by R. L. Davis
She pulled him against her, and to his shock and thrill, he felt her nakedness. She was naked for him! As their bodies touched, she said, “I want to feel you.” She tugged down on his drawers, and he removed them. They kissed long and passionately, and he ground against her. She took his hands and placed them on her breasts. “I want to feel your hands on me,” she said breathlessly, and then she reached below the water.
He carried her to the shore and laid her on the blanket. He straddled her and eagerly drank in her body with hungry eyes. “My god, Elizabeth, you’re so beautiful,” he said, his breath coming in ragged gasps.
“My body is for you only, my love,” she promised, her chest heaving from passion.
He moved over her and lowered himself. He heard her gasp, and a guilty pang ran through him as he realized he had just taken her maidenhood. In seconds, she relaxed, and they moved into the rhythm of first love. The two of them discovered each other and reached bliss as they became lovers that afternoon in their very own paradise.
Every day before Elizabeth’s departure, weather permitting, they returned to the lake to swim and make love.
Lying in each other’s arms after swimming on their last day before her departure, Elizabeth began to weep.
He gazed at her for a moment and then kissed her shoulder.
She snuggled closer to him. “This is almost over. In two days, I’ll be going back to Canada. I won’t be able to feel you with me, as part of me, as we have been since that first day. I love you and will never love another as I love you now. You will always be in my heart. I can’t bear the thought of not seeing you every day.”
Tears flowed down her cheeks. Rudd held her strongly and kissed her salty tears. He, too, began to cry as they lay entwined in each other’s arms.
“This is not the end for us,” he promised. “We’ll be together again. You are burned into my soul. You will always be with me. No one will ever be as close to me as you are. Next summer we’ll share this again, I promise.”
The next day it rained. Early the day after, Elizabeth and her parents departed, but not until Rudd and Elizabeth stole a moment alone to declare their love for one another and promise to write every week.
For months, they exchanged letters weekly, and then one week, the letters stopped. Returning from his morning ride, Lady Carter met him at the door of his room. Her eyes were red from crying. She put her arms around him and kissed him. “Your father wants to talk to you. Please know that I love you, son. Be a man, be brave.”
Not knowing what to expect, Rudd entered his father’s study to find him pacing back and forth behind his desk with an open letter in his left hand. Lord Carter stopped, regarded him with an angry glare, and directed him to a chair. Rudd could see that his father was in a terrible mood.
Lord Carter sat down at his desk, brushed his graying hair from his eyes and spoke. “This morning I received this letter from your uncle informing me that your cousin Elizabeth is with child, and she has admitted that you are the father. Is this true?”
Shocked and stunned, Rudd felt a knot in the pit of his stomach. Instead of shame, all he could think of was Elizabeth’s plight.
“How is… Elizabeth? Is she well?” he stammered.
His father stood and pounded on his desk. “‘How is Elizabeth?’” he yelled. “‘How is Elizabeth?’ Do you know what you have done? You have possibly created the biggest scandal this family has ever known, and all you can ask is, ‘how is Elizabeth?’”
“I love her—she is everything to me,” Rudd said, locking eyes with his father. “I want to be with her for the rest of my life. I know she feels the same about me.”
“Rudd, you can’t be serious. She is your first cousin,” he growled. Your first cousin and only sixteen!” His voice rose in anger. “Do you understand? You don’t diddle your sixteen-year-old cousin, and you most assuredly do not conceive a child with her! What were the two of you thinking? As for spending the rest of your life with her, you will never see her again. Do you understand the position you have put this family in?”
Rudd dropped his head into his hands, weeping as his father continued his tirade. “You and Elizabeth were being groomed for a wonderful life. The two of you were being prepared to marry into families of title and social position to advance our political and social aims.” Lord Carter paced for a moment and then stopped in front of Rudd with his hands clasped behind him. “Until you created this mess, you were going to enter Cambridge next fall and hopefully follow in my footsteps.” He stood silently for a moment, regarding his son coldly. “I am a member of the House of Lords, and I like to think that someday I could become Prime Minister… but after this, I don’t know.”
