Trade Winds (Choc Lit) (38 page)

Then John Ley told him about the coming festival.

‘Everyone and his uncle will be out and about, I should think, just milling around and gawping. I saw it last time and it was fairly amusing. Helped to pass the time at any rate.’

Farquhar liked the sound of that ‘everyone and his uncle’. It might mean that Killian’s wife left the safety of her nest for at least a short while. If not, perhaps the rest of the occupants of Mr Li’s house would leave her alone and vulnerable. He almost rubbed his hands together with glee, but restrained himself while in Ley’s presence. The man probably thought him odd, but he didn’t care. What he did was none of Ley’s business.

On the night of the festival, he was out early and took up a position where he could watch the comings and goings of Mr Li’s household. Sure enough, most of the servants soon trooped off, laughing and joking among themselves, leaving the house virtually empty. The vendor shut the booth early and left soon after dark. Mr Li himself came out and waited outside until two palanquins came down the street and stopped outside. He called out to someone inside, and two women came out, looking excited. They were both dressed in Chinese clothing, but to Farquhar, who was actively looking out for differences, one of the women immediately stood out.

Killian’s wife.
Curse her!

The women each had a child tied to their backs in a sling, but had no trouble entering the palanquins. Soon the little cavalcade moved off and Farquhar was just about to follow, when a movement to his right made him wait. Killian emerged from a doorway and walked behind the second palanquin, trying to look as if he had nothing to do with it, but it was obvious to Farquhar that he was watching it.

‘Damn it all to hell,’ Farquhar muttered.

Now what was he to do? He had never taken on Killian in a fight and won and he didn’t think he would now either. Killian had always been bigger and stronger. With a deep sigh of frustration he accepted that he could only follow the group and hope the women would return to the house before everyone else, then he could strike somehow. It was his only chance.

Jess was enchanted. There was an atmosphere of celebration and it sounded like a thousand voices were speaking at once. Children ran back and forth, shrieking excitedly and comparing their little lanterns which all had different motifs. Hundreds of larger lanterns had been strung across the streets, almost forming a roof of light wherever they went. Many of the houses were lit up from within as well. Outside their doors, some people had placed figures made of paper – horses, humans, tigers and many others – and the whole scene seemed incredibly exotic to Jess, who drank in the sights.

Musicians played what sounded like plaintive tunes, but which must have been joyful because everyone seemed happy. Priests, dressed in long red robes of silk and tall hats, wandered the streets with incense burners and offerings. They went from house to house to bless them. Jess knew this was all in aid of placating the god of fire. The houses were all built so close together, fire was a hazard everyone feared and they hoped to be spared for another year.

When the palanquin stopped at one point because of the throng, Killian came up alongside it. ‘Is all the noise bothering Brice?’ he asked without actually looking at Jess.

She laughed. ‘No, he’s fast asleep. I think he’d sleep through an earthquake when his belly is full and his bottom clean.’

Killian’s mouth twitched. ‘Just as well. The ship is a noisy place and if he can sleep through this, he’ll sleep well there too. Maybe he takes after his father?’

She heard the pride in his voice and felt happiness bubble up inside her. ‘I doubt it,’ she said to tease him. ‘He looks more like my side of the family, he’ll be a refined child.’

Killian snorted. ‘Refined? Never! I’m going to teach him to be a fighter, not a namby-pamby sort.’

Jess smiled into the darkness. ‘We’ll see about that,’ she said, but she knew that was what she wanted as well.

All too soon the palanquins turned back and stopped outside Li’s house. Killian whispered a quick goodnight and melted into the crowds, while Li hustled Jess and Mei inside. They made their way up the stairs at the back of the house to feed the babies, who had by now woken up and were starting to grizzle. Both women were smiling broadly, pleased with their outing.

‘Beautiful,’ Jess said in Chinese – one of the new words she had learned – and nodded towards the outside world. Mei agreed and they settled down to nurse their children.

