My Splendid Concubine

by Lofthouse, Lloyd

  It was late and clouds obscured the stars. A chill crept into the camp. He buttoned his jacket and pulled the collar around his neck and ears. He yawned. His eyes started to close. It was a struggle to stay awake. He wanted to watch over Ayaou but decided to rest his eyes. How could that hurt?

  The first sounds Robert heard were the cocks crowing from the surrounding farms. He awoke to the washed-out blue light of dawn.

  Then the enemy came.

  With the morning sun behind them, the Taipings charged from the city. They came with muskets, crossbows, swords, spears, axes and clubs. They hacked their way into the camp killing many of the drunken men of Ward’s small army where they slept.

  The crackling sound of musket fire on the outskirts of Ward’s camp woke everyone deeper inside. The army panicked. Those that survived dropped their rifles and ran.

  Robert started searching for targets and fired his weapon as quickly as possible—pulling the trigger and reloading. He checked Ayaou often. The last time he saw her, she was calmly sitting there reloading the pistol. That was when Taipings, like locusts, swarmed over them in the grove of birch trees.

  When Robert’s rifle emptied, he reversed it and used it as a club. A young Taiping overcame him. The man obviously had been trained in a hand-to-hand form of combat. After a few kicks and blows, he took Robert’s rifle.

  Several other Taipings surrounded Robert shouting and cursing. He was determined not to cry for mercy or die like a coward. Then one man pounded on the back of his head. He felt a stabbing pain run down his side as a sword scored his ribs. Before he lost consciousness, he heard several loud, rapid gunshots.

  Chapter 10

  Robert awoke choking. His rib cage ached. He thought he might have lost a limb in the fight. He made an effort to lift his arms and discovered with relief that he still had them. He stared at his hands and wiggled his fingers to see if they worked. Then he saw his bare feet and wondered where his boots were.

  “Ayaou,” he said, but heard no answer. Was she dead? A crushing depression threatened to sink him. It was his fault. If it hadn’t been for him, she would have been safe in Shanghai. How could he live with himself? Maybe he should find a way to take his life and end it now.

  “Don’t be stupid,” he said, talking to himself. “Wait until you know the facts.”

  The underside of a dry, straw roof greeted him. A narrow, low opening appeared to his right and moonlight leaked into the place. It looked as if he were in a peasant’s hut.

  Was he a prisoner?

  There were dry rustling sounds of mice and rats inside the straw walls of the hut. From outside came the noise of frogs and crickets, which told Robert there were no people close by, or the insects would have been quiet.

  He rolled onto his side and gasped. A burning pain raced the length of his ribs. He then managed to prop himself up on one elbow. His right arm was strapped to his body, so he used his left to explore. He touched a rag that was wrapped around the top of his head. There were several bowls filled with water in reach. He picked one up, sipped the water, and relished it as it trickled down his parched throat. He coughed and closed his eyes. He felt weak. His flesh burned. To quench the fever he poured a bowl of water over his head.

  The next time he opened his eyes Ayaou was sitting beside him.

  “Oh, merciful Buddha,” she said, and smiled with happy tears in her eyes. She held out an egg. “You’ve lost weight. I’m going to open this raw egg and pour it into you. I’ve also got apples, some peaches and tomatoes, and a few squash I took from the fields.”

  “Are the Taipings letting you cook? They didn’t strike me as the type.”

  “We can’t cook because the Taipings might see the smoke and discover us.”

  “So, we’re not prisoners.” That was a relief. “How close to Sungkiang are we?” he asked.

  “Several miles.”

  Robert opened his mouth. She poured the raw, slimy egg in. He gagged but swallowed anyway. She used his dagger to cut an apple into slices and fed them to him one at a time. Energy started to trickle back. “How long have we been here?” he asked.

  “Several days,” she said in a rush of words, “and you were unconscious with a fever. You talked in your sleep. I couldn’t understand what you said, and I’m worried that Ward will find us.”

  “Not to worry,” Robert replied. “Ward will think we’re dead. He might be dead, and if he isn’t, the Tapings are more dangerous right now.”

