He hoped the calm would hold that long.
4
By the time Inspector Gong had left for the day, it was already much too late for a social call, according to British etiquette, so Lady Li would not be able to call on Mrs. Gibson until the next day.
She tried to recall what she knew about the woman, and, sadly, it wasn’t much. Lady Li had only been to visit with the legation ladies a few times and was always surprised when she still received notes from them. She wondered if the ladies even realized she was receiving invitations or if their maids were just sending the notes to everyone in their address book.
No, that was a poor attitude to have. She needed to think that Mrs. Gibson actually wanted her to visit. She had to pretend they had been friends. If she went there with a defeatist attitude, she would be dismissed immediately. She had to affect an air of confidence, of familiarity.
She knew that Mrs. Gibson was married to a British general turned merchant. He had been to China several times when he was in the military and knew it was an excellent source of business. When he retired from the military, he was still young enough to embark on a new career and had decided to make China his permanent home, more or less, and had moved his family to the legation.
The Gibsons were one of the wealthiest families in the legation, and Mrs. Gibson was someone the other ladies tended to see as their leader, their rock, the sun around which their social lives circled. She knew everyone and everything that was going on, both in the legation and out of it. She was so knowledgeable about the news and gossip of London you would think she still lived there even though she only visited every couple of years. She also had a surprising grasp on the news and politics of wider Peking. She had a son who was currently in the military and serving in India and a daughter in her late teens who still resided with them.
Lady Li had no idea how Mrs. Gibson would feel about the girl being murdered in her home. Would she be scared? Annoyed? Sad? She also didn’t know how she would be received when calling at such a time. She needed something to catch Mrs. Gibson’s attention. Something that would make her invite Lady Li into her home and visit with her, even if she was not in the mood for social calls. She decided to ask her Eunuch Bai for help.
“Yes, My Lady?” he asked with a slight bow of his head.
“You know far more than I do about what is going on around the city,” Lady Li said. “Is there anything going on in the legation, besides the murder of the girl?”
Eunuch Bai hemmed and hawed for a moment as he considered this. Eunuchs always traded in information. It was one of the main reason they were so valuable, and why many people did not trust them. They made up their own subset of society, and the secrets within it were not well known to most people on the outside, but one could usually tap into it, for the right price. Lady Li paid Eunuch Bai enough already that she did not need to bribe him for information, but there were still things he would rather keep close to his chest than share.
“Anything specific?” he asked.
“Something I can share with Mrs. Gibson that would help me gain her trust,” Lady Li said. “A bit of tit for tat, if you will.”
“You know there are no eunuch servants in the legation,” he said. “The foreigners wouldn’t be able to stand it.”
“I am aware,” she said with a nod. Foreigners would never hire cut men or bound foot girls. Though she had heard that eunuchs were not only found in China but some places in the west as well.
“So there is little I can tell you specifically about the goings on in the legation,” he continued. “But you know that tension with the foreigners is high, especially with regards to the trade ports.”
“Always,” Lady Li said.
“According to my sources at the foreign ministry, customs is going to completely shut down the foreign ports in three days’ time,” he said. “They are going to call it a ‘surprise inspection.’ They are planning on shutting down the port for at least a week, maybe longer, depending on how things play out over the girl’s death.”
“That’s impossible,” Lady Li said. “China doesn’t have the authority to close the foreign ports.”
“This isn’t coming from China,” he explained. “Not directly anyway. The British customs official, Commander Hart, is going to issue the order himself.”
“Why?” Lady Li asked, aghast. “That will hurt the British as much as the Chinese, if not more so, if they can’t get their goods out.”
“But it will please the Chinese, could calm tensions, at least for a little while. I heard Prince Kung asked it as a personal favor, both to please the empress and to keep any possible killer from escaping on any of the ships. You know Commander Hart is very careful when it comes to keeping the Chinese officials happy.”
“So I’ve heard,” she said with a grimace. Commander Hart was a bit of a controversial figure in the city. Too British for the Chinese; too Chinese for the British. He walked a thin line and never really earned the full trust of either country, but just enough that he was preferable to anyone else. “But what does this have to do with Mrs. Gibson?”
“Her husband has a ship scheduled to sail in four days’ time,” he said with a knowing raise of his eyebrow.
“So they aren’t planning on telling the ship owners beforehand?” Lady Li asked.
“If they did, the shippers would all sail early and there would be no one to inspect, no ships to detain.”
“But if Mr. Gibson was to just happen to sail early…” she said.
“Nothing suspicious about that,” Eunuch Bai replied.
“Thank you so much, Eunuch Bai,” Lady Li said. She started to turn away, but then she heard him clear his throat. “Yes?”
“I would not want you think that just because I am helping you that I approve of Inspector Gong,” he said plainly. “He shouldn’t be coming here. And he certainly should not be getting you involved in such a sordid affair.”
“He helped solve Suyi’s murder,” she said. “I can’t just turn him away when he calls. And he didn’t ask for my help, I offered.”
“All the worse,” he said. “That man is a bad and dangerous influence.”
