SQ 04 - The English Concubine (22 page)

‘That’s kind of you, but you have trouble in the family. And an old salt like me needs the company of sailoring men. I shall stay at the Sailors’ Home.’

She watched him depart with his dog, Tasty, at his heels. Old companions.

* * *

Amber, head low, walked along the street.

‘My dear,’ Charlotte said. ‘Come in.’

Shilah had been laid to rest yesterday and Charlotte had invited Amber to stay with her, away from the noise of the baby and the dark mood of her father.

‘Is Alex here?’

‘No, he is in town.’

Amber went to the living room and threw herself on the sofa and promptly burst into tears. ‘I am so unhappy,’ she wailed.

‘I know, of course. Your poor mother …’

‘Yes, Mother. Of course. But Alex … he’s so distant.’

Charlotte raised an eyebrow. The mother so quickly set aside for the young man she desired. Until they learned a little more of life, children were the most ungrateful creatures.

‘You are distressed. It is not a good start for either of you. And give him some time also. You need to get to know each other in a quite different way.’

‘But how can we? He is never around, never. I have been engaged five days and have barely seen him upwards of an hour or two.’

‘I am sorry, Amber. I will speak to him. Do you still wish this marriage?’

‘Yes, oh yes, Aunt.’ Amber’s eyes had filled with tears.

‘Tonight we shall all dine together. I will order it and tell cook to make the beef Alex likes so much.’

‘But when do we depart, Aunt, for Batavia? I so long to be married to Alex.’

‘Yes, but we are delayed here six weeks, Amber. I must stay for Robert and have sent the ship away. When it returns we will depart.’

Amber shot a look of such horror and disappointment, Charlotte thought she might rise and strike her. ‘No, no. It’s too long. He must marry me here.’

Charlotte rose. ‘My dear, you are grieving. You need time to recover. And I will not have you married under English law when you plan to live under Dutch.’

Amber burst into tears again and ran from the room.

Charlotte went to her room and gazed into the mirror. She touched her belly. Zhen’s child, another, lay within her.

When Alex returned Charlotte called him to her.

‘You must pay attention to Amber,’ she said. ‘She is distressed and misses you.’

‘Oh Mother, really. We shall be married soon enough.’

‘Alex, don’t be naïve. A young girl likes to be wooed. And we are here for the next six weeks. Pay her a little court.’

‘Six weeks?’

‘Yes, the
Queen
has gone to trade. I can’t leave Robert and the baby. I need to talk to Teresa. Robert needs her now. At least I think he does. Anyway …’

Charlotte looked severely at her son and lifted the paper on the desk. ‘This is the marriage agreement. I have not yet signed it. Woo her.’

Alex smiled at his mother. ‘You are right, of course.’

Alex went to his room and bathed. He had spent the morning with Ah Soon whose marriage was to take place the next day. This delay was actually more than he had hoped for. Once they were married, Ah Soon was expected to only stay the night. Such was the peculiarity of the Baba wedding rites. The groom must arrive under cover of darkness, his face covered and leave well before dawn. Alex had no idea why this should be, but he meant, as much as he was able, to profit from it. He wanted to be with Lian. There would be no need for false blood. He felt his excitement at this prospect and rose, agitated. He knocked at Amber’s door. ‘Come out. We shall walk before dinner.’

Amber flung the door open and rushed into his arms. ‘Oh Alex, I love you so much.’ She pulled him into her room and closed the door.

‘Amber, you minx. Don’t you think we should wait?’

‘No.’ She pulled his head to hers and rubbed her lips on his, her desperate ardour a sad testimony to her adoration of him.

He allowed himself to be kissed in this childish way for a moment, then his thoughts flew to the nights he would spend with Lian. He took Amber in his arms and showed her what a kiss really was, making her half swoon. She clung to him, pressing her body against his. It was quite pleasant and he could play this game for a while if it kept his mother off his back.

27

From the upstairs window Zhen watched the procession arrive before the main doorway of the house in China Street. He had leased this house for his daughter and her husband because he could not bear the thought of Lian locked up with the Widow Tan and Mad Lilin out in the country. Here she would at least be mistress of her own home in the centre of the town and could entertain her school friends, keep up her English and have a semblance of the life she had been wrenched from.

