by Taylor Lee
He said in an offhand voice, “Zhenqui means “precious” in Chinese. You might consider that name for your mare. Cherie is my name for you.”
~~~
The next morning Elena was in the barn early, excited to ride Zhenqui. Nianzu was in the next stall saddling up his stallion grumbling.
“Damn, Elena, the sun is barely up.”
“But it is a beautiful morning, Nianzu. I can’t wait to ride her again. You have to come with me.”
“I’ll take it from here, Nianzu.”
Elena and Nianzu turned in surprise to see Bai walk in leading Noire, saddled and ready to ride.
“I thought you were leaving early, Bai,” Nianzu said, glancing uncertainly at Bai.
“I was, but I want to see how Elena’s mare runs before I leave.”
He went out and tied Noire to the hitching post. When he came back in, he picked up Elena’s saddle, hoisting it up on the Arabian’s back.
He whistled in appreciation. “This is some saddle.”
Elena’s eyes flashed. Her voice was crisp, hard with the anger that had settled in following a night of tears.
“Where did you get it?” she asked.
Bai smiled. “Ask your grandfather.”
“I did. He didn’t know. He said to ask you since you were the one who bought it.”
Bai nodded, ignoring her question.
He finished saddling her mare in silence. When Elena stepped up to mount her, Bai reached over to lift her up.
“I can get up by myself,” she said twisting away.
“I know you can,” he said. Ignoring her attempt to pull away, he lifted her up on the mare then reached down to adjust her stirrups.
Elena tossed her head and started out of the barn, clicking the mare to a trot as soon as she cleared the courtyard.
In her excitement and thrill with the powerful animal beneath her, Elena almost forgot her anger. She threw back her head and looked over her shoulder at Bai coming behind her.
“Bet you can’t catch me!” She hollered back at him the way she had tormented Alex all their lives, goading her horse to a faster pace.
“Bet I can!” Bai yelled back. His eyes were dancing. A cocky grin spread across his face as he caught up to her. They raced neck in neck across the open range toward the canyons.
After they had ridden hard for half an hour across the mesa, they entered the rocky trail into the canyon. Responding to the winding trail, they slowed their horses to a trot.
“How does she ride?” Bai asked, breaking their comfortatble silence.
“Like no horse I’ve ever ridden.” Elena’s face and voice were alive with joy.
Bai tried to remember when he had seen a more beautiful sight. Her hair had sprung loose, flying behind her in a fiery cloud of wild curls. Her dark blue eyes were shining with excitement. The connection and contrast in colors between the beautiful woman and the magnificent horse took his breath away.
A rustling sound broke his reverie. Tugging on Noire’s reins, he whispered, “Elena, stop.”
She looked back and paled when she saw a band of men coming from the rocks behind them. They wore dirty, torn clothes. Their dark hair and eyes gleamed in the sunlight. The gun belts riding low on their hips and bandoliers across their chests confirmed they were banditos, the Mexican bandit gangs that roamed all of California and much of the Southwest.
Bai pulled up close to her, moving between her and the banditos. Looking to the robust fellow at the front of the group, he tipped his hat and said in a laconic voice, “Buen dia, mi amigo, el Senor Panches.”
“Ah, hola, el Senor Frances.” The leader of the banditos turned to his men. In a burst of rapid Spanish he confirmed it was the man they called the Frenchman.
Bai sat quietly on his horse. He made no move to reach for either of the guns he wore or to the knives he carried.
The banditos talked among themselves. Their fierce looks eased but remained guarded. They looked pointedly at the snow white horse and with even more interest at the red-haired, blue-eyed woman sitting astride it.
“Es hermoso caballo,” Panches said, pointing to the Arabian.
“Si.” Bai responded, acknowledging that the horse was beautiful.
“Es hermosa mujer, tambien.”
“Si.” Bai said, smiling at Elena.
“Su mujer?” Panches asked, nodding at Elena.
“Si.” Bai said with a grin.
Panches’s eyes twinkled. He said with a salacious grin, “Usted es
un hombre afortunado, Senor Frances.”
“Si, lo soy.” Bai agreed with a smile.
The two men looked at each other for a long moment. Gazing at him from his hooded eyes, the Mexican said, “Buen dia, Senor Frances. Vaya con Dios, mi amigo.”
“Y usted tambien, Senor Panches.” Bai said with a gracious bow, then motioned to Elena to go forward.
~~~
They rode without speaking for several minutes. Elena moved closer to him. “Who were those men, Bai?”
“One of the many Mexican bandit gangs that live and work in these canyons. And one of the reasons I won’t allow you to ride by yourself outside of the villa.”
She ignored his implied rebuke and said instead, “They know you. He called you the Frenchman.”
Bai smiled and nodded, picking his way down the steep trail.
“Why didn’t they try to rob us or hurt us?”
“I just told you. They know who I am.”
She didn’t answer for a moment, then spoke. “Bai, I may not speak French like the cultured women you associate with, but I have been speaking Spanish all my life.”
