Stone, Katherine (32 page)

The Jade Palace

Saturday, December 11, 1993

Sam
was astounded by the noise. The walls of the Jade Palace were
thick, and the glass had been designed to withstand the most ferocious of
storms, but it sounded the way hurricanes were supposed to—as if a freight
train was speeding into the room.

More astounding than the sound was the fact that Maylene was
sleeping peacefully. He'd made her nest in a secluded alcove, far from the
windowed wall. At the very worst, the top-quality glass was supposed to crack,
not shatter. Sam didn't doubt the quality of the glass. But had it really ever
been tested against anything as fierce as this typhoon?

Even if the glass shattered, he reasoned, Maylene should be out of
harm's way. Still, to be sure, Sam became a human shield, positioning himself
between the window and her.

Maylene stirred for the first time she'd moved at all in five
hours. Sam assumed she wouldn't awaken, but as he watched, her lashes fluttered
open.

She smiled as she searched the shadows and found him.

"Hi," he said.

"Hi. What's that noise? The typhoon?"

"The prelude to the typhoon. Unless it's picked up speed
along the way, its full force won't reach Kowloon for another hour."

"Is it that late? Almost midnight?"

"Almost. You slept very well. You obviously needed the rest.
How do you feel now?"

Her eyes sparkled. "Rested."

And stronger, she amended silently. And brave, she added as she
rose from her nest and walked toward the protective body of the cowboy.

She'd almost reached him when the lights went out.

"Oh, Sam,
look,"
she whispered. "Look at the
window."

Sam believed he already knew what he'd see—rivulets of water
streaking horizontally, not vertically, across the glass. Typhoon winds had no
regard for the laws of gravity. Torrential rain that didn't fall to earth was
remarkable enough, but the effect became dazzling because of the blur of lights
across the harbor.

Sam expected to see the play of wind and rain and color he'd been
watching while she slept. What he saw was new, and surpassed all else. The
window was aglow. Rippled by the wind, the glass gave off its own inner light,
a luminous blend of emerald and jade.

Maylene walked toward the window.

"This is the best glass on earth," Sam said as he moved
beside her. "But these may also be the strongest winds the planet has ever
known."

"I'm not afraid." Maylene smiled as she extended a
graceful hand toward the glass. "It's unbelievable, isn't it? You see it,
don't you? The two colors together?"

"I see it," Sam answered softly. "But it's
something I've seen before—and I don't mean tonight while you were sleeping.
This jade is the color of your eyes. Maybe you don't know that. And maybe you
don't know that when you're happy, there are sparkles of emerald in your eyes.
Look at me, Jade."

Maylene followed his command.

"I see both colors now," he said. "Are you happy,
Jade? Are you glad to be here?"

"Yes." This is where I belong... with you.

Moments earlier, her hands had touched the rippled glass. Now they
reached for him.

Sam was an illusion, too. She knew that. But at this moment, he
was promising the most magnificent illusion of all, an entire night of love.

As Maylene reached out to touch his chest, Sam caught her hands,
drawing them higher, around his neck, and when they rested there, his arms
encircled her waist.

"Dance with me, Jade."

As they danced, they kissed. Desire eventually compelled them from
window to alcove.

"Make love to me, Sam," Maylene whispered when it seemed
as if he might merely be planning to tuck her into her billowy nest.

"Are you sure? I don't want to hurt you."

"You won't hurt me."

He didn't, of course. He never would. He was careful with the
woman who'd given so much of herself for her sister. Maylene's
passion—Maylene's love—were far stronger than her body. Much too quickly, even
the most tender loving exhausted her. She fell asleep in his arms without ever
hearing his words of love.

Sam listened to the wailing storm, the warnings it sent to all in
its path that the world might, soon, come to an end. For us, he thought, the
world is just beginning.

He planned to stay awake all night, holding her, keeping vigil
while she slept. But more than once, she awakened, welcoming him with soft
sighs of joy.

***

The electricity returned as dawn was announcing itself with a pale
pink sky. The former came with noise as lights, elevators and furnaces whirred
back to life. Maylene was curled against him, facing away, and when he sensed
the noise had awakened her, Sam waited for her to turn to him.