Returning to his desk, Lord Carter sat down and began to read silently from a sheet of paper. Looking up, he said in a controlled tone, “For this irresponsible act, I’m going to send you out of the country. My cousin Roger is first vice president of our bank in Hong Kong. It would be beneficial for all concerned if we sent you out there for a few years to learn the banking business, at least until things are more settled here.”
Rudd stared at his father. “What is to happen to Elizabeth, Father? What will they do with her?”
“What happens to her is not my concern,” his father snapped. “I’m certain that her family will take care of this situation properly, as we will.” Becoming silent, Lord Carter stood glaring at his son.
Rudd realized that the concern he expressed for Elizabeth’s well-being angered his father greatly, causing him to glare back defiantly.
“You may be excused,” Lord Carter said coldly. “I do not wish to see you at the dinner table tonight. I know that I don’t have to tell you not to speak to another soul about this. I want you in this room tomorrow at two in the afternoon.” Turning his back on Rudd, he finalized by saying, “Think long and hard about the situation you have created for this family.”
Rudd spent the rest of the day and night in his room thinking about Elizabeth. He could feel her touch, her body against his, the scent of her all around him. When he could bear it no longer, he wept quietly for minutes on end. Remembering her teasing whisper, he would break into tears again. She was his whole life, and the families were not going to allow them to be together. Why? Because it wasn’t politically and socially convenient for their families, even though it was legal for first cousins to marry? Especially not cousins their age. They were supposed to play games and have picnics with the family, not ride off into the forest and make love day after day. Most assuredly, cousins did not fall in love with each other and have a baby. Nevertheless, he ached for her and resolved to be with her again someday, somehow.
The next morning, Rudd awoke feeling rebellious and determined instead of remorseful and full of the sorrow he had gone to sleep with. He would welcome going abroad. He would welcome the opportunity to break away from his father’s on going effort to package him as if he were some kind of commodity being developed for the benefit of his family’s political ambitions. He would find Elizabeth and create a life for them under his own terms.
That afternoon, he entered his father’s study to find both his parents waiting for him. Lord Carter motioned for him to sit down. Rudd chose to stand.
“Very well, if you prefer to take what I have to say standing up, then I admire your grit,” his father said, “but before I continue, your mother has something to say to you. Margaret?”
Lady Carter moved close to her son, placing the palm of her hand against his cheek as she often did when she expressed affection for him. He visibly relaxed under her touch.
“Yesterday, you showed much concern for Elizabeth, and I am moved by that, for I know you must love her deeply. I can honestly say that I do not know what will happen to her, but I imagine she will live with relatives in another province in Canada until the baby is born. Then she will be placed in a religious girls’ school until she is eighteen. Don’t worry, she will be well taken care of by her family, but the two of you must not c
ommunicate with each other,” she cautioned.
His eyes moistened. “Father, Mother, I want to apologize for any scandal I have caused. I am ready to accept any decision you make regarding my future. If you want to send me to Hong Kong, then to Hong Kong I shall go.”
As he listened to his son’s apology, his father’s face softened. “I must admit, I’m very impressed with your attitude, taking your medicine like a man. This situation will pass in time, and if all goes well, in a few years you’ll be able to return as if nothing had happened.” He gave Rudd a more compassionate look. “It will take a week or two for me to make arrangements for your passage to Hong Kong. In the meantime, you may return to your normal everyday activities until you depart. Make no attempt to write to Elizabeth, as your letters will be intercepted, and it will appear to my brother that I have made no effort to discipline you for your part in this mess. You may go now.”
As Rudd left his father’s study, anger welled up inside him. He had never felt hatred for his father before, but his seeming disregard for Elizabeth’s fate and cold dismissal of his feelings, as always, triggered an overwhelming emotion in him. He resolved he would never forgive his father.
