And the Bride Wore Red (8 page)

At last he drew away and spoke in a shaking voice.

‘Then let us make the arrangements quickly.'

He led her back to the table, took out his phone, and in a few brief calls changed her flights, booked her into his hotel in Xi'an, and just managed to grasp the last available place on the Yangtze cruise.

Then a silence fell. Both suddenly felt embarrassed, as though the emotion that had brought them thus far had abandoned them, leaving them stranded in alien territory where nothing looked the same.

‘Perhaps we should go home and start getting ready,' he said awkwardly.

‘Yes—packing.'

Lang had recovered his composure and gave her a mischievous look. ‘Don't forget to include that dress you're wearing.'

‘Oh, do you like it? I wasn't sure it suited me.'

‘Stop fishing. You know exactly what it does for you. And if you didn't know at the start,' he added, ‘you do now.'

‘Yes,' she said, feeling her heart beat faster. ‘I know now.'

‘Let's go.'

At her door he said, ‘I'll be here for you at midday tomorrow.'

He gave her a brief peck on the cheek and drove away.

She began her packing in a dissatisfied frame of mind and grew more dissatisfied as she lay wakeful overnight. Her mood was nothing to do with Lang and everything to do with the fact that her wardrobe was inadequate. The only really glamorous item she possessed was the
cheongsam
, and something had to be done—fast.

When buying the
cheongsam
she'd lingered over several other items, wanting them but too prudent to spend the money.

But now she was going away with Lang, and to blazes with prudence.

He wouldn't arrive until noon. The shop was three streets away, and a quick dash there and back in a taxi would enable her to collect what she needed and return before him. She took her suitcases down to the front door, and spoke to the tenant of the downstairs apartment.

‘If a man calls for me, will you tell him I'll be back in ten minutes? Thanks.'

She called a taxi and waited for it outside, waving cheerfully at a little girl from one of the other apartments who was playing nearby. The taxi was prompt and she took off, managing to be back barely five minutes after midday. With luck, she thought, Lang wouldn't be there yet—but it wasn't really a surprise to find him ahead of her. What did surprise her was the volcanic look on his face.

‘Where the devil have you been?' he demanded explosively.

‘Hey, cut it out!' she told him. ‘I'm a few minutes late. It's not the end of the world. I went to do a bit of last-minute shopping. I left you a message with the woman who lives downstairs. Didn't you see her?'

‘The only person I've seen is a child who was playing here. She said you got into a taxi and went away
for ever
. That was her exact phrase.'

Olivia groaned. ‘I know who you mean. She saw me get into the taxi but the rest is her imagination. I just went to buy something. I'm here now. Have you been waiting long?'

‘Five minutes.'

She stared. ‘Five minutes? That's nothing. No need to make a fuss.'

For answer he slammed his hand down hard on the bonnet of the taxi, causing the driver to object loudly. While they sorted it out, Olivia dashed inside to retrieve her suitcases.

She was stunned at what she'd just seen. Lang was the last man she would have suspected of such an outburst. Here was a troubling mystery, but her dismay faded as she emerged from the building and saw his face. It was no longer angry, but full of a suffering he was fighting to hide.

The driver, placated by a large tip, helped them load the bags, and then they were off.

In the taxi Olivia took Lang's hand and rallied him cheerfully. ‘We're going to have a great time. Don't spoil it by being mad at me.'

‘I'm not. I'm mad at myself for making a mountain out of a molehill. After all, what's five minutes? That's the trouble with being a doctor, you get to be a stickler for time.'

He went on talking, turning it into a joke against himself. But Olivia knew it wasn't a joke really. It wasn't about five minutes; just what it was about was something she had yet to learn. In the meantime, she fell in with his mood, and they went to the airport in apparently good spirits.

The flight took two hours, and they reached the hotel in the evening.

‘Is your room all right?' Lang asked as they went down to the restaurant.

‘Yes, I'm going to sleep fine. Not that I plan to do much sleeping. I've still got a lot of reading to do about the Emperor.'

‘I saw you buried in a book on the plane. Good grief, you've brought it down here with you.'