  She lifted the Colt. “It’s loaded. If any Taipings find us, I’ll shoot them.” She pointed toward a dark corner. “And I saved your rifle.”

  He saw it in the corner next to his boots.

  “You fought like a demon,” she smiled, “until one Taiping jumped on your back and hit you on the side of your head with a rock. I thought he killed you. There was so much blood. I emptied the pistol into them. The ones I didn’t shoot ran. Then I dragged you away before they returned. I remembered what you said about the gully. Later I paid a peasant to let me use his donkey. We were fortunate the owner of this hut had fled. We have no money left.”

  Robert felt his pockets and discovered they were empty. She could’ve robbed him and saved herself. Instead, she risked her life for him. A lump of gratitude mixed with love gathered in his throat. Ayaou’s loyalty touched him deeply. He valued loyalty and hard work above all else.

  Her eyes filled with tears. “Buddha has been with us,” she said. There was a moment of stunned silence when they saw the tears on both their faces. Then they laughed. It felt good to be alive.

  “Are you a Buddhist?” Robert asked.

  “Why would you ask that?”

  “Because that’s the second time I’ve heard you mention his name.”

  “Oh.” She laughed. “I don’t think I’m a Buddhist. It’s just something we say when there is trouble. We are always willing to be helped by Buddha when we need him. My father took us on pilgrimage to the Pootoo Islands off the coast of Ningpo. Once we went on the annual pilgrimage to Miaofengshan in the north. I remember thousands of pilgrims, old and young, men and women, on the trail carrying sticks and yellow bags. We traveled day and night to reach the sacred temple. What I remember most was the vegetarian meals the monks served. After my mother died, we stopped going.”

  It was quiet for a moment, as they felt sad for the loss of her mother. Robert spoke first. “I want you to discover what happened to Ward and his army.”

  She hesitated. “But I don’t want to leave.”

  “Go early in the morning while it is still dark. Before we return to Shanghai, I have to know what happened.”

  After Ayaou left, the days dragged. Robert rested the revolver on his stomach and dozed. It was hot and stuffy inside that hut. It was difficult to sleep. A jar of water sat on his right side, and the food was on his left. Flies crawled on the leaves Ayaou had used to cover the food.

  He pried back the makeshift bandages to discover the sword wound down his side had not been deep. She’d packed the wound with what looked like spider webs and ground pepper. There was no sign of infection. He was healing.

  Idle thoughts led him to realize he hadn’t attended a church service since leaving Ningpo. The minister from the Church of England, who Robert had trusted with his Belfast sins, would ask questions. Since Robert had confided in the man, what was he to say about his life now? Was he to tell this minister that he’d fallen overboard and was drowning in adulterous sin with a woman the minister considered a savage because she wasn’t a Christian? No, Robert couldn’t imagine himself sharing intimate information like that with any man of his kind.

  Ayaou returned early in the night. She knelt beside Robert and felt his head and the back of his neck. Her touch woke him. She said, “You aren’t eating enough. That worries me.”

  She went to the rice paddies where she caught several frogs. Back in the hut, she pulled off their heads and skinned them. After sprinkling salt on the raw meat, she told him to eat.

  “I d
on’t eat raw meat,” he said, “and not a bloody frog that looks like a small human with four limbs.”

  “But I insist. You have to get well by eating, because I can’t carry you to Shanghai. I’ve caught mice too. Mice are a Chinese delicacy—delicious.”

  Oh god, Robert thought, I’m going to retch. She couldn’t seriously expect him to eat raw mice. “Tell me what you heard about Ward.” Robert tried to avoid watching Ayaou spitting out mice bones. He wondered if he could still kiss her after seeing her do that.

  “It was easy,” she said. “Everyone in Shanghai was talking about it. When the survivors from Ward’s army reached Shanghai, they collected their pay and deserted. Ward survived without a wound. He vowed revenge against the Taipings and is recruiting a second army. His posters are everywhere.”

