The Warning Voice (19 page)

‘That's all right,' said Parfumée. ‘I can easily get her some more. I only have to ask for it.'

The object of Parfumée's inquiry, who owed her strange name to the fact that she was the fifth of Old Liu's grand-daughters, though only the daughter of a cook, was in both looks and intelligence a match for any of the senior maids – Patience, Aroma, Faithful or Nightingale – and it was only because of a weakly constitution that she was still, in her sixteenth year, without employment. Recently, however, observing how numerous the maids were in Bao-yu's apartment and how light their duties were, and hearing that it was his intention to give them their freedom when they had finished service with him, her mother had conceived the ambition of getting her on the staff of Green Delights. Lack of a contact there had at first made this ambition seem unrealizable; but Cook Liu had previously worked at Pear Tree Court, where her cheerful and ungrudging service had won her golden opinions with the girls. They greatly preferred her to their own foster-mothers. And so when Parfumée moved into Green Delights, the cook had easily prevailed on her to tackle Bao-yu on her daughter's behalf. Bao-yu had consented willingly, but the situation created by Xi-feng's illness together with other more recent developments had so far prevented him from seeking higher approval for the appointment.

But we digress.

Bao-yu heard about the fracas created in his apartment by Aunt Zhao while he was at All-spice Court visiting the girls. Though deeply distressed on Parfumée's behalf, he decided, after some hesitation, that intervention by him could only make matters worse, and resolved to stay where he was. He did so until word reached All-spice Court that Tan-chun had succeeded in getting Aunt Zhao out of the way. Returning
then, he had formally reproved Parfumée for her belligerency and then sent her on an errand to the kitchen.

Parfumée now arrived back at Green Delights and reported on the fulfilment of her mission. She also told him that, if he still had any, Fivey would like some more of the Essence of Roses.

‘Yes, I think I've still got some,' said Bao-yu. ‘Look, why don't you give her all of it? I don't drink it very often myself.'

He sent Aroma to fetch it. As there was not a great deal of it left, he told Parfumée that Fivey might as well keep the bottle. Parfumée went back to the kitchen again to give the bottle to Cook Liu.

When she got there, she found Fivey there as well. To give her ailing, cooped-up daughter a little treat, Cook Liu had brought her along with her that day when she went to work. The girl had just been taking a little walk in the environs of her mother's kitchen and was now resting her feet in the kitchen and having a cup of tea. Mother and daughter, when they saw the glittering five-inch crystal bottle half-full of ruby liquid that Parfumée was carrying, assumed that it was some of Bao-yu's West Ocean grape wine that she was bringing them.

‘Sit yourself down,' said Cook Liu. ‘I'll just fetch the mulling-pan and boil up some water to heat it in.'

Parfumée laughed.

‘That's all there is, I'm afraid. He says you can keep the bottle.'

Fivey realized that the red liquid must be not grape wine but some more Essence of Roses, and thanked her effusively for her kindness. Parfumée asked her how she felt.

‘A bit livelier today,' said Fivey. ‘That's why I came in with Mother. I've been for a walk all around here, but there's really not much to look at – just a lot of rocks and the backs of buildings. I haven't seen anything that you could really call a
view
.'

‘Why don't you go right inside?' said Parfumée.

‘Because I won't let her,' her mother chipped in. ‘None of the young ladies in there knows her. If some inquisitive person
were to stop her and start asking questions, she'd have a lot of trouble explaining what she was doing. Once you've got her a place in there, as you so kindly promised, I'm sure there will be plenty willing to show her around. She'll be able to look around the Garden then until she's sick of the sight of it!'

‘You don't want to worry,' said Parfumée. ‘I'd look after her.'

‘I'm sure you would, bless you!' said the cook. ‘But folks like us have to be more careful.'

She poured Parfumée a cup of tea. Parfumée accepted her hospitality to the extent of using some of this as a mouth-wash before getting up to go.

‘My hands are a bit full at the moment,' said Cook Liu. ‘Fivey will see you out.'

The two girls went out together. Having first ascertained that there was no one else about, Fivey impulsively took Parfumée by the hand:

‘Did you
really
ask him about that?'

