Tai-Pan (23 page)

And she wondered why, in truth, she had been given to Struan.

“Second daughter of fifth mother,” her father had said on her fifteenth birthday. “My illustrious father has conceived a great honor for you. You are to be given to the Tai-Pan of the barbarians.”

She had been terrified. She had never seen a barbarian and believed them to be unclean, loathsome cannibals. She had wept and begged for mercy, and then, secretly, she had been shown Struan when he was with Jin-qua. The giant Struan had frightened her but she had seen that he was not an ape. Even so, she had still begged to be married to a Chinese.

But her father had been adamant and had given her a choice: “Obey, or leave this house and be cast out forever.”

So she had gone to Macao and into Struan’s house with instructions to please him. To learn the barbarian tongue. And to teach Struan things Chinese without his knowing he was being taught.

Once a year Jin-qua and her father would send someone to her to learn her progress and to bring news of the family.

Very strange, May-may thought. Certainly I wasn’t sent as spy, but to be Struan’s concubine. And certainly neither Father nor Grandfather would do such a thing lightly—not with their own bloodline. Was I not Jin-qua’s favorite granddaughter?

“So much bullion,” she said, avoiding his question. “So much is terrifical big temptation. Huge. All in one place—just one risk, attack, or theft, and twenty, forty generations would be safe.” How foolish I was to be afraid of the Tai-Pan. He is a man like any other and my lord. Very much man. And I will be Tai-tai soon. At long last. And I will have face at long last.

She bowed deeply. “I’m honored you trust me. I will bless your joss, Tai-Pan, forever. You do me huge honor and give me so much face. For anyone would consider how to steal it. Anyone.”

“How would you go about that?”

“Send Ah Gip to the Hoppo,” she said at once and went back to stirring the pot. “For a guarantee fifty percent he disregard even the emperor. He would allow you to stay, secretly if you wish, until lorcha arrived. When he made sure it was right lorcha, he would let you go abroad secretly and intercept downriver. And cut your throat. But then he would cheat me out of my share and I’d have to be his woman. Dirty turtledung! Na for all the tea in China, na that pig fornicator. He has dirty tricks. You know that he’s almost impotent?”

“What?” Struan said, not really listening to her.

“It’s common knowledge,” she said. She tasted the stew daintily and added a little soya sauce. “He has to have two girls at same time. One has to play with him while the other works. Then, too, he’s so small that he fits things on himself, enormous things. Then, too, he likes to sleep with ducks.”

“Will you na talk such drivel!”

“What’s ‘drivel’ mean?” May-may asked.

“ ‘Nonsense.’ ”

“Huh, that’s na nonsense. Everyone knows.” She tossed her head prettily and the long plume of hair danced. “I dinna understand you at all, Tai-Pan. You are shock when I tell you about ordinary things. Many people use things to improve sex. Very important to improve if you can. Eat right foods, use right medicines. If you’re small, ayee yah, not bad to improve your joss and give your girl more pleasure. But na like that dirty pig! He does it just to hurt.”

“Will you na stop it, woman!”

She stopped stirring and looked at him. A tiny frown crossed her face. “Are all European like you, Tai-Pan? Na like to talk open about man-woman things, heya?”

“Certain things you dinna talk about, and that’s the end of it.”

She shook her head. “That’s wrong. It’s good to talk. How else can one improve? Man is man and woman woman. You dinna get shock about food! Why so crazy, eh? Sex is food, never mind.” Her eyes crinkled mischievously, and she looked him up and down. “Heya, all Mass’er dooa jig-jig like youa all same can, heya?”

“Are all Chinese girls like you, heya?”

“Yes,” she said calmly. “Most. Like me but na so good. I hope.” She laughed. “I think you must be very special. I’m special too.”

“And modest.”

“A pox on that sort of modest. I’m honest, Tai-Pan. Chinese are honest. Why for should I not appreciate me? And you. I enjoy you, like you me. Stupid to pretend na.” She peered into the pot, and took a piece of meat with the chopsticks and tasted it. Then she took the pot off the fire and put it near enough to the flames to keep it warm. She opened the door and whispered to Ah Gip. Ah Gip plodded away. May-may went back to the fire.

“Where’s she gone?”

“To find us place to hide.”

“I’ll do that.”

“In this she would be better. First we eat, then you decide about Brock.”

“What about him?”

