And the Bride Wore Red (7 page)

‘There's a little more,' he said, indicating a side table where there were two wooden boxes and two large photographs which Olivia recognised as Meihui and John Mitchell.

‘The boxes are their ashes,' Biyu confided, looking at Lang. ‘He brought them.'

‘Meihui kept John's ashes,' Lang said. ‘And when she died I promised her that I would bring them both here.'

‘We had a special ceremony in which we welcomed them both home and said that we would always keep them together,' Biyu said. ‘And we laid them in this temple, so that Renshu and Jaio could always watch over them.'

She spoke with such simple fervour that Olivia's heart was touched. It didn't matter, she realised, whether every detail of the legend was exactly true. The family had taken it as their faith, and perhaps a trust in the enduring power of love was the best faith anyone could choose.

Silently, Biyu drew her attention to a hanging on the wall. It was a large sheet of parchment, and on it were written the words Jaio had spoken:
love is the shield that protects us from harm
.

In the end their love hadn't protected them from those who'd sought them out, but now Olivia knew that this wasn't
the harm Jaio had meant. To live a lonely, useless life, separated from the one who could give it meaning—that was a suffering neither she nor Renshu had ever known. And, if there had been a price, they did not complain.

She began to understand a little more of the family's pride in Lang, the man who through his grandmother embodied the legend in the present day.

He was looking away at that moment so that she was able to observe him unseen. And it seemed to her that the mysterious ‘something' in his face was now more evident than ever.

A
S IT
grew dark the lanterns came on in the courtyard and everyone gathered to hear Suyin sing. After a while Olivia slipped away and went to Lang's room in the south house, glad of a moment alone to mull over what she'd learned tonight. She was beginning to understand Lang a little better—he was a man who hung back behind a quiet, even conventional mask, but who behind that mask was a dozen other men. Some of those men were fascinating, and some she should perhaps be wary of.

After giving her hair a quick brush, she left the room and found him waiting in the hall outside. She faced him with an air of indignation that was not entirely assumed.

‘I've got a bone to pick with you,' she said.

‘Are you mad at me? I've offended you?'

‘Don't you give me that deferential stuff. I see right through it. You can't open your mouth without fooling me about something.'

‘What have I done now?'

‘I asked you about your job and you gave me the impression that you were little more than the hospital porter. Now I find out you're an important man.'

‘I deny it,' he said at once.

‘A consultant.'

‘
Junior
consultant. It's just a title that's supposed to make me feel pleased with myself. The real big man is the senior consultant.'

‘Oh, really? And when is the big man going to retire and let you step into his shoes?'

‘That's a long story. We should be getting back before they come looking for us.'

He was still smiling, but she had a feeling that she'd touched a nerve. The hospital was one of the biggest and most important in Beijing. If he was seriously hoping for a major promotion after only three years, then he was more ambitious than he wanted anyone to know.

‘They've already come to seek us out. There they are,' Lang said, indicating outside where Biyu could be seen watching, accompanied by Wei, Suyin and an assortment of children. ‘From where they're standing, you can see in through the window, and they're waiting to see if we fulfil expectations.'

This was so plainly true that she chuckled. Some people would have found the blatant curiosity intrusive and dismaying, but Olivia—child of a fractured family where there had been much hysterical emoting but little genuine kindness—felt only the warmth of a large family welcoming her, similar to what Lang himself had felt, she guessed.

‘Then you'd better put your arm around my shoulders,' she said.

‘Like that?' His hand rested lightly on her shoulder.

‘I think you might manage to be a little more convincing,' she reproved him. ‘We're supposed to be giving them what they want, and I doubt if they can even see anything from there.'

‘You're right,' he agreed. ‘It has to look real.'

Tightening his arm, he drew her closer to him. Slowly he lowered his head until his lips were just brushing hers.

‘Is this real enough?' he murmured.

‘I think—I think we might try a little harder.'

That was all the encouragement he needed. Next moment his mouth was over hers forcefully. There was no hesitancy now, but a full-scale declaration of intent; his lips moved urgently, asking a question but too impatient to await the answer.

