Chapter Twenty-One

One month later

August, 1882

‘What do you want?’ Sam pushed Martha aside and faced Chen Fai, who stood on the doorstep. A hand on the wooden jamb on either side of the door, Sam glared at Chen Fai. ‘We don’t want your sort here.’

With each of his hands in the opposite sleeve of his red brocade tunic, Chen Fai tried to look above Sam’s arm to Martha, who was hovering behind Sam, her eyes anxious.

‘I come to ask Charity to go for a walk with me tomorrow, Mrs Walker,’ he said, raising his voice slightly to reach her, ‘and I bring you this.’ He took one of his hands from the sleeve it was in, and held out a slender package.

‘What d’you think you’re playin’ at, comin’ here like this?’ Sam exclaimed angrily. ‘And if you think bringin’ us things is gonna make you welcome, you’re wrong.’

‘Move out of the way, Sam,’ Martha said, and she pushed one of his arms aside.

Scowling, he moved slightly to let her through.

She took the package from Chen Fai and opened it. ‘Oh my, it’s the new yellow cotton Charity was tellin’ me about last week!’ she exclaimed in surprise. Her face broke into a smile. ‘She told me it’d suit me and I should get some. She must have told you, too. Thank you, Chen Fai; it’s a very kind thought, but there’s no need to do this.’ She wrapped the paper loosely back around the material and held the parcel out to him.

He shook his head, took a step back and gave a little bow. ‘It’s my wish to give this to you,’ he said, a trace of awkwardness in his voice. ‘It’s Chinese custom to give gifts to show respect to other person.’ He hesitated. ‘Gift is given by one family to another when one family wants to make arrangement with other family.’

‘I see,’ Martha said slowly, looking down at the material in her hands. She glanced behind her into the room. Charity was nowhere to be seen, but Hiram was coming towards her, leaning heavily on his stick.

She turned back to Chen Fai. ‘I see,’ she repeated.

He gave her a half smile. ‘In China, one family does not talk to another about these things. It is someone else who talks for them and who takes gifts to woman’s family. But we are in America now, and we can do things in American way, I think, and I come to ask Charity if she like to walk with me. A short walk,’ he added. ‘You’ll see us walk from your chairs there.’ He indicated the two wooden chairs outside the house.

Martha nodded. ‘And the American way is that Charity will answer for herself.’

He nodded. ‘This is what I expect. I hope she agree.’

Martha hesitated a moment. ‘To speak plainly, Chen Fai, I think I can see where this is leadin’. When we read about that new Act, we saw at once how it might affect you. You do know, though, that in America, girls don’t get affianced as young as I hear they do in China? I’m sayin’ this in a general way,’ she added quickly, ‘not meanin’ anyone in particular. But in a general way, they don’t; and they don’t get wed as young, either. Charity’s only fourteen, and she’s been brought up in the American way.’

‘I mean only to go for walk tomorrow,’ Chen Fai said with a smile. ‘I like her to see me as her friend, not only as Su Lin’s brother. This is all I like for now.’

‘I understand. And for what it matters, we don’t agree with what the law said.’ She fingered the yellow cotton, then turned to Hiram. ‘What d’you say, Hiram?’

‘I say he should take her back to Chinatown with him right now and stay there. We don’t want any Celestials here,’ Sam cut in.

‘Like your ma told Chen Fai, that’s rather up to Charity, don’t you think, Sam?’ Hiram said quietly. ‘It’s not up to any of us, and it certainly isn’t up to you. We’ll let the girl decide for herself.’ He turned slightly. ‘Charity!’ he called. ‘Leave whatever you’re doin’ and come here at once.’

A moment later, Charity came from the corridor into the sitting room, a threaded needle in one hand and her pinafore in the other.

‘Chen Fai!’ she exclaimed, catching a glimpse of him beyond Martha and Hiram.

She hesitated, then went slowly up to the group at the doorway. Hiram and Martha moved aside to let her through, and she found herself facing Chen Fai. ‘What’re you doin’ here?’ she asked awkwardly. She caught her breath. ‘Is Su Lin all right?’ she asked in sudden alarm.

