SQ 04 - The English Concubine

by Dawn Farnham

  ‘Oh thank you for coming. Come upstairs.’

  She led Amber to her sitting room and Amber saw how she limped and frowned a little. She looked around at the paper-strewn desk and the boxes of herbs and pills.

  ‘You live here?’

  ‘Yes. Father gave me this building and the shop to run. I am writing a medical treatise in English on Chinese medicine.’

  ‘Gosh, Lian. You work?’

  ‘Yes, amazing isn’t it.’

  ‘Gosh, your father is the most unorthodox man.’

  Lian smiled. ‘Yes.’

  Amber sat on the sofa and Lian drew up a chair.

  ‘Are you well, Amber? The baby.’

  Amber looked down and patted her belly. ‘Yes, all right. Been a bit hard, actually.’

  ‘I’m sorry. I have no words.’

  Amber looked up at Lian and tears sat in the corner of her eyes.

  ‘Are you angry with me, Amber?’

  ‘Was. Really was. But what’s the use. You nearly died.’

  ‘I nearly died. Father and Dr. Cowper saved me.’

  ‘You lost the baby.’

  Lian felt the furrow of pain between her brows, then breathed deeply. ‘Just as well, don’t you think?’

  Amber nodded. ‘He went away. He couldn’t stand us.’A silence fell into which floated the sounds of birdsong from the cages on the balcony next door.

  ‘Will he come back,’ Amber said, her eyes sad, ‘do you think?’

  ‘Perhaps, in a few years. He’ll want to see his child.’

  ‘I miss him, Lian,’ Amber said and burst into tears.

  Lian went to her friend and sat next to her and the two girls hugged. I miss him too, Lian wanted to say, but knew she could not.

  ‘I know it’s morally reprehensible to say it after all we’ve been through, but this baby of yours, well, it’s my niece or nephew.’

  Amber sat up and dried her eyes. ‘Gosh, I never thought about that.’

  ‘Can I love it, Amber? Will you let me love Alex’s child?’

  ‘You’re my oldest friend, you know. It’s not our fault. Aunt Charlotte told me that. It’s her fault. Your father begged and begged to tell Alex but she never would. None of this would have happened if she’d told Alex who he was.’

  ‘Poor Charlotte. She was so good to me, you know. Tried so hard for me. I can’t blame her. We all do things we regret.’

  Amber sighed. ‘Yes. We do. Of course you can love this baby. Why should it not have as much as it can get? Its father might not be around.’

  ‘Oh, thank you, Amber.’

  The two girls hugged again.

  ‘You know,’Amber said, ‘I’m frightfully thirsty.’

  ‘Want some tea? Chinese tea.’

  Amber made a face. ‘Gosh, Lian, how foul. Are you mad?’

  ‘English then. Come on, in the kitchen.’

  Amber rose. ‘Did you hear Sarah Blundell married some massively fat and wealthy old Anglo Indian towkay? Marry for love indeed, little hypocrite.’

  Lian laughed. In the kitchen she added some sticks to the fire and put water on for the tea. She busied herself with cups. Amber sat and rubbed her belly.

  ‘I’m glad to be home. Aunt Charlotte’s going back to Scotland.’

  ‘Is she? That’s sad.’

  ‘Not so much sad as mad. Sailing on ships at her age when she’s so pregnant is jolly silly.’

  Lian turned and faced her friend.

  43

  ‘The booking is made,’ Robert said. ‘First class all the way. Steamer to Bombay via Galle, then on to Suez, train overland and pick up the steamer in Alexandria. Goes to Marseilles, train to Paris then Calais and packet to Dover. Thirty-six days, give or take. The ship departs in three days.’

  ‘Rob, amazing isn’t it. Remember our voyage out? Took six months under sail on the high seas. How did we manage it?’

  ‘Ignorance and nothing else to be done. But Kitt, I am worried. This is such a rush. You’ve hardly been here a week and now you intend to depart. Thirty-nine days when you are now over seven months pregnant. At Dover I’m told the rail line is not complete and in imperfect condition so you may have to take a coach. And even then you will have the long train journey to Aberdeen. It is a voyage of some enormity in your condition. Anything could happen. And nothing in place up there for the birth. Reconsider, please. Wait and have the baby here and then we can organise nursemaids and such and you can travel in perfect safety.’