Last night's loving had been in darkness. Now they'd see each
other while they loved. He'd look into her eyes, and she'd see the love in his,
and he'd tell her of his love, to be very certain that she knew.

But Maylene didn't turn to him. Instead, with movements clearly
intended not to awaken him, she left their love nest and began to dress. In moments
she was a cowgirl—minus her boots and braid. Her love-tangled hair fell free.
She wasn't going to take the time to braid it, and now she was picking up her
boots, about to leave, her getaway silent and swift.

Sam's anger wasn't in control. But this time he wanted words from
Maylene as she left his bed.

"Where are you going?"

The slender body that had danced so gracefully with his became
tense and stiff. Maylene didn't turn. She stared at the window. Hours before,
it had glowed like her eyes. Now it was clear again, just another pane of
glass.

"I don't see any Star ferries, but there are already lots of
sampans in the harbor. I want to find James, to tell him the hotel survived the
typhoon." Maylene's voice faltered as she spoke the obvious lie. No one
needed to tell James the Jade Palace hadn't been built on quicksand. The moment
he looked across the harbor, he would know. And he would look. All of Hong Kong
would—and they'd see at a glance that their shrine still stood.

What truth
could
Maylene speak to Sam? There was only one
truth.
I
love you.
But moments before Allison's accident, Sam had
spelled out exactly what he wanted from her. A final night of passion, after
which they'd never see each other again.

"You probably won't have any trouble getting your next two
projects back."

"Probably not," Sam conceded quietly as he raged. Why
had Maylene spent last night at the hotel? He'd convinced himself it was
because she trusted him,
loved
him. Had it been merely a reckless
pleasure, tender loving amid the violence of a storm?

"I imagine Kai Tak will open soon. You'll probably be able to
leave Hong Kong today."

"I imagine so."

Maylene needed to leave before he heard her tears.

"Well," she said. "Goodbye, cowboy."

"So long, Jade."

***

Sam watched as Maylene made her way to the harborside esplanade
and climbed aboard a varnished launch beside the seawall. She didn't look back.

When she was halfway across the harbor, Sam's fist unclenched just
long enough to grab one of the marble ashtrays from Florence.

Had he been thinking, it would have occurred to him how foolish
the gesture was—and how futile. But Sam wasn't thinking. He was feeling. The
violence that had lived within him all these years was going to be permitted
one small escape.

Sam had the rest of his life to punish himself for falling in love
with Maylene—and he would. No matter how much violence escaped today, there'd
be plenty left inside.

For the first time ever, Sam took aim at something outside
himself—the glass that hours before had been their private moon.

Even as he was throwing the marble, Sam chided himself. The window
would be unscathed. The ashtray would bounce back onto the plush carpet,
mocking him.

It did bounce back. Everything that had been promised about the
quality of the glass was true. In the face of the most extreme violence nature
could offer, it might crack—but it wouldn't shatter.

Nature had spent most of the night trying to put even the tiniest
line in the tinted jade glass—and had failed. But the power of Sam's fury
surpassed that of the monstrous typhoon.

It wasn't just a single line that appeared, but thousands of them,
like a gigantic spiderweb against the pale pink sky.

***

Sam waited an hour before making his own journey across Victoria
Harbour. The decision was designed to avoid seeing Maylene, and it brought him
face-to-face with James.

Both men were returning to the Trade Winds for the first time
since the typhoon. Both were unshaven, and neither had slept, and although Sam
felt the ravages of internal trauma, only James was covered with blood.

"What happened?" Sam asked. Then, instantly worried
about both sisters, he asked, "Allison?"

"Allison's fine," James assured. "This is Tyler's
blood."

As they crossed the lobby toward the elevator, James gave Sam a
brief sketch of what had happened at Peak Castle. "It was almost four this
morning before the winds had subsided enough for us to be able to leave. Tyler
had lost a great deal of blood by then—
too
much, it seemed—but he's at
the hospital now and the doctors say he's going to survive. It will be a while
before he walks again. They're going to have to remove the shattered bone from
his leg and replace it with a steel rod."

"When do they plan to do that?"

"This evening, assuming his chest wound and blood count have
stabilized."

"Is he awake?"