Ah Soon was dressed as he himself had been twenty years ago, but the man was so skinny and sallow, he could not help but feel sorry for Lian. He knew she would never love this man, so he wanted to do as much for her as possible. Give her riches and certain freedoms.

As Ah Soon stepped over the basket in the doorway, the firecrackers started to pop and sent a volley of deafening noise up and down the street. A crowd had gathered to watch.

Zhen went to the hall of the first floor and looked down. Various dances and rituals took place, then the matchmaker stepped inside the hall and called
sangkek um, si kau lai chim pang
. The appointed time had come for the bride and groom to meet.

Lian was led from a side room into the hall, bound in her wedding clothes with a black veil over her face. As Ah Soon lifted the veil most of the assembled party averted their gaze. Zhen did not. She was beautiful.

The new bride was traditionally supposed to keep her eyes down and not gaze on her new husband but Lian kept her look steady, unsmiling. The couple, flanked by the
sangkek um
and the
pak chindek
, walked slowly upstairs to their bedroom. Lian looked neither right nor left and certainly not at him.

The next part of the ceremony, Zhen knew, involved the candles that must not go out but which had been blown out on his own wedding day by Noan’s sleeve which signified that she would die first. And she had. He did not join the press of guests around the couple.

Qian had not joined them either and came to his friend. ‘It is a good day.’

Zhen said nothing.

‘Cheng has offered me a part in the syndicate. He will advance me credit and I will pay back from the profits. It is a good start.
^’
’

‘Yes, make the most of it.’

‘I know you are behind this. Thank you. As part of your family I can get credit from the English bankers and start to rebuild the business.’

Zhen looked at Qian a moment. ‘Don’t think of it. Stick to what you know. The ah ku houses and this syndicate for which you have to do nothing but collect.’

Qian pulled a face. The ah ku houses held no prestige. To be part of the syndicate, to deal with the Europeans carried all the cachet. And his catamite – he deserved more, more jewels, more clothes, for Qian had never loved a young boy so much as he did this one.

The guests buzzed noisily out of the room. It was time for the groom to leave and for the bride to rest. All the guest went downstairs, chattering, to admire all the gifts and
ang pow
displayed on the hall tables. Zhen had presented a tray of jewellery for Lian.

Qian left, for the next part of the ritual involved Lian and Ah Soon paying their respects to him at his house. Qian offered the wedding dinner too, although Zhen had paid for it all. The men would all get very drunk and tease the bride and the young maidens. Zhen had no intention of attending. Following the dinner, the bride went home and the groom would depart only to return under cover of darkness to find himself finally alone with the bride.

Zhen turned his feet to Boat Quay and gazed over the river. She had not replied. He had had a moment of anxiety when her ship had departed but soon learned she was still in Singapore. Robert’s nyai had died in childbirth, and she had stayed to console him.

The Baba wedding went on for twelve days, and, on the fifth, it was customary to present the bride and groom to the greater community, the merchants of all races and all of the Europeans so that they could pay their respects and leave
ang pow
. Invitations had been sent but whether she would come or not was uncertain, especially with a death in the house.

He walked back to Market Street. The signs of trouble had already begun. A gang fight had broken out two nights in a row and Zhen knew it was Tay and Hong’s men. The police soon broke it up but it would get worse. Wang had reported smuggling activities on the Straits. Both men were already trying to import cheap chandu to undermine the other’s monopolies.

‘Keep an eye on it,’ he’d told Wang. ‘Find out who’s doing the smuggling, set spies to find informers here and in Johor. But do nothing else. Gather information and report back to me.’

The
chintengs
, the revenue police of both Tay and Hong, were numerous. Their job was to keep an eye out, report illegal storing and smuggling of chandu and exact their vengeance. The
chintengs
could raid houses and often did. It led to a lot of bad blood and this blood spilled out onto the streets of Chinatown and in the plantations of Johor. The fact that Tay was Teochew and Hong Hokkien made it worse. The clans fought each other for greed, vengeance and pride, the men fought because they were violent and bored or for money.