  Teresa rose and came to Charlotte’s side.

  ‘Yes, dear Charlotte, please reconsider. This journey is unwise at this time.’

  ‘All will be well. Don’t worry.’

  ‘Mr. and Mrs. Macpherson are travelling to Edinburgh on the same voyage. I’ve asked them to look out for you.’

  ‘You see, I shall be perfectly fine. And doubtless there are many others. We shall all be a jolly crew.’

  Teresa shook her head angrily and frowned at Robert. He responded. ‘ Sister, nevertheless, this is foolhardy. Without a doctor on board, I am worried.’

  Charlotte smiled.

  ‘Look at you two. How lucky is little Robert to have you, Teresa, so forgiving and loving. Robert, you are a lucky man.’

  She rose. Teresa threw a look of anguish at Robert.

  ‘Kitt, I feel this journey is most unwise.’

  He had tried to inject a tone of manly authority in his voice but he knew he had failed. Charlotte left the room.

  Teresa rose and put her hand on Robert’s.

  ‘Something is terribly wrong. It’s like she doesn’t care if she survives or not. I am very worried.’

  Robert patted Teresa’s hand but he, too, now considered his sister to be taking steps which would endanger her life and the child’s.

  ‘You must stop this, Rob,’ Teresa said.

  ‘My dear, she has never listened to me in her life. Why would she start now?’

  Teresa walked to the window, agitated, her handkerchief twisting in her hand.

  ‘Robert, is there no-one who can speak to her? Surely there is someone.’ She reeled suddenly and looked at him intensely. ‘Whose baby is this? In all this with little Robert and Amber returning, I never thought to ask.’

  ‘Well,’ Robert said, looking at his feet.

  ‘You’re a fool, Robert Macleod. And so am I. Of course, it is the Chinese man’s child. She’s never loved anyone else, the same way as I have never loved anyone but you. He must know. If he has an ounce of decency he will stop this.’

  She went into the hall. She took up her bonnet. Robert opened his mouth but no sound came out. He felt drained and longed to return to murder and thievery.

  Teresa had seen this man many times. Her sister-in-law had been, truly still was, notorious. She had not cared, for Charlotte had always, through all the trouble with Robert, been kind to her. She had never spoken to this Chinese man, but now she did not consider this at all. She called for the carriage and told the syce to drop her at the wooden bridge.

  She crossed it with purpose and sought the godown she knew he owned. On the quayside she saw Lian, Amber’s friend, the daughter of Zhen, the Chinese man. And Lian saw her.

  ‘Teresa, hello.’

  ‘Lian, my dear. Are you all right?’

  The suicide attempt of this girl had been a great shock. It seemed to be connected to her marriage to the Chinese man but other than that Teresa knew nothing. But, over the last few years, Teresa realised that certain miseries were known only to oneself.

  ‘Now, yes. Thank you.’

  ‘Look,’ Teresa said, ‘I need to speak to your father. About Charlotte.’

  ‘Yes, I’ve come to speak to him too.’

  Teresa, surprised, nevertheless forged on. ‘She intends to depart for England in the most inauspicious circumstances.’

  ‘You mean she is pregnant.’

  Teresa stared at Lian. ‘Yes, she is very pregnant and if she takes this voyage it will be the death of her and the child. I’m certa
in of it.’

  ‘My father doesn’t know.’

  ‘Doesn’t know?’

  ‘That she is pregnant. I’m quite sure of it.’

  Teresa looked towards the godown. ‘Come on,’ she said.

  She hesitated before the door. She had never in her life set foot in a Chinese establishment of this sort. Lian took her arm.

  ‘Father,’ she called.

  * * *

  The suitcase was almost finished. The maid had done an excellent job with the trunk. She folded her nightgown and felt a pain in her side. She sat on the bed. These pains had increased over the last few days. She tried to think. She was almost seven and a half months pregnant. If she went into labour now, the child might survive but how could she know? She longed so to leave. She felt driven by this one imperative, unable to think of anything else.