"He never lost consciousness." James's voice was solemn
with remembrance. It had been an act of pure love. Tyler hadn't believed he'd
live. He'd wanted to be with Eve, telling her of his love, for as long as he
could.

"I think I'll drop by and see him before I leave."

"You're leaving today, Sam?"

"If I can get a flight out. Oh, James, just so you know— what
happened to the window in the Imperial Suite had nothing to do with the
typhoon. I'll be happy to pay to replace it."

James waved a dismissive hand. "You've already been to the
hotel?"

"I spent the night there. As did Maylene."

"So you've seen her this morning, and she's all right?"

"Maylene?" Sam heard the bitterness in his own voice.
"She's perfectly fine."

***

Just before the varnished launch would have reached Blake Pier,
Maylene dug deep into her jeans pockets for what remained of the money she'd
stuffed there yesterday afternoon. Knowing it might be difficult to convince
anyone to ferry her across the choppy waters, she'd taken all the cash in her
apartment. Despite the cost of her voyage to the Jade Palace, there was quite a
bit left.

As she extracted two one-hundred-dollar notes, she asked in
Cantonese, "Will you take me to Aberdeen Harbour? I'll pay you two hundred
dollars."

It was a fair price, but this was Hong Kong, and even within hours
of a typhoon, negotiations were expected.

"Four hundred," the boat's skipper countered.

"Three hundred," Maylene offered.

The man smiled, satisfied with the deal. "Three
hundred."

He took the money, and they were on their way to Aberdeen.

Aberdeen Harbour

Sunday, December 12, 1993

Last
night's typhoon had been more powerful than the one that had
destroyed Tranquil Sea's world years ago. But this time the goddess Tin Hau had
chosen to protect those who dwelled in the floating city of junks. At the last
moment, the ferocious puffs had swept up to Victoria Peak, before descending
down to the Jade Palace, and except for a blizzard of palm fronds and
eucalyptus leaves, Aberdeen had been spared.

Maylene didn't know what had compelled her to the place that had
been Juliana's girlhood home, but as she wandered along the shoreline, an
astonishing thought came to her mind—that she and her mother were very much
alike.

It was a tantalizing thought, but an improbable one. True, as
girls, both had been torn between two worlds. Juliana was a child of the sea
who dreamed of life on land, and Maylene was a child of two races who dreamed
one of the two would someday accept her.

But the girl who'd rescued herself from a typhoon had grown into a
woman capable of great love. She'd fallen in love, deeply and forever. It
didn't matter that her love hadn't been returned. What Juliana felt in her
heart was wondrous— and real. And Juliana's lies to her daughter? They'd been
lies of love. She'd wanted only to protect Maylene from sadness.

Just as I'd protect my own baby. Just as I
will
protect
her.

It was then, as Maylene stood at water's edge with junks floating
before her and dragons in mountains towering behind, that she became aware of
the way she was standing. Her posture was model-perfect, straight and tall, but
her hands rested on her lower abdomen, as if they were already caressing— and
protecting—a tiny new life inside.

I've loved you with all my heart from the moment I knew you were
alive inside me. Do you know when that was, my darling? Just hours after you
were conceived, before your father even left Hong Kong.
Maylene
had cruelly dismissed her mother's words. More proof, she'd taunted, of
Juliana's romantic delusions.

But now Maylene felt a new life inside
her.
Only a few
hours old, it already needed her protection. Was the little life a child of
lust? To Sam, yes, but not to her. To Maylene, this baby was the child of
greatest love.

And what would she tell her baby about its father? The truth: that
he was gentle and kind. And the lie: that he would've spent his life with them,
loving them, if only he could have—but that he'd died.

"Oh, Mother," Maylene whispered. "We are so very
much alike."

***

"May-May." Juliana's face was radiant with joy when she
opened the door of her Happy Valley home. The twilight sky was lavender. The
evening air was beginning to chill.
"May-May."

"Mother... I've come to ask for your forgiveness."

"My
forgiveness?" Juliana's joy faltered.
She'd believed Maylene had heard all her words, and remembered them all. But...
"I'm
the one who needs to be forgiven. I'm the one who lied. Don't
you remember? The last thing I said to you before you left Hong Kong was that I
hoped one day you could understand—and forgive."

