Barbara Faith - Kiss of the dragon (10 page)

Bethany screamed, and the sound, shrill and clear cut through the night air. A hand clamped over her mouth. Hard hands held her. The other man dashed forward and together the two men forced her toward the wall. Bethany fought against them but knew even as she did that they were too strong for her. Frantic with fear, she bit the hand that covered her mouth and when he let her go she screamed again.

A light flashed on, illuminating the courtyard.

"Bethany!" Tiger cried.

Struggling, she turned her head and saw him in the doorway, his mother a step behind him.

But Tiger was too late, he couldn't save her now. The two men had her almost to the wall. One vaulted to the top of it. Flat on his stomach, he shouted down to the other man and held out his hands to receive her. Bethany cried out, rammed her elbows back, and with
a surge of strength broke free just as Tiger ran across the courtyard toward her. She heard his mother's voice calling him back. She saw the man who had held her pull a gun from his belt.

As though in slow motion he raised the gun and pointed it at Tiger—a perfect target, framed in the light from the open door.

A cry tore from Bethany's throat as she flung herself at her captor. She felt his breath against her face, saw his eyes, small and black as death so close to hers. She heard a sharp ping, then a blaze of fire seemed to rip through her side. She fell back a few steps as her vision began to cloud. From somewhere she heard Tiger calling her name and tried to tell him it was all right, that everything was all right. But then the darkness closed in around her.

A cool hand touched her forehead. A voice said, "You are safe now. The doctor is on his way. Please don't be afraid."

"Tiger!" Bethany struggled up out of the depths of the night that surrounded her. Her eyelids fluttered open. "The man with the gun..."

"Tiger is safe. He is bringing the doctor."

Bethany tried to sit up but a white-hot pain seared her body and she fell back. She opened her eyes again and looked up into Madame Su Ching's almond-shaped eyes. Su Ching took her hand and spoke to her again, gently, soothingly. Bethany tried to speak but the pain and the blackness took hold of her again and she drifted into unconsciousness.

The next time she awoke Tiger was beside her. "Bethany?" he said. "Bethany, can you hear me?"

She tried to speak, but the words didn't come. Her face was pale, her lips white and bloodless. The doctor had told him that the bullet that pierced her side had only cut through her flesh. Her flesh! Tiger had wanted to throttle the doctor. He wanted to take Bethany's pain and make it his own. As long as he lived he would never forget the sound of her scream, the sight of her being dragged toward the wall. He'd seen the gun as he ran forward but his only thought had been to rescue Bethany, to get to her before she reached the wall.

He heard his mother scream. He saw Bethany's face, white with fear. Then she'd flung herself on her captor. She'd taken the bullet that had been meant for him.

By the time Tiger reached her the two men had fled over the wall. It didn't matter—they didn't matter. Bethany lay crumpled on the grass beneath the apricot trees. He'd gathered her in his arms as his mother ran to his side.

"My God," Su Ching said in a breathless voice, "she threw herself in front of the gun."

Tiger had given his mother one swift look of anger before he picked Bethany up and ran into the house. "Stay with her," he had barked after placing her gently on a couch, and ran down the street to the house of Dr. Feng Yen-Chi and had all but dragged the aging doctor back to his mother's.

Dr. Feng had cleaned and bandaged the wound. "Give her these pills when she wakes," he said. "Then one every four hours. I will return in the morning."

"Bethany?" Tiger said again as he smoothed the fair hair back from her face. "Bethany?"

She opened her eyes. "What time is it?" she asked.

"Almost midnight. How do you feel?"

"Strange." She licked her lips. "May I have a drink of water?"

"Of course." Tiger held the glass to her lips. She drank, then lay back against the pillow. "I'm not sure I remember what happened." Her voice was weak. "Did someone hit me?"

"No, Bethany, you were shot."

"Shot?"

Tiger could see the confusion on her face, then the remembering as she reached out and touched his hand. "You're all right," she said. "They didn't...I thought they were going to shoot you. The gun... the gun was pointed at you. I thought...! thought..." Tears trickled down her cheeks.