“Good for you. It seems to me that in this country, Spanish makes a hell of a lot more sense than a language few people speak or understand.”
“You told him that I was your woman.”
He raised an eyebrow, flashing an impish grin. “So I did.”
She waited for him to say more, but he was silent. As they rode out of the canyon toward the open range, he moved ahead of her and looked back over his shoulder.
“Race you to the villa,” he said with a laugh, galloping off at a fierce pace. In seconds, she recovered from her surprise and surged after him.
~~
Chapter 14
That afternoon, Elena and Nianzu were grooming their horses after another long ride. Elena had been unusually quiet most of the day, trying to understand Bai’s actions. She couldn’t figure him out. He had given her the most beautiful horse she had ever seen, but he diminished the effort it took, made it seem like nothing, that it was more her grandfather’s idea than his. And then last night, he had looked at her and touched her in a way that drove her crazy, made her feel things she had never felt before and didn’t understand or know she was capable of. But just as quickly, he pushed her away, treating her like a disobedient child who had stayed up past her bedtime. The final straw was this morning when he coolly confirmed to the Mexican bandit that she was “his woman.” Now, what the hell did that mean? With a sinking feeling, she knew the most likely answer. Like all of the ways that he teased and tormented her, it meant nothing—at least to him.
“Nianzu, why do people call Bai the Frenchman?”
“I guess because he speaks with a French accent. That’s how they differentiate him from the rest of us Chinese men.”
“But you don’t call him that, and Wan doesn’t. The only people I have heard call him that are the bad guys.”
Nianzu smiled. “Well, Elena, the reason the ‘bad guys’ know him is because of all the Chinese men in the Sing Leon and the other Tongs, Bai is the most feared. Everyone has heard of the Frenchman. No one wants to tangle with him.”
Elena wanted to ask more, but instead taunted Nianzu.
“Is that why none of the Sing Leon, including you, ever stands up to him?”
Nianzu shrugged, refusing to take her bait.
“Well, to me, he seems like the most overbearing, officious, arrogant man I have ever
known. I don’t understand why everyone is afraid of him.”
Nianzu responded carefully.
“They are for good reason, Elena. You might want to think back on what happened at the waterfall. I don’t know anyone, except maybe your father, or Wan in his day, who could have done what Bai did, and stayed in control. The only surprise to me
is that he didn’t torture them and then cut them to ribbons. That is what he is known for. But as always, he did what was most important. He got you out of there safely.”
Elena’s eyes widened, remembering how Jake and Clem cowered when they realized they were facing the Frenchman. Even she had been terrified of the young man who stood in front of four armed men, coolly smoking a cigarette. His eyes were the eyes of a wild animal, preparing to strike a lethal blow. Again, today the banditos let them pass when they realized he was the Frenchman.
Elena frowned, struggling to make sense of her thoughts. How could someone so elegant, so arrogant, and so cool be vicious, violent? She thought with a blush, perhaps she felt another side of that violence. When he held her close, she felt a passion, a fierceness in him. It wasn’t the kind of violence the Frenchman was famous for. But it was frightening never-the-less.
~~~
Later that evening Bai called her to his office. She thought for a moment that he wanted to talk about their wonderful ride or maybe even about what had happened last night in the barn.
Brimming with excitement, she told him that she and Nianzu had ridden again in the afternoon and that she had never had a horse as responsive and intelligent as the Arabian.
Bai smiled, acknowledging her excitement. “C'est une bonne chose. It gives me pleasure you like her. Arabians are known for their intelligence. They have great ability to learn quickly. I trust you will enjoy training her.”
His expression turned serious, his tone firm, as he enplained why he wanted to speak to her.
“Elena, those men in the canyon today are some of the many banditos that live and work in this area. They rob, plunder, rape, and kill without compulsion, often for the cause of a unified Mexico, which makes them even more dangerous. Wan and I have managed to maintain a fragile peace between them and the Sing Leon. Any incident, no matter how minor, could break the truce.”
Elena jerked back. His stern rebuke caught her off guard. It sliced through her like a sharp knife in her gut. She couldn’t believe she thought he asked her to come to his office to talk about their ride. Or maybe even make plans to ride with her again. But, no, he just wanted to make sure she didn’t misbehave. She responded angrily, flinging her sharp words at him. “So now in addition to causing a war with the white gangs, you think I’m going to rile up the Mexicanos? Next you will be blaming me for the Tong wars in New York and Chicago – places I’ve never been.”
Bai seemed surprised by her immediate hostility. He saw only the anger, not the hurt girding it.
“No, that is not what I am saying. I know you are excited about the Arabian. I want to reinforce why you need to obey my rules. Why you may not leave the villa without Nianzu or me.
“Are you saying I haven’t been obeying your rules?”
“No, somewhat to my surprise, you have been a good little girl. You do what you are told.” He added with a teasing grin, “You were easier to get under my control than I thought you would be. I want to make sure that’s where you stay.”
Elena sprang to her feet, her face hot with anger.
