And the Bride Wore Red

CHAPTER SEVEN

AT LAST he said, ‘If you’ve finished eating I think we should go upstairs. We need plenty of sleep.’

At her door he bid her goodnight with a brief kiss on the cheek before hurrying away, leaving her wishing he’d stay the same person for five minutes at a time.

She went to bed quickly and read some more of the book until finally she put it down and lay musing. After their talk that evening Renshu and Jaio seemed strangely real, and she had the feeling that tomorrow she was going to meet them. Face to face she would hear their story, about their life, about the love that was stronger than death. And perhaps she would understand a little more about the man whose existence had sprung from that love at a distance of two-thousand years.

Olivia turned out the light and went to the window. Opening it, she stood gazing out at the mountains that were just visible in the moonlight, and a thin line of silver where a river followed a curving course.

In the room beside hers, Lang’s window was closed. She could see that his light was still on and, by leaning out, she could just see his shadow coming and going. She was about to call out to him when his light went off. She hurried back to bed and was soon asleep.

She awoke early, going to sit by the open window to breathe in the cool air and enjoy the view over the mountains now bathed in early-morning light. On impulse she took out her laptop and set up the connection with Norah. In England it would be mid-afternoon, not their usual time, but she might still make contact.

She was in luck. Almost at once Norah’s face appeared on the screen. When the greetings were over, Olivia said, ‘We’re going to see the terracotta warriors.’

‘I’ve heard of them. They’re very famous.’

‘Yes, but we have a special reason.’

Briefly she told the tale of Jaio and Renshu. As she’d expected, Norah was thrilled.

‘So Lang is descended from a warrior and a concubine. What fun!’

‘You’re incorrigible,’ Olivia said, laughing. Then something made her stop and peer more closely at the screen. ‘Are you all right? You look a bit pale.’

‘I’ve been out doing some shopping. It was nice, but very tiring.’

‘Hmm. Come closer, so that I can see you better.’

‘Stop fussing.’

‘I just want to take a look at you.’

Grumbling, Norah moved until Olivia could see her better.

‘There,’ she said. ‘Now stop making a fuss.’

Suddenly there came a knock on Olivia’s bedroom door.

‘Don’t go away,’ she said, drawing the edges of her light bathrobe together and heading for the door.

Lang was standing outside in a towel robe. He too pulled the edges together when he saw her.

‘Are you all right?’ he said. ‘I heard you talking, and I wondered if anything’s wrong.’

‘I’m talking to Aunt Norah by video link. I promised her I’d stay in touch. Come and meet her.’

She showed him to the window chair and made him sit where the camera could focus on him.

‘Here he is, Aunt Norah,’ she said. ‘This is Dr Lang Mitchell.’

‘How do you do, Dr Mitchell?’ Norah said formally.

‘Please, call me Lang,’ he said at once, giving the old woman his most charming smile. She responded in kind and they beamed at each other across five-thousand miles.

And I’m Norah.’

‘Norah, I can’t tell you how I’ve looked forward to meeting you.’

‘You knew about me?’

‘Olivia talks about you all the time. At our very first meeting she told me that you said if she ever shut up she’d learn something.’

Olivia gaped, outraged, and Norah beamed.

‘And I have to tell you,’ Lang continued confidentially, ‘that after knowing her only a short time I realise what a good judge of character you are.’

The two of them rocked with laughter while Olivia glared.

‘You can leave any time you like,’ she informed him coolly.

‘Why would I want to leave? I’ve just made a new friend.’

He and Norah chatted on for a few minutes and Olivia regarded them, fascinated by the way they were instantly at ease with each other.

At last Lang rose, saying, ‘It was delightful meeting you, and I hope we talk again soon.’ To Olivia he said, ‘I’ll see you downstairs for breakfast.’

He left the room quickly. He needed to be alone to think.

The Chinese had a saying: ‘it is easy to dodge a spear thrown from the front, but hard to avoid an arrow from behind’.

