The China Bride (10 page)

"I can't accept a fortune from him! He didn't love me. I was just someone he felt responsibility for."

"Did you love him?"

Troth sucked in her breath. She should deny it, but she couldn't. Reading the answer in Troth's expression, Meriel said, "I'm glad that at the end he had someone who loved him. No one will challenge your rights of inheritance."

Troth pressed a hand over her eyes, on the verge of tears. She'd be a fool not to welcome financial security, but the acceptance of Kyle's family meant even more. She had not felt this sense of belonging since her father's death.

"You are… so kind. How can you accept someone like me, who is so alien to your world?"

"For many years, I was an alien in my own home. It is love that binds us to the world, and you loved Kyle," Meriel said softly. "Our home is your home for as long as you want to stay."

The tears came again, and with them the beginning of healing.

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Canton, China

Spring 1832

"More wine, Lord Maxwell?" Chenqua leaned
toward his guest attentively.

"Yes, please. Your wines are very fine." Kyle took a small sip after a servant replenished his glass. Gavin, another of the guests, had warned him to expect at least thirty courses spread over five or six hours, so moderation was essential.

Kyle had welcomed this banquet at Chenqua's palace, since he was unlikely to see the inside of any other Chinese residence. The merchant's home was a sprawling, magnificently airy structure of curved roofs, courtyards, and marble floors. The meal was equally magnificent. Musicians played from a gallery while French, English, and Chinese dishes were offered, each course served on a different set of exquisite porcelain dinnerware. Yet by Cohong standards, Chenqua was considered rather austere.

Curious as always, Kyle selected from the Chinese dishes. The textures and flavors were sometimes odd, but interesting and often delicious. Noticing that his guest had requested chopsticks, Chenqua said, "You are interested in our ways, my lord?"

"Very much so. Your culture is the most ancient on earth. A barbarian cannot hope to truly understand the depths of Chinese society, but I must make the attempt."

Chenqua nodded at such a proper sentiment. "Better understanding between our nations will benefit us all."

Deciding the time would never be better, Kyle said, "Would it be possible for me to see more of your country? Perhaps accompanied by guards to ensure that I will cause no trouble, or traveling with the Jesuits who already know your ways?"

Chenqua's eyes darkened. "That would be… difficult. Very difficult." Kyle had learned that Chinese hated to give a direct refusal, so the merchant's "very difficult" was equivalent to an Englishman saying, "Not bloody likely!" To avoid embarrassing his host, he said, "Perhaps at some future date, when our nations have developed stronger bonds, such travel might be possible."

"Yes," Chenqua said, relieved. "Some future date." He turned his attention to William Boynton, taipan of the East India Company, who sat on his other side.

Kyle had hoped to see Troth, but there was no sign of her. He wondered if she lurked behind the carved screens that constituted one wall of the dining area. He'd heard occasional feminine giggles from that direction and guessed that the ladies of the household were watching their lord's guests. Of course, Troth was not considered a lady.

There was a pause after the fifteenth course while a stage was erected for the performance of a play. As dishes were cleared away, Kyle asked Chenqua, "Is it permitted to stroll in the garden for a few minutes? I should like to see more of it."

"Please do. A garden refreshes the soul as surely as a banquet refreshes the body."

Grateful for the chance to stretch his legs, Kyle went outside, though actually the dining area was so open that the difference between indoors and out was somewhat arbitrary. When he and the other
Fan-qui
had arrived, Chenqua had personally guided them through a portion of the stunning gardens. Several acres had been shaped into hills and grottos, with water from the Pearl River channeled in to form a web of streams and lily ponds. There wasn't a straight path anywhere.

After exploring the farthest reaches of the gardens, Kyle was returning to the house when he looked across a pond and saw two figures enter an octagonal pavilion built over the water. Sure the taller one was Troth, he circled the pond and went after her.

He'd almost reached the pavilion when a small, brightly garbed female flitted out of the structure, swaying gracefully on impossibly small feet. Just before vanishing behind a decorative boulder, the young woman glanced back, masking her lower face with a handkerchief. She giggled, black eyes mischievous, then disappeared.

Startled by his first sight of a highborn Chinese lady, he was gazing after her when a voice said, "Ling-Ling is very lovely, is she not? She is Chenqua's Fourth Lady."

He turned to Troth, who was regarding him austerely from the doorway of the pavilion. "I hope I haven't violated some taboo by seeing her."

"No harm done. I suspect that Ling-Ling greatly enjoyed having a near-encounter with a barbarian."

"I do my best to entertain." He studied Troth's face. With her hair drawn back in a queue, the sculpted planes had a cool beauty that intrigued him far more than the highly polished young woman who had just left. He reminded himself that he had no business thinking amorous thoughts about Troth. She was not a joy girl to be casually bedded and forgotten. Their lives lay half a world apart. "You haven't been at Elliott House since our shopping expedition. Did I exhaust you?"

"I have been needed at the English Factory, my lord." Troth dropped her gaze. "Many thanks for your gifts. They were well chosen."

"I'm glad you enjoyed them." Wondering how she looked when dressed in feminine finery, he followed her into the pavilion. It was a teahouse, the walls like carved lace. A low octagonal table stood in the center, the shape echoing that of the building, and a padded bench was built around the walls.

"What a lovely place. Is this a favorite spot of yours?" She settled onto the bench. "I meditate here sometimes. This is the most beautiful garden in the world, I think."

He took a seat himself, deliberately choosing the opposite side of the teahouse. "My sister-in-law's garden is its equal. The styles are very different, but it would be impossible to say that one is superior to the other."

