The Orchid Tree

by Siobhan Daiko

  ‘Then what?’

  ‘My man will take over controls and land aircraft near Soko Islands, in most south-western waters of Hong Kong Territory.’

  ‘Why do you need me?’

  ‘I will give you name of Hong Kong banks that buy gold from Macau illegally. Also will find out where new Triads have set up. I know you work for Special Branch. You tell them keep out of my business in return for this.’

  ‘What will happen to the gold?’

  ‘My men will conceal plane and tie up captives. I want you to pick up my men and gold.’

  ‘I still don’t understand why you need me. Can’t you get one of your men to do it?’

  ‘If you involved, I know Hong Kong police not trick me.’

  ‘Fair enough. I’ll let you know as soon as I’ve been given the green light.’ James crossed his arms. Special Branch was unlikely to want Leung’s information enough to countenance an in-flight robbery. ‘If I’m given the green light, that is.’

  ‘You will be. Or we won’t be able to stop any violence between the nationalists and the communists. Big trouble coming from China. And new Triads very big trouble-makers.’ Leung lifted his glass and smiled. ‘Yum sing! Or “bottoms up” as you British say.’ And he drained his brandy in one gulp.

  They ate quickly, talking about the food (delicious) and weather (too hot and wet). They had little in common, apart from Sofia. Did her uncle know about their affair? If so, he must have sanctioned it.

  James couldn’t fathom the man. Because he was Chinese, he supposed, but also for his political convictions. China was an enigma to him and the people so different to any he’d encountered before. Fascinating, though. He’d like to learn more about them. James was starting to feel more intrigued by the locals than by the stuffy expatriates.

  Take Henry Wolseley, a typical Colonel Blimp character, almost a stereotype, but then most of the expatriates in Hong Kong were like that. How had he produced such a sweet daughter as Kate? Ah, Kate! He was fond of her and glad he wasn’t exactly two-timing her. She deserved better.

  Heat spread up from James’ groin. God, Sofia was enticing. What if he risked everything and allowed himself to fall in love with her? Perhaps she didn’t want that. After all, she’d given him no indication . . .

  28

  ‘I don’t understand why you want to leave the Consortium, Sofia.’ Leo lit a cigarette. ‘Why give up all the power and influence we have here in Macau for the life of an ordinary person in Hong Kong?’

  ‘I don’t intend to be ordinary,’ she said, straightening her back. She sat opposite him in Father’s study. Balthazar, as usual, lay on the rug at his feet. The dog went everywhere with him; he spoilt it with titbits from the table and employed a servant solely to take the it for walks.

  ‘Hong Kong will flourish. And I intend to flourish with it.’

  ‘How’s that? With a piddling factory spinning cotton?’ He laughed, blowing smoke towards her. ‘That’s hardly going to make you a millionaire.’

  ‘The factory is just a start. I’ll invest my capital in the company. Uncle and I will develop it into a proper textiles business, manufacturing clothing.’

  ‘And set yourselves up to rival businesses in England?’ He sneered. ‘I don’t think so.’

  ‘Our labour costs will be much lower. We’ll be more competitive.’

  ‘What about quality control?’

  ‘I’ll go to Britain and learn from the experts.’

  ‘All these plans of yours will come to nothing when I take over the factory,’ he said, balancing his cigarette on the edge of the ashtray. ‘I’ll sell it to the highest bidder to get back my money. Many industrialists are leaving Shanghai to set up in Hong Kong.’

  ‘Uncle will pay you back. Give him time!’

  ‘Time is at a premium, haven’t you heard? Run along now, little bastard sister.’ He waved her off. ‘I’ve got a meeting to go to.’

  Sofia concealed herself behind the rhododendron bushes in the front garden and waited until Leo emerged from the house. Derek Higgins was with him. How she hated that man! He’d served Uncle like a slave and here he was kow-towing to Leo as if he were some sort of god.

  She remembered that Derek needed money for his family. And he had to feed his gambling habit. Uncle had paid him a fair wage, only it wouldn’t have made Derek rich. Neither would his fireworks factory, a small concern he ran on a shoestring. But it wasn’t an excuse to betray Uncle.