Olivia responded with an overwhelming sense of relief. She had wanted this, and it was only now that she knew how badly. Since their first meeting she'd been fighting him on one level, responding on another. Now she was no longer torn two ways and could yield to the delight that flowed through her with dizzying speed.

She'd demanded that he be more convincing, and he was following her wishes to the letter. But then he lifted his head for a moment and she saw the truth in his eyes. The one brief touch of lips that they'd shared the day before had given barely a hint of what awaited them, and now he was as stunned as she by the reality.

‘Olivia…'

‘Don't talk,' she said huskily, pulling his head down.

Then there was only a silence more eloquent than words. She'd studied his mouth, not even realising she was doing so, wondering how its shape would feel against her own. Her imaginings had fallen far short of this overwhelming awareness of leashed power combined with subtlety.

He released her mouth and dropped his head so that his breath warmed her neck softly. He was trembling.

She wanted to say something, but there was nothing to say. No words would describe the feelings that pervaded her, feelings that she wanted to go on for ever. Tenderly she stroked his head, turning slightly so that they could renew the kiss. She wanted that so badly.

But one of the children outside gave an excited squeal and was hastily shushed. The noise seemed to come from a distance, yet it shattered the spell ruthlessly. Stranded back on earth again, they regarded each other in bewilderment.

‘I think,' Lang said unsteadily, ‘I think we'd better—'

‘Yes, I guess we should,' she replied, not having the least idea what she was talking about.

They walked out, bracing themselves for an ironic cheer, but the others had melted tactfully away. They'd seen all they needed to.

When it was time to leave, everyone embraced her warmly. Tao and Shu presented her with a glass pig, insisting that she must come again soon, and everyone stood outside to wave them off.

Lang drove in silence. Olivia wondered if he would speak about what had happened, but she was neither surprised nor disappointed when he didn't. It wasn't to be spoken of.

‘Let's stop for a while before we go home,' he said at last. ‘There's a little place just down here.'

It turned out to be a teahouse constructed on old-fashioned lines, several connected buildings with roofs that curved dramatically up at the corners. Red lanterns hung inside, and stretched out to a small garden. They went to an outside table where their tea was served in elegant porcelain cups.

Lang wished he knew what to say. He'd come here hoping for time to think after having been disconcerted all evening. He'd wanted Olivia to make a good impression on his family, but she'd done more than that. She'd been a knockout. He smiled, remembering how brilliantly she'd swapped pig memories with Grandfather Tao, and how his female relatives had been won over by her fashion sense.

He'd been astonished, but he should not have been. In the
brief time he'd known her she'd taken him by surprise more often than he could count. It was alarming—it turned the world on its head in a way that constantly caught him off-guard—but it was also part of her charm.

As an attractive man he was used to having women put themselves out to get his attention. He wasn't conceited about it, he just didn't know any different. Now he was relishing an experience that nothing had prepared him for.

To find himself powerfully attracted to a woman who was fighting her own attraction to him, to have to persuade her and tease her into a sense of security so that he could convince her of the value of romantic love, intrigued him and made him wonder just where this road was leading.

Wherever it led, he knew that he was happy to go there, and that the time of decision had come. He must act now or lose what might be the most precious gift of his life.

The courtyard of the teahouse was enclosed on three sides. On the fourth there was a small pond where ducks quacked for titbits, and a bridge where they could linger after drinking their tea.

‘Oh, this is so nice.' Olivia sighed, enjoying deep breaths of the sweet air and tossing a crumb into the water. She'd taken a small cake from the table for this purpose, but had eaten none of it herself.

‘Are you sure you don't want anything else?' Lang asked.

She laughed. ‘No, the tea was delicious and I've had enough food to last me for a month. It was wonderful food. I'm not complaining.'

‘I am,' he said frankly. ‘It felt like being fattened for the slaughter. They were in competition to see which one of us they could make collapse first.'

‘But they're so nice,' Olivia said. ‘It was all so warm and friendly, just like a family should be.'

‘I'm glad you felt that. I love them dearly, but I was afraid you might find them a little overpowering.'