“I think I am quite capable of making my own decisions,” Lady Li said, crossing her arms.
“Indeed you are,” Eunuch Bai said, a little more softly. “Which is why he is so dangerous. He…inspires you. Gives you courage.”
“And that is a bad thing?” she asked, nearing laughter.
“In a world where one wrong move could ruin your reputation, and that of the entire family?” he asked. “Yes, it is.”
She understood his meaning. Without Inspector Gong’s encouragement, she wouldn’t be so eager to go running off toward the scene of a murder, or allow an unmarried man to call on her so casually. It was dangerous. She had her daughters to think about. One wrong move and her daughters could end up completely unmarriageable, at least to someone of their class.
“I know you speak from the heart, Eunuch Bai,” she said. “That you are only looking out for my welfare, and that of my daughters. I appreciate having someone in my life who worries about me so.”
“But…?” Eunuch Bai asked, knowing that something more was coming.
“But,” she continued, “I want to do this. I need to do this. I need to feel useful. I have to do something more to fill my days than sew clothes and order vegetables.”
“You do have more,” he said. “You have two wonderful daughters to raise.”
“For how much longer?” she asked. “First Daughter is six years old. I went to the Forbidden City when I was fifteen. I have less than...” She stopped for a moment as she felt tears welling is up. “I have less than a decade left to spend with her. And Second Daughter is only two years younger. Women as young as thirteen have been called to serve at the palace. You know this.
“What am I to do when they are gone? What will fill my days? What will I have to look back on?”
“You think you will still be solving crime
s ten years from now?” Eunuch Bai asked.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I certainly didn’t think I’d be a widow at twenty-two. I didn’t think my life would…I didn’t think it would be like this.”
“Like what?” Eunuch Bai asked.
Lady Li shook her head and walked to the latticed window of her room that looked out into the courtyard. She saw her mother-in-law, Popo, sitting in the sun watching the little girls play near the koi pond. She was laughing as they tried to catch the tiny frogs that were jumping along the edge of the pond. Popo had also been widowed young. Her only son had been Lady Li’s husband, who had died only four years previously, and her only daughter had been Suyi, who had been murdered in the Forbidden City only a couple of months ago. Popo had spent most of her life alone and extremely ill. Lady Li had brought the old woman into her household so she could spend her final graying years with her granddaughters.
She also saw, sitting quietly to one side in the shade to protect her fair skin, Concubine Swan. Concubine Swan had belonged to Lady Li’s husband and had no children of her own. She had been pregnant once, but when their husband, Lord Yun, died, she suffered a miscarriage. She had no other prospects. Lady Li knew that Concubine Swan often ate opium to help her cope with the long nights.
Her home, while full of people, was also full of sadness. All the women in it were trapped and hopeless for the future.
Lady Li sighed and shook her head.
“Do not mistake my concern for lack of sympathy,” Eunuch Bai said. “But since you have no father, husband, or elder brother to advise you, I feel it is my duty to be the word of reason.”
“And do not think that because I ignore your advice that I do not appreciate it, Eunuch Bai,” she said, turning back to him with a smile.
“As long as we are both clear,” he said with a nod, and then left the room.
Lady Li shook her head and turned to her wardrobe. She so rarely left the house, she wasn’t sure what she should wear. She dug in the very back of her closet and found something she hadn’t worn in over four years—a British style walking dress. It was completely unlike a Chinese dress.
The only thing the two styles had in common was that they covered a woman from her chin to the floor and had long sleeves to her wrists. But while Chinese chaopaos and robes were straight without giving any hits about a woman’s body and long bell sleeves, British gowns were extremely formfitting up top, as if to intentionally accentuate the bust, and a bustled skirt to accentuate the rear end. When Lady Li wore them, she felt simultaneously scandalized and confident. She was glad she would be riding in her sedan chair so not many people would be able to see her. Of course, styling her hair would be an issue as well. Her husband had talked about sending her maid to the legation to take a course in hair dressing to help her if she started regularly visiting the legation ladies, but after his death she thought it rather a waste. She might have to rethink that idea.
She called her maid to her room and together they pulled out her old corsets, crinolines, and walking boots. Some of the clothes needed a bit of repair work after sitting in boxes in the dark for so long. Some of the accent pieces were moth eaten, so the maid quickly repaired them with Chinese embroidered brocade. Of course, everything was horribly out of fashion, but there was no time to buy anything new. She would have to pay a visit to a French dressmaker while in the legation the next day.
The next morning, Lady Li’s maid helped her dress. They decided to simply do her hair up in a bun and decorate it with several pins and clips. She would have to buy some hats at the shops as well. The boots were a trial as well. Lady Li couldn’t bend over far enough to lace them up herself since the corset was so tight so the maid helped her with that but she was clumsy at tying them. She then had to practice walking around since the heel was more narrow than she was used to. She took a long look in a full-length mirror in her room and hardly recognized herself.