The rest of the house was unusually quiet and Jess guessed that Li had gone out again. He probably didn’t want to miss the festivities now he’d done his duty by his wife and guest. She finished feeding Brice and burped him, then went to lie him down in the large tea chest she was using as his bed. Just as she was bending over, however, Mei’s two dogs began to first growl, then bark in short, sharp bursts.

The little pets, who kept them company most days, were normally lazy in the extreme, and barely moved other than at mealtimes. Their squat, fluffy bodies were not used to exercise and their flat faces made it hard for them to breathe. They were very sweet and cuddly nonetheless and never aggressive. Now, however, they seemed on the verge of exploding with fury and wouldn’t stop even though Mei kept shushing them.

‘What’s the matter?’ Jess looked at Mei questioningly, but she frowned in puzzlement and shrugged.

‘Let’s go downstairs and look,’ Jess said in English and gestured for Mei to follow her. She grabbed Brice and headed for the stairs, but when she opened the door she stopped with a gasp. Just below the stairs a fire raged, sending up clouds of smoke that made her cough instantly. She retreated into the room quickly, looking around for some means of putting the fire out.

Mei understood what she was doing and grabbed several covers off the bed and thrust them at Jess. She took them and handed her Brice in return. Then she drew in a deep breath, opened the door again and ran down to the bottom step, where she started to beat the fire with one of the covers. She threw the other one down and stamped on it, feeling it burning through her shoes, but she ignored the discomfort. She had to put the fire out or they would be trapped and die.

Coughing and spluttering, she managed it at last. Thankfully the fire hadn’t had time to take hold properly and she saw to her horror that it must have been started deliberately. There was a pile of burnt cushions and door hangings on the floor by the stairs which had never been there before. If the dogs hadn’t warned them, the fire would have flared up quickly and the flames would soon have engulfed the entire house.

Li came into the room from the opposite direction and stopped to stare at her, his eyes growing round with fear. He called out to his wife and Mei appeared at the top of the stairs, while Jess sat down on shaking legs. It had been a narrow escape.

She was alive and so was Brice, but who could possibly wish them dead? Dread settled in her stomach and for the first time since Brice’s birth she was afraid.

‘I really don’t understand it,’ Killian said with a worried frown. ‘I’ve spoken to Li and to Campbell and as far as we know, we have no enemies. At least not to the extent they would want to kill us.’

There was something nagging at the back of his mind, but he couldn’t think what it was and gave up trying for the moment.

‘Didn’t you say the Chinese call us
fan kwaes
– foreign devils? Perhaps there are some who really don’t want us here.’

‘Maybe, but it doesn’t make sense. We are bringing them silver, making them rich, why should they mind? It’s not as if we’re staying for good. No, it’s a mystery, but I’ll keep my eyes and ears open. I think it might be best if you went back to the ship though. You’d be safer there among our own men.’

‘Do you really think so?’ Jess looked doubtful. ‘We’re closer to you here and surely now we know there’s a threat, we can hire guards.’

‘Yes, Li has already said he’ll make sure you’re guarded at all times. He’s worried about his own wife being caught up in this. But still …’

‘Please, Killian. I want to stay here. It’s much better for Brice not to be next to the water in a damp ship. Besides, I’ll be spending more than enough time in that cramped cabin on the way home.’

‘Very well, if you’re sure?’

Jess nodded. ‘I am. Li’s guards will make me feel safer.’ But not much, she added silently to herself.

Who wanted her dead?

Chapter Thirty-Two

Farquhar no longer slept at all. His brain gave him no respite from the murderous thoughts that swirled round inside his skull and he simply couldn’t believe the women had escaped with their lives.

When he found the house empty, it had seemed like fate was on his side at last. With the two women shut into a room with only one escape route, they should have been burned alive or at the very least suffocated. Yet somehow they’d lived to tell the tale. He wanted to scream with frustration.

