Unaware of his fascination with her lips, she said, “There are so many things we haven’t even discussed. Where will we live? I know you are anxious to return to New Mexico.”
“I’ve thought about that. I won’t try to fool you, Jade, this is no place for me. But I wouldn’t object to bringing you back here once a year for an extended visit.”
Knowing how much he hated the city, certain that his life at the ranch must be demanding, she knew what a sacrifice he was making to even offer.
“I have some things I must take care of first,” she said, thinking of the collection. Earlier this evening, everything seemed so confusing. Now, as she listened to Jason, she became all the more determined to contact the bank and let them know she would be willing to give up the adobe and land to pay off her father’s debts. She would even sign over the art pieces if the land did not cover the debt.
Surely Grandfather would forgive me for abandoning his dream, she decided. There was little else she could do, unless she was willing to forgo the happiness she was certain she would know as Jason’s wife. It was time to dream her own dream and let go of the past.
J.T. began again. “I can’t leave here until the mansion is sold and I’ve bought the new horse stock I promised Uncle Cash I’d take back to New Mexico. That should give you plenty of time to get your business in order.”
She couldn’t believe she was sitting with him, casually discussing the possibility of a future that she could not even have imagined five days ago.
A waiter interrupted and the main courses were laid out before them. Jason turned his full attention to the meal. Jade explained each dish and its ingredients as he poked and prodded at the vegetables, sticky white rice, and small portions of meat with his fork.
Jade ate heartily, deftly picking up even the smallest grains of rice with her chopsticks, while Jason tasted and examined each piece before he ate it. At long last they were finished and Jade suggested they take a horsecar back to the Barretts’s. With eight horsecar companies in the city, it was easy to find a line on any major street.
Jason stayed close beside Jade as they walked through Little China. As they passed a red and gold building covered with detailed ornamentation at the corner of Dupont and Green, Jade told Jason that it was the Chinese theater. A performance had just ended, and as they strolled by, a crowd exited the building. Jade was intent on moving away from the pressing throng and momentarily forgot to be sure that J.T. was right behind her. Before she knew what had happened, she was being jostled along with the boisterous crowd.
She tried to stand on tiptoe to see what had become of Jason, but he was nowhere in sight. Somehow she found herself in the center of a tight knot of men, bobbing along in the crowd like a cork in an angry sea. There was something odd about the way a small phalanx had formed about her. They were all men, most of them dressed in nondescript peasant garb, none of them looking directly at her. Fighting to stay calm, Jade tried to stop moving until Jason could catch up to her, but when she did she received an abrupt shove from behind.
“Stop that,” she said in Cantonese, furious that someone would treat her so rudely. She pushed back.
J.T. did not know when they had become separated, but the moment he realized Jade had been swept away with the crowd, his pulse quickened and he felt for the gun he had tucked into the back of his waistband. After what he considered to be two attempts on her life, he had been determined to be on guard whenever they were out together. Now it seemed he had done a poor job of protecting her.
He could easily see over the heads of most of the crowd, but in the sea of humanity, he could not tell Jade from the rest. In the daylight, her bright hair would have given her away, but in the darkness it seemed she had been swallowed up by the crowd. If anything happened to her, J.T. knew he would never forgive himself.
He kept moving, certain she must have traveled in a forward direction, unwilling to believe she had been abducted. He tried to convince himself she would be waiting for him at the next corner, smiling up at him with a horsecar ticket in her hand.
When he reached the corner and the crowd opened up, Jade was not there.
He spun around, carefully checking every direction. Then he spotted what appeared to be three men heading down an alleyway at a fast clip, and ran after them. His boot heels rang out loudly in the narrow passageway as he ran past closed doors and darkened windows. Somewhere in one of the apartments along the alley, a child’s cries turned to screams. A door slammed. The men ahead of him began to run. J.T. took up the chase.
Caught between her captors, Jade struggled to break free. When they had first turned into the narrow alleyway, she realized with terrifying clarity that they meant her harm. But by then it had been too late. Shoved ahead of them, she was halfway down the alley when she heard the echo of boot heels behind them. The Chinese had on soft-soled, flat slippers.
“Jason!” She screamed his name at the top of her lungs, praying the man chasing them was J.T.
The man behind her leapt forward, slammed into her, then wrapped his hand around her mouth. Jade tried to bite him, to fight and scratch and beat him off, but the man who held her was the largest of the three.
The sound of Jade calling out his name spurred Jason on. He slipped the gun out of his waistband and fired into the air. Two of her captors sprinted toward the end of the alley and then separated, escaping into side alleys. The man holding Jade gave her a vicious shove backward as he let her go. Her last glimpse of him revealed a gap-toothed smile and a wispy manchu beard. She stumbled backward and hit her head against the brick wall. As she fought for breath, the well-trampled earth in the alleyway rushed up to meet her, and she lost consciousness.
Jason’s first reaction was to follow the men who had taken flight, but when he saw Jade crumple to the ground he fired again in an attempt to bring the man down without killing him. Darkness hampered his aim and the man escaped.
