The Blue Dress Girl

by E. V. Thompson

  Moments later the crowd broke and fled when the line of Royal Marines charged them with bayonets fixed, but it was too late to save Major Kelly. He lay in a rapidly spreading pool of blood where he had fallen, his jugular vein severed by the first sword stroke that had been struck.

  There were other casualties. Seventeen Chinese men died in the rioting and two Royal Marines were wounded. Another marine lay dead in a nearby doorway. The dead man was Marine Halliday, Major Kelly’s batman, and it transpired that he had been the cause of the riot.

  The story came out when Kernow questioned the two Chinese men held by the party of marines who had been with Major Kelly.

  Halliday had not learned from his earlier encounter with the Chinese. After another drunken spree, he and two companions made their way to the house where the woman he had raped lived. When they tried to force their way in the woman’s husband attacked Halliday with a meat cleaver, urged on by a gathering crowd of friends.

  Suddenly far more sober than they had any right to be, Halliday’s two friends fought their way through the Chinese and fled to the headquarters of the Royal Marines police. Here they gasped out the information that Halliday was being attacked by a rioting mob.

  The duty sergeant advised Major Kelly to call in at least half a company of his men before taking any action, but Kelly had been drinking heavily. He boasted to the sergeant that with no more than half a company of Royal Marines he could take Peking, if the opportunity arose. It needed no more than a dozen men to put down a riot.

  Major Kelly paid for his drunken bravado with his life. The next day he was given a funeral that was all he would have wished. Every marine from the fleet anchored off Canton paraded for the ceremony. The senior chaplain’s eulogy dwelled on the hero he had been, rather than the drunken, embittered officer he had become.

  The parade of Royal Marines was meant as a show of strength to deter any future rioters and it was indeed impressive, but Kernow doubted whether the British ‘police’ force in Canton would have any more trouble.

  Shortly before the funeral he had called a meeting with the Cantonese authorities. Between them they had thrashed out an agreement whereby the Chinese authorities would continue to administer the city, but with the aid of the British and French ‘police’ – and the commanding officer of the joint force would be the ultimate authority in any dispute.

  It was a satisfactory solution and one Kernow believed Admiral Sir Michael Seymour would find acceptable. Nevertheless, waiting outside his cabin on board the flagship, upon the admiral’s return upriver, Kernow wondered whether he might not have greatly exceeded his authority. Such an arrangement should not have been made without consulting the commander-in-chief first.

  He need not have worried. Lord Elgin was in the cabin with the admiral and it seemed he and his advisers had already decided to adopt a very similar form of ‘government’ for the city. The only difference they had in mind was that the British and French would leave a small, diplomatic mission in the city to assist the authorities in the administration of Canton. There would also be Royal Marines Light Infantry encamped outside the town to back up any unpopular measures the mission might feel were necessary.

  ‘Will I be remaining with the force policing Canton, Sir Michael?’

  Kernow asked the question hopefully. Despite his experience during the recent riot he liked the people of the city. He felt he could make a worth-while contribution to the maintenance of law and order here. He also secretly hoped that despite his age and lowly rank he might be given an opportunity to retain command of the British ‘police’ force.

  But it was Lord Elgin who dashed Kernow’s hopes.

  ‘The new commanding officer of the force in Canton has already been appointed, Lieutenant Keats. He will be assisted by two of the men from my mission who are fluent in Chinese. However, Sir Michael and I are very impressed with your conduct in this unfortunate matter. You kept a cool head and forged a most important link with the city authorities. I think your qualities might prove of use to us in the weeks ahead.’

  It was fulsome praise from the British minister, but Kernow was no clearer about what lay ahead for him. It was left to Admiral Seymour to explain what Lord Elgin had in mind.

  ‘You’re returning to duties as my aide, Kernow – and you’d better brush up on your Imperial Chinese. Lord Elgin intends to be received by the Chinese government in Peking. Meanwhile we’re all going to Shanghai while the details are worked out. Who knows, you might be the first Royal Marine to meet His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of China.’