Tiger looked at her. He knew now that he loved her more than he had ever thought it possible to love. He wanted to tell her but couldn't speak because he was choked with love. Instead he gently kissed the tears from her cheeks and held her close.

Bethany sighed against him as her hands cupped his face, his dear face. "Tiger," she whispered against his skin. "Oh, Tiger."

A soft knock on the door made her release him. Bethany leaned back against the pillow as Madame Su Ching entered. Tiger's mother looked at her, then to Tiger she said, "I have prepared a medicinal tea for Bethany. Would you bring the tray up, please?"

"Of course, Mother." He squeezed Bethany's hand. "I'll be right back," he said.

When he went out of the room Su Ching approached Bethany's bed. "I am glad to see you are awake. How do you feel?"

"As though I've been run over by a rickshaw."

A slight smile crossed Su Ching's face. Then her face sobered and she stepped closer to the bed and dropping to her knees she took Bethany's hand in hers. "I ask you to forgive me for my unkindness," she said in a low voice. "I thought you were an interloper and that you were trying to take my son from me." She lowered her head. "But you have given me my son, not taken him away and for that I can never repay you. I can only thank you."

"Madame..." Bethany's voice was tentative. "Madame, please. It's all right, I understand."

"And you forgive?"

"Of course I forgive."

And Tiger, standing at the door, saw the two women he loved most in the world smile at each other.

Chapter
10

A
week passed before Bethany was allowed out of bed. Even though her wound was not serious there was the danger of infection, and Dr. Feng came every day to bathe the wound, change the dressing, and administer an evil-smelling tea.

The police had been notified immediately after the attack, but no trace had been found of either man. On Tiger's insistence a guard had been posted at Madame Su Ching's house.

Once the pain of the wound passed, Bethany was able to enjoy her recuperation. She rested a great deal and when she wasn't resting either Tiger or his mother was with her. Su Ching had changed since the evening of the attack. Though still reserved, her attitude toward Bethany had warmed. She prepared meals especially for her—baked fish, chicken broth enriched with noodles, and soups of every variety.

Su Ching didn't speak about the golden dragon. Instead she told Bethany stories about Tiger, what he had been like as a boy, and brought out a photo album so Bethany could see for herself what a handsome child he had been.

"He has his father's green eyes," Su Ching said. "That is the only part of Bill that Tiger has—the eyes and that ridiculous name Bill insisted on giving him."

"It rather fits him though, doesn't it?" Bethany smiled.

"Tyger! Tyger! burning bright In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry?"

"William Blake," Su Ching said with a nod. "Yes, that does rather describe him, doesn't it? Especially on the night you were wounded." She took a deep, shaking breath. "I've never seen my son look like that. I don't like to think what might have happened if you...if the wound had been more serious." Su Ching covered her eyes with her delicately shaped hands. "He would never have forgiven me, Bethany. Nor would I have forgiven myself. I sent you running out into the courtyard. I—"

"No, please, Madame, it wasn't your fault. I'm all right now. Or I will be if Dr. Feng and Tiger ever let me out of bed. Tiger barely lets me move; he watches over me all the time."

Even at night Bethany would awaken to find Tiger sitting beside her bed. If she stirred he immediately moved to comfort her. On the second night, when the
pain had been bad, he had lain beside her, murmuring to her until the pain receded and she fell asleep again. She had never known such tenderness. She'd been an unusually healthy child, and her mother had rarely needed to soothe her this way.

Her mother. That was one of the things Bethany fretted about. The day after the shooting she told Tiger of her concern.

"No one knows where to reach me if Mother needs me," Bethany said. "What if she gets worse? What if she needs money for something?"

Tiger had told her he'd take care of it. That day he had gone to the telegraph office and sent a message and money to the nursing home, giving them his mother's address in Tsingyun. He thanked God that things were better between his mother and Bethany. If his mother's attitude had not changed he would have had to send Bethany back to Hong Kong when he left to search for the dragon. But his mother
had
changed; now he could leave Bethany, knowing that she was safe and that she and his mother got along. As soon as Bethany was well he would leave.

Tiger had tried to broach the subject with his mother one afternoon when Bethany was sleeping. "You know where the dragon is, don't you?" he had asked.

Su Ching had given him what his father had sometimes called her Dragon Lady look.