  She heard the bell downstairs. Robert coming to try to persuade her to stay, she presumed. She was so tired of them all. She rose from the bed and checked the tickets. The steamer to Galle took four days, was that right? Then on to Bombay. She felt a great fatigue and put the tickets away.

  I’ll look at them later, she thought.

  A knock came at the door. The Malay maid entered. ‘A visitor to see you, puan, in the drawing room.’

  ‘No,’ she said. ‘No visitors.’

  The door flew wide.

  ‘Xia Lou,’ he said.

  He gazed at her. She was immensely pregnant. It was true. Lian and Teresa, Robert’s wife, had beseeched him to come. ‘Go,’ he said to the maid, and shut the door. ‘What are you thinking? You intend to travel in this condition?’

  ‘Go away,’ she said.

  ‘No,’ he said. ‘Here we are again. This is my child.’

  ‘So what,’ she said and shook her head. It felt like it might fly off her shoulders.

  ‘Why will you never tell me? First Alex and now this.’

  She shrugged.

  ‘Do you have news of Alex?’

  ‘No, but I will. It’s only a matter of time. Eyes and ears are all over the East. He’s strong. He’ll be all right.’

  ‘Do you think so? Really, Zhen? How can he forgive me?’

  ‘Time. Time will do it. And he may wish to see his son one day, eh?’

  Charlotte nodded. Then she looked at him sharply. ‘You might have taken some precautions,’ she said. ‘It was that afternoon. Why must you always be so damned imperious? You just do whatever you want.’

  She ran out of that thought. It hardly seemed to matter. She moved away from him. He followed her with his eyes.

  ‘You like what I do very well,’ he said and she shook her head, exasperated. ‘You did not marry Commander Whatshisname?’

  She turned and cast him a look of annoyance, indicating her belly. ‘Hardly, with your child growing inside me.’

  ‘So it was a lie. In Batavia. You had no intention of marrying the man. You knew you were pregnant and told me a lie.’

  Charlotte flushed and turned away from him.

  ‘You could have got rid of it, married him. But you didn’t.’

  Charlotte sighed and shrugged again.

  Zhen walked towards her, stood close behind her. ‘Xia Lou, it’s time to put a stop to all this.’

  She turned, startled to find him so close, her belly touching him. He looked down and put his hands on either side of this bump, holding her gently to him. She pulled away. ‘Stop it. Yes, time to stop it. I’m leaving. I want you to have this new life. A new wife, a child.’

  ‘What are you talking about?’

  ‘I saw her. The beautiful young one. Pregnant. On the quayside.’

  Zhen nodded. ‘Ah, yes, the beautiful one. Pregnant. But not by me.’

  Charlotte stared at him. ‘Not you.’

  ‘No. She is the daughter of Cheng Sam Teo and married to the Temenggong’s youngest brother, Hussein. He’s twenty and splendidly handsome and besotted with her. They are immensely happy, or so I hear. A most auspicious marriage. Certainly for Cheng.’

  Charlotte moved to a chair and sat. Her belly felt heavy as lead. ‘I’m so fat,’ she wailed, hardly recognising the relief at this news.

  He shook his head. He knelt before her and put his lips against her belly, then ran his hands around it, feeling the child within. ‘You are pregnant. That is what happens.’

  She gazed on his head and put her hand to his queue. ‘Zhen, I …’

  He rose and put his lips to hers in a long soft kiss.

  She closed her eyes and fell into it, this kiss. Like their first kiss, so exquisite, so melting. Then her eyes flew open. ‘You aren’t married.’

  He smiled. ‘Of course I’m not married.’

  ‘But concubines, do you have any?’

  ‘Just one very reluctant one, whom I love.’

  She knew it was all true. Tears sprang to her eyes. ‘Whom you love.’

  ‘Yes,’ he said and put his lips against her ear. ‘I love you,’ he whispered.

  She laughed and wiped the tears away. He’d said it, those tiny words which she had thought never to hear him utter.

  ‘We made love when I was very pregnant.’

  ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘It was delicious. I remember.’

  ‘I feel incredibly aroused all the time,’ she said. ‘When I’m not absolutely exhausted, of course.’

  ‘Do you?’