* * *
After Rudd had gone, Lady Carter stood silently at the window, studying the rolling hills in the distance, and then turned to her husband. “Is it really necessary to send Rudd abroad? Since everything is being taken care of in Canada, no one here will ever know the difference.”
“Margaret, I have to show my brother that I am taking strong steps with Rudd, or he will be greatly offended. His political and social reputation will be just as jeopardized as mine, and of course, his wife will feel compelled to write relatives over here and it will get out. We have to show that we have reprimanded him properly. After all, my political future could be at stake if this situation is not carefully handled.”
Lady Carter turned back to the window, her eyes filled with tears. “Elizabeth is such a beautiful, sweet girl. This summer I grew to love her as if she were my own daughter. They seemed so happy together. I can see now that they loved each other deeply or this wouldn’t have happened.” She turned her gaze back to her husband and asked, “Why can’t they be married? They love each other.”
Lord Carter let out a loud guffaw. “Can’t you just see the spectacle of our seventeen-year-old son marching down the aisle with his six-month expectant first cousin at Westminster Abbey in full view of the finest families in England?” Glaring at her sternly, he said, “Margaret, I’ll not hear another word about this! There will be no marriage and no leniency. They will each have to pay for what they have done.” He turned and stormed out of the room.
Chapter Seven
April 1893, Hong Kong
After a three-week voyage aboard a cargo ship that stopped at every port along the route from England through the Suez Canal, Rudd arrived in Hong Kong. A representative of his future employer was waiting for him at the dock. As he walked down the gangplank, he became aware of a whole new world of sights, sounds, and smells. Stepping onto the dock, a young Chinese man dressed in a dark, three-piece English business suit stepped forward. “Master Carter?”
“Yes, I’m Rudd Carter.”
“Welcome to Hong Kong, Master Carter. I am Sui Yen, an officer of the Carter Bank of Hong Kong. If you will, follow me please.”
Sui Yen led Rudd to two waiting rickshaws. He gestured to one of the rickshaws. “Please be seated while I go and gather your luggage.”
Rudd took a seat and waited while the luggage was gathered and placed in the other rickshaw, and they started for the bank. The journey was like no other he’d ever experienced before. The two-wheeled cart drawn by a man struck him as a more practical way to move about on highly congested streets than in a four-wheeled carriage drawn by horses.
The streets were narrow and bustled with people on foot buying and trading goods of all matter and description from open stands. Food was cooking in pots or grilling in the open, and the sweet, tangy aroma of shallot, ginger, garlic and chili blending with cooking wine and sesame oil permeated the air. A cacophony of sounds emanated from hundreds of people all talking on top of each other, ordering, bidding, or arguing over what they wanted. The smell of freshly slaughtered animals and spoiling fish wafted through the streets.
For twenty minutes, Rudd’s senses were bombarded by the everyday happenstance of daily survival in this new culture in which he would be living.
Coming to the Carter International Bank of Hong Kong, a modern three-story masonry building, they stopped. Sui Yen ordered the rickshaws to wait and then escorted Rudd into the bank. Once inside he was shown to the floor manager and taken to a spacious mahogany-paneled office where he was introduced to Roger Carter, the bank president and his second cousin. Rudd had heard Roger’s name mentioned in family circles a few times in the past, but he didn’t really know much about him. This man would be in charge of his life for the next few years.
Roger Carter was a man in his late forties, of medium height and build, whose impeccable manners and heavy Oxford accent seemed a bit much, for a man who lived and worked half a world away from England. Perhaps he’d turned it up a notch to impress the local English merchants he conducted business with every day.