In Lang’s mind the spear from the front had been the moment he’d arrived to collect Olivia and found that she’d already left, ‘for ever’. For a few blinding, terrible minutes he’d been convinced that she’d changed her mind and left him, even fled the country, and that he would never see her again.

The moment when she’d appeared was burned into his consciousness with searing force. She hadn’t left him. Everything was all right. Except that now he’d glimpsed a future that didn’t contain her, and it appalled him.

He’d coped. He’d known already that his feelings for her were running out of control. It was only their extent that shocked him, and which had made him ultra-cautious in their talk over dinner the night before.

Harder to cope with were the arrows that struck unexpectedly. One had come out of nowhere earlier, giving him a bad fright.

He’d heard Olivia’s voice as soon as he’d opened his window, and had smiled, thinking she was on the telephone. But the words, ‘you look a bit pale’ had told him this was no phone call. And while he’d been trying to take in the implications she’d added, ‘Come closer, so that I can see you better.’

The idea of a video link hadn’t occurred to him. He’d tried to stay cool, not to jump to the conclusion that she had a man in the room, but no power on earth could have stopped him knocking on her door to find out. Now he was feeling like the biggest fool of all time. Yet mixed in with embarrassment was delight that he’d been wrong. All was well.

The arrows would keep coming when he least expected them. He knew that now. But nothing could stop his mood rioting with joyful relief, and in the shower he gave vent to a yodelling melody. When he joined her downstairs, he was still lightheaded.

‘I can see that Norah and I are going to be the best of friends,’ he told her.

‘Ganging up on me at every turn, I suppose.’

‘Of course. That’s half the fun. Did she say anything about me after I’d gone?’

‘Not a word,’ she declared loftily. ‘We dismissed you from our minds.’

‘As bad as that?’ he said, nodding sympathetically.

‘Worse. I couldn’t get any sense out of her. She just wittered on endlessly about how handsome you are. Where she got that idea, I couldn’t imagine.’

‘The video quality is never very strong on those links.’

‘Well, she likes you enormously.’

‘Good. I like her too. Now, let’s have a hearty breakfast and get revved up for the day.’

An hour later the coach called to collect them, plus several others from the hotel, and soon they were on the road to the warrior site.

‘The thing I loved about it,’ Lang said, ‘was that they didn’t build a separate museum and transport everything to it. They created the museum on top of the actual site of the dig where the figures were found.’

She saw what he meant as soon as they entered. The museum was divided into three huge pits, the first of which was the most astonishing. There in the ground were hundreds of soldiers standing in formation as though on duty. A gallery had been built all around so that the visitor could view them from every angle. This was exactly the place where they had been discovered and, as Lang had said, it made all the difference.

Not only men but horses stood there, patient unto eternity. After burial they had had only a short existence, for less than five years after the Emperor’s death they had been attacked, many of them smashed and the site covered in earth. For over two-thousand years they had remained undiscovered, waiting for their time to come, silent and faithful in the darkness.

Now their day had dawned again. Some had been repaired and restored to beauty, although thousands still remained to be unearthed. Now they were world-famous, proud and honoured as they deserved to be.

Although Lang had been here before he too was awed as they walked around the long gallery.

‘We’ve only seen a small part,’ he said as he left. ‘When we visit the rest you can study some of them close up. It’s incredible how they were created so skilfully all that time ago-the fine details, the expressions.’

When Olivia saw the figures that were displayed in glass containers she had to admit that he was right. Not one detail had been skimped on the armour, and the figures stood or crouched in positions that were utterly natural. No wonder, she thought, that historians and art experts had gone wild about them.

But she wasn’t viewing them as a professional. It was as men that they claimed her attention, and as men they were awesome, tall, muscular, with fine, thoughtful but determined faces.

‘It’s incredible how different they all are,’ she mused. ‘It would have been so easy to give them all the same face, but they didn’t do it the easy way. How many of them are there?’

‘Something like eight thousand when they’ve finished excavating,’ Lang said. ‘And I don’t think they’re all precisely individual. If you hunt through them you’ll find the same face repeated now and then, but it’s a long hunt.’