  ‘Yes.’ She put her lips up to his, wanting his kiss again, but he stood and backed away from her.

  ‘Most unfortunate.’

  She struggled to stand and he put out his hand. She grasped it and came to her feet. ‘Why?’

  ‘Because I realise that I can’t touch you again until we have done the only thing left for us to do.’

  She raised an eyebrow. She felt better. Much better. She put her hand onto her belly. The child had woken up and was clearly feeling full of vitality.

  ‘Which is?’

  ‘To get married. For heaven’s sake, woman, I’m growing old. Just say yes.’

  She smiled. She had contemplated a life without him and even the idea of her own death. What fears did this step hold any more?

  ‘Yes.’

  He grinned and took a white box from his pocket. The necklace emerged in his hand.

  She went to him and he bent and put his lips to hers, softer than silk. She sighed and put her arms around his neck, touching the thickness of his queue, burying herself in his kiss. Nothing had changed, she could kiss him for hours.

  The child gave a great kick and he laughed.

  ‘It’s a boy. I’m certain of it.’

  She released him. ‘Does it matter?’

  ‘No. It doesn’t matter. I will love any child of ours. You know that.’

  She smiled at him and put her hand to his cheek. ‘I know. But you Chinese. You’re all mad for boys.’

  He moved behind her and fastened the clasp. The red threads settled onto her neck and the pearl lay cool against her skin. He put his lips against them, the silken threads. This love for her. It was a constant and intriguing mystery.

  ‘You know,’ he murmured. ‘There is a legend.’

  Glossary

  Ah ku: Chinese prostitute.

  Ang moh: A racial epithet to describe caucasians. Literally means red hair.

  Chandu: Refined opium for retail sale.

  Chintengs: Revenue police. The opium and spirit farmer controlled a private police force and a small army of informers in order to prevent illegal production and sale of chandu over which the legitimate opium farmer had a monopoly.

  Chukang: Headquarters of the Kangchu, see below. The legacy of the pepper and gambier agriculture lives on in Singapore in place names like Choa Chu Kang and Yio Chu Kang.

  Kajang: Palm leaf in Malay

  Kang Chu: ‘Lord of the River’. Name given to the Chinese headman of river settlements and plantations.

  Kapitan: Kapitan Cina was originally a Portuguese title for the leader of a Chinese enclave which provided colonial authorities wi
th a method of indirect rule. The Dutch and British adopted it though the British abolished the title in 1825.

  Kongsi: “Company”, a generic Chinese term for a range of social and economic configurations that includes everything from business partnerships to clan and regional associations to secret triad societies. The kongsi emerged in Southeast Asia in the 18th century and, although they soon absorbed the ideas, rituals and oath-taking of the triad, their origins are, first and foremost, an economic brotherhood which sprang up round the mining, agricultural and commercial interests of the overseas Chinese as they spread throughout the region.

  For the single male migrant Chinese in ‘barbarian’ lands, where family and Confucian relationships had been left behind, what filled the gap was the kongsi, the ‘government’ of the Chinese, who were always left by local rulers to take care of their own internal affairs. The kongsi were sometimes organised on dialect and clan lines, sometimes not, depending on individual situations. This could change over time. The triad organisation gathered different kongsi under its umbrella of common Chinese brotherhood and in the nineteenth century the triad was inextricably bound up in kongsi affairs.

  The Shan Chu, Lord of the Kongsi, was always leader of the triad and always the richest merchant who had access to capital and had the greatest control over the labouring masses of coolies. He was the ‘head of the corporation’ with access to many thousands of ‘brother’ foot soldiers to do his bidding. In 19th century Singapore the colonial authorities knew nothing about the membership, authority, activities or internal workings of the kongsi.

  Nyai: The native mistress or concubine of a foreign male.

  Revenue farmer: Colonial governments of Southeast Asia ‘farmed’ out annual rights to run opium, spirit, gambling, sireh and other monopolies in return for a monthly payment.

  Samseng: Gangster.

  Surat Sungei: ‘River document’. A permit given by a Malay leader to a Chinese headman which allowed him to establish plantations along the river banks. In return, the headman paid taxes on any profits. The lease had to be renewed after a specific period of time.