"I remember. But you never meant to hurt me. And I was so
cruel to you."

"Oh, my darling. You'd spent your life being hurt, and hiding
your pain to protect me, and when you learned the truth of what I'd done, you
felt so betrayed. I wanted you to understand. But how could you? You were so
young, my May-May, a loving little girl who'd always been so brave. You were
never cruel, my love, you were just terribly hurt."

Juliana held out her arms, and Maylene moved gratefully into her
embrace. "I love you, my May-May. I love you."

"Oh, Mother, I love you, too."

Many moments later, Maylene pulled away, just a little, just
enough to see her mother's face.

"And," she said softly, "now I
do
understand.
I understand everything."

Juliana heard the softness and saw the hope—and the sadness—on her
daughter's face. Before she could ask about the man with whom Maylene had
fallen in love, another voice spoke.

"You don't understand everything."

Maylene had spent her life wondering what a father's voice would
sound like when it was filled with love for his daughter. Now she knew. The
voice came from behind her, and it was speaking again, this time in flawless
Cantonese perfected by twenty-eight years of practice. He was whispering her
name—Daughter of Greatest Love.

Maylene wanted to turn to him, but her limbs were frozen. This final
journey of love, it seemed, would be impossible to make.

But the Daughter of Greatest Love didn't have to make the journey
alone. Juliana was there, holding her hand, just as she'd held it all those
times mother and daughter had wandered through Hong Kong sharing Juliana's
memories of love.

Encouraged by Juliana, Maylene faced her father. And what she saw
were dark-green eyes gentle with love—just as Maylene's own dark green eyes
would gentle for her baby.

"Everything your mother told you about us was true,"
Garrett said to the daughter he'd never known but always loved. "We'd have
spent our lives together...loving you... if we'd believed we could."

Garrett began walking toward her, and somehow Maylene's hand was
already reaching for his.

For so many years, when she and her mother had walked
hand-in-hand, Maylene had felt his hand too. Now it was there, entwined with
hers, and as Garrett's other arm curved around both mother and daughter, they
became a circle of love.

They became a family.

***

The sky was alight with stars by the time they made the short
journey from Happy Valley to the hospital.

"Allison never needs to know," Maylene had told her
parents. "You can pretend you've just met and fallen in love and—"

"Allison already knows," Garrett had interjected.
"I told her this morning. She can't wait to see her sister."

Garrett's words echoed in Maylene's mind, giving her strength. But
as she approached Allison's room, her heart raced with apprehension. Garrett
and Juliana and James were all discreetly absent, in the nearby waiting room.
The sisters would be alone, with each other... and the truth.

Then Maylene was there, in the doorway, and even before she made a
sound, Allison was turning toward her. Their green eyes held identical
expressions of uncertainty and hope. Then, remembering that the difficult part
was behind them, that they were already friends, they smiled.

Six months earlier, at the airport, Maylene had felt herself gliding
toward Allison as if pulled by a magnet deep within the golden girl. Maylene
was gliding again, but the once-tarnished sister had a magnet of own, for
Allison was being pulled toward her, reaching out to her with slender arms.

"Maylene."

"I think you should call me Dorothy, Lion."

"You're home now, aren't you?"

"Almost." As she embraced her sister, Maylene added
softly, "Now I am."

After their hug ended, their hands still touched, completing at
last the journey begun weeks before on a gown of jade-green silk and silver
stars.

"You're so pale," Allison said.

"I'm fine. I was a little wobbly at first, but now I'm
fine... and you're fine... and if you ever need blood again you know where you
can get it."

"Thank you." Allison tilted her head. "You saved my
life, Maylene."

"Well," Maylene countered quietly, "I think you
saved mine, too. And Allison? About your babies? I can carry them for you, as a
surrogate. I
want
to."

And, Maylene thought, your babies will be safe within me. My
hungry ghosts have vanished. Forever.

"Oh, Maylene."

"I mean it, Allison. If anything ever happened to
you..."

"It
won't.
I promise. Before becoming pregnant, James
and I will talk to the doctors. The monitoring they can do now is so much more
sophisticated than what was available twenty-eight years ago. I'm sure
everything will be fine."

