Tai-Pan (84 page)

And all the way to May-may’s house Struan was deciding on the way to kill Gorth—if Culum had the pox. The cruelest way. Aye, he thought coldly, I can be very cruel. This will na be just a simple killing—or quick. By God!

“You look terrible, Culum darling,” Tess said. “You really ought to have an early night.”

“Yes.”

They were promenading along the 
pra
ça
 in the night quiet. It was after dinner, and his head was clearer but his agony almost unbearable.

“What’s the matter?” she asked, sensing his torment.

“Nothing, darling. I just drank too much. And those highwaymen weren’t very gentle. By the Lord God, I’m forswearing drink for a year.” Please God, don’t let anything happen. Hurry the week—and let nothing happen.

“Let’s go back,” she said, and taking his arm firmly, turned him toward the Brock residence. “A good night’s rest will do you the world of good.” She felt very maternal and couldn’t help feeling happy that he was almost helpless. “I’m glad you’re forswearing drink, my dear. Father gets terrible drunk sometimes—and Gorth, my word, many’s the time I seed him besotted.”

“ ‘I’ve seen him,’ ” he said, correcting her.

“I’ve 
seen
 him besotted. Oh, I’m so glad we’ll soon be wed.”

What possible reason could Gorth have for doing that? Culum asked himself. The Tai-Pan must be exaggerating. He must be.

A servant opened the door and Culum took Tess into the parlor.

“Back so soon, luvs?” Liza said.

“I’m a little tired, Ma.”

“Well, I’ll be off,” Culum said. “See you tomorrow. Will you be going to the cricket match?”

“Oh yes, let’s, Ma!”

“Mayhaps thee’ll escort us, Culum lad?”

“Thank you. I’d like that. See you tomorrow.” Culum kissed Tess’s hand. “Good night, Mrs. Brock.”

“Night, lad.”

Culum turned for the door just as Gorth was entering. “Oh, hello, Gorth.”

“Hello, Culum. I were waiting for thee. Just going for a drink at the Club. Come along.”

“Not tonight, thanks. I’m all in. Too many late nights. And there’s the cricket tomorrow.”

“A drink won’t hurt thee. After thy beating it be best.”

“Not tonight, Gorth. Thanks, though. See you tomorrow.”

“As thee wish, old lad. Now, take care of thyself.” Gorth closed the front door behind him.

“Gorth, what happened last night?” Liza scrutinized him.

“Poor lad got in his cups. I be leaving Club as I told thee, afore him, so I doan know. Wot’d he sayed, Tess?”

“Just that he drank too much, and that the highwaymen fell on him.” She laughed. “Poor Culum—I think he’ll be cured of the demon drink for a long time.”

“Would thee get my cheroots, Tess luv?” Gorth said. “They be in’t dresser.”

“Certainly,” Tess said and ran out.

“I heared,” Gorth said, “I heared our Culum lad’s been kicking over the traces like.”

“Wot?” Liza stopped her sewing.

“Baint harmful,” Gorth said. “Mayhaps I shouldn’t’ve sayed it. Baint harmful if a man’s careful, by God. Thee knowed wot a man’s like.”

“But he be marrying our Tess! She baint marrying no rake.”

“Yes. I thinks I be havin’ a talk with the lad. Best be careful in Macao and no doubt about that’n. If Da’ were here’d be different. But I’ve to protect the family—and the poor lad from weaknesses. Thee’ll say na about this, now!”

“Of course not.” Liza hated that which made men masculine. Why baint they controlling theyselves? Mayhaps I better be rethinking this marriage. “Tess baint marrying no rake. But Culum baint that way at all. Are thee sure wot thee’s saying?”

“Yes,” Gorth said. “At least that’s what some of the lads sayed.”

“I wisht yor da’ were here.”

“Yes,” Gorth said, then added as though making a sudden decision, “I think I be visiting Hong Kong for a day or two. I’ll talk to Da’. That be best. Then I be talking to Culum proper. I be leaving on the tide.”

Struan finished the last page of the English translation of the Russian documents. He slowly tidied the pages and put them back in the briefcase and let it rest on his lap.

“And?” May-may asked. “Why for so fantastical silent, heya?” She was propped in bed, under a mosquito net, her gold silk gown making her skin whiter.

“Nothing, lass.”