"It's time, Mother," he said. "My father and Bethany's father knew that if they did not go after the dragon that some day their children would."

"You don't need the money," Su Ching said coldly.

"No, but Bethany does. I want it for her."

"The dragon belongs to China."

"It belongs to whoever has it in his possession. For forty years it belonged to Father and to Ross Adams."

Su Ching's face remained completely still. "Was not what happened the other night warning enough? Those men tried to kidnap Bethany, and if they had succeeded they would have tortured her until she told them where the Dragon was, or they were convinced she didn't know. Then they would have killed her." She dug her red-lacquered nails into Tiger's arm. "Do you want this so much that you would risk her life?"

"Of course not. The men who came here the other night will be more careful now, as I will be. When I leave, Bethany will stay here with you."

"I will not let you risk your life."

"I am a man; I will do what I think is best."

On and on the argument went. Nothing was settled. Su Ching still refused to divulge where the golden statue was hidden.

The first night that Dr. Feng permitted Bethany to come downstairs, dinner was a festive occasion. Scarlet poppies contrasted with the fine white tablecloth. Bone china and silver gleamed in the reflection of candlelight. Su Ching presided over the table, stately and elegant in a royal-blue cheongsam that almost matched Tiger's dinner jacket. Bethany wore the pale-green satin dressing gown and matching brocade slippers that Su Ching had brought to her room that afternoon.

"Something new will make you feel better," Su Ching had said. "I ordered it the day before yesterday. I had to guess your size. I hope you like it."

Bethany ran her fingertips over the smooth green satin. "It's beautiful," she said. "Thank you, Madame—"

"Su Ching. Please call me Su Ching, or Su if you prefer."

Bethany smiled shyly. "Su Ching," she said.

Later, when Bethany dressed, she looked at herself in the mirror. She had lost weight this past week; her eyes seemed enormous, against her pale, thin face. With a sigh she brushed her freshly washed hair letting it cascade in soft waves to her shoulders. Then the brush stopped and a slight frown drew her eyebrows together. She had changed. It wasn't just the gown or net thinness, it was more than that. It was as though the young woman from Tiffin, Ohio, had somehow faded into the background and been replaced by a different person. Someone who had been touched by hfe and by love. Tiger had changed her, and she would never again be the woman she had been before.

Now Tiger looked across the table at her. Her skin looked iridescent, her gray eyes luminous in the glow of the candlelight. He felt his heart expand with the need to touch her. Unable to help himself, he
rose in
his chair and came around to her side of the table to put his hands on her shoulders and brush his lips against her golden hair. Then he tilted her chin up, saving, "I haven't thanked you properly for what you
did,
Bethany. It should have been me who received that bullet, not you. I owe you my life."

Bethany couldn't speak. She could only gaze into his eyes, feeling as though her very bones were melting. Everything was forgotten at that moment; it
seemed to her that she looked into the very heart of Tiger Malone.

"There is an old Chinese saying," Su Ching said softly, "that whoever saves a life is responsible for that life forever."

Bethany looked at Su Ching and saw the concern, the warning in her eyes.

"Tigers do not tame easily, Bethany."

Bethany held her breath. With the slightest of smiles she said, "But a tiger is such a magnificent beast. Why would anyone want to tame him?"

Now it was Su Ching's turn to smile. "Why, indeed?"

Tiger looked from his mother to Bethany, not at all sure he liked this exchange. He was about to speak when Su Ching said, "Will you pour the wine, dear?"

And the moment passed.

The dinner was delicious, the conversation light. Bethany felt stronger than she had since the attack, but by the time the spiced pears were served her strength had begun to ebb.

"You're tired," Tiger said. "Let me take you to your room."

"Just another sip of wine." Bethany smiled at him. "It's such a relief to be out of bed."

"I know," Su Ching said, "but Tiger is right. This is your first night downstairs, you must not overtax yourself."

Tiger pushed his chair back, but before he could speak Mai Ling entered. She spoke rapidly to Su Ching, then handed her an envelope. Su Ching's pencil-thin brows came together. "It is a telegram for
you," she said as she handed the envelope to Bethany.

