Authors: Bonnie Dee
The woman in black spoke to a man on the dock.
The Asian wearing a Western-style suit directed the women toward a waiting carriage. He helped the bride into the conveyance and closed the door behind her.
The carriage disappeared into the throng of vehicles and Alan’s stomach clenched. A sorrowful feeling of loss rushed through him as if he’d spotted a precious treasure on the beach but waves had washed it away before he had a chance to claim it. How could he have such a strong reaction to a woman he hadn’t spoken to, would never speak to, a woman who hadn’t even noticed his curious glance?
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Alan wiped the grease from his hands and returned the coffee mug to the vendor. He headed back to the store, but his mind lingered on the pier. The woman with shining black hair and luminous dark eyes continued to haunt him long after he’d left the noisy wharf behind.
Chapter Two
Huiann clenched her hands together in her lap and stared out the small window at the bits of San Francisco flashing past the carriage. The architecture of Suzhou was much more beautiful, but the Westerners’ buildings were tall—some of them towering four stories high. Just as on the wharf, there were many foreigners wearing strange clothing, and unfamiliar smells, sights and sounds all around her. A wave of homesickness hit her like a squall at sea, rising unexpectedly and knocking her off balance.
She had hoped her new husband and his family would meet her at the dock to welcome her, but he’d again sent his agent, Liu Dai, the man who’d arranged their marriage. She mustn’t allow herself to feel disappointed. Her mother had reminded her Xie was an important businessman who would have many demands on his time. Mother said a common mistake new brides made was expecting too much attention from their husbands, who were busy attending to numerous things a woman could never comprehend.
With tears in her eyes, Mother had given Huiann one last kiss. “Make a comfortable nest of your home, and your husband will always fly back to it.” But it was hard to be brave and put on a good face when she was in knots. She wrapped her arms around her body, willing her stomach to settle, and hoped her husband’s absence wasn’t an omen signaling how their future would be. He might always be too busy to find 22
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time for her. She would likely find his mother and any sisters he might have would be her closest companions in her new life. Huiann prayed to the gods that she would like them and they would approve of her.
Huiann distracted herself from her nervousness by considering the poor women in the hold of the ship. By now they’d been sent on to whatever destiny awaited them, and she’d never had a chance to help them. She would talk to Xie Fuhua at the first opportunity, but what would he think of her exploring the ship rather than staying in her quarters? Men didn’t like adventurous women. Her mother had told her many times to curb her curiosity and act like a proper young lady—modest, respectful, quiet and demure.
The view outside the window changed. Signs in Chinese marked the storefronts. The people milling along the sides of the street now looked familiar. Many wore the smocks and pants of laborers while others dressed in silk robes. Still others wore Western suits with round-crowned black hats. Above the earthy smell of horse dung floated the odors of fried food and roast chicken.
Huiann’s stomach rumbled, reminding her she hadn’t eaten since yesterday noon. The crew had been too busy bringing the ship into harbor to provide a meal last night. Guilt flashed through her as she thought of those other women, who were probably much hungrier than she.
The carriage stopped with a jerk and her heart lurched too. Was there a traffic jam or had she reached her destination? Her body vibrated as tensely as a string with a bobbing kite on the other end. She was about to meet the man who would make her happy—or Bonnie Dee
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miserable—for the rest of her life. And his family, whose approval of her would mean everything to her husband.
The door of the carriage opened. Liu Dai with his slicked-back hair and pointed goatee let down the step and helped Madam Teng from the carriage. Huiann didn’t want to take his hand. She didn’t like the man, who often looked at her with a gaze like a cat observing a wounded bird, allowing its prey the illusion of escape before pouncing and snapping its neck.
Liu Dai held her hand in his moist grip longer than was necessary after she’d set foot on the street. “Chua Huiann, may you have much contentment in your new home. Remember to be obedient and you will find your life filled with luxuries beyond your dreams.” Huiann pulled her hand away as quickly as she could without being rude and fought the urge to wipe it off on her gown. She bowed her head. “Thank you, Liu Dai.”