“Put bisnesses away and talk to me. For one hour you are like scholar.”

“Let me think for five minutes. Then I’ll talk to you, eh?”

“Huh,” she said. “If I was na sicknesses, then you’d be bedding all time.”

“Och aye, lassie.” Struan went to the garden door and stared up at the night sky. The stars were brilliant and the heavens foretold good weather.

May-may settled into the bed and watched him. He’s looking very tired, she thought. Poor Tai-Pan, so many troubles.

He had told her about Culum and his fears for him, but not about Gorth. He had also said that there was fever bark to be had, within a few days. And he had told her about Mary and had cursed Ah Tat.

“Damned murdering fool. She should have known better. If Mary’d told me, or you, we could have sent her away to have the baby safely and secretly. To America or somewhere. The baby could have been adopted and —”

“And her Glessing man?” she had asked. “Would he have still married her? Nine months away?”

“That’s finished, either way!”

“Who’s the father?” May-may had asked.

“She would na tell me,” Struan had said, and May-may had smiled to herself.

“Poor Mary,” he had added. “Now her life’s finished.”

“Nonsense, Tai-Pan. The marriage can go forward—if the Glessing and the Horatio never know.”

“Have you taken leave of your senses? Of course it’s ended—what you say’s impossible. Dishonest, terribly dishonest.”

“Aye. But what is never known does na matter, and the reason for hiding is good and na evil, never mind.”

“How will he never know, by God? Eh? Of course he’ll find out. He’ll certainly know she’s na a virgin.”

There are ways, Tai-Pan, May-may thought. Ways of deceiving. You men are so simple in some things. Women are so much cleverer in most things that are important.

And she resolved to send someone to Ma-ree who could explain that which was necessary and thus stop all this suicide nonsense. Who? Obviously Elder Sister, Chen Sheng’s third wife, who once was in a house and would know such secrets. I’ll send her tomorrow. She’ll know what to tell Ma-ree. So Ma-ree is not a trouble any more. With joss. But Culum and Gorth and Tess? Not a trouble soon, for an assassination will take place. My fever trouble? That will be solved according to my joss. All things are solved according to joss, so why is there need to worry? Better to accept. I pity you, Tai-Pan. You think so much and plan so much and try to bend joss eternally to your whims—but that’s not so, is it? she asked herself. Surely he does only what you do, what all Chinese do. He laughs at fate and joss and gods and tries to use men and women to advance his aims. And twist joss. Yes, surely that is right. In many ways, Tai-Pan, you are more Chinese than I.

She sank deeper into the sweet-smelling coverlet and waited for Struan to talk to her.

Struan, however, was concentrating totally on what he had learned from the briefcase.

The papers had included a translated copy of a secret report prepared for Tsar Nicholas I in July last year, 1840, and contained, incredibly, maps of the lands between Russia and China. The maps alone, the first that Struan had ever seen, were priceless. There was also an analysis of the implications of the documents.

The secret report had been prepared by Prince Tergin, Chief of the secret Foreign Affairs Planning Committee. It said:

“It is our considered opinion that within half a century the Tsar will rule from the Baltic to the Pacific, from the Ice North Seas to the Indian Ocean, and be in a position to dominate the world, 
if
 the following strategy is adopted within the next three years.

“The key to world dominance is Asia plus North America. North America is almost in our hands. If Britain and the United States allow us ten years of freedom in Alaskan Russian-America, all North America is ours.

“Our position there is solid and friendly. The United States in no way considers our vast territorial expansion in the northern wastelands a threat. Consolidation from Alaska to our southernmost ‘trading fort’ in Northern California—and from there inland to the Atlantic—can be accomplished by the usual method: immediate emigration on a vast scale. Most of the western United States, and all but a small proportion of eastern Canada, is presently almost empty of settlers. Therefore the extent of our emigration into the northern wilderness can be kept secret—as it must be. From there the emigrants, which would be our hardy Euroasian warlike tribes—Uzbeks, Turkmen, Siberians, Kirghiz, Tadzhiks and Uigurs—many of whom deliberately would be nomadic peoples, would fan out and claim the whole land almost at will.

“We must maintain cordial relations with Britain and the United States for the next ten years. By that time emigration will have made Russia the most virile American power and our tribes—who in ancient days made up the hordes of Tamerlane and Ghenghis Khan—armed with modern weapons and commanded by Russians, can at our whim sweep the Anglo-Saxon into the sea.