  This wasn’t what Robert wanted to hear. “Help me get outside,” he said, and struggled to stand. “I have to do something to get my strength back. When we reach Shanghai, I want to confront Ward.” He didn’t have much hope of defeating the mercenary general. Now that Robert had Ayaou, he wasn’t going to let her go. He’d die first.

  It was cool and shadowy in the straw hut the next day, and Ayaou slept beside him. Robert couldn’t sleep, so he watched the peasants working the rice paddies like others had done for centuries—maybe for millennia. In the distance he saw a waterwheel moving water from a stream or canal into the fields.

  A man wearing a high, cone-shaped bamboo hat was turning the wheel with his legs. He sat high on top of the water wheel as if it were a unicycle. The wheel was made of rectangular buckets, which scooped the water out of the stream to lift over the dike and dump into the rice paddy. Robert watched the way the light reflected off the man’s muscular, bare legs as he turned the pedals.

  China had been preserved like one of those thousand-year-old eggs he’d refused to eat soon after arriving in Hong Kong. The printing press, the compass, the crossbow and gunpowder had been invented centuries before they appeared in Europe, but China had never used them as Europe had.

  Robert had always thought of farmers as honest, hardworking people that lived simple lives. Because of the simplicity of what he was watching take place outside the hut, he wanted to capture the scene in a painting so he could preserve it.

  Robert pondered the possibility of Ayaou and him taking up such a life but of course, life wasn’t that easy. However poor or powerful you were, tragedy and hardships had a way of finding you.

  A poem he’d read by the eighteenth century Chinese poet Yuan Mei came to mind:

  On the Road to T’ien-T-Ai

  Wrapped, surrounded by ten thousand mountains

  Cut off, no place to go—

  Until you’re here, there is no way to get here.

  Once you’re here, there is no way to go.

  Robert wondered if he had any place to go—if his life was about to end before it had a chance to begin.

  At night, Ayaou started to help Robert take short walks. It was slow progress at first. By the middle of August, the pain left and his appetite returned. As the long days progressed, he resolved that whatever it took to keep Ayaou from Ward, he’d do it. If there were a way, he was determined to find it. Maybe they could flee to India, but how would he earn a living there? If he returned to Ireland, his parents would never understand a Chinese girl like Ayaou. Besides, Ayaou wouldn’t be able to adjust. She would be lost outside China. This was her country. It would be selfish to take her away from her people.

  After one long, exhausting walk, he propped himself against the inside wall of the hut. Ayaou sat beside him. “Move closer so I can put my arm around you,” he said. “I like holding you. It reminds me of why I want to stay alive.”

  She leaned over and fed sweet, pale-yellow pieces of baked yam into his mouth. He didn’t question how she got the yams. She must’ve stolen them from someone’s kitchen. After all, they couldn’t risk a fire, and they didn’t have money. What other way did she have to get cooked food?

  She touched his hair. “I love your funny accent. You are everything an ordinary Chinese man thinks ugly—big nose, hairy body, and pink skin, but I can’t have enough of you. In China it’s stupid for a woman to dream, but I dared to dream of belonging to you. I wouldn’t mind being your foot warmer in the winter and a cool breeze for you in summer.” She cast her eyes downward. “I miss my sister, Shao-mei. It was bad luck she had to be sold to a man like Captain Patridge.”

  Robert stiffened. He’d forgotten Shao-mei. He felt heat filling his face and knew it was turning red. Why couldn’t he hide such a response when he felt guilt or shame?

  “Are you all right?” Ayaou asked, concern showing in her eyes.

  “We have to leave for Shanghai,” he said.

  “You’re not ready.”

  “We have no choice. We must go.”

  “What’s the hurry?”

  “It’s for Shao-mei. I must speak with Captain Patridge.”

  She shook her head. “My sister’s fate has already been decided with Lan’s. They belong to Captain Patridge now.”

  “No, not Shao-mei. Not anymore.”

  Ayaou blinked. “What do you mean not anymore?”