Their steps had brought them to a glass container with only one figure. He was down on one knee, but not in a servile way. His head was up, his back straight, his air alert, as though his whole attention was devoted to his duty.

‘Whoever this was based on had a splendid career ahead of him,’ she murmured. ‘And he gave it all up.’

‘You’ve decided that this was Renshu?’ Lang asked, fondly amused.

‘Definitely. He’s by far the most handsome.’

Before finishing the tour, they went to the pavilion where there was a teahouse to refresh them.

‘It’s so real,’ she said. ‘I hadn’t expected to find them so lifelike. You could almost talk to them and hear them talk back.’

‘Yes, that’s how I felt.’

‘You know that story you told me-how he might have seen her when he was escorting her, or later in the palace-well, I’ve been thinking, and they could both be true. Renshu saw her face accidentally on the journey, and after that he knew he had to see her again, so he connived to get assigned to palace duty.’

‘That’s a very romantic suggestion,’ Lang exclaimed. ‘I’m shocked!’

‘All right, I’ve weakened just a little. Now I’ve seen what a fine, upstanding man he must have been, I can understand why she fell in love with him.’ Olivia laughed at the sight of Lang’s expression. ‘It’s this place. Somehow the whole story suddenly seems so convincing. I can’t wait to go back in.’

They spent the afternoon going over everything again, fascinated by the semi-excavated parts in pit one, where broken figures lay waiting to be reclaimed, and the places where they could study the work in progress. The day finished in the shop that sold souvenirs, and Olivia stocked up on books and pictures. Lang also was buying extensively.

‘But you’ve got that book,’ she said, pointing. ‘I remember seeing it in your room.’

‘It’s not for me. It’s a gift for my friend Norah.’

‘That’s lovely. She’ll be so happy.’

Some of the other tourists were from their hotel and they all made a merry party, exchanging views on the way back. It was natural to join up again over the meal, and the evening passed without Lang and Olivia having a moment alone.

‘When will you talk to Norah?’ he asked later.

‘Early tomorrow morning.’

‘Make sure you call me so that I can talk to her.’

‘Can I tell her you’ve bought her a present?’

‘Don’t you dare! I want to do that myself. Goodnight.’

‘Goodnight.’

She contacted Norah early next morning and found her bright-eyed with anticipation.

‘Where’s Lang?’ was her first question.

‘Good morning, Olivia, how nice to speak to you,’ Olivia said ironically. ‘I gather I don’t exist any more.’

‘Let’s say he rather casts you into the shade, my darling.’

‘All right, I’ll go and knock on his door.’

‘Knock on his-? Do you mean he’s in a different room?’ Norah sounded outraged.

‘Yes, we have separate rooms,’ Olivia said through gritted teeth.

She hurried out, unwilling to pursue this subject further. After the way passion had flared between herself and Lang, it seemed inevitable that they would take the next step. But suddenly he seemed in no hurry, and hadn’t so much as hinted that he might come to her at night.

Perhaps she had mistaken him and he wasn’t as deeply involved as her, but both her mind and her heart rejected that thought as unbearable.

He returned with her and she witnessed again the immediate rapport between he and Norah as he showed her the gifts he’d chosen. For most of the conversation she stayed in the background.

‘It’s not like you to be lost for words,’ he teased her when they had finished.

‘I didn’t want to spoil it for you two,’ she teased back. ‘You get on so well, I’m beginning to feel like a gooseberry.’

‘Can you give me her address so that I can mail her present before we leave?’

She did so, and they parted, not to meet again until it was time to leave for the airport.

On the flight to Chongqing they fell into conversation with passengers on the other side of the aisle who were headed in the same direction, and before long several more joined in. Olivia brought out the catalogue showing The Water Dragon, the boat that would carry them down the Yangtze. It was a gleaming white cruise-liner, but smaller than an ocean vessel would be. It was ninety metres long and took one hundred and seventy passengers.