“He will na let you hide and stay easily, heya?”

“I’ve already decided what to do about him.” Struan’s face crinkled with the breadth of his smile. “You’re very, very special, May-may.”

“Special enough for you to make me Tai-tai? Your Supreme Lady, according to your custom?”

“I’ll decide about that after I’ve accomplished three things.”

“Wat three things?”

“The first is to get the bullion safe into 
China Cloud.
”

“Next?”

“The second is to make Hong Kong absolutely safe.”

“The last?”

“I’m na sure. You’ll have to be patient on that one.”

“I will help you with the first two. The last I dinna ken. I am Chinese. The Chinese are very patient. But I am also a woman.”

“Aye,” he said, after a long moment.

Struan was in his private office on the ground floor, writing a dispatch to Robb. It was almost two o’clock. Outside the traders and their clerks and coolies and servants were carrying possessions from their factories to their lorchas. The Hoppo had relaxed the order withdrawing all the servants. Servants and coolies were to be allowed until the Hour of the Monkey—three o’clock—the time by which the Settlement was to be abandoned. Bannermen were still in the square preventing access to the American factory.

Struan finished the letter, affixed his special chop and sealed it with wax and signet ring. He had told Robb not to worry, that he would bring good news to Hong Kong, and that if he was late Robb should go to the land sale and buy all the land they had long ago decided upon. And buy the knoll, whatever the cost. Whatever Brock bid, Robb was to bid one dollar more.

Now Struan sat back and rubbed the fatigue out of his eyes and began to recheck his plan, trying to find the holes in it. Like all plans that involved the reactions of others, there always had to be a measure of joss. But he felt that the weathervane of his joss had backed to the old quarter, where he was always guarded and things happened as he wanted them to happen.

The tall grandfather clock chimed twice. Struan got up from the carved teak desk and joined the servants, who were streaming in and out of the factory under the supervision of the Portuguese clerks.

“We’re almost finished, Mr. Struan,” Manoel de Vargas said. He was an elderly, gray-haired, sallow Portuguese of great dignity. He had been with The Noble House for eleven years and was chief clerk. Before this he had had his own company with its headquarters in Macao, but he had been unable to compete with the British and American traders. He bore them no grudge. It is the will of God, he had said without rancor, and had gathered his wife and his children around him and had gone to Mass and had thanked the Madonna for all their blessings. He was like the vast majority of Portuguese—faithful, calm, content and unhurried. “We can go as soon as you say,” he said tiredly.

“Are you feeling all right, Vargas?”

“A little agued, senhor. But once we get settled, I will be well once more.” Vargas shook his head. “Bad to move and to move and to move.” He spoke sharply in Cantonese to a coolie staggering past under the weight of ledgers and pointed to a lorcha.

“That’s the last of the books, Mr. Struan.”

“Good.”

“This is a sad day, sad. Many bad rumors. Some stupid.”

“What?”

“That we will all be intercepted on our way and killed. That Macao is to be terminated, and we’re to be thrown out of the Orient once and for all. And the usual rumors that we’ll be back in a month and trade will be better than ever. There’s even a rumor that there’s forty lacs of bullion in Canton.”

Struan kept the smile on his face. “There are na that many lacs in Kwangtung Province!”

“Of course. Stupid, but it is amusing to relate. The bullion’s supposed to have been collected by the Co-hong as a gift to placate the emperor.”

“Drivel.”

“Of course, drivel. No one would dare to have so much in one place. All the bandits in China would fall on it.”

“Take this letter and deliver it into Mr. Robb’s hands. As soon as possible,” Struan said. “Then go immediately to Macao. I want you to organize teams of building workmen. I want them on Hong Kong Island two weeks from today. Five hundred men.”

“Yes, senhor.” Vargas sighed and wondered how long he would have to keep up the pretense. We all know The Noble House is finished. Five hundred men? Why do we need men when there is no money to buy land? “It will be difficult, senhor.”

“In two weeks,” Struan repeated.

“It will be difficult to find good workmen,” Vargas said, politely. “All the traders will be competing for their services—and the emperor’s edict has revoked the treaty. Perhaps they will not agree to work on Hong Kong.”

“Good wages will change their minds. I want five hundred men. The best. Pay double wages it necessary.”

“Yes, senhor.”

“If we’ve nae money to pay for them,” Struan added with a grim smile, “Brock will pay you well. There’s nae need to worry.”