  Sofia followed Leo and Derek, keeping out of sight as they walked to the old Inner Harbour. The deep-sea junks clustered five abreast, washing hanging from a forest of bare masts. The temperature must have been in the nineties and the humidity was so high the air practically dripped moisture. She hardly noticed she was so used to it.

  She strode past the shipwrights, constructing their junks on cradles over a canal. Spicy aromas of food mingled with the stench of rotting rubbish. She ducked down a dark alley-way and hid behind a stall. Leo and Derek disappeared into a tea-house. Sofia crept up to the shuttered window and, peered through the cracks. She stiffened. They were talking to three Chinese men. One of the men leaned back in his chair; his jacket fell open. There was a gun in a holster strapped to his chest!

  She stared at the men for a long time and memorised their features. Then she rushed home and marched into the sitting room. Uncle was sitting under the ceiling fan.

  ‘If the men are returning to Hong Kong on the afternoon ferry I need to be on it too,’ she said after she’d told him what she’d been doing. ‘Now I know what they look like, it’ll be easy enough to keep an eye on them.’

  ‘You did well.’ Uncle handed her a wad of Hong Kong dollars. ‘Make sure you treat yourself to something nice at Lane Crawford.’

  ‘Thank you. I just hope I’ll be able to follow those men without problems.’

  ‘I’ll telephone one of my associates to meet you as you disembark.’

  Four hours later, a slight young man with a round face and crooked teeth greeted her at the pier on Hong Kong Island. ‘My name is Chun Ming,’ he said.

  The three Triads took rickshaws to the Ferry. Sofia and Chun Ming followed in a taxi. They managed to get onto the same boat across the harbour, and stood behind the men in the queue for another taxi.

  Past the airport, they stopped in front of what looked like a shanty town. There were shacks everywhere but for some crumbling old buildings in the centre. ‘I feared as much,’ Chun Ming said. ‘Kowloon Walled City.’

  ‘Oh?’

  ‘It’s the only part of Hong Kong that has stayed under the control of China. About six and a half acres of land, it wasn’t and never has been a city.’

  ‘Now I remember. Wasn’t it a Chinese military fort when Hong Kong was ceded to Britain over a hundred years ago?’

  ‘You mean when Britain grabbed Hong Kong in an unequal treaty. There’s no point following them in there. It’s full of Kuomintang supporters. No wonder the Triads have moved in . . .’

  ‘Thank you for bringing me here, Chun Ming. This information will be invaluable.’

  Sofia dropped him at his flat. In Tsuen Wan, she paid the taxi driver and went up to her office. She dialled James’s number and asked if they could meet.

  ‘I’m sorry, sweetheart. If I’d known you were going to be in town, I wouldn’t have made prior arrangements. I’m having dinner with my boss and his wife at the Parisian Grill. When do you go back to Macau?’

  Should she tell him not until tomorrow? No. ‘On the evening ferry,’ she lied.

  ***

  At eight o’clock Sofia was hiding behind a stall on the pavement outside the Parisian Grill. Why hadn’t James invited her to meet his friends? Perhaps he wasn’t ready. She wanted to see what they looked like. One day, she’d meet them properly. When James realised how much he loved her and didn’t care what others thought.

  A taxi pulled up. James was in the back seat. Oh, no! He wasn’t alone. He was with a European woman, just the two of them, and no sig
n of anyone who could be his boss. The girl seemed much too young to be Tony Chambers’ wife, and she was beautiful, willowy, with a heart-shaped face, and a fragile look that would make any man want to protect her.

  Sofia chewed her thumbnail. Should she march up to them and demand an explanation? But she had no rights over James, no rights at all. Hadn’t she’d played it cool with him up until now? The next time she saw him she’d find out about the Englishwoman and she’d let him know how she felt. It was time to tell him she loved him. The physical attraction she’d felt for him initially had grown into a deep love. If anyone were to ask her why that was, she’d find it difficult to explain other than the fact she wouldn’t be happy if she had to live without him. He made her feel complete.