“But a thousand times more important: 
Asia.
 We could concede the Americas, never Asia.

“The key to Asia is China. And China lies at our feet. We share almost five thousand miles of continuous land border with the Chinese Empire. 
We must control her or we will never be safe.
 We can never allow her to become strong or dominated by another Great Power, or we would be trapped between East and West and might be forced to war on two fronts. Our Asian policy is axiomatic: China must be kept weak, vassal and a Russian sphere of influence.

“Only one power—Britain—stands between us and success. If she can be prevented, by guile or pressure, from acquiring and consolidating a permanent island fortress off China, Asia is ours.

“Of course, we dare not alienate our ally Britain at this time. France, Poland, Prussia and the Hapsburgs are in no way content with the Dardanelles detente, any more than Russia is, and we must be on constant guard against their continuous harassment. Without British support our sacred heartland would be open to invasion. Providing the British adhere to their stated position in China—that they ‘merely wish to establish trade relations and trading depots, which all Western nations may share equally’—we can move forward into Sinkiang, Turkestan and Mongolia, and control the land route to China. (We already dominate invasion routes within easy reach of the Khyber Pass and Kashmir, thence into British India.) Should word leak out about our land conquests, our official position will be that ‘Russia is merely subduing hostile wild tribes in our hinterland.’ Within five years we should be poised on the threshold of China’s heartland, northwest of Peking. Then, with simple diplomatic pressure, we will be in a position to force advisers on the Manchu Emperor and, through him, control the Chinese Empire until such time it may be conveniently partitioned into vassal states. The hostility between Manchu overlords and Chinese subjects is vastly to our advantage and we will, of course, continue to encourage this.

“At all cost, we should encourage and assist British trading interests to settle in the mainland ports of China, where they would be restrained by direct Chinese pressure which we would, in time, diplomatically control. And at all costs we must discourage England from fortifying and colonizing any island—as they have done at Singapore, Malta, Cyprus (or an impregnable position like Gibraltar)—which would not be subject to our pressure, and would serve as a permanent bastion for her military and naval might. It will be advantageous to initiate immediate and close trading relations with selected firms in that area.

“The keystone of our foreign policy must be ‘Let England rule the seas and the trade routes, and be the first industrial nation of the earth. But let Russia rule the land.’ For once the land is secured—and it is our sacred heritage, our God-given right, to civilize the land—the seas become Russian seas. And thus the Tsar of all the Russias will rule the world.”

Zergeyev could easily be a key to the plan, Struan thought. Is he the man sent to find out our strength in China? To settle “trade relations with selected firms”? Is part of his mission to report, at first hand, on American attitudes to Russian Alaska? Is he the man sent to prepare Russian Alaska for the hordes? Remember he said to you, “Ours is the land, yours the sea!”

The commentary on this report had been equally bold and penetrating: “Based on this secret document and accompanying maps, the validity of which is to be unquestioned, certain conclusions of far-reaching importance may be drawn:

“First, concerning the North American strategy: It must be noted that although the United States is gravely concerned over the present United States-British Canadian border dispute, she does not seemingly wish to acquire more territory on the North American continent. And because of the friendly relations that exist between the United States and Russia—carefully nurtured, it is believed, to fulfill this aim—the present general political feeling in Washington is that Russian involvement in Alaska and southward down the western coast does not infringe on her sovereignty. In short, the United States of America will not invoke the Monroe Doctrine against Russia and will therefore—astonishingly—leave their back door open to a foreign Power, contrary to their obvious best interest. Certainly contrary to the interests of British Canada. If five hundred thousand Euroasian tribesmen were to be introduced quietly in the north, as is perfectly possible, certainly the English and Americans would be in a completely untenable position.

“It must be noted further that, although the present Tsar is contemptuous of Russian America, this territory does present a Russian key to the continent. And if there should ever be a civil war in the United States over the slave issue, as indeed appears inevitable, these Russian tribes would be in a position to dominate that conflict. This would certainly bring England and France into the war. Russian nomadic hordes, with short lines of communication over the Bering Sea and a primitive ability to live off the land, would have a distinct advantage. And as most of the western and southwestern lands 
are
 sparsely populated, these settlers—or ‘warriors’—could sweep southward with relative ease.