  “Stick that roll of cloth behind me, Ayaou.” She did as he requested. “I’m going to tell you a story.” He had no choice. He had to tell her about Shao-mei even if it meant losing her.

  After she helped prop him up, he took a deep breath against the dread growing in his stomach and started. “After I failed in buying you from your father, I was crushed and fell into a depression. Captain Patridge wanted to cheer me up. He offered Shao-mei to me for the price he paid.”

  “Did you accept?” Her voice was calm.

  He couldn’t read her expression. It frightened him. For a moment, his tongue didn’t want to work. He glanced away from her not wanting to see the hurt in her eyes.

  “So, you bought Shao-mei to replace me.” She stared at him. Her face stayed unreadable. Robert’s heart constricted with fear and felt as if it were attached to a heavy anchor that had just been dropped into the sea.

  He grabbed her right hand and held it in both of his. “I offered three times as much for you. I was willing to pay your father more. However, you were already Ward’s property. I would never have accepted Captain Patridge’s offer if you had been available.”

  “I understand,” she said. She took her hand back. Her eyes avoided his.

  Robert thought she was collapsing and was desperate to pull her back. He didn’t want to lose her. “I have not had Shao-mei,” he said. “You are thinking I did.”

  With tears rolling down her cheeks, she said, “Look what you’ve done to me. You’ve spoiled me with pleasure to have me discover that I don’t deserve it.”

  “Ayaou, Ayaou—” He found himself unable to respond.

  “I lied to Ward about my monthly cycle,” she said. “And then you were there at the house asking for me. I couldn’t believe it. I thought you were planning to steal me from him.”

  “Are you telling me that Ward hasn’t touched you yet?” he asked, feeling thrilled that no other man had been with her but him. As quickly as the words left his mouth, he felt terrible. He had always hated people who lived a double standard. It wasn’t right to have such thoughts. Hadn’t he been with many women? Hadn’t he had syphilis? Not that he wanted her to contract a disease from having intercourse with other men. That wasn’t what he meant. If Ward had already used her, Robert would still have forced himself to make every effort to take her away from that monster. If he could’ve stuffed his spoken words back onto his mouth, he would have.

  “Not yet,” she said. “But he’ll soon learn that I’ve already been kai-bao, peeled like a corncob. He’ll toss me to his men. He’ll demand his money back from my father. He’ll beat me to death himself.” She moved a few inches from Robert. Her eyes glowed like a cat’s at night. “I am not sorry. I could’ve lived and died like a hen. I’m glad that you have Shao-mei.”

  “S
hao-mei now has a chance to avoid life with Captain Patridge,” Robert said, grasping at slippery strands of straw.

  “Yes.” She turned to him. “Keep her. She’ll be good for you. I’m happy for Shao-mei. Fate will tear us apart, because Ward will not let me go. He is a powerful man. How can anyone stand alone against him?”

  “I’ll hide you from him.” His thoughts were stubborn and unyielding. Robert knew he’d do anything to keep her.

  “That will not work,” Ayaou said. “Once Ward knows you are alive, he will send someone to ask for me.”

  “I’ll handle that when the time comes. Right now I’m concerned about Shao-mei. If Captain Patridge thinks I’m dead, he will take her back.” He had doubts about handling Ward, but he wasn’t going to let her know that he was worried.

  She looked at Robert with gentle eyes. “You care about my sister?”

  “Why not? Unless you have a problem.”

  “No, you don’t understand. My sister and I are like a hand and a foot of the same body. When sisters are sold or married off, they seldom see each other again. It is common for a man in China to take sisters of the same family to be his wives or concubines. If you—”

  “No, Ayaou, you do not understand. We will save Shao-mei and find her a good man to marry.” Her words gave him hope. He didn’t want to lose her. If he didn’t succeed, he’d tear his tongue out.

  “No man is going to be more decent than you, Robert,” she said. “Shao-mei is a prize. She is more beautiful than I am. All my relatives wanted to adopt her.” Ayaou put her hand over Robert’s mouth to prevent him from arguing. “If I am your happiness, by having her you will achieve double happiness.”