‘That sounds just right,’ somebody observed. ‘Big enough to be comfortable, small enough to be friendly.’

‘Yes, it’s going to be nice,’ Olivia agreed. She showed the catalogue to Lang. ‘What do you think?’

‘I think the restaurant looks good,’ he said prosaically. ‘I hope we get there soon. I’m hungry.’

When they landed a coach was waiting to take them the few miles to the river. Lang had fallen into conversation with an elderly lady who could only walk slowly, and he held back to assist her onto the coach, then sat beside her. Olivia settled down next to a young man who knew all about the river and talked non-stop.

At last the coach drew up at the top of a steep bank, at the bottom of which was the river, and The Water Dragon.

Olivia was first off and found herself swept forward by the crowd. Looking back, she saw that Lang was still helping the old lady. He signalled for her to go on without him, so she headed down the steps to the boat and joined other passengers milling around the chief steward. He gave them a smiling welcome, and declared that he was always at their service.

‘Now I am going to show you to your cabins,’ he said. ‘You will find them all clean and comfortable, but if any of you should want something of a higher standard we have two upgrades available. Follow me, please.’

Out of the corner of her eye Olivia saw Lang, still with the old lady, giving her his kindest smile. She waved and turned away to follow the steward.

The cabins were, as he’d said, clean and comfortable, but on the small and spare side. Olivia sat on her narrow bed, looking around at her neat, efficient surroundings, and felt there was something lacking. Wasting no more time, she went looking for the steward.

‘Can I see the upgrades, please?’

‘I’m afraid only one is left.’

It was a luxurious suite with a living room, bathroom and a bedroom furnished with a huge bed that would have taken three. From the corridor outside came the sound of footsteps approaching. Someone else was going to inspect the place and she had one second to decide.

‘I’ll take it,’ she told the steward.

He too had heard the footsteps and moved fast, whipping out a notepad and writing down her details. By the time the door opened, the transaction was complete.

‘It’s taken,’ he sang out.

The newcomers, a man and a woman, groaned noisily and glared at Olivia.

‘Can’t we come to some arrangement?’ the man demanded of Olivia. He was an oafish individual, built like an overweight walrus.

‘Sorry, it’s mine,’ she told him.

‘Aw, c’mon. You’re on your own. What difference can it make to you?’ he demanded belligerently. ‘Here.’ He flashed a wad of notes. ‘Be reasonable.’

‘Forget it,’ she said firmly.

‘Let me show you out,’ the steward urged.

The man glared but departed. As he left she heard him say to his companion, ‘Damned if I know what a woman alone needs with a place like this.’

It was a good argument, she thought wryly. Just what did she need with a huge double bed? She should stop being stubborn, admit that her own cabin was adequate and give up this delightful palace, possibly even take the money. That was what a sensible woman would do.

But suddenly she couldn’t be sensible any more.

Lang, having been shown to his cabin, was also regarding it with dismay. When he’d suggested joining Olivia on the cruise, this functional little room wasn’t what he’d had in mind. He considered taking an upgrade, but how was he to explain this to her? She would immediately suspect his motives, and the fact that her suspicions would be correct merely added to his problems.

But at last, annoyed with himself for dithering, he approached the steward, only to discover that he was too late. Both upgrade suites were taken.

‘Surely there must be something?’ he pleaded with the steward.

But this achieved nothing. He was left cursing himself for slowness, and generally despairing.

‘You too?’ said a man’s voice behind him.

Lang turned and saw a large, belligerent-looking man scowling in frustration.

‘They shouldn’t give those upgrades to just anybody,’ he snapped. ‘We went for the top one-nothing but the best for the missus and me-but it had already been taken by some silly woman who didn’t need it.’

‘Maybe she did need it,’ Lang said.

‘Nah, she was on her own, so why does she want to bother with a double bed? Hey, that’s her over there in the green blouse-All right, all right.’

His wife was tugging his arm. He turned aside to squabble with her, leaving Lang in a daze.