‘He fascinates me. He took the throne of Qin when he was only thirteen, unified all the states into one country, standardised money, weights and measures, built canals and roads. But he only lived to be fifty, and he seems to have spent the last few years of his life trying to find a way to avoid death.'

‘Yes, he dreaded the idea of dying,' Lang agreed. ‘He sent court officials all over the world with orders to find a magic elixir. Most of them simply vanished because they didn't dare go back empty-handed. He tried to prolong his life by taking mercury, but that's probably what killed him so soon.'

‘Which makes it all the more ironic that he had over half a million men building his tomb for years.'

‘That was the convention. The pharaohs in Egypt used to
do the same thing—start building their pyramids as soon as they ascended the throne.'

‘And in the end all those poor, innocent women were trapped in there with him.' She sighed. ‘What a pity we can't see inside.'

So far the tomb had not been excavated, although radar investigations had suggested many things of interest, including booby traps and rivers of mercury. Olivia knew that it would probably be several years before visitors could go into the tomb and see the place where Jaio would have died if Renshu hadn't rescued her.

In the meantime there was the other great sight to be seen, the terracotta warriors, buried nearly a mile away from the tomb and discovered thirty-five years earlier by farmers who'd happened to be digging in a field. The inspiration for these statues had been the men who protected the Emperor, of whom Renshu was one.

‘I wonder how they met,' she mused now. ‘Weren't the concubines kept strictly away from other men, except eunuchs?'

‘Yes. The story is that Renshu was part of a group of soldiers who escorted her from the far city where she lived. Even so, he wasn't meant to see her face, but he did so by accident. The other story is that he was on duty in the palace one evening and caught a glimpse of her.'

‘But could that be enough?' Olivia asked. ‘They see each other for just a moment and everything follows from that?'

‘Just a moment can be more than enough,' Lang mused. ‘You never know when it's going to happen, or how hard it's going to hit you. You don't get to pick the person, either. She's just there in front of you, and it's her. She's the one.'

He gave a faint smile, aimed mainly at himself.

‘Sometimes you might wish that she wasn't,' he said softly. ‘But it's too late for that.'

‘Oh, really? And why would you wish that she wasn't?'

‘Lots of reasons. She might be really awkward. She might get you in such a state that you didn't know whether you were coming or going. You could go to bed at night thinking, “I don't need this. How can I get her out of my hair?” But the answer is always the same. You can't.

‘And you come to realise that whichever one of the deities decides these things isn't asking your opinion, just giving you orders…“There she is, she's the one. Get on with it”.'

Olivia nodded. ‘You say deity, but that voice can be more like a nagging aunt.'

‘You too?' he asked slowly.

‘Yes,' she said in a low voice. ‘Me too. You try to explain to the aunt that she's got it all wrong—you weren't planning for anything like this guy—and all she says is, “Did I ask what you planned?”'

Lang laughed at her assumed hauteur. His eyes were warm as they rested on her.

‘It's like being swept along by an avalanche,' Olivia continued. ‘And sometimes you just want to go with it, but at other times you think—'

‘Not yet?' Lang supplied helpfully.

‘Yes. Just a little longer.'

She wished she could explain the sweet excitement he caused within her, and the caution she still had to overcome. But he came to her rescue, saying, ‘I imagine Renshu felt the same when he fell in love with Jaio. He probably had a fine career in the army, and falling for the Emperor's concubine just spelled big trouble. He must have fought it, and maybe he kidded himself that he was succeeding, until her life was threatened, and then nothing else mattered. He knew he had to save her, and then he knew he had to be with her for ever—to love her, protect her, have children with her.'

His voice became reflective, as though he was just realising something.

‘When he finally faced it, he was probably relieved. However hard the way ahead, he'd be at peace, because the big decision was made.'

‘And yet he gave up so much,' Olivia mused. ‘It was easier for her, she had nothing to lose, but he lost everything.'

‘No, he gained everything,' Lang said quickly. ‘Even though they didn't have very long together, she fulfilled him as nothing else ever could have done. And he knew that she would, or he'd never have gone to such lengths to make her his.'