“I’ve been hearing much about you as of late,” he said, exhibiting an upper class British smile. “There is no need for an in-depth discussion of why you have been placed in my charge. It is your father’s wish that you learn the banking business, and that responsibility has been entrusted to me.” He looked Rudd over for a moment. “Sui Yen, the man who met you at the dock, will be your guide and companion for the next few weeks to help you become acclimated to your new life here in Hong Kong. He will take you to the right tailor to have you fitted for clothes that are befitting your station here at the bank. He also will help you get settled in at the hotel where you will be living, and he’ll introduce you to restaurants and establishments you might like to frequent.” He hesitated for a moment, smiled, and gave Rudd an approving pat on the shoulder. “I would like you back in this office ready to work by next Monday. And, by the way, everything your father has written to me about you is not negative. He is quite complimentary about your abilities, and I for one am looking forward to working with you in the coming years. I knew your father quite well in our youth, and it appears to me that you’re a chip off the old block.” Pausing, he said in a more serious tone, “I’m sure you will be an asset to the bank. Now go and enjoy what Hong Kong has to offer.”
Rudd smiled politely. “Thank you for your kind welcome, sir. I will do everything in my power not to disappoint you. I’ll be here and ready to work come Monday morning.” He held out his hand for a polite shake, then turned and exited.
Sui Yen waited for him in the foyer. “As you know by now, Master Carter, I have been charged with helping you settle in to your new quarters and see that you are ready to work at the bank by next Monday.”
Rudd noted that Sui Yen spoke amazingly good English with an American accent and appeared to be just a year or two older than him. He liked the young man immediately.
Together they stepped onto the street, entered the rickshaws, and were taken to the Emperor’s Hotel. Sui Yen helped Rudd check in and carried his two suitcases in for him. The room was large and clean, though a bit run down, as was the entire hotel.
Retiring to the bar after unloading the luggage, they were met by the strong fragrance of cheap perfume. The moment they sat at the bar, they found themselves surrounded by a crowd of young, attractive, overly made-up, unaccompanied Chinese women dressed in tight-fitting silk dresses with slits up the sides almost to their hips, leaving little to the imagination. Rudd had never seen anything like this at home in England.
“They dress in the style of the famous Chinese prostitute from San Francisco, Ah Toy,” Sui Yen explained. “Master Carter, if you have the need, any one of these girls is available for a price… a pretty low price at that.” Turning to the bar, he asked, �
��Would you like an ale?”
“Please,” Rudd answered.
A dozen girls hovered around, flirting, giggling, and reaching out to touch Rudd. The girls called to him repeatedly in Chinese. “You’re all very beautiful, but not tonight. I’ll be living here in the hotel for some time, and we’ll have lots of time to get acquainted,” he said with a boyish grin, though it didn’t appear that the girls understood one word. He turned to Sui Yen. “I don’t think they understand English. Will you translate for me?”
Sui Yen repeated in Chinese what Rudd had just said. The girls applauded, giggled, and dispersed in search of other companions.
The truth was that he wasn’t ready for female companionship just yet. Not a day went by that he didn’t long for Elizabeth. He hadn’t seen or heard from her in over six months. The fact he wouldn’t be with her for the birth of their baby tormented him.
Rudd and Sui Yen left the hotel late in the afternoon.
Once they were in the street, Sui Yen asked, “Master Carter, would you care to meet the tailor now, so he can begin tailoring your new suits right away?”
“I think that’s a very good idea, Sui Yen, but I’d like it very much if you would call me by my first name, Rudd, and not Master Carter. All right?”
“Rudd, it will be,” he answered with a smile.
For the next few days, Sui Yen met Rudd at his hotel in the late mornings and took him around to the various establishments and government offices that he needed to visit in order to live and work in Hong Kong. In the evenings, they went to different restaurants and bars that Sui Yen thought Rudd should know about.
While at a bar one evening, Rudd asked, “What province are you from, Sui Yen?”
“I’m from a province in the Far East.” At Rudd’s puzzled look, Sui Yen laughed. “The Far East, San Francisco. I’m a native-born American. I also have a relative who works in the bank who offered me a job.”
Rudd studied Sui Yen carefully. “Wasn’t it difficult for you to leave your family and relocate to Hong Kong?” he asked.