Cheng had given generously to the married couple. He had invited Zhen to dine at his home and Zhen knew very well what was in the air. He intended his daughter for him. Zhen didn’t know what he thought about this. Xia Lou was angry and distant and she intended to depart although he did not know if she meant to return soon. He needed to know that.

In two months the liquor farm bids would come up and his obligations would be coming to an end. Whilst her ship was not in port he knew she would not go. He hoped she would come to the open presentation of the couple. If she did not then he intended to go over the river secretly and speak with her.

* * *

Alex felt light-headed. Amber had hung on him from morning to night and finally, after dinner, he had simply left. To play billiards, he said, at the Hotel London and perhaps drink in the town with the men. And there he had headed for an hour or two and, as night set in, he made his way slowly to Chinatown.

The house in China Street was an elegant house, built as many of them were on three floors. The front had a deep verandah and was decorated with dragons and fish made of turquoise and rose tiles. The back gave on to an alley where the night soil collectors came in the early morning. The back alley always had a door to the small courtyard where the traders and hawkers came.

Into this back door Ah Soon would be smuggled, his head covered, accompanied by the master of ceremonies. This much he knew. Once the master of ceremonies had left, the house would be silent as the bride and groom were given the utmost privacy. This man would come back just before dawn to collect Ah Soon.

He watched as Ah Soon arrived at around nine o’clock. Eyes would be everywhere at that time, Ah Soon had told him, for what was supposed to be secret was known to everyone. But once he had entered they would go to bed until he was obliged to creep out in the morning.

Alex waited. A light moved behind the shutters here and there. Servants he guessed. He watched as Ah Soon went through this ritual, rushed through the alley to the back door, head covered. The door closed, the lights one by one were extinguished. At eleven o’clock the back door opened and he slipped inside.

‘Does she know?’

‘No. You said don’t tell her and I haven’t.’

‘Where will you be?’

‘There is a small closet attached to the bedroom. I’ll have a pipe and sleep there. When it’s time come and get me.’

Two young maids were snoring lightly in the kitchen. Ah Soon took him to the closet and opened the door to the bedroom. Alex closed the closet door. The bedroom was lit with a low lamp. The bed was Chinese, a square of elaborately carved wood from which silver decorations and heavy embroideries hung. The shutter to the street stood ajar allowing a small breeze to enter.

He went forward and saw her. She was sleeping in white pyjamas, her black hair spread about the embroidered pillow.

This was her wedding night and he intended it to be the most wonderful night of her life. He undressed and lay next to her. She must have sensed movement for she turned suddenly and slapped out. ‘Ah Soon, no.’

Alex took her in his arms, still fighting and then she realised. He kissed her lips and ran his hands through her hair. She looked around, dazed.

‘Where is Ah Soon?’

‘In the closet. So be quiet.’

She laughed lightly. It was funny to think of Ah Soon spending his wedding night in the closet but then she grew alarmed. ‘You should not be here. Are you insane? We agreed.’

‘I don’t care what we agreed. I can’t wait. We are here for six weeks more and I can’t wait.’

She thrilled to this recklessness. He had waited and waited, risked discovery and all for her. She heard the urgency in his voice and felt him grow hard against her leg and looked down. She had seen the dirty pictures, but what could prepare you for this? She gazed at him and put her hand to him.

‘Ah,’ he sighed.

‘You feel wonderful,’ she whispered.

He smiled and kissed her lips lightly.

He took off her pyjama top and put his lips to hers in a deep kiss, pulling her breasts against his chest. She returned the kiss, feeling the excitement growing inside her so strong she shivered.

He felt it and held her tight, putting his lips to her ear. She felt like silk and the increasing passion he felt was as natural as breathing.

She held him tight, loving the feel of his skin on hers then lifted her face and put her mouth to his.

He ran his hand under the pyjamas, between her legs and she looked down, feeling the trembling of her body and the violence of her emotion as his fingers touched her.