‘I did.' She laughed. ‘But I don't mind being overpowered with kindness. Not one bit.'

She tossed another crumb into the water and watched the quacking squabble. At last she said, ‘Biyu mentioned something strange—apparently they'd expected you to be gone before now.'

He hesitated a brief moment before admitting, ‘I stayed because of you. I didn't mean to. I've been packed and ready to go for several days, but I couldn't make myself leave, or even make up my mind to come and talk to you.'

She nodded. The discovery that his confusion matched her own seemed to draw them closer.

‘When do you leave for the Yangzte cruise?' he asked.

‘I join the boat at Chongqing in a couple of days.'

‘I've been planning to go to Xi'an,' he said thoughtfully.

‘To see the mausoleum that Jaio escaped?'

‘In a way. It hasn't been excavated yet, so I can't go inside, but I can see the terracotta warriors nearby. They were based on the Emperor's army.'

‘So one of them might be Renshu,' she supplied. ‘It sounds a great trip, but if you've been in China for three years I can't understand why you haven't been there before.'

‘I have. It was one of the first places I went. But since I've lived here for a while I see things with different eyes. Then I was still a stranger. Now I feel part of this country, and I want to retrace my steps and try to understand things better.' Suddenly he grasped her hand and said, ‘Olivia?'

‘Yes?'

He took a deep breath and spoke with the eagerness of a man who'd finally seen the way clear.

‘Come with me. Don't say no. Ah, say you'll come.'

It was only when she heard Lang beg her that Olivia fully understood how desolate she would have been if he'd left without a backward glance at her.

Don't get flustered
, said the voice within. You're a woman of the twenty-first century. Stay cool.

‘You mean, to see the warriors?' she asked with a fair display of casualness.

‘I want to find out if I can make you see them as I do. Or maybe you'll show me something I've missed.' He added reflectively, ‘You have a way of doing that.'

‘It's quite unconscious.'

‘I know. That's why it's so alarming. It springs out at me suddenly, and I have no chance to guard against it.'

‘Do you want to guard against it?'

‘Sometimes.'

She waited, sensing that he had more to say, and at last he went on. ‘Sometimes you take fright and want to flee back to your old, safe life where things follow a pattern and nothing is too unpredictable. But then you realise that that's a kind of death; the safety is an illusion, and there's nothing to do but take the next step—whatever it brings. And sometimes—' he made a rueful face ‘—you can't decide between the two.'

‘I know,' she murmured, awed by his insight.

‘I'm a coward,' he said. Looking up, he added, ‘But maybe I'm not the only one.'

She nodded.

‘Now and then,' she said slowly, ‘what passes for common sense is only cowardice in disguise.'

‘Does that mean you'll come with me or not?' he asked urgently. ‘We could leave for Xi'an tomorrow, and go on to Chongqing afterwards, if you wouldn't mind my joining you on the cruise. And after that, well, we go wherever we fancy and do whatever we fancy.'

‘Whatever we fancy,' Olivia murmured longingly. ‘I wonder…'

He drew her down the far side of the bridge and under the trees. There in the shadows he could take her into his arms and remind her silently of the things that united them. She came willingly, letting her own lips speak of feelings for which there were as yet no words.

She ought to refuse; she knew that. Step by seemingly innocent step he was enticing her along a path she'd sworn never to tread again, a path on which the delight in one man's presence would silence all warnings until her life spun into turmoil. How virtuous it would be to be strong. How sensible. How justified! How impossible!

With every caress his mouth begged her to trust him with her heart and follow him to an unknown destination. Except that it wasn't really unknown. It was the place where he wanted to be with her, and no questions were needed.

He kissed her again and again, breathing hard as his urgency and need threatened to overcome his control.

‘We'll have the whole summer together,' he managed to say. ‘That is, if the idea pleases you.'

‘It pleases me,' she said softly.

A violent tremor went through him. He was resting his forehead against her, his eyes closed while he fought to subdue himself. She held him with passionate tenderness, waiting, wondering what was happening behind his eyelids, and half-convinced that she knew.