Olivia was watching him across the distance, a slight smile on her face. He returned the smile, feeling delight grow and grow until it had stretched to every part of him. She began to move forward until she was standing in front of him, looking up, regarding him quizzically.

‘I’m not sure what to say,’ he told her.

‘Don’t tell me I’ve made you speechless?’ she said, teasing and serious together.

‘You do it often.’

The oaf had seen her and turned back to resume battle.

‘Look, can’t we talk…?’ He fell silent, realising that neither of them was aware of him. They had eyes only for each other.

‘Oh, well,’ he mumbled at last. ‘If it’s like that.’

He let his wife drag him away.

Lang didn’t speak, but he raised an enquiring eyebrow as though the question was too awesome to be spoken aloud.

Olivia nodded.

‘Yes,’ she said softly. ‘It’s like that.’

From somewhere came the sound of footsteps, calls, engines coming to life, and there was a soft lurch as the boat began its journey.

‘Let’s go and watch,’ he said.

She nodded, glad of the suggestion. The time was coming, but not quite yet.

Up on deck they watched as the boat glided gently into the middle of the river and started its journey downstream between the tall hills on either side. After a while they went to the rear where a blazing-red sun was beginning to set, sliding slowly down the sky.

To Olivia’s eyes that setting sun seemed to be prophetic, marking the end of one thing and the beginning of another. Now she could no longer equivocate about her feelings for Lang, either to herself or to him. By seizing the chance of the upgrade, she’d given herself away, and she was filled with gladness.

No more pretence, no more hiding behind barriers that offered no real protection, no more denial that he had won her heart. She wanted to sing for joy.

‘Isn’t it wonderful?’ she murmured.

He was standing behind her, his hands on her shoulders. ‘Wonderful,’ he said. ‘And you know what would be even more wonderful?’

She leaned back. ‘Tell me.’

He whispered softly in her ear. ‘Supper.’

She jumped. ‘What did you say?’

‘I told you I was ravenous, and that was hours ago. They must be opening the restaurant about now.’

The joke was on her. She’d thought they were going to float away in misty romance, and all he cared for was his supper. But it wasn’t really a delusion; the tenderness in Lang’s face as he gazed down at her told her that.

‘Let’s go and eat before I fade to nothing,’ he said.

‘We’ll do anything you want,’ she vowed.

At that moment she would have promised him the earth.

The restaurant was a cheerful place with large tables where six people could crowd, calling cheerfully across at each other. But in one corner it was different. Olivia and Lang sat at a table small enough for only themselves, speaking little, sometimes looking out of the window at the banks gliding past in the gathering darkness.

He really was hungry, and ate as though his last meal had come. She left him to it, content to sit here in a haze of happiness thinking no further ahead than the night.

‘I meant to get that upgrade too,’ he said after a while. ‘But it took me too long to pluck up the nerve.’

‘Nerve? I always thought of you as a brave man.’

‘About some things. Not everything.’

He poured her some wine before adding, ‘You’ve always kept me wondering and I-don’t cope with that very well. In fact, I’m beginning to think I don’t cope with anything very well.’

She smiled at him tenderly. ‘Do I look worried?’

‘I don’t think anything worries you, Dragon Lady. You’re the most cool, calm and collected person I know.’

‘It’s an act,’ she said softly. ‘I’m surprised you were fooled.’

‘Sometimes I was. Sometimes I hoped-Well, at first I was afraid to ask for the upgrade in case you felt I was rushing you.’ He gave her a teasing smile. ‘After all, we’ve only known each less than two weeks.’

Less than two weeks? Had it really only been over a week? Yet a lifetime.

‘So maybe I’m rushing you?’ she mused.

He didn’t reply in words, but he shook his head.

As the diners came to the end of the meal the steward announced that they might like to gather in the bar where entertainment would be provided. The others hurried out leaving Lang and Olivia together. The steward approached, meaning to remind them cheerfully that they were missing the fun, but the words died unspoken as he became aware of the silence that united them.

Realising that they would never hear him, he moved quietly away. Neither of them knew he’d been there.