‘And yet think of how they must have lived,' Olivia said. ‘On the run for the rest of their lives, never really able to relax because they were afraid of being caught.'

‘I expect it was more than just being afraid,' Lang said. ‘They probably knew for certain that one day they'd be caught and pay a heavy price. And, when it came, they were ready. The story is that when the soldiers found them Renshu tried to make Jaio escape while he held them off, but she went to stand beside him and they died together.'

‘But what about their son?' Olivia asked. ‘Shouldn't she have tried to live for his sake?'

‘Her son had been rescued by the family. If she'd gone after him she would only have led the soldiers to him. Her choice was either to die in flight, or die at Renshu's side. To her there was really no choice at all. They knew what was coming. That's why they left those writings behind. They wanted to tell the world while there was still time.'

Olivia gazed at him in wonder.

‘You speak as though you knew them, as though they were real people here with you this minute.'

‘Sometimes that's just how it seems,' he confessed. He
gave her a wry smile. ‘No doubt you think that's ludicrously sentimental, you being such a practical person!'

‘But you're a practical person too,' she pointed out. ‘How could a doctor not be?'

‘Yes, I'm a doctor, but that doesn't mean I only believe in things that can be proved in a test tube.'

‘So a doctor can be as daft as anyone else?' she teased.

‘Emphatically,
yes
. More so, in fact, because he knows what a false god scientific precision can be, and so he's wiser if he—'

He broke off abruptly and she guessed the reason. He was moving faster than her, so fast that perhaps he even alarmed himself.

But her alarm was fading. With every minute that passed the conviction was growing in her that this was right. She didn't know what was lying in wait for them, but whatever it was she was ready, even eager, to find it.

A
T LAST
he said, ‘If you've finished eating I think we should go upstairs. We need plenty of sleep.'

At her door he bid her goodnight with a brief kiss on the cheek before hurrying away, leaving her wishing he'd stay the same person for five minutes at a time.

She went to bed quickly and read some more of the book until finally she put it down and lay musing. After their talk that evening Renshu and Jaio seemed strangely real, and she had the feeling that tomorrow she was going to meet them. Face to face she would hear their story, about their life, about the love that was stronger than death. And perhaps she would understand a little more about the man whose existence had sprung from that love at a distance of two-thousand years.

Olivia turned out the light and went to the window. Opening it, she stood gazing out at the mountains that were just visible in the moonlight, and a thin line of silver where a river followed a curving course.

In the room beside hers, Lang's window was closed. She could see that his light was still on and, by leaning out, she could just see his shadow coming and going. She was about to call out to him when his light went off. She hurried back to bed and was soon asleep.

She awoke early, going to sit by the open window to breathe in the cool air and enjoy the view over the mountains now bathed in early-morning light. On impulse she took out her laptop and set up the connection with Norah. In England it would be mid-afternoon, not their usual time, but she might still make contact.

She was in luck. Almost at once Norah's face appeared on the screen. When the greetings were over, Olivia said, ‘We're going to see the terracotta warriors.'

‘I've heard of them. They're very famous.'

‘Yes, but we have a special reason.'

Briefly she told the tale of Jaio and Renshu. As she'd expected, Norah was thrilled.

‘So Lang is descended from a warrior and a concubine. What fun!'

‘You're incorrigible,' Olivia said, laughing. Then something made her stop and peer more closely at the screen. ‘Are you all right? You look a bit pale.'

‘I've been out doing some shopping. It was nice, but very tiring.'

‘Hmm. Come closer, so that I can see you better.'

‘Stop fussing.'

‘I just want to take a look at you.'

Grumbling, Norah moved until Olivia could see her better.

‘There,' she said. ‘Now stop making a fuss.'

Suddenly there came a knock on Olivia's bedroom door.

‘Don't go away,' she said, drawing the edges of her light bathrobe together and heading for the door.

Lang was standing outside in a towel robe. He too pulled the edges together when he saw her.

‘Are you all right?' he said. ‘I heard you talking, and I wondered if anything's wrong.'

‘I'm talking to Aunt Norah by video link. I promised her I'd stay in touch. Come and meet her.'