The door of the building they were about to enter was painted deep red for luck and the writing above it proclaimed great pleasure to all who entered—a positive sign. However, she was not impressed by the rest of the building, which looked like every other one in the row, weathered gray wood with no adornment to show it was a rich man’s house. She was rather surprised Xie Fuhua’s mother didn’t have the place painted. Usually a woman’s pride was in her home—
or her son’s home. That was certainly the case with Huiann’s mother. But perhaps things were done differently here in America.
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Once she was his wife, Huiann would suggest changes that would make the plain building look more attractive. Although of course it was the people living inside who truly turned a dwelling into a home. She thought of her family and her many cousins, aunts and uncles in Suzhou and wished all of them could be here to witness her wedding ceremony. Would she ever see any of them again?
A servant inside the house opened the door. Madam Teng gripped Huiann’s arm hard and steered her through it. The foyer of the house made up in ostentation for what the exterior lacked. Gilt frames surrounded mirrors and paintings. A plush carpet with intricate patterns covered the floor. The walls were adorned with scarlet wallpaper—bright enough to hurt the eyes. The garish entryway would be first on her list for redecorating. Then she registered the paintings displayed in the frames and her cheeks grew as red as the walls. She dropped her gaze to the floor, away from the canvases of nude women frolicking with men who grasped their private parts.
There was no time to ponder her husband’s poor taste as Madam pulled her up a staircase to the second floor. “I will show you to your room. You will clean yourself, change into a garment I will provide and then meet the master.”
Huiann preferred Teng when she was moaning and seasick. This abrupt harshness bordering on disrespect was intolerable. Another of her first acts would be to replace Teng with a more agreeable servant.
The bedroom where Madam led her was as sumptuous as the front hall and equally gaudy, but the large four-poster bed looked very comfortable. Huiann Bonnie Dee
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studied the furnishings until her gaze was drawn to the window. Bright sunlight streamed in through the glass—between iron bars.
She frowned as she went to the window to look out on the teaming street below. When she wrapped her fingers around the bars, the blue bead ring her sister Mei had given her clicked against the metal. She thought of the girl in the hold of the ship reaching between the slats of her cage to squeeze Huiann’s hand, but dismissed the image of imprisonment. San Francisco was a large city. Probably all rich men’s homes had barred windows to protect them from robbers.
Huiann went to the washstand, took off her gown and washed her face, neck and arms using the cake of sweet soap beside the porcelain basin. Glancing at her hair in the mirror, she considered taking out the pins, brushing and rearranging it, but before she could begin Madam Teng entered the room—without knocking.
“You are to wear this robe and nothing else. Do you understand? Remove your undergarments.”
“Pardon me?” Huiann raised her brows, certain she’d misheard.
“Xie Fuhua wishes you to be naked beneath the robe.” Teng’s mouth was a severe line and her eyes were like two bits of slate. She placed an embroidered silk robe on the bed and stepped back, arms folded.
Huiann stared at her.
“Undress now. Hurry. The master has little time to waste on you.”
Her skin burned and her heart beat fast as she removed her camisole. It would be easier if Madam Teng would avert her eyes, but the woman watched 26
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her undress with those rock-hard eyes. Huiann’s blush deepened as her breasts were bared to the older woman’s inspection. She slipped on the robe and tied it around her waist.
“Your pants too. Everything.” Every fiber of her being clamored that this was humiliating and wrong, but Huiann had never been married. Maybe this was part of the ritual. Perhaps a husband expected to examine his bride before finalizing the vows, maybe even with his mother in attendance to make certain his choice was acceptable.
She knew that sometimes part of the marriage agreement involved testing the bride for virginity. She blanched at the thought that they might require that of her too.
Huiann swallowed the knot in her throat, reached beneath the long robe and pulled her drawers down her legs. She folded and laid them on the bed with her gown and camisole. Her skin burned as if she had a fever. Her breasts were tender and her nipples poked hard against the slippery fabric of the wrapper. She cinched the tie around her waist tighter.