Bethany's mouth wen
t dry as she stood up and took t
he envelope.

"Would you like me to read it to you?" Tiger said.

"No... no, I'll read it. It must be from the nursing home. Perhaps they were alarmed when they received the cable saying that I was in China. They're probably still worried about the money for Mother." But even as Bethany said the words she knew that wasn't what the telegram was about. She began to tremble, and handing the telegram to Tiger, whispered, "Yes, please read it."

He opened the envelope. As he took out the telegram Su Ching stepped closer to Bethany. He read and his shoulders tensed. He looked at Bethany. "I'm sorry," he said. "I'm so very sorry. It's your mother."

Bethany closed her eyes.

"She died in her sleep a week ago. The person who sent it from the nursing home says they are waiting for your instructions." He put his arm around her. "Will you let me take care of it?"

"Yes." Bethany's voice was only a whisper.

"Let me take you to your room now."

She was frozen, unable to speak or to move until Su Ching touched her face. She looked at her and saw the shared pain, the compassion in the dark almond eyes. Then Su Ching's arms were around her, holding her as she wept for the mother she had lost, for a door that had been closed forever.

When at last the crying stopped Su Ching released her to Tiger. He swept Bethany up in his arms and with his mother beside him, carried her up to her
room. The tears began anew when he put her on the bed.

Su Ching sat down beside her and smoothing the fair hair back from Bethany's pale face, said, "Tiger will stay with you tonight." She kissed Bethany's brow, and with a look at her son went out and closed the door.

For a long time Tiger held Bethany and when at last she stopped crying he undressed her. Then he removed his clothes and got into bed with her. He pulled her close so that her head rested in the hollow of his shoulder. Without words Tiger offered her a transfusion of his love, and held her until at last she slept.

Bethany was quiet in the days that followed. At times she spoke to Su Ching of her mother. At other times she sat in the courtyard under the apricot trees without speaking. It seemed to her now that all of the ties to her past had been broken. She knew that never again would she return to the life she had known before, for now there was no one there to return to. She felt adrift, a leaf torn from a branch, floating alone on the wind, looking for a haven.

"Bethany?"

She looked up then into Tiger's green eyes. She wondered if he was her answer; if she could live the kind of life he would expect her to live if they committed themselves to each other.

Tiger had never spoken of commitment. In the days that had passed since her mother's death he had been kind and gentle. He had shared her bed, comforted her when she cried out in the night, and soothed her tears. They hadn't made love, and Bethany knew he was waiting until the first terrible grief began to ebb.

He spoke her name again and this time she answered, "It's all right, Tiger." She covered his hand with hers. "It's time we looked for the dragon."

"We?" He shook his head. "No, Bethany, I will look for the dragon. You'll stay here with Mother so that I know you're safe."

The gray eyes grew dark as Bethany shook her head. "I'm going with you." Her voice was firm. "Part of the dragon belongs to me. If I'm to share in the riches then I must also share in the danger."

"No! You will do as I say. You will—"

"I have brought some tea," Su Ching said from the doorway. She paused, looking from one angry face to the other, then with a sigh came out into the courtyard. She put the tea tray down on the table and when die had poured it and taken a seat she said, "You were arguing when I came out. Was it about the golden dragon?"

Bethany glanced at Tiger, then away, waiting for him to speak.

"Yes, Mother. Bethany wants to go with me when I look for it. I have told her that is impossible, that she H to stay here with you until I return."

Su Ching's face was impassive.

Tiger put his teacup back on the saucer. "It's time, Mother, time for you to tell me where to find it."

Su Ching sipped her tea as she looked from her son to Bethany. "I will tell you," she said. "But first I will tell you a story."

"Mother!" Tiger's voice held an edge of impatience. "We want to hear about the dragon."

"And you shall." Su Ching took a deep breath and began: "The Sung Dynasty ruled China from the year
nine hundred until 1279, when the empire extended from the Great Wall to Hainan. It has been said that the golden dragon dates back to the year one thousand."

The almond eyes closed. "But long before, in the beginning of the beginning, there lived in a small village on the island of Hainan a maiden so pure and so beautiful that all who passed her way were stuck by her beauty and her goodness.