Lady Li finally took a deep breath, ready to head to the legation. Her maid accompanied her, since a lady, British or Chinese, would never venture out alone. Lady Li climbed into the sedan chair, which was carried by two chair bearers, and the maid trotted along beside her.
When she arrived at the legation, there was no crowd of protesters, thank goodness, but the area was quite busy. People were simply watching, waiting to see if something happened. The gates were still closed and there were several guards posted out front. As the bearers approached, a guard held up his arm to stop them.
“No Chinese allowed,” he said.
Lady Li opened one of the flaps just a bit and handed him her invitation from Mrs. Gibson. “I’m a guest of Mrs. Gibson,” she said firmly. “Open this gate at once.”
“I see, ma’am,” he said. “I can let you in, and your maid, but not the chair or the men.”
Lady Li wasn’t sure of the reasoning behind this, or if it were even true, but she decided not to make a fuss since they were at least allowing her inside. She opened the flap completely and her maid helped her out. She heard several gasps from people who were watching. She didn’t think they knew who she was, but they would find out soon enough. She was certain that as soon as she was out of sight her chair bearers would be surrounded by curious onlookers.
She couldn’t help but glance around herself to see if there was anyone she knew. Off to one side, near an inn, she saw Inspector Gong. He must have been watching the legation, looking for clues or suspicious people. He was not even trying to hide the fact that he was staring, with his wide eyes and his mouth agape. She felt her cheeks go hot as she remembered how shapely the western clothes made her look, but then she remembered that he had already seen her naked, so she was glad he still found her attractive when she was fully clothed.
She smirked, tossed her head, and entered the legation as if she belonged there.
5
It had been years since Lady Li had stepped foot in the legation, but not much had changed. It was still a world apart, as if someone had simply picked up a neighborhood in Russia, America, or even Holland and had dropped it right in the heart of Peking, only a stone’s throw away from the Forbidden City.
She noticed that many people were staring at her as she walked through the legation. She doubted many Chinese ladies visited here, and now with the legation on high alert, they probably didn’t have many Chinese within the walls at all. Indeed, as she looked around, she saw very few Chinese servants running around. Usually there would be dozens of Chinese men in women going about their business like in any other neighborhood in Peking. Buying food, ordering clothes, hauling firewood. But now, she only saw a few Chinese and foreign servants rushing about, not nearly enough to be meeting all the needs of the foreign homeowners. She wondered if the servants had been banned from the legation or if they were being kept indoors. Certainly the ladies and gentlemen of the legation would not be able to survive if their servants had been banned from the legation. Who would help them dress and serve them tea? Lady Li smiled to herself at how hypocritical of her it was to criticize the foreigners for having servants. Was she not now followed by a maid? Was she not carried here by two men? Still, at least her servants were fellow Manchu. She didn’t hire people of another race to serve her as if the color of her skin naturally made her superior. She didn’t even have any Han servants.
She shook her head to rid herself of such complicated thoughts as she approached the large house. She needed to focus on how she was going to approach Mrs. Gibson.
There were several uniformed police officers milling about outside the house, as well as several important-looking men in suits, possibly diplomats and policemen of some sort.
As she approached, one of the uniformed officers raised his hand. “Whoa there, miss. Where do you think you are going?” he asked her in English. Some of the other men scoffed, as if they thought she wouldn’t be able to reply.
“That is lady to you,” she replied, trying to sound stern but was immediately surprised by how accented her English was. Sh
e nearly put her hand to her mouth in shock. While she remembered how to speak English properly in her mind, she had not practiced her spoken English in years, and it showed. Thankfully, the men seemed surprised enough that she spoke English at all, so they didn’t focus on her accent.
“I’m calling on Mrs. Gibson,” she said, speaking slowly and clearly, and handed the guard her invitation letter from Mrs. Gibson. The letter was some months old, but it had invited her to call any time. Lady Li had decided that any time was now.
The officer looked over the letter and then handed it to one of the suited men.
“Lady Li,” he said with a smile. “I’m afraid this is not a good time. The Gibson family is undergoing a very difficult time…”
“I know,” she said, cutting him off. “That is why I am here. Mrs. Gibson is my dear friend, and she needs comforting in this trying time.”
Of course, it was very possible that Mrs. Gibson had given the police orders to not admit anyone. In that case, invitation letter or not Lady Li would not be admitted. But after a moment, the officer motioned for her to follow him.
“Please, follow me,” he said with a wan smile. “We will see if she is accepting callers.”
Lady Li nodded. She looked up at the house while they proceeded up the front walkway. She noticed that a window above the door was boarded up. She looked at the houses across the street. They were all of a similar height. The killer must have been in one of those houses, or on one of the roofs. She wondered how one would gain access to the roof of a house. Would it be very easy to climb?
The officer knocked on the door and a white maid answered. He gave the maid the invitation letter and she disappeared inside for a moment. She quickly returned and opened the door wide.
“Please come in,” she said. “The mistress will see you, Lady Li.”
Lady Li held her head high and entered without a glance at the officer. Her own maid followed her in and shut the door behind her.
The Qing Dynasty Mysteries - Books 1-3 Page 19