She showed him to the window chair and made him sit where the camera could focus on him.

‘Here he is, Aunt Norah,' she said. ‘This is Dr Lang Mitchell.'

‘How do you do, Dr Mitchell?' Norah said formally.

‘Please, call me Lang,' he said at once, giving the old woman his most charming smile. She responded in kind and they beamed at each other across five-thousand miles.

And I'm Norah.'

‘Norah, I can't tell you how I've looked forward to meeting you.'

‘You knew about me?'

‘Olivia talks about you all the time. At our very first meeting she told me that you said if she ever shut up she'd learn something.'

Olivia gaped, outraged, and Norah beamed.

‘And I have to tell you,' Lang continued confidentially, ‘that after knowing her only a short time I realise what a good judge of character you are.'

The two of them rocked with laughter while Olivia glared.

‘You can leave any time you like,' she informed him coolly.

‘Why would I want to leave? I've just made a new friend.'

He and Norah chatted on for a few minutes and Olivia regarded them, fascinated by the way they were instantly at ease with each other.

At last Lang rose, saying, ‘It was delightful meeting you, and I hope we talk again soon.' To Olivia he said, ‘I'll see you downstairs for breakfast.'

He left the room quickly. He needed to be alone to think.

The Chinese had a saying: ‘it is easy to dodge a spear thrown from the front, but hard to avoid an arrow from behind'.

In Lang's mind the spear from the front had been the
moment he'd arrived to collect Olivia and found that she'd already left, ‘for ever'. For a few blinding, terrible minutes he'd been convinced that she'd changed her mind and left him, even fled the country, and that he would never see her again.

The moment when she'd appeared was burned into his consciousness with searing force. She hadn't left him. Everything was all right. Except that now he'd glimpsed a future that didn't contain her, and it appalled him.

He'd coped. He'd known already that his feelings for her were running out of control. It was only their extent that shocked him, and which had made him ultra-cautious in their talk over dinner the night before.

Harder to cope with were the arrows that struck unexpectedly. One had come out of nowhere earlier, giving him a bad fright.

He'd heard Olivia's voice as soon as he'd opened his window, and had smiled, thinking she was on the telephone. But the words, ‘you look a bit pale' had told him this was no phone call. And while he'd been trying to take in the implications she'd added, ‘Come closer, so that I can see you better.'

The idea of a video link hadn't occurred to him. He'd tried to stay cool, not to jump to the conclusion that she had a man in the room, but no power on earth could have stopped him knocking on her door to find out. Now he was feeling like the biggest fool of all time. Yet mixed in with embarrassment was delight that he'd been wrong. All was well.

The arrows would keep coming when he least expected them. He knew that now. But nothing could stop his mood rioting with joyful relief, and in the shower he gave vent to a yodelling melody. When he joined her downstairs, he was still lightheaded.

‘I can see that Norah and I are going to be the best of friends,' he told her.

‘Ganging up on me at every turn, I suppose.'

‘Of course. That's half the fun. Did she say anything about me after I'd gone?'

‘Not a word,' she declared loftily. ‘We dismissed you from our minds.'

‘As bad as that?' he said, nodding sympathetically.

‘Worse. I couldn't get any sense out of her. She just wittered on endlessly about how handsome you are. Where she got that idea, I couldn't imagine.'

‘The video quality is never very strong on those links.'

‘Well, she likes you enormously.'

‘Good. I like her too. Now, let's have a hearty breakfast and get revved up for the day.'

An hour later the coach called to collect them, plus several others from the hotel, and soon they were on the road to the warrior site.

‘The thing I loved about it,' Lang said, ‘was that they didn't build a separate museum and transport everything to it. They created the museum on top of the actual site of the dig where the figures were found.'

She saw what he meant as soon as they entered. The museum was divided into three huge pits, the first of which was the most astonishing. There in the ground were hundreds of soldiers standing in formation as though on duty. A gallery had been built all around so that the visitor could view them from every angle. This was exactly the place where they had been discovered and, as Lang had said, it made all the difference.

