like paradise. And I have so many maids. You didn’t tell me it was a palace. Why, Singapore is nothing compared to this.’

Charlotte smiled. ‘Well, perhaps today we might leave paradise and ride into town and do some shopping and have a little lunch at the hotel.’

Amber took Charlotte’s hands and kissed them.

‘Yes, yes. And then bathe, do you think, Aunt? Aunt Takouhi says you all used to bathe in the river in sarongs, like the native women. How I should love to do that.’

‘Perhaps we might. An afternoon picnic perhaps.’

Charlotte poured coffee and gazed out over the grounds. It had never felt so right to be back here. She put her hand to her waist. She still could not decide. She knew she had only a few weeks more.

‘Alex will be back soon, won’t he?’

‘Do you miss him so much?’

‘Oh I do miss him terribly. He is so wonderful.’

Charlotte contemplated her niece, now her daughter-in-law. It seemed that Alex had been true to his word. All this glow and joy was from bedroom discoveries. Charlotte was certain Amber would be pregnant very quickly and would be an excellent mother.

‘He should return in four or five more days, depending on the seas.’

‘Do you think he will bring me a present?’

Charlotte laughed. ‘Perhaps.’

A small frown furrowed Amber’s brow. ‘Why have Alex’s things been taken from our bedroom?’

Before he departed for Semarang, Alex had ordered his effects moved out of the wedding chamber which formed the corner of the building and into the rooms Tigran had often occupied over the central pillars of the verandah. These rooms were large and well-appointed, with a drawing room and private bathroom as well as the bedroom, decorated in a decidedly more masculine way. The maids were busy taking down the dusty drapes and cleaning it.

‘Well, dear, it is the custom here. For the wedding night and for some little time after it is customary to occupy the wedding bedroom. After that a move is usually made to separate apartments. No-one of Alex’s status would not have his own apartments. You may choose any rooms you like for yours of course. Your own drawing room too, so you may entertain your friends when you have made them. We shall make them over exactly as you wish.’

Amber frowned. ‘My father shared a bedroom with Mother all the time. Did you not with your husband?’

‘No. Tigran and I had separate apartments.’

‘But,’ Amber said, hesitantly, ‘does that mean …’

‘Yes?’ Charlotte said knowing perfectly well what was on Amber’s mind.

‘Does that mean he will not …’

Charlotte put her hand to Amber’s.

‘It means he is the master here. That he will do as he wishes.’

Charlotte contemplated Amber. Was she ready to understand how most men lived in the Indies? There was never any question of keeping to one woman. The principal wife was mistress of her domain, but no rich
Indische
man would think twice about keeping several mistresses and often nyais who occupied rooms in the house or resided on the estate. What was scandalous in Singapore was perfectly normal here.

Tigran had kept only to her. They had been married when he was in his forties, she nineteen, and he had loved her so much he had not wanted another woman. But a man of Alex’s age, barely nineteen, so young. And he did not love Amber passionately, if at all. It was better to let the girl lower her expectations.

‘My dear,’ she began as the butler appeared at her elbow with a tray. ‘Marriage is an arrangement of inequality. The man always has the upper hand. You know that, you knew that before you agreed to marry Alex.’

She took the letters.

‘Ah the post. Look, a letter from Sarah Blundell for you.’

Amber squealed, took the letter and ran to sit under the waringan tree. Charlotte watched her run off, kicking her heels like a little lamb. She would understand, eventually; little by little, Charlotte would explain this to her. She could not have Alex to herself, she had to share him. The sooner she understood that, the sooner she would find some measure of contentment. She recognised the hypocrisy of it all, even her own complicit hand in it. But in return Amber would have wealth, status and high social position, none of which would have accrued to her in marriage to a local Singapore merchant. Perhaps she ought to have explained all this to Amber before she married, but she had wanted this to be done, for Alex to agree to leave Singapore. Selfish. But one is selfish. Amber wanted Alex for her own reasons. Charlotte shrugged. Alex would be back soon and she would discuss all this with him frankly.

The other letter was from Robert and she opened it.

Sister
,

News from Singapore is most exciting
.

In a daring raid on pirates in the Straits of Johor, your brother has proved most heroic. Following information given to us, a party got together in the government steamer and waited, by dead of night, off a certain bay in the west of Ubin. When the junk appeared we pounced. The effect of surprise was so enormous that after a short skirmish we prevailed. It was all most admirably organised
.

Charlotte smiled.

The governor has mentioned me to the government in India. I fancy there might be a medal in it for me. A great quantity of chandu was recovered which was intended to be smuggled into Johor. And now suspicions fall on the farmer Hong and if we can get the captain to talk he may well find himself in hot water
.

I am well, I suppose. I have somewhat recovered. Little Robert does wonderfully well with Teresa, who, considering my treatment of her, acts as nobly as a queen and I draw comfort and remember Shilah in this child
.

Amber does not write me at all. Selfish as all young married girls are I suppose. Father forgotten and only the husband in her eyes. Well, give her my love
.

The letter went on in this vein for some time. News of a visit by this and that potentate, others of their acquaintance, until she came to the part which caused her to gasp.

Sister, the most shocking news is that Zhen’s friend Qian was murdered most foully by his attacker in the strangest circumstances. Of that least said. You might not know that Zhen was attacked by a gang of thugs on the day of the funeral, but he is perfectly all right. He was instrumental in helping my force capture the smuggler’s boat. Naturally he mourns the loss of his life-long friend in such tragic circumstances
.

Should she write to him? His grief at the loss of his friend must be great. Then she recalled his actions at the death of his own daughter.

‘Doubtless your grief will be of short duration,’ she said to herself. She rose to get Amber and spend a pleasant morning in town.

38

The Buddhist and Taoist priests had gathered in a huddle of yellow and black, chanting furiously around the coffin of Ah Soon.

Zhen sat in the temple as the incense swirled smoke around them, shutting out the wailing of the paid mourners, the smoke from the paper offerings practically choking him, and closed his eyes.

The women, his mother-in-law, her sisters and cousins were gathered in a group, praying fervently.

Nothing, he knew, in all the beliefs and superstitions of the Chinese about death was more feared than this. First the father had died, murdered. Now the son had perished from an overdose of opium. Of all the spirits that might come back to haunt the living, those who died in this way, through unnatural causes, were the most dangerous.

Death was not final, in these beliefs, merely a transition to an alternative form of life. For seven weeks the soul would pass through seven courts of hell facing trials and judgments about its conduct in life. Then with the offerings of the living, the spirit would reach the Underworld, ruled over by Yanluowang. Here, with the help of the generous and ceaseless benevolence of the deceased’s living relatives, they would enjoy their life much as they had on earth, with money, homes, food and opium.