  She wrapped her arms around herself. Uncle would be pleased with her spying this afternoon. Now he had something to give James in exchange for helping to save the factory. Uncle hadn’t told her what his plans were, but she had her own thoughts on what was needed, and those thoughts included James, Englishwoman or no Englishwoman.

  29

  In the Wellspring box at the Happy Valley racecourse, I was tapping my foot and listening to Papa chat with Arnaud de Montreuil, the French Consul-General. I’d much rather have spent the afternoon at home, but my father had insisted on bringing me with him, saying he had important guests and needed me to help entertain them. Also, I suspected he’d wanted me here because he’d invited James.

  ‘Love,’ Papa had said when I’d told him I hadn’t forgotten Charles. ‘Love comes when you make a life together.’

  ‘Is that what happened between you and Mama?’ I’d asked. ‘I know the story. After you met her in Southampton at the end of the first war, you came out to Hong Kong to better your prospects. Six months later, Mama embarked on a P & O liner, leaving behind everything familiar to her. You must have loved each other right from the start.’

  ‘Your mother and I came from the same background.’

  I stopped tapping my foot and went to stand next to James, who was watching the race, a betting slip in his hand. An electric machine on the other side of the track showed the enormous sums of money being gambled. People were leaning over the balcony in the next box, the majority of them Chinese. Unlike Papa’s other clubs, the Hong Kong Jockey Club approved of local members.

  A tall man turned around. Seconds passed; he was staring right at me. My heart thudded, and my knees began to give way. I stepped back, found a seat and undid the top button of my blouse. The walls of the box were closing in on me. Taking a few deep breaths, I got up and excused myself. ‘I need some fresh air,’ I murmured to no one in particular.

  ‘You do seem rather peaky.’ James glanced at me. ‘Shall I come with you?’

  ‘Don’t worry! I’ll be fine.’

  Outside, I fought my way through the crowds towards the entrance of the Jockey Club. Across the road, there was a cemetery. Another damn cemetery! I walked through the pillared entrance, climbed the steep hillside, and sat on a patch of grass. I had a clear view of the clock tower in the centre of the two members’ stands. On the other side of the valley was Blue Pool Road, where Papa and I used to ride every Sunday.

  A lone figure came through the gates of the race-track. He walked just like Charles used to, swinging his right arm with each step. The man crossed the road and climbed up the hill. Sudden fine drizzle fell and soaked my hat.

  My heart sang. It’s Charles! He’s alive! He stood in front of me and unfurled his umbrella. His adult face had become even more finely chiselled, his shoulders had broadened and his body, under a well-tailored suit, had filled out. But his hair still flopped across his forehead in that same maddening way.

  ‘I saw you leave and wondered where you were going with such a determined look on your face,’ he said, taking off his jacket and spreading it on the grass. ‘The ground is damp, let’s sit on this.’

  Feeling hot, I removed my cotton gloves and stuffed them into my handbag. Charles was looking away, probably to avoid meeting my eyes. As well he might, not having contacted me. Should I ask him why? No. He was sitting so stiffly; the years had turned him into a stranger. It wasn’t the sort of question you could put to a stranger.

  I pulled down my skirt. ‘Did you know the Japanese kept the Jockey Club open during the war?’ Might as well fill the silence with small-talk. ‘They called it the Hong Kong Race Club and changed the names of the ponies from English to Chinese.’

  ‘Apparently, they used the ponies to pull passenger carts when the buses stopped running after the petrol ran out.’

  ‘They even ate some of them.’ I shuddered. ‘How’s your family?’ I was aware of his gaze on my face now.

  ‘Ruth is doing well at school. She wants to become a doctor.’

  ‘Gosh, how clever of her!’

  ‘I expect she’ll come back to Hong Kong when she’s qualified. She keeps going on and on about how much she misses this place.’

  I glanced at my watch. ‘I’d better be getting back before they start worrying about me.’

  Charles got to his feet and held out his hand. His touch was so familiar a mad impulse took hold of me to reach out and stroke his face. Before I could stop myself my fingers were laced in his and I was kissing him. ‘Oh God, Charles, I thought you were dead,’ I said between kisses. ‘Why didn’t you contact me?’

  ‘B . . . b . . . but I did. I wrote to you.’