‘Of
course
I did!' said Parfumée. ‘I wouldn't deceive you. I've found out that there are two vacancies that haven't yet been filled: one of them is the place left by Crimson, for whom Mrs Lian still hasn't found him a substitute; the other one is Trinket's. If he asks for you, it will be only one out of those two places, so he will be perfectly within his rights. The only reason he hasn't done so already is because Patience keeps telling Aroma that if we have any requests concerning either jobs or allowances to make, we'd be well advised to put them off for the time being. The fact is that Miss Tan is looking for someone to make an example of. She's already made an example of Mrs Lian by turning down two or three of her requests in a row, and now she's trying to pick on us. She hasn't found an excuse for doing so yet, but she hasn't given up trying. So if we go asking her about a thing like this now, it's almost a foregone conclusion that she will say no; and once she's turned it down, it will be very difficult to get that refusal reversed. Much better wait until the situation here has quietened down a bit – till Their Ladyships are back again and everyone is in a good mood. If he
approaches the old girl then, she'll give him anything he asks for, no matter what it is.'

‘I know,' said Fivey, ‘but I'm too impatient to wait that long. I want that job
now
. In the first place it will make my mother happy. She'll feel that all the trouble she has had in bringing me up has not been wasted. Secondly, the pay I shall earn will make things easier for them at home. And thirdly, if only I felt a bit more cheerful, as I shall do if I get that job, I do believe that this illness of mine would get better – and that would mean a great saving for my family on doctor's fees and medicines.'

At that point Parfumée left her and continued on her way back alone. Fivey returned to the kitchen. She and her mother spoke warmly together of Parfumée's kindness.

‘I'd never have thought anything like this would ever come our way,' said Cook Liu. ‘Still, though it's so precious, you can have too much of a good thing. You don't want to overheat your blood. I think it would be rather a nice gesture if we were to pour a little of this off to give to someone else.'

Fivey asked her who she had in mind.

‘I was thinking of taking half a cupful to your uncle's boy,' said Cook Liu. ‘He's been down with a fever this last day or two, and it's just the sort of thing he would enjoy.'

Fivey made no reply and watched in silence while her mother decanted a small quantity of the red liquid into a teacup and then placed the bottle, after corking it up again, on a shelf of the kitchen cupboard.

‘I think if I were you I
wouldn't
give him that,' she said finally. There was a wry little smile on her face. ‘If anyone should ask you where it came from, we might find ourselves in trouble.'

‘Oh, fiddlesticks!' said her mother. ‘Surely we don't have to be
that
careful? If you work as hard as I do all the year round, you are entitled to a few perks. No one is going to say that we stole it, surely?'

She sailed off cup in hand then to her brother's, leaving Fivey alone in the kitchen. She found her nephew in bed. He and his parents were all three delighted when they learned what she had brought them. A cupful of cool water freshly
drawn from the well was mixed with a little of the essence and handed to the sick boy to drink. He finished it at one draught and immediately declared that he felt better and that his head seemed somewhat clearer. The cup containing the remainder of the essence was covered with a square of paper and set on the table beside him.

While Cook Liu was still there, some of the sick boy's workmates from the mansion called in to visit him. Among them was a young fellow called Qian Huai, related on his mother's side to Aunt Zhao. His father worked in Accounts. Qian Huai's own job was to accompany Jia Huan when he went to school. A bachelor and with money to spend, he had for long been an admirer of Fivey's and in time past his parents had, at his insistence, made several approaches to Fivey's parents through intermediaries asking for Fivey's hand in marriage. Her parents were by no means averse to the match, but as Fivey herself, though without actually saying anything, made it perfectly plain by her behaviour that the idea was repugnant to her, they had not dared to accept. More recently, with talk of Fivey going into service in the Garden, they had been less inclined than ever to look on Qian Huai as a possible son-in-law, for it now seemed probable that after four or five years' service as a maid, Fivey would be at liberty to marry someone of their own choice from outside. Qian Huai's parents, too, when they saw the way things stood, were inclined to let the matter drop.

Not so Qian Huai, however. Wounded in his
amour propre
by Fivey's rejection, he made a fierce vow that he would pursue her relentlessly, with all the force and guile at his command, until he had succeeded in making her his wife.

It was a surprise to him, needless to say, to call with the other pages on his sick workmate and find Fivey's mother at the bedside. Cook Liu was equally flustered on recognizing Qian Huai among the little group of visitors and got up to go, on the pretext of being busy.

‘Do just stay for a cup of tea,' said her brother and sister-in-law. ‘It was so kind of you to think of him.'

‘I expect they'll be wanting their dinner inside now,' said
Cook Liu. ‘I'll come and see him again when I'm not so busy.'