"I've never seen a real English garden."

He studied the line of her throat, elegantly defined by the dim light. "The gardens at Warfield Park, where my brother and his wife live, were begun six or seven centuries ago, and each generation since has added and refined."

"Really? I think of England as a new country compared to China."

"There is nothing as old as the Temple of Hoshan," he said experimentally.

"They say the Buddha himself built Hoshan. That's just a legend, of course, for he was of India, not China, but the temple is surely very ancient."

"Have you been there?"

"My master, Chenqua, has. In his study hangs a scroll with pictures of the temple."

Since Kyle's inquiries about official travel into China had been futile, perhaps it was time to see if he could arrange an unofficial journey. "I've dreamed of visiting Hoshan for more than half my life. Do you know of anyone who might take me there? "

"The idea is absurd. You would be stopped if you even tried to enter Canton, much less if you traveled into the countryside."

"And
Fan-qui
are as conspicuous as giraffes," he said impatiently. "I've heard all that—yet surely there must be a way. Perhaps traveling in a palanquin, so no one could see my ugly face?"

She stared at him. "You're serious, aren't you?"

"Completely." He leaned forward. "If you gather information for the Cohong, you must know many people in low places as well as high. Surely there are men who would be willing to help me if the price is right." She rose and began pacing around the pavilion, back and forth like a tense tiger. "It would be very dangerous. In the Settlement you are protected, but in the country, anything might happen. You would be detected very quickly no matter what your disguise, for you smell like a foreign devil."

"My smell is wrong? " Kyle was taken aback.

"
Fan-qui
eat too much meat. And you are too tall, and your face is impossible."

"What if my face and head were bandaged, as if I've been injured?" She said thoughtfully, "The Temple of Hoshan is known as a place of healing."

Controlling his excitement, he said, "Perhaps a few weeks of eating only Chinese food would make me smell right. What else would need to be done?"

"Why is this so important to you? Do you want to go where no Englishman has gone so you can boast to your friends? Do you wish to sneer at pagan superstitions?"

"Never that," he said slowly. "The Temple of Hoshan was included in a folio of Chinese drawings that I bought not long after my mother died. It seemed like a vision of heaven—a holy place of incomparable beauty, floating in the mountains on the other side of the world. I… I imagined that my mother's spirit had gone there to rest. I knew it wasn't true, but there was comfort in the thought." Especially since he and his brother were becoming increasingly estranged at that point, and he'd badly needed comfort.

"There are safer ways to find beauty and holiness." Wondering how to explain the intensity of his desire when even he didn't fully understand it, he said, "Haven't you ever had a dream that captured your heart and soul?"

"Once I had dreams," she said in a scarcely audible voice. She looked so alone that he wanted to reach out and take her hand. He stayed where he was. "Then you know why this is important to me. It's . . a kind of quest. Will you be able to find someone to take me to Hoshan? I'd do it alone if I could, but as has been pointed out to me repeatedly, that would be impossible."

She gazed through the latticework at the still surface of the pond. Was there really a garden equally lovely on the other side of the world? "If you were caught, it would cause Chenqua great trouble."

"Would his life or his family be endangered?"

Her brows drew together. "Though it's possible, I'm sure it would not suit the government to destroy the leader of the Cohong when he produces great wealth for the city and the emperor. But he would certainly be fined heavily."

"The Cohong merchants are continually being fined, so that would be no great matter, especially since I would compensate him if that happened." His voice turned persuasive. "I really don't think that what I'm asking is so dangerous. The temple is only a hundred miles away, so the journey could be made in a fortnight or so. I'm willing to do whatever is necessary to pass undetected. All I need is a reliable guide."

She had been feeling a restless desire to change her life, and here, suddenly, was a perfect opportunity. All she would have to do was leave everything and everyone she'd ever known.

Clenching her hands, she turned to him. "I will take you to Hoshan."

"Impossible," he said, startled. "I can't allow you to risk yourself like that."

"Because I am female? How gallant," she said coolly. "But it is you who will require protection, not me. Or is that the problem? You don't trust me." He swore under his breath. "You've given me ample proof of your abilities, Miss Montgomery. But I need a guide who lives on the edge of the law, someone who understands and accepts the risks. If you were discovered helping a
Fan-qui
make an illegal journey, it could cost you your job and your home. Perhaps your life."

"I'm willing to take the risk." She caught his gaze. "You said you would pay well. My price is your help in getting me to Britain." After a long silence, he said, "I see. What kind of help do you need?"

"Passage on a British ship, and enough money to support myself until I can find work." She tried to guess how much she would need. "Perhaps…

fifty pounds?"

He frowned. "Are you sure this is what you want? Your English is flawless, but Britain will seem very strange to you."

"I was raised on tales of Scotland. Yes, it will be very different, but perhaps I belong there more than in China. Certainly I will never fully belong here." Her mouth twisted. "My dream was to go to my father's homeland. I'd given up, but perhaps it is possible after all. Shall I take you to Hoshan? Or don't you want it enough to trust me?"

"Trust is not the issue." He regarded her steadily. "If you want to go to Britain, I will help you without your taking me to Hoshan." He would really do that? Yes, he would, for he felt that he owed her his life. But she did not want anything from him because he felt an obligation. She had spent fifteen years being subservient. With him she wanted to be an equal, not a dependent. "I prefer to earn my passage, Lord Maxwell. If you will drop your lordly mannerisms and follow my instructions, we should be able to make this journey without incident."

A slow smile lightened his expression. "When can we go?"

"The best time would be when the
Fan-qui
ships are departing at the end of the trading season. No one will notice your absence then."