Concern for Jade sent Jason rushing to her side. Gun in hand, he lifted her into his arms, intent on getting her into the light so that he could make out the extent of her injuries. Before he had taken a few steps, she moaned and feebly tried to push away from him.
“Shh, Jade. It’s all right. It’s me, Jason.”
He felt her go limp again and held her close. A small crowd had gathered at the end of the alley. He pushed his way past the curious onlookers until he stood in front of a well-lit store, and then he asked an aproned vendor in the doorway for water.
The man disappeared inside and came back with a cup of tepid tea.
Jason thanked him and sat down on an upended barrel, still holding Jade tight in his arms. Afraid to put his gun away, he gently laid it on Jade’s stomach. Then he accepted the tea from the shopkeeper and pressed the cup to her lips.
“Drink this,” he said, careful not to pour it down the front of her as he kept one eye on the crowd.
Jade moaned and opened her lips to the soothing liquid. She opened her eyes and met Jason’s worried gaze. He pulled the cup away.
She blinked, shook her head, and in a voice that denied her words said, “I’m all right. Really.”
“Are you sure? Can you sit up?”
She looked at the crowd of Chinese that surrounded them and groaned, “It looks like we’ve done it again.”
He picked up his gun and helped her to a sitting position, but was reluctant to let her leave his lap until he was certain she was all right.
“Miss Douglas?”
Both Jade and Jason looked up.
“Detective Chang,” she said.
Jason stared up at the Chinese policeman. “Am I glad to see you.”
The detective stood within a circle of burly, blue-uniformed San Francisco policemen. It was an incongruous sight—the lithe, well-dressed detective standing in the ring of huge Caucasians holding axes and rifles at the ready.
“We were here to raid an opium den when we heard a gunshot and ran down the street to see what had happened. I never thought to find you here, Miss Douglas.”
“Is there somewhere we can go to get her off the street?” Jason asked.
Chang nodded. “Follow me.”
JON CHANG LIVED above a jewelry shop in Little China, which they reached by traveling through a narrow labyrinth formed by building walls, then through an inner courtyard which opened into the back of the jewelry store. Here, in the bowels of Little China, the over-crowded conditions and cramped housing shared by the Chinese was all too evident. Jason carried Jade up a rickety wooden stairway that led to Chang’s third-story room. The cloying scent of air heavy with grease surrounded them as they passed open doorways. People stared out at them from every portal.
J.T. was more than thankful that he was accompanied by Chang. He would never want to venture into this place alone.
Chang ushered Jason and Jade inside and put a pot of water on the stove while J.T. set Jade down on a straight-backed chair before taking a seat himself.
“Tea will be ready soon,” Chang told Jade. “Now, perhaps you should tell me what happened tonight and why your companion found it necessary to fire those shots.”
Jade introduced Jason and told Chang what she could remember about her near-abduction. Jason then related his part in the escapade. Chang listened attentively to them both.
“It seems, Miss Douglas, that you are not safe here in Little China. Although I thought that with the death of your father the tong would be appeased, it seems this is not so. I have heard nothing from the underground network concerning you. Nothing further about the missing alchemist, either, but that doesn’t mean they might not want to abduct you in order to gain more information.”
Jason arched a brow at Jade and crossed his arms over his chest. “This isn’t the first attempt on Jade’s life. A huge potted plant came hurtling over the stairway at her two nights ago at the Palace Hotel. Then yesterday, someone locked her into the cellar at her grandfather’s adobe.” He hated seeing her so shaken, her face blanched of its usual healthy glow.
Chang remained outwardly cool. “You did not contact me about these attempts on your life, Miss Douglas. Why?”
Jade sighed. It was all so complicated. “Because, I thought the falling urn was just, an accident until yesterday, then when I got back from riding out to the adobe, well—” She had returned to learn about the horrid news article and the locked trap door seemed of little consequence then. “I just did not get around to letting you know.”
“Miss Douglas, I must warn you to stay out of Little China. If you do not, I cannot guarantee your safety.”
“Don’t worry. She won’t come anywhere near this place again, if I have anything to say about it.” Jason stood, his brows drawn into a frown, his eyes dark with concern.
“Did you happen to find anything when you visited the Page adobe, Miss Douglas?”
“Nothing,” she said with a shake of her head, then amended her reply. “Nothing but a red silk belt. It must have come from my grandfather’s things. There was nothing else that might lead us to Li Po.”
“Who in the hell is Li Po?” Jason asked.
Jade and Chang both answered at once.
“The alchemist.”
An overwhelming sadness swept over Jade, replacing her earlier fright as it receded. Her father seemed to be ruining her life from the grave. Not only had he put her so deep in debt that she was forced to give up her only inheritance and her grandfather’s most precious treasures as well, but now someone was trying to kill her. And what if they had harmed Jason? Perhaps it was a godsend that he had asked her to marry him and move to New Mexico. She could no longer journey into Little China, nor would she ever feel safe anywhere in San Francisco.