  ‘Well, I didn’t receive your letters.’

  ‘I wrote every month for a year.’

  ‘How can they have all gone missing?’

  ‘I wrote to your address on the Peak in the hopes someone would forward them.’

  ‘I never received them,’ I repeated, looking into his eyes.

  ‘I was worried you’d had second thoughts, but then I told myself you’d never do that. I’m right, aren’t I, Kate?’

  I kissed him again, full on the lips, and it was like coming home after a long, long journey. I was where I should be, in Charles’ arms. How could anything ever part us again?

  As if he’d read my thoughts, Charles said, ‘What about your father? Do you think he could have intercepted my letters?’

  ‘No, I’m sure he wouldn’t have. I expect the letters got lost in the post. Or they weren’t forwarded. That’s much more probable.’

  Charles took my hand and kissed it. ‘Your father didn’t approve of us in Stanley. He’s hardly likely to have changed his mind now. Perhaps we should keep our love a secret until we know where we stand with him? I don’t want to cause a rift between you.’

  A bubble of disappointment formed in my chest and I turned away from him. ‘I don’t care about that, my darling. I don’t care about anything but us, and I want to tell everyone.’

  ‘We will when the time is right,’ he said, turning me towards him. He stroked my cheek. ‘Oh, Kate, how I’ve longed to do that. I want everything to be perfect for you. No arguments with your father. And I need to prepare my family as well.’

  His family? Surely there wouldn’t be any problems with them? ‘Why’s that?’

  ‘My uncle and aunt have become very Chinese since the war. I’m sure they’ll grow to love you, but I need to give them time to get used to the idea.’

  ‘It’s all so complicated. I wish people were more open-minded.’

  ‘Hong Kong has become a melting pot of China. A place of refugees and my uncle and aunt fit in better with the Chinese community than the English. There’s an old saying: all rivers running into the China Sea turn salty.’

  ‘What’s that mean?’

  ‘All ethnic groups living in China get assimilated eventually.’

  ‘I think they’re privileged to have a dual background.’

  ‘How can they fit in with both cultures?’ Charles shrugged. ‘Before the war, they could be part of the Eurasian community. Where’s it now? Disappeared.’

  ‘I suppose you’re talking about yourself as well.’ I reached for his hand. ‘What about me? Am I too Engl
ish for you?’

  Charles gave one of his heartbreakingly beautiful smiles. ‘Oh, my sweet love. I don’t think of you like that. You’re Kate, the other part of me. Together we can overcome all this prejudice. I’m sure of it. We just need to take things slowly so we get what’s best for us.’

  ‘Fair enough. Only an hour ago I believed you were dead. Now I know different my life has meaning again. I’ll be satisfied with seeing you in secret for a while.’ I sighed. ‘How will we know when the time is right to tell everyone, though?’

  ‘We’ll know. Will you trust me?’

  ‘I suppose so. At least come back with me to the Wellspring box and say hello. That can be the first step.’

  ‘Of course,’ he said, and we kissed again.

  In the race-stand, Jessica and Tony welcomed Charles as if he were a long-lost friend. And Papa’s guests seemed fascinated to meet him, the nephew of millionaire Phillip Noble no less! The French Consul-General even promised a dinner invitation. But Papa stared at Charles as if he’d seen some sort of apparition.

  Charles exchanged business cards with James and Arnaud. ‘My uncle is expecting me. Nice to see you again, Kate.’

  ‘Nice to see you too.’ How long will I be able to keep up this silly pretence?

  From the other side of me, James pointed. ‘You’ve dropped one of your gloves, Kate.’

  Before I could do anything, Charles retrieved it. The message in his eyes was clear: love mixed with the fundamental decency that was essentially Charles. My Charles.

  ***

  In the car on the way home, Papa lit his pipe. ‘Did you know how Charles Pearce’s uncle came to be so filthy rich?’

  ‘Filthy rich. What a horrible expression. Please enlighten me!’

  Seemingly unfazed, Papa sucked on his pipe. ‘His father was an ordinary Portuguese Eurasian bank clerk. I believe Phillip Noble was educated at one of those elite schools that offered scholarships to local boys.’