“Come.” Madam led the way from the room.
Huiann padded after her on bare feet. The wooden floor was chilly beneath them but that was not why she shivered. There were several closed doors along the corridor and she wondered why there were so many bedrooms. Did Fuhua have many overnight guests or was he planning for a house full of children?
Thoughts of children led to considering the act of procreation. Her mother had given her a brief explanation of what to expect and Huiann had inferred the rest from seeing stray dogs coupling in the street.
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Copulation was a very intimate act and one she feared, but her more immediate fear was that Fuhua would require her to remove this robe. Would he truly demand to see her nude body before agreeing to wed her? And if he didn’t like what he saw, would he send her home to China or cast her out on the street? An agreement had been made. Surely he would not do such a thing.
They descended a flight of stairs at the rear of the house to another hallway where Liu Dai waited for them in front of an ornately carved wooden door. He knocked on the door, waiting for a reply she couldn’t hear before opening it and ushering them inside.
Elegant paintings decorated the walls of the room and a deep green carpet like lush grass beneath her feet.
It was a Western-style office with a large desk dominating the room, and behind the desk sat her prospective bridegroom. Huiann’s mouth was dry and her cheeks burned. She kept her hands clenched inside the long sleeves of the robe and her eyes turned submissively down so that she heard the voice of her husband-to-be before she saw him. He spoke to Liu Dai in English and his agent replied in the same strange, flat language.
Huiann studied the green carpet and the bottom of a desk. A flurry of movement told her he’d risen from his chair behind the desk and a moment later Xie Fuhua’s black shoes came into view.
He grasped her chin and lifted her face. Her breath caught at the sight of dark, intense eyes under heavy eyebrows. He had a moustache and wore his hair cut short with no queue. His clothes were Western style too, a white shirt and black tie, a vest, coat and 28
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trousers. As he examined her face, his breath smelled of alcohol. Not the rice wine her father drank, but something smoky and dark. He wasn’t handsome but he was a presentable man and she breathed a small sigh of relief that his appearance wasn’t repugnant.
“Chua Huiann, I’m pleased to see you,” he said in Mandarin. “I entrusted Liu Dai with the task of securing a princess and he has served me well. You are indeed exquisite.”
It wasn’t possible for her to blush any redder, nor could she bow her head at the compliment since he held her chin firmly in his grasp. She offered a small smile. “I am honored to meet you, sir.”
“You are so beautiful I’m quite tempted to keep you for myself.”
Her confusion must have registered in her eyes, but Fuhua merely returned her smile and stepped away. He leaned against his desk, arms folded. “I’m going to require something of you now that might make you uncomfortable. Please remove your robe so I might see your body.”
Her stomach turned over and over like a cartwheel.
Blood throbbed in her temples and she glanced at Madam Teng, hoping she might intercede. But the woman’s face could’ve been carved from jade for all the emotion she showed. Huiann glanced at the other occupant of the office, Liu Dai, and then back at her fiancé.
“It’s all right. You must get used to disrobing before strangers so you might as well begin now.” Her mounting anxiety exploded at his words.
Something was very wrong here. She might be naive about the relations between men and women, but she Bonnie Dee
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knew no husband would treat his wife this way, forcing her to strip naked in front of another man. Nor was the mother-in-law she had so dreaded in attendance to at least give a pretense of respectability to this bizarre request.
As she continued to hesitate, Xie Fuhua sighed.
“There’s no need for you to be afraid. You will be well-fed and cared for and live in a beautiful room with many lovely gowns and jewels to wear. But Liu Dai has deceived you. You have not come to America to be my wife.”
The breath was sucked from her body. She couldn’t even form the obvious question:
Why?
But he answered without her asking.
“You will entertain the cream of society. Only the richest, most important men in San Francisco will come to you, and they will pay well for the pleasure.
Do you understand?” His voice was soft, almost gentle, and as smooth as glass.