  Book Two

  Chapter 1

  THE STEAMER CARRYING Esme Pilkington, She-she and Kau-lin took five days to make the voyage from Hong Kong to Shanghai. Among the other passengers was an alert and sun-tanned American adventurer who was not slow to strike up an acquaintance with the Englishwoman and her two companions.

  Erin Veasey was a man who, in another time and another place, might have been a privateering captain paying allegiance to Queen Elizabeth I of England. Master of a sailing barque, he had been trading arms in the Manila Islands when a typhoon, similar to the one which struck Hong Kong, had driven his boat ashore on a remote island.

  Unlike many men of his type, Veasey had his vessel adequately insured. Obtaining the insurance money had taken him longer than he would have liked, but he was now on his way to pick up a new trading vessel at Shanghai. This one was a steamer, less dependent upon the vagaries of the weather.

  All this he told Esme after introducing himself to the members of the small party as they strolled on deck, the first day out from Hong Kong.

  ‘Doesn’t it bother you to sell the means by which unsophisticated natives can kill one another, Mister Veasey?’ As was her way, Esme openly expressed the disapproval she felt at his way of life.

  ‘No, ma’am, I have to admit it does not. I look at it this way. My guns kill far fewer men than the opium sold by your British traders, and they cause a sight less misery to their families. Most of the guns are used for hunting, preventing a great many children from starving. Besides, from what I’ve seen of the native people in these parts, they don’t get to fighting with each other until someone puts the idea in their heads. If you’ll pardon me being so downright blunt, ma’am, they’ve had a darn sight more to fight about since we started trying to stuff religion into their heads than they ever had before.’

  ‘Mr Veasey!’ Esme bristled with indignation. ‘We bring the word of the Lord to heathen people – and the word of the Lord is “Peace”.’

  ‘I wouldn’t dream of suggesting you were anything but well intentioned, ma’am, but it seems to me things don’t always work out the way you want. You take the Taipings now. They have a claim on Christianity and you might expect that Christian countries would be eager to give them support. Yet, as far as I can see, there’s no Christian religion holding out its arms to welcome them to the fold.’

  ‘The Taipings have a somewhat distorted view of Christianity, Mr Veasey. However, I accept your point. Nevertheless, attitudes can change. They certainly will if I have my way. I would like to see Christian missionaries flocking to the Taipings and showing them the right way of worshipping Our Lord.’

  ‘You’re not thinking of taking a mission to them yourself, ma’am?’

  ‘And why not? I certainly won’t be able to do anything to help unless I go among them. I have no fear for myself. I believe they have considerable respect for women.’

  Erin Veasey inclined his head. ‘I believe they do.’

  ‘Besides, Kau-lin has a brother among them. He’s a general, no less.’

  Erin Veasey’s interest quickened noticeably. ‘Is that so? What’s the name of this brother of yours, Kau-lin?’

  ‘Peng Yu-cheng.’

  ‘You’re a sister of Peng?’ Erin’s expression showed both surprise and interest. ‘You do him less than justice by calling him a general. Peng is a “commandant”, the highest rank in the Taiping army. Not only that, he’s one
of the best leaders they have. A man of sound common sense, and that’s a rare quality in any soldier.’

  ‘You know Peng?’ Kau-lin displayed a childish delight.

  ‘We’ve met,’ Erin said gruffly.

  ‘So you sell arms to the Taipings too?’ Esme spoke accusingly.

  ‘I have in the past, ma’am.’ The American refused to go on the defensive. ‘If you’ve an interest in the future of the Taipings you’ll realise that someone has to get arms to them. If the Imperial army ever takes Nanking the Yangtze will be so choked with Taiping bodies you won’t get a ship upriver for months and you’ll find it’s a waste of time preaching the gospel to dead men.’

  Esme shivered. ‘I hardly think such a graphic description is necessary, Mr Veasey.’

  ‘China’s no place for the squeamish, Mrs Pilkington.’

  ‘I was thinking only of the girls,’ Esme lied. ‘And it’s Miss, not Mrs. Although I prefer Esme to either Miss, Mrs or Ma’am.’