"But if not, Allison, if it seems too risky, let me do it.
Please?"

"Yes," Allison answered. "Yes."

"Good." Maylene smiled, shrugged, then confessed,
"I couldn't be a surrogate for you right away."

Allison's eyes widened with comprehension. "You're
pregnant?"

"I think so, even though it seems impossible to know this
soon."

"But you
do
know."

"Yes, I do."

"And Sam? Does he know?"

"Sam?"

"I know how you feel about Sam," Allison said. Then, in
what was meant to be a teasing remark, but trembled with emotion instead, she
added, "It's my
job
to know such things. I'm your sister, after
all."

Your sister, your sister! For several moments they communicated
only with shining eyes and trembling smiles. Then wanting—needing—to talk to
her sister about the secret Allison already knew, Maylene said, "I assume
Sam's halfway back to Texas by now."

"Yes, he is. He stopped by this morning to say goodbye. I
thought he seemed very sad."

"I doubt that."

"He seemed sad to me," Allison repeated firmly. Then,
even more firmly, Maylene's sister said, "If you're pregnant with his
baby, Sam needs to know. And he needs to know how you feel about him."

"Allison..."

"You're not home, Dorothy, not all the way home, until you
tell Sam everything."

***

By Christmas Eve, when the luxury liner carrying the Whitakers and
Parishes docked at Ocean Terminal in Kowloon, Lily Kai was dazzling her parents
with her newfound energy. She'd sailed through surgery with visits from Eve.

And, by Christmas Eve, Tyler Vaughn was dazzling his doctors—and
his bride-to-be—with his recovery. Hong Kong itself was dazzled by the speed
with which Peak Castle was being torn down. For the first time in years,
Victoria Peak's dragon would be able to enjoy the spectacular fireworks that
lighted the midnight sky on New Year's Eve.

Garrett didn't go to Ocean Terminal to meet the cruise ship. There
was a ritual involved in arriving by boat in Hong Kong. Passengers were met by
Rolls-Royce limousines and whisked in style to their luxury hotels.

Only after his parents and in-laws were settled comfortably in
their adjoining suites at the Regent did Garrett appear.

"Where's Allison?" Pauline Whitaker asked as she
embraced her son.

"Just next door, at the Jade Palace, watching her murals
being installed. She'll be here later. There's something I need to tell you
first."

"Is Allison all right, Garrett? You look so serious."

"Allison's just fine, Dad. In fact, she's never been happier.
But we do have something serious to discuss, something that involves you
all." Something, he thought, that may be too difficult for you to accept.
"Why don't you sit down?"

Because it was clear that Garrett wouldn't speak again until all
four had obeyed, they sat... and he remained standing.

"I need to tell you about the week Blake was killed and I was
in Hong Kong."

"Oh, Garrett, no! We're here now, isn't that enough? Why do
we have to bring up the sadness of the past?"

"Because it has a bearing on the present—and the future. I'm
sorry, but you really must hear what I have to say." He drew a breath.
"I was here, in Hong Kong, but I wasn't alone. I was with a Chinese woman
named Juliana...."

Garrett told them about that week, his love for Juliana, her
belief that their love could never be and her insistence that he find someone
else to love.

"Beth never knew about Juliana," he assured Robert and
Iris Parish. "And she never would have known. I loved Beth. You know I
did."

For many heartbeats it seemed they couldn't answer. This was too
shocking, too painful.

At last Iris whispered, "Yes, Garrett, we know that."

"And now, Garrett,
no more.
Please!" The entreaty
came from Pauline, and was met by an apologetic—yet resolute— expression from
her son. There was more, and he was going to tell them. As her gaze fell from
her son's determined face to his hands, she saw the glitter of gold.
"You're wearing a wedding ring!"

"Juliana and I were married six days ago."

"But why, Garrett? Why after all this time?"

"Because, after all this time, we still love each other. In
fact, we love each other even more."

"But why marriage? And why so quickly?"

"Because people who love each other the way Juliana and I do
want
to be married. And because, for our daughter, we want everyone to know
about our love."

"You mean this hasty marriage was Allison's idea?"