“I am not worried about my own labors,” Vargas said with great dignity, “but I am worried about the safety of the house. I would not wish The Noble House to cease.”

“Aye, I know. You’ve served me well, Vargas, and I appreciate it. You take all the clerks with you now. I’ll go with Mauss and my men.”

“Shall I lock up, or will you, senhor?”

“You do that when all your clerks are aboard.”

“Very well. Go with God, senhor.”

“And you, Vargas.”

Struan walked across the square. Around him men were hurrying to make last-minute additions to the cargoes of the heavily laden lorchas that lay the length of the wharf. Farther up the wharf he saw Brock and Gorth profanely exhorting their sailors and clerks. Some of the traders had already left, and he waved cheerily to a lorcha as it headed downstream. Across the river, the boat people were watching the exodus, clamoring to offer their sampans for tows to midstream, since the direction of the wind made departure from the dock awkward.

Struan’s lorcha was two-masted, forty feet long, and commodious. Mauss was already on the poop.

“All squared away, Tai-Pan. There’s a rumor that the Hoppo seized Ti-sen’s house. Fifty lacs of silver bullion was in it.”

“So?”

“Nothing, Tai-Pan. A rumor, 
hein
?” Mauss looked tired. “All my converts have disappeared.”

“They’ll be back, dinna worry. And there’ll be plenty to convert on Hong Kong,” Struan said, feeling sorry for him.

“Hong Kong is our only hope, isn’t it?”

“Aye.” Struan headed up the wharf. He saw a tall coolie emerge from the American factory and join the throng in the square. He changed direction.

“Heya, wat you Yankee dooa can?” he called out to the coolie.

“Damn you, Tai-Pan,” Cooper said from under the coolie hat. “Is my disguise so bad?”

“It’s your height, laddie.”

“Just wanted to wish you Godspeed. Don’t know when I’ll see you again. You’ve the thirty days, of course.”

“But you dinna think they’re of value?”

“I’ll find that out in thirty-odd days, won’t I?”

“In the meantime, buy eight million pounds of tea for us.”

“With what, Tai-Pan?”

“What do you usually pay for tea with?”

“We’re your agents, certainly. For the next thirty days. But I can’t buy for you without bullion.”

“Did you sell all your cotton?”

“Not yet.”

“You better sell fast, lad.”

“Why?”

“Perhaps the bottom’s out of the market.”

“If it is, there goes 
Independence
.”

“That’d be a pity, would it na?”

“I hope you settle with Brock somehow. And build your 
Independent Cloud.
 I want the satisfaction of beating you myself.”

“Stand in the line, lad,” Struan said good-naturedly. “Be prepared to buy heavily and fast. I’ll send word.”

“It won’t be the same without you, Tai-Pan. If you go, we’ll all lose a little.”

“Perhaps I won’t go after all.”

“Half of me wants you out. You, more than any, have had a too huge slice of the market, too long. It’s time for free seas.”

“Free for American ships?”

“And others. But not on British terms.”

“We’ll always rule the seas, lad. We have to. You’re an agricultural country. We’re industrialists. We need the seas.”

“One day we’ll take the seas.”

“By that time perhaps we will na need the seas because we’ll rule the skies.”

Cooper chuckled. “Don’t forget about our bet.”

“That reminds me. I got a letter from Aristotle a few days ago. He asked for a loan to tide him over because ‘that delectable commission has to wait till summer because she suffers from goose pimples.’ We’ve plenty of time to run her to earth—or would it be to bed?”

“Can’t be Shevaun. She’s got ice for blood.”

“Did she say nay to you again?”

“Yes. Put in a good word for me, huh?”

“I’ll na get in the middle of that negotiation!”

Over Struan’s shoulder Cooper could see Brock and Gorth approaching. “If the Brocks never reached Hong Kong, you’d get the time you need. Wouldn’t you?”

“Are you suggesting a wee bit o’ murder?”

“That wouldn’t be a little. That would be very much, Tai-Pan. Afternoon, Mr. Brock.”

“I thort it were thee, Mr. Cooper,” Brock said breezily. “Nice of thee to see us’n off.” Then, to Struan, “Thee be off now?”

“Aye. I’ll show Gorth the stern of my ship all the way to Whampoa. Then, in 
China Cloud,
 all the way to Hong Kong. As usual.”