  ‘Then I’d be obliged if you called me Erin. I apologise if I’ve said anything to offend the girls or you. All three of you are far too attractive to be upset by an American sea captain who has spent so long at sea he’s forgotten how to behave around women.’

  ‘You haven’t forgotten the art of flattery, Mr Veasey – Erin, but I’m given to understand that’s a national trait.’

  Esme found the American amusing. He might also prove very useful in the future. The thought of a mission to the Taipings had lost none of its appeal for her. She was convinced Erin Veasey was on his way to pick up a ship with the intention of trading with the rebels. It was almost as though the Lord had ordained that their paths should cross in such a way….

  Erin Veasey and Kau-lin spent much time in each other’s company during the five days of the voyage. Closeted together in the confines of such a small vessel it was inevitable that tongues should wag. The wife of a British consulate official at Shanghai, travelling on the steamer, thought it her duty to speak to Esme about the relationship.

  The diplomat’s wife left Esme’s cabin considerably ruffled. Esme had said very forcefully there was nothing immoral in the ‘friendship’ that had developed between the American sailor and the Chinese girl. She suggested that perhaps ‘evil was in the eye of the beholder’ and not in the situation itself.

  Esme really did believe the friendship between the two was purely platonic. Had she not, she would have felt it her duty to intervene, even though she entertained hopes of enlisting Erin’s help to fulfil her ambition of carrying the true gospel to the Taiping.

  Unfortunately, Eliza Goodge, the head of the mission in Shanghai where the new arrivals were to stay, did not share Esme’s interpretation of the relationship between the American sea captain and Kau-lin.

  The diplomat’s wife who had been Esme’s fellow passenger on the ship was a woman of some influence within the small, isolated British community at Shanghai.

  Immediately upon landing she voiced her disapproval to Eliza. There was support for her suspicion of Kau-lin’s morals. In a mail bag on board the steamer was a carefully worded letter from Hannah Jefferies to her counterpart in Shanghai. The letter gave the background of the two Chinese girls. Armed with this, Eliza left Esme in no doubts about her feelings.

  ‘I really don’t know what Hannah was thinking of to send us two girls – two Chinese girls, of doubtful morals. The situation should properly have been dealt with in Hong Kong. We have enough problems of our own in Shanghai. For years we’ve lived in fear of the Chinese, with a city of a million inhabitants at our back. Now we have refugees flooding to the area from the Yangtze river valley, driven out of their homes by the fighting between Imperial and Taiping soldiers. We have a desperate problem trying to keep the Chinese out of the settlement – and that’s another thing. Where do these two girls expect to live? It is forbidden by law for any Chinese to live in the British settlement. I’ll need to find somewhere for them to stay in the city, or with a Chinese family in the suburbs. That will not only cost a great deal of money, but it means it will be impossible to maintain any control over them whatsoever….’

  ‘If the two girls can’t stay here, then neither shall I,’ declared Esme firmly. ‘Perhaps you’ll be good enough to find accommodation for all three of us together? As for the cost … I have certain private funds. They may be small, but they will suffice, I think.’

  It was Esme at her most positive and Eliza Goodge was taken aback. ‘That will not be necessary. I will find somewhere suitable for them. In the French Concession, perhaps. They are not so particular about such matters. I know of a mixed family there who might be pleased to have a little extra income.’

  ‘What exactly do you mean by “a mixed family”?’

  ‘He is a Scot, married to a Chinese girl. Nevertheless, I feel he has sound Christian principles. Yes, I think that will be an acceptable solution.’

  ‘Splendid! I’m quite sure we’ll all be very comfortable there. When can we speak to this Scotsman and find out if he’s willing to take us in?’

  ‘Mrs Pilkington, I have already said such accommodation is not for you. You’ll have a room here, in the mission. I’m sure you’ll be very comfortable and you’ll have God’s work to keep you busy. I don’t doubt you mean well by your devotion to these two young girls, but you are a missionary. You have a station in life to uphold and the well-being of your fellow missionaries to consider. This is not a mission headquarters, nor yet a training school. Here in Shanghai we are in the front line of the evangelical movement and there are very few of us to carry out our work. We struggle very hard to maintain a precarious finger-hold in the vastness that is China. But it’s a wonderful challenge, Mrs Pilkington. A glorious challenge.’