The sister-in-law opened a drawer and took out a small paper packet from it as they were leaving. Outside, at the corner by the gate, she pressed it, smilingly, into Cook Liu's hand.

‘This is something your brother brought back yesterday, from the gate. He was five days on duty there and not a single tip all the time. Then suddenly yesterday some high-up from Canton came here on a visit and left three little baskets of this white stuff– “Lycoperdon Snow” it's called – two for the masters and one for the people on the gate. This here is your brother's share of it. I opened it last night to have a look. It's beautiful stuff – so white and fine. They say that a little of it taken every morning mixed with breast-milk is wonderful for building up the body. If you can't get breast-milk, you can use cow's milk, or even plain boiled water. Of course, we immediately thought of your Fivey; it would be just the thing for her. I sent our little maid round with some this morning, but she said your door was locked. She said you must have taken Fivey in with you. I
would
have gone in then to see her and given it to her myself; but then I thought that with the mistresses away they're much stricter about letting people in and out now and they'd be sure to ask what business I had going inside. And besides, this last day or two we've heard rumours of such terrible goings-on in there, I should be afraid of getting mixed up in something. So it's a good job you came today, sister-in-law; you'll be able to take the packet to her yourself.'

Cook Liu thanked her and left. At the corner gate of the Garden her way was blocked by a grinning page.

‘Where have you been, missus? There have been two or three calls from inside asking for you. Me and the others have been looking for you all over the place. Where have you just come from? You don't live out in this direction. I bet you've been up to something!'

‘Cheeky little monkey!' said the cook.

The rest of their exchange is recorded in the following chapter.

‘You don't live in this direction. Naughty old Auntie! What have you been up to?'

‘“Auntie” is it?' said Cook Liu, laughing. ‘Cheeky little monkey! If your “auntie” has got herself a fancy man, that means you have a new uncle, so what are you worrying about? You open that gate quickly, my lad, and let me in, or I'll take hold of you by that little po-cover of yours and pull your hair out!'

‘If I let you in, promise you'll pinch a few apricots for me,' said the boy, ‘to make up for having kept me waiting so long. Mind you don't forget, now, or next time you want to nip out in the middle of the night for a bottle of wine or some oil, I'll not open for you. I'll just let you stand there shouting and not even answer you.'

‘You must be mad!' said the cook. ‘We can't do that sort of thing any more now. Nowadays it's all divided up among the garden-women; and there isn't one of them, either, that wouldn't just as soon scratch your eyes out as look at you. You only have to walk under one of the fruit-trees and they're watching you like hawks. Fat chance I should have of picking any of the fruit for you! Only yesterday I was walking underneath a plum-tree and raised my hand to drive a bee away that was buzzing in front of my face. One of your old aunties happened to see me, but as she was quite a long way off, she couldn't quite make out what I was doing. She thought I was picking the plums. Oh, you should have heard her shout! “Don't take them! We
haven't offered the first-fruits yet. No one must have any of those plums until Their Ladyships have got back and made the offerings. You'll get your share in time.” I suppose she thought I had a craving and couldn't wait! I'm afraid I wasn't very polite. I gave her a piece of my mind. You ask one of your old aunties if you want some fruit, my boy, it's no good asking me. You asking me for fruit is like the granary rat asking the crow for corn: Have asking Have-not!'

‘Oh dear, oh dear!' said the boy sarcastically. ‘If you can't get me any, you can't; there's no need to go on about it so. I suppose you think you won't be needing my services any more; but you will. When your Fivey gets her job inside, you're going to need my services more than ever.'

‘Whatever rubbish will the boy come out with next?' said the cook. ‘What job are you talking about?'

‘It's no good pretending,' the boy crowed. ‘
I
know. You needn't think you're the only one with contacts inside. I've got my contacts too. I may be all the time working here outside, but I've got two girl cousins inside who keep me informed. There's nothing much going on inside there that I don't know about.'

At that point in their exchange they were interrupted by an old woman's voice from within:

‘Come on, you little monkey, you let Mrs Liu in this minute! If she doesn't come in directly, they won't get their dinners in time.'

‘Don't worry, I'm coming!'

Cook Liu brushed past the boy and, pushing the gate open for herself, went hurrying back to the kitchen. Several of her assistants were waiting there already. They had been standing about doing nothing, none of them having dared to take the initiative without her.

‘Where's Fivey gone?' she asked them.

‘She just this minute went off to look for her cousins in the tea-room,' they said.