Not only men but horses stood there, patient unto eternity. After burial they had had only a short existence, for less than five years after the Emperor's death they had been attacked, many of them smashed and the site covered in earth. For over two-thousand years they had remained undiscovered, waiting for their time to come, silent and faithful in the darkness.

Now their day had dawned again. Some had been repaired and restored to beauty, although thousands still remained to be unearthed. Now they were world-famous, proud and honoured as they deserved to be.

Although Lang had been here before he too was awed as they walked around the long gallery.

‘We've only seen a small part,' he said as he left. ‘When we visit the rest you can study some of them close up. It's incredible how they were created so skilfully all that time ago—the fine details, the expressions.'

When Olivia saw the figures that were displayed in glass containers she had to admit that he was right. Not one detail had been skimped on the armour, and the figures stood or crouched in positions that were utterly natural. No wonder, she thought, that historians and art experts had gone wild about them.

But she wasn't viewing them as a professional. It was as men that they claimed her attention, and as men they were awesome, tall, muscular, with fine, thoughtful but determined faces.

‘It's incredible how different they all are,' she mused. ‘It would have been so easy to give them all the same face, but they didn't do it the easy way. How many of them are there?'

‘Something like eight thousand when they've finished excavating,' Lang said. ‘And I don't think they're all precisely individual. If you hunt through them you'll find the same face repeated now and then, but it's a long hunt.'

Their steps had brought them to a glass container with only one figure. He was down on one knee, but not in a servile way. His head was up, his back straight, his air alert, as though his whole attention was devoted to his duty.

‘Whoever this was based on had a splendid career ahead of him,' she murmured. ‘And he gave it all up.'

‘You've decided that this was Renshu?' Lang asked, fondly amused.

‘Definitely. He's by far the most handsome.'

Before finishing the tour, they went to the pavilion where there was a teahouse to refresh them.

‘It's so real,' she said. ‘I hadn't expected to find them so lifelike. You could almost talk to them and hear them talk back.'

‘Yes, that's how I felt.'

‘You know that story you told me—how he might have seen her when he was escorting her, or later in the palace—well, I've been thinking, and they could both be true. Renshu saw her face accidentally on the journey, and after that he knew he had to see her again, so he connived to get assigned to palace duty.'

‘That's a very romantic suggestion,' Lang exclaimed. ‘I'm shocked!'

‘All right, I've weakened just a little. Now I've seen what a fine, upstanding man he must have been, I can understand why she fell in love with him.' Olivia laughed at the sight of Lang's expression. ‘It's this place. Somehow the whole story suddenly seems so convincing. I can't wait to go back in.'

They spent the afternoon going over everything again, fascinated by the semi-excavated parts in pit one, where broken figures lay waiting to be reclaimed, and the places where they could study the work in progress. The day finished in the shop that sold souvenirs, and Olivia stocked up on books and pictures. Lang also was buying extensively.

‘But you've got that book,' she said, pointing. ‘I remember seeing it in your room.'

‘It's not for me. It's a gift for my friend Norah.'

‘That's lovely. She'll be so happy.'

Some of the other tourists were from their hotel and they all made a merry party, exchanging views on the way back.
It was natural to join up again over the meal, and the evening passed without Lang and Olivia having a moment alone.

‘When will you talk to Norah?' he asked later.

‘Early tomorrow morning.'

‘Make sure you call me so that I can talk to her.'

‘Can I tell her you've bought her a present?'

‘Don't you dare! I want to do that myself. Goodnight.'

‘Goodnight.'

She contacted Norah early next morning and found her bright-eyed with anticipation.

‘Where's Lang?' was her first question.

‘Good morning, Olivia, how nice to speak to you,' Olivia said ironically. ‘I gather I don't exist any more.'

‘Let's say he rather casts you into the shade, my darling.'

‘All right, I'll go and knock on his door.'

‘Knock on his—? Do you mean he's in a different room?' Norah sounded outraged.

‘Yes, we have separate rooms,' Olivia said through gritted teeth.

She hurried out, unwilling to pursue this subject further. After the way passion had flared between herself and Lang, it seemed inevitable that they would take the next step. But suddenly he seemed in no hurry, and hadn't so much as hinted that he might come to her at night.