She looked up and found Jason watching her intently, concern etched on his features. She smiled tiredly and stood up. Not only had her own life been ruined, but she had unwittingly drawn him into the web of danger. And what had he done in return? Offered her his love, his name, and his protection.
Suddenly, she wanted to get out of Little China. Wanted to see that Jason was out of harm’s way. “I don’t think I will stay for that cup of tea, Detective; I hope you will excuse me.”
“Of course. Miss Douglas. I understand.”
Chang walked them down the stairs, through the winding entrance to the courtyard and all the way to the corner, where he waited until they boarded the horsecar. To further shield her from harm, Jason gave Jade an inside seat. He watched as the driver of the horsecar chatted amiably with the passengers. The man seemed to know all of the regular riders by name. At one point the car’s weight was not equal to the plodding hay-burner’s strength, so the male passengers jovially disembarked and helped push the car along a few yards. They were far enough out of Little China that Jason felt confident about leaving Jade’s side for the few moments it took to get the horsecar moving up the steep hill, but he made certain he walked along beside her.
Once he was reseated in the car, he drew her close to his side and sat with an arm possessively draped around her. She smiled up at him before she allowed herself to lean back into the warmth of his embrace.
Although there was the continuous breeze blowing in from the sea, the night was relatively warm for October. They rode in contented silence listening to the clip-clop of the plodding horse. As more and more passengers disembarked, the remaining riders’ voices became hushed. There were two other couples left on the open-sided car, but neither paid Jason and Jade any attention. Jade blushed when the pair a few seats in front of them exchanged a kiss. She looked down at her hands.
“Jason,” she whispered, still unable to shake the melancholy feeling that had descended on her.
“Umm?” His lips gently grazed the top of her head.
“About your proposal—”
“I’ve been thinking about that myself,” he whispered back.
Jade’s throat tightened. He would take it all back now before she had a chance to sample happiness.
“Have you decided?” he asked.
Jade knew she would be a fool to let this gentle, caring man slip out of her life. She might never have another chance to discover love again.
Jade faced him squarely in the darkness. “I’ll marry you, Jason,” she said.
“And move to New Mexico?”
“Wherever you want.”
“I love you, Jade.” He said it simply, because it felt so good to admit it to her and to himself.
It was the first time anyone had ever said I love you to her. Her father most certainly had not, her mother had been too preoccupied with her own problems. Grandfather Page treated her with love and understanding, but had never told her he loved her in so many words.
“No one has ever told me that before,” she said, her voice breaking on the words of admission.
“Get used to it,” he warned. “I plan on making it a habit.”
Chapter Twelve
Water and words are easy to pour . . .
Impossible to recover.
JASON HARRINGTON straightened his cuffs and then his black silk bow tie as he stood outside the Barretts’s house waiting for someone to answer his knock. He felt his right coat pocket for the hundredth time and found—just as he had each time before—that the long velvet jewel case was still there. He shoved his hands in his trouser pockets and rocked back on his heels, tilted his head skyward, and realized he hardly ever saw stars in San Francisco. It seemed the night sky was perpetually blanketed with clouds or fog.
He would give anything to be standing on the veranda of the ranch in Canyon de las Bolsas watching the stars instead of waiting for someone to usher him into his own wedding. Determined not to let his nerves get the best of him, Jason reached out and banged the bras
s doorknocker again. It was bad enough he had been dealing with a severe bout of prewedding jitters all day without having to agonize alone on the Barretts’s front stoop.
He tried to picture Jade’s expression last night when he told her that he loved her. She was as trusting as a child. His heart ached for her when she confessed that no one had ever said those words to her before.
Love was something he had always taken for granted. His mother had loved him enough to give up her own security to see that he lived a decent life away from his father’s infidelity. The Youngers loved him enough to take him in when his mother died. Even if they had not ever told him outright that they loved him, he knew they cared for him as if he were their own son.
A wry smile twisted his lips. The women in Santa Fe had loved him. They said so every time he’d made love to any of them. Of course, they swore they never said as much to any of their other customers, but still and all, Jason had heard the words spoken aloud.
No, he couldn’t imagine having lived the kind of life Jade Douglas had—ignored by her parents, dependent on an old man and a scatterbrained girlfriend for companionship. He was definitely doing the right thing. Jade Douglas deserved to be loved and cherished, and he intended to see to it for the rest of his life.
Jason took a deep breath and wondered if he had the right house. From the way no one was responding to his knock, he was certain he was at the wrong address. Quickly, he stepped back and surveyed the front of the house. Like every other structure on the street, the place had a wide bay window and stretched up three stories high. He checked the numbers near the door. No, this was definitely the right place.
Just as he was about to pound on the door with his fist, a blushing maid opened it wide and stepped back to let him in. He nearly laughed aloud as she gazed up at him in awe, her mouth hanging open, her eyes as wide as silver dollars. She didn’t say a word.
“I’m J.T. Harrington.”
She did not budge.
“The groom,” he added.
She bobbed a quick curtsey and continued to stare.
Jade Page 19