Cook Liu put the packet of Lycoperdon Snow somewhere to give to her daughter later and began making up the food-boxes for the different apartments. While she was engaged in
this work, Ying-chun's little maid Lotus arrived with a message from Chess.

‘Chess says for dinner tonight she wants a bowl of eggcustard, lightly done.'

‘That's a bit of a luxury just now,' said the cook. ‘I don't know why it is, but for some reason hen's eggs seem to be in very short supply this year. Ten cash each they're charging for them at the moment, and even then you're lucky if you can find any. The other day, when they were making up a present for one of Her Ladyship's relations that had just had a baby, there were four or five of our buyers out scouring the markets for eggs. They had no end of a job getting together two thousand. So you can imagine what it must be like for
me
. Tell her to ask for eggs some other time.'

‘The other day when she wanted bean-curd, you gave me some that was rancid,' said Lotus, ‘and I got a telling-off for it. Now she wants eggs and you say you haven't got any. I bet I could find some here if I looked.'

She stepped over to the food-container and took the lid off. Among the other things revealed was a little cache of some ten or a dozen eggs.

‘There you are, what are
they
then?' she said. ‘Aren't you terrible? The food we eat is all paid for, I don't know why you're so grudging with it. It isn't as if you'd laid the eggs yourself!'

‘I'll give you laying eggs, my girl! If anyone lays eggs around here, it'll be your mother! Those are the only eggs I've got left and I've been saving them up to use as garnishing on other dishes. Even then I'll only use them if the young mistresses ask for them specially. I need to have a few eggs by me in case of emergency. What am I going to do if one of the mistresses asks for some eggs and you lot have already eaten them all? “What?” she'll say. “No eggs? Not even any eggs?” You people lead such soft, sheltered lives. All you've got to do is stretch your hands out for washing-water and your mouths open for food. You think eggs are the commonest things in the world, you don't realize there can be such things as shortages. Never mind eggs, the day may yet come when there's not even a corn-stalk to be had. My advice to you
girls is to try and make do with what you're given. After all, you get the best quality white rice, and chicken and duck to eat every day. It's too much pampering that causes this passion for variety: eggs one day, bean-curd the next, fried pickled turnips in gluten batter… It's all very well saying you want something different, but I'm afraid it won't do. If each lot wants something different, that's ten different dishes I've got to prepare. I might just as well stop catering for the young mistresses altogether and do nothing but cook for you girls!'

Lotus went red and shouted angrily back at her.

‘It's not true that we're always asking for something different. This rigmarole of yours is quite uncalled for. Anyway, it's your
job
to give us what we want. If that isn't your job, I'd like to know what is. You were obliging enough to Swallow the other day, when she came to say that Skybright wanted a dish of artemisia shoots. “With pork or with chicken?” you asked her. And when Swallow said Skybright didn't eat meat, she'd have it with wheat gluten, only not too much oil, “Oh,” you said, “how stupid of me! I'd quite forgotten she was a vegetarian.” You scurried off to wash your hands first before you cooked it, and when you'd cooked it, you carried it all the way there for her yourself, just like a little dog that runs wagging its tail to its master. Why you should pick on
me
to make an example of in front of all these people, I do not know.'

‘Holy name!' said Cook Liu. ‘These people here will be my witness. Whenever anyone from one of the other apartments, whether mistress or maid, asks me for a special order – and I'm not just talking about that occasion you mentioned, I'm talking about ever since this kitchen here first started – they invariably offer me something to cover the extra cost. Whether I have to buy anything extra or not, it's a nice gesture and I appreciate it. Some people think that as I only have the young ladies to cater for, I must make a lot out of it; but if anyone took the trouble to sit down and work it out, they'd get a shock. Between forty and fifty people I have to cater for, counting both mistresses and maids. And do you know what my daily allowance is? Two chickens,
two ducks, ten catties of pork and a thousand cash worth of vegetables. You try managing on that! I can barely make it stretch to two meals a day provided everyone sticks to the regular menu; but if I'm going to have one person ordering one thing and one person ordering another, turning down the food I've bought for them and expecting me to buy other materials to make up their orders, my allowance simply won't stretch to it. If that's the way you want it, you'll just have to ask Her Ladyship to give you all bigger allowances; then we can do what they do in the main kitchen for Her Old Ladyship's meals: have a blackboard with the names of all the dishes under the sun chalked up on it and work through them one by one, having a different dish every day. Then you could settle with me for what you'd eaten at the end of each month. A week or two ago Miss Tan and Miss Bao suddenly thought they'd fancy a dish of salted bean-sprouts and Miss Tan sent one of the girls over with five hundred cash to ask me if I would prepare it for them. I laughed. “They'd never eat five hundred cash worth,” I said, “not if they had bellies like the Laughing Buddha. Twenty or thirty cash would be ample.” I sent the money back to her, but she wouldn't take it – said I should keep it to buy myself a drink with. “Now that the kitchen's inside,” she said, “I expect you often have people coming round and asking you for favours.” She said, “I know it's hard for you to refuse them, but even salt and soy sauce cost something, and we don't want you to end up out of pocket. Let's call this a payment to make up for some of the extras that other people have had out of you.” Now there's a kind, understanding young lady! I praise the Lord in my heart for a young lady like that! Too bad that Mrs Zhao got to hear about it. She was furious, of course: thought I was doing far too well out of it. And sure enough she sent one of her little maids round less than ten days later asking for this and asking for that. I couldn't help laughing. You're just the same. I suppose you've taken a leaf out of her book. Well, it's no good. My allowance just won't stretch to it.'