  ‘It’s Miss Pilkington, not Mrs, and I am more than ready to meet any challenge that China has to offer. However, I have no doubt that I’ll meet it just as well from a shared house in the French Concession, if that’s the only way to remain with She-she and Kau-lin.’

  Chapter 2

  THE SHANGHAI MISSIONARY community was scandalised by Esme Pilkington’s decision to make her home in the French Concession, sharing the house of a mixed family with two Chinese girls. They pointed out that the two girls were not even committed Christians. Furthermore, it was by no means certain that Colin Strachan was legally married to Nan, his Chinese wife. Besides, Esme was a single woman. A missionary woman.

  They tried to involve the British consul in the matter. It was suggested he should warn her that unless she moved into the English settlement with her fellow missionaries she would be asked to leave the foreign settlement altogether. Wisely, the consul declined to interfere. He deplored Esme’s decision to leave the British settlement and live in such a fashion, but it was a domestic affair. One for the missionaries to solve for themselves. Perhaps they should ask the Bishop of Victoria to intervene on his next visit from Hong Kong?

  Not every missionary was against having Chinese girls living among them. She-she and Kau-lin were both pretty girls and some suggested there was a very good chance of converting them to Christianity. Nevertheless, whatever private thoughts were entertained about such an arrangement, in public the official missionary line was maintained.

  In fact, the order excluding Chinese from residing in the foreign settlements had been made by the Chinese government. It was an attempt to prevent its own people from being ‘corrupted’ by the Fan Qui. The missionary Fan Qui in particular.

  Esme did not mind her ostracism by the British community. She threw herself into the work for which she had come to China and proved she was a determined and resourceful woman.

  Most days Esme went out on her own. She did not feel in the least threatened, whether she preached among the Chinese multitudes inside the Shanghai city walls, or stood surrounded by thousands of refugees outside.

  She seemed to take on a new life amidst the not always wholesome aromas that rose from the narrow back streets of the city. The worker-bee hum that rose from Shanghai
to assail European ears seemed only to charge her with renewed energy.

  Before long Esme was conducting regular services for the close friends of the Strachan family, in their small home. She got on extremely well with Nan and with Colin Strachan too, and admired their loyalty and love for one another. Each had sacrificed a rightful place among their own people in order to live a life together. Despite their many problems it was a relaxed and warm household. Esme particularly enjoyed the late evenings when she helped Nan bathe the small children and put them to bed.

  One evening, watching the large missionary woman handling the small children with unusual gentleness, She-she said to Kau-lin, ‘Esme would have made a wonderful wife and mother had she been able to find a man to understand her ways.’

  ‘He would have needed to be a strong man to be ruler in his own house with Esme for a wife.’

  She-she shook her head. ‘You are wrong. Esme would give her all – yes, life itself for someone she loved.’

  ‘Perhaps.’

  ‘Nan and her husband have both given much, yet they are very happy.’

  ‘Yes, they are happy in their own way. It would not suit everyone.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ She-she challenged her friend.

  Kau-lin knew that whenever She-she looked at Nan and Colin Strachan she was thinking of what might have been had Lieutenant Keats come back from his rescue mission on the Canton River.

  ‘Strachan is a different man to your lieutenant.’

  ‘How is he different?’

  ‘Nan was telling me about him. Strachan knew no mother or father. He was sent to sea when a young boy. Always shouted at and bullied, nothing he did was right. Then he met Nan. She was a flower-boat girl. She too had nothing. No one. Suddenly two half-people became one person and they went away and lived together. When she expected their first baby they were married. Now she sews and washes to make money for them all. Sometimes, when things are very bad, she becomes a flower-girl again for just one time – but Strachan knows nothing of this. He too works very hard helping to make houses, tables, gardens – anything that needs doing. Nothing matters to him if it keeps his children fed. It is the same with Nan.’