He thought up and discarded many different plans, but in the end there was only one that might work. He had to distract the guards, whom he had seen prowling outside the shop, and simply run inside and kill the bitch and her baby. He couldn’t allow them to live. Even if he himself didn’t survive this journey, he was going to make damned sure his daughters inherited Rosyth and not Killian or anyone of his blood.

It proved easier than he’d thought to distract the guards – he just started another fire late one evening outside the house next door by smashing a lantern against an awning. Everyone came running, while he hurried in the opposite direction and ducked into Li’s house.

A serving woman came towards him, asking something in their infernal language, but he hit her hard and she crumpled to the floor. Before anyone else came to interfere, he headed for the staircase to the women’s quarters and luck was with him again. When he threw open the door at the top of the stairs, the first thing he saw was Killian’s wife, sitting on the bed cooing at her brat. There was no mistaking her, with her flaxen hair in a loose plait down her back.

‘At last!’ he cried, and pulled out a knife, rushing across the floor to lunge at her. She screamed, but before he could reach her, a pain shot through his leg and put him off his stride long enough for her to duck out of the way. He blinked and looked down, seeing a furry bundle with teeth that seemed to be attacking him. He cried out as the creature sank its sharp fangs into his calf one more time, then kicked out sending it flying. It landed with a whimper in a corner and went limp.

A bellow of female rage behind him alerted him to the presence of another woman, who must have been sitting out of the line of his vision. He turned to parry a blow she was aiming at his head with a heavy porcelain bowl. It struck his shoulder before falling to the floor, shattering in a shower of shards. He barely noticed. Enraged beyond reason now, he swivelled back to his original quarry. The blonde vixen was the only one he was interested in and the other woman could go to hell for all he cared.

To his surprise, she wasn’t there any more and before he had time to turn his head to search for her, he heard her screaming, ‘Take that, you whoreson!’ A second before the world went black, he saw her out of the corner of his eye. She had a stool in her hands and was bringing it down on him, but there was no time to duck. He was helpless to prevent it from connecting with his skull.

Bitch!
was his last thought and then he knew no more.

Jess stood panting over the man, the stool raised in case she’d need to hit him again, but he was out cold. She drew in a shuddering breath and registered the fact that Brice and Mei’s son were both howling. Mei stood for several moments like a statue, staring at the intruder, before rushing to the corner to pick up her lifeless dog. After a short while, it whined and began to move. Jess was glad the man hadn’t killed it.

‘Killian,’ Jess said. ‘Mei, fetch Killian and Li.’

Mei nodded and headed for the stairs, ignoring her son’s cries for once. Jess tried to block out the sound of Brice as well. She didn’t dare move and kept her eyes fixed on the lunatic lying at her feet.

‘Who are you?’ she whispered. It was perfectly clear from his ginger hair and pale freckled skin that he wasn’t Chinese and this surprised her most of all. Somehow she hadn’t expected a fellow European to be the one harbouring a grudge against her and she couldn’t understand it.

It seemed like hours before Killian and Li burst into the room, although it probably wasn’t very long at all. Although Li rushed straight over to the man on the floor, Killian stopped dead and simply stared. ‘I don’t believe it,’ he breathed. ‘The whoreson!’

‘What?’ Jess said. ‘You know this man?’

‘Unfortunately, yes. He’s my cousin.’

‘Farquhar? You’re not serious.’

‘I’m afraid so.’ He looked around, his mouth set in a tight line as if he was trying to stop himself from doing violence to the man even though he was already dead to the world. ‘Do you have anything we can bind his hands with? He might wake up any moment and although I’d love to hit him, it’s best if we just hand him over to the authorities. Otherwise I might be the one committing murder.’

Jess nodded and went to a clothes chest to find some belts. Li helped Killian tie Farquhar’s wrists tightly and then looked at him, gesturing a question. Killian had picked up a few Chinese words as well and drew a little diagram in the air, saying, ‘Man and man, brothers, son me, son him,’ to indicate he and Farquhar were cousins. Li appeared to understand, although he still looked puzzled.