Just then another messenger arrived from Chess to find out what had become of Lotus.

‘What's the matter?' the messenger asked her. ‘Have you taken root or something? Why don't you come back?'

Lotus flounced off angrily after the messenger. The report that she gave when she got back was so highly embellished that Chess could hardly fail to be incensed by it. She was unable to do anything about it for the time being, because she was in the middle of serving Ying-chun her dinner; but as soon as Ying-chun's meal was over, she hurried off to the kitchen, taking several of the junior maids with her.

She arrived as the kitchen staff were having-their own dinner. The women, to whom it was obvious that some kind of mischief was imminent, rose to their feet with nervous smiles on their faces and invited her to sit with them. Ignoring the women, she issued a brusque command to her minions:

‘Right! Boxes, bins, cupboards – wherever the food's kept – throw it all out! Better the dogs eat it than these swindlers have it all!'

The young maids, needing no second bidding, threw themselves with great gusto into the work of ransacking the kitchen, while the women made vain efforts to restrain them and pleaded with Chess to call them off.

‘You don't want to believe everything those young girls tell you, miss. Mrs Liu would never dare offend you, she knows it's more than her job is worth. She did say that eggs are hard to come by lately, it's true; but we told her that it was silly of her to take that line, and that if you say you want something, it's up to her to find some means of getting it for you, whatever it is. That's what we told her. She'd already admitted that she was in the wrong and put a basin of eggs in the steamer before you arrived. Look on the stove, if you don't believe us.'

Chess's anger subsided somewhat under these blandishments and the young maids were persuaded, albeit reluctantly, to discontinue their pillage. Chess continued to grumble for a bit and make unflattering remarks about the cook, but was eventually persuaded to return, while Cook Liu, with much banging of pots and pans and indignant muttering, set about making her a custard. When this was in due course delivered to her, Chess promptly emptied it on the ground,
but the woman who had taken it prudently refrained from reporting this fact on her return for fear of provoking further unpleasantness.

When Fivey returned to the kitchen, her mother gave her some soup and a half a bowlful of congee and told her about the Lycoperdon Snow. Fivey, resolving to share the latter with her friend and benefactress Parfumée, wrapped half of it up in a separate sheet of paper and, having waited until it was dusk, when there were not many people about, made her way to Green Delights, keeping to the trees as much as possible, so that no one should see her. She managed to get as far as the gate of the courtyard without being stopped by anyone, but, not daring to go inside, retreated to the cover of some rose bushes and lurked there until someone should come out.

Fortunately she did not have long to wait. After about the time it would take to drink a cup of tea Swallow came out of the gate and Fivey stepped out of the bushes and called to her to stop. Swallow could not at first make out who it was and had to go up close and scrutinize her before asking what she wanted.

‘Will you tell Parfumée to come out for a minute, please?' said Fivey. ‘I want to have a word with her.'

Swallow laughed softly.

‘You're too impatient. Your business is sure to be settled within the next ten days, whatever you do. It's silly to keep on asking. Anyway, she's just gone out to the front, so you'll have to wait a bit. But perhaps it would be better if you gave me a message to pass on to her. If you wait till she comes back, you might find yourself inside still when they shut the gate.'

Fivey handed her the packet.

‘This stuff is Lycoperdon Snow…'

She went on to explain what its properties were and how it was to be taken.

‘I've just been given some and I want to share it with her. Would you mind giving it to her for me, please?'