“Why do you do this to me, Bai? Taunt me one minute, then hold me in your arms the next? Today you had the audacity to tell that man that I am your woman. Why did you say that? Why? Because you think I am chattel? That I belong to you? That you can do whatever you want with me? Hold me one minute, then laugh at me the next?”
She moved closer to the door, her voice was low, intense.
“Let me tell you what I think of you. You are an arrogant son of a bitch. Unlike everyone else around here, I am not afraid of you. And you will never, ever, control me. Do you hear me?”
He frowned, surprised at her outburst, then his face tightened and his eyes narrowed. She ran out of the room without looking back, slamming the door so hard that it shook on its frame. She fled down the hallway, furious tears welling up in her eyes, when she heard his voice.
“Elena. Come back here.”
She ignored him and kept walking.
His voice was soft, threatening. “Elena. I said, come here.”
She turned and saw him leaning against the wall next to his door. He looked calm, casual until you saw his eyes. They were hard, gleaming, ominous. She walked back with her head held high and stood in front of him, glaring at him.
He looked down at her; his face was cool, impassive.
“Close my door.”
She frowned.
“What do you mean? Close your door? It’s already closed.”
“Open it. Then close it quietly, the way that an adult closes a door when they leave a room.”
She flushed, understanding the point he was making. In his eyes, she was a willful child.
She shrugged dismissively. She opened the door and then closed it, resisting the impulse to slam it as hard as she could.
He kept his hard gaze on her. “Open it again. And then close it.”
She opened it and closed it.
He opened it and said, “Close it.”
She was furious, but reached out and closed it.
“Again.”
Her hand was shaking. It took everything she had to open the door and then close it quietly.
“Thank you. Do not slam my door again. Do you understand?”
Her anger was so intense, her answer stuck in her throat, choking her.
“I asked you a question. Answer me.”
She looked down and nodded, her face flushed bright red.
“You may go”.
Her eyes were bright with fury as she turned and walked away.
~~~
Over the next weeks, Elena set out to prove that Bai’s most negative impression of her was accurate. She was rude, hostile, and rarely spoke to him. If she saw him coming, she went the other way. When he asked her a question, more often than not she would shrug as though she didn’t have an answer, then walk away without speaking.
In the meantime, the villa became the destination of choice for men between the ages of eighteen and thirty. The word of Wan Chang’s beautiful granddaughter spread quickly. Soon, the sons of neighboring ranch owners, businessmen, ranch hands, and trainers discovered they had business either with Wan or Bai and eagerly came to Los Vistas to conduct their business. When they were there, they took advantage of the opportunity to approach Elena. Some of the bolder men dropped the excuse of ranch business. They invited Elena to go riding or for long walks. The more creative ones asked her to come to their ranch to check on an ailing horse or to help them break in a new mare.
To the amusement of the other Sing Leon, and to his annoyance, Nianzu spent most of his time chaperoning Elena and the suitor of the moment. Whenever she went riding or for a walk with a lucky visitor, Nianzu followed behind them at a discreet distance. When she was invited to tea by young women who happened to have older brothers, Nianzu was forced to accompany her. His plight was the talk of the other Sing Leon. They teased him unmercifully, but there was not one of them who wouldn’t gladly take his place.
Even Bai’s life was changed by the men hovering around Elena. Greg Forester and Peter Sampson and other members of the governor’s staff became regular visitors to the compound for official business. They claimed that it was more convenient than Bai coming to Sacramento. They often spent the night at the villa and managed to squeeze in a horseback ride or an evening of cards with the lovely Elena.
Elena basked in the attention, delighted that it annoyed Nianzu and, she hoped, Bai. But her grandfather was thoroughly charmed and relieved. He knew that Elena loved parties and social events. He hoped that all the attention would make her happier with life at the compound
, help to put the tragedy of the waterfall attack behind her.
But Elena was not satisfied. She loved to dance and was excited to learn that regular social events were held in town, most often at the Golden Horseshoe Saloon. When she heard that there would be flamenco dancers on Friday evening she went to Wan’s office to ask if she and Nianzu could go. Bai was there, but Elena ignored him. She begged her grandfather to let them go. For once, Wan held firm. He knew they would need to send many Sing Leon members to protect her. When he began to waver, Bai stepped in, shaking his head in mild annoyance at her persistence.
“Elena, you need to understand. We would have to send a dozen Sing Leon to guard you. That many of my men in one place would be an open target to the other Tongs.”
Elena ignored Bai with a dismissive shrug. She turned again to her grandfather.
“Please, Grandfather, just because Bai never wants to have fun doesn’t mean I don’t. You know I love to dance. We have not had one party since I came here, except for that awful dinner with Governor Sampson and those dreadful women friends of Bai’s.”
Much to her chagrin, both her grandfather and Bai laughed out loud at that description of an unlikely relationship between Bai and the governor’s daughter and niece. Elena stood up, prepared to huff out the door when she decided a different tack might be more effective.
She dropped down beside Wan’s chair. Resting her cheek on his hand, she implored, “Please, Grandfather, please. Will you think about it? Please don’t say a firm ‘no.’”
