Free Tai-Pan by James Clavell

am.”
    “Why?”
    “First you’d better dismiss your men.”
    “How do you know about them?”
    “You’re very careful. Like me. You wouldn’t come here secretly without a bodyguard.” Her eyes were mocking him.
    “What are you up to?”
    “How long did you tell your men to wait?”
    “An hour.”
    “I need more of your time. Dismiss them.” She laughed.
    “I’ll wait.”
    “You’d better. And put some clothes on.”
    He left the house and told Wolfgang to wait for another two hours and then to come and find him. He told him about the secret door but not about Mary.
    When he returned, Mary was lying on the bed. “Please close the door, Tai-Pan,” she said.
    “I told you to put some clothes on.”
    “I told you to close the door.”
    Angrily he slammed it. Mary took off the filmy robe and tossed it aside. “Do you find me attractive?”
    “No. You disgust me.”
    “You don’t disgust me, Tai-Pan. You’re the only man I admire in the world.”
    “Horatio should see you now.”
    “Ah, Horatio,” she said cryptically. “How long did you tell your men to wait this time?”
    “Two hours.”
    “You told them about the secret door. But not about me.”
    “Why are you so sure?”
    “I know you, Tai-Pan. That’s why I trust you with my secret.” She toyed with the brandy glass, her eyes lowered. “Had we finished when you looked through the peephole?”
    “God’s blood! You’d better—”
    “Be patient with me, Tai-Pan,” she said. “Had we?”
    “Aye.”
    “I’m glad. Glad and sorry. I wanted you to be sure.”
    “I dinna understand.”
    “I wanted you to be sure that Wang Chu was my lover.”
    “Why?”
    “Because I’ve information that you can use. You’d never believe me unless you’d seen that I was his woman.”
    “What information?”
    “I’ve lots of information you can use, Tai-Pan. I’ve many lovers. Chen Sheng comes here sometimes. Many of the mandarins from Canton. Old Jin-qua once.” Her eyes frosted and seemed to change color. “I don’t disgust them. They like the color of my skin and I please them. They please me. I have to tell you these things, Tai-Pan. I’m only repaying my debt to you.”
    “What debt?”
    “You stopped the beatings. You stopped them too late, but that wasn’t your fault.” She got up from the bed and put on a heavy robe. “I won’t tease you any more. Please hear me out and then you can do what you like.”
    “What do you want to tell me?”
    “The emperor has appointed a new viceroy to Canton. This Viceroy Ling carries an imperial edict to stop opium smuggling. He will arrive in two weeks, and within three weeks he will surround the Settlement at Canton. No European will be let out of Canton until all the opium has been surrendered.”
    Struan laughed contemptuously. “I dinna believe it.”
    “If the opium is given up and destroyed, anyone with cargoes of opium outside of Canton will make a fortune,” Mary said.
    “It will na be given up.”
    “Say the whole Settlement was ransomed for opium. What could you do? There are no warships here. You’re defenseless. Aren’t you?”
    “Aye.”
    “Send a ship to Calcutta with orders to buy opium, all you can, two months after it arrives. If my information is false, that gives you plenty of time to cancel the order.”
    “Wang told you this?”
    “Only about the viceroy. The other was my idea. I wanted to repay my debt to you.”
    “You owe me nothing.”
    “You were never whipped.”
    “Why did you na send someone to tell me secretly? Why bring me here? To see you like this? Why make me go through this—this horror?”
    “I wanted to tell you. Myself. I wanted someone other than me to know what I was. You’re the only man I trust,” she said with an unexpected, childlike innocence.
    “You’re mad. You should be locked up.”
    “Because I like going to bed with Chinese?”
    “By the Cross! Do you na understand what you are?”
    “Yes. A disgrace to England.”