‘It’s not about Su Lin,’ Hiram said. ‘He asked if he can go for a walk with you tomorrow, Charity.’

She glanced at Hiram and then turned back to Chen Fai. ‘And what did you tell him?’ she asked, her eyes on Chen Fai’s face.

‘We made sure he was only talkin’ about walkin’ where we could see you,’ Hiram told her. ‘And we reminded him of your age. That said, we told him it was for you to answer. You must do what you want, gal.’

‘Tomorrow’s my day for cleaning the bedrooms,’ she said, glancing at Hiram. ‘And I help with the lunch, and then go to the bakery.’

‘I reckon you could fit in a walk if you wanted after you’ve done the bedrooms. Maybe you could leave off helpin’ with the lunch for once. Don’t you think, Martha?’

‘If that’s what you want, Hiram,’ Martha said, a trifle stiffly.

‘I suggest you go outside and tell Chen Fai if you wanna go for that walk or not. It’s up to you.’ He gave Charity a gentle push, and she found herself outside the house. The front door clicked shut behind her.

‘You needn’t look like that, Martha. She ain’t a servant, tied to us till her last breath,’ they heard Hiram say. ‘And as for you, Sam: you’ve got yourself a gal. Charity’s got a right to look to her future, too. And her future’s never gonna be with the whites. Think about it, this is the best thing for her.’ A moment later, they heard a bedroom door slam shut, and then there was silence.

She and Chen Fai stared at each other for a moment, the sudden lack of ease between them tangible.

Then he gave her a slight smile. ‘I ask only to go for a walk, and talk a little, maybe,’ he said.

‘Why? I seen you lots of times. I’ve been friends with Su Lin for years and you often talk to us.’

‘Maybe I want to talk to you by yourself. I like you begin to see me as your friend, not just as Su Lin’s big brother.’

She stared at him thoughtfully, biting her lower lip. ‘Is that ’cos you think Joe’s not comin’ back and I might need someone to look after me like Joe used to? Is that it? Or is it about you not goin’ to China? You aren’t, are you? Joe’s pa said that even if they agree you’re a merchant and give you a paper sayin’ you can come back, they might not let you back in.’

‘For the first thing you say, I will look after you if Joe is here or if Joe is not here, and if you not want to walk with me, I still look after you,’ Chen Fai said simply. ‘You are good friend to Su Lin. And you are good girl, Charity, and worthy of respect.’

She gave him a sly smile. ‘Even if my Chinese ma has a reputation?’

He grinned at her. ‘That is so.’ He paused. ‘For the second thing you say: no, I not go back to China. Not ever, I think. I not wed girl they choose to be my wife. I think like Mr Walker – I not be allowed back here, even if I have certificate. And even if I allowed come back, wife not be able to come here, too. I not want wife in China and me here.’ His smile broadened. ‘I live in America for most of my life and I become too American for that.’

‘I’m sorry,’ she said quietly.

‘Be more sorry for girl in China. She expect in a few years to bathe in pomelo leaves before her wedding, to sit in family’s rice-drying tray while female relatives comb her hair and braid it into style for married woman. She expect to lie on ground before family’s ancestral tablets, and before parents, who she know she never see again. She expect to be taken by palanquin to her wedding and have banquet after it. But this now not happen.’

Charity’s eyes widened with sympathy for the girl. ‘She must be so disappointed.’

‘I sorry for her, too. And is more bad. Arrangement is now made and bride price paid, so Chinese people see girl as wife to me, and she is not now able to marry another person. Chinese wife live with family of husband so she must live as servant to honourable mother. I am able to see this is not nice for girl.’

‘You see that because you’re a nice person, Chen Fai,’ Charity said gravely.

A pale pink hue spread across his cheeks. ‘I’m glad you think I’m nice, Charity.’ He hesitated. ‘In China, unmarried man and woman must not be alone together, must not talk together. This mean I must not speak to you like this, and walk with you, even if American family watch us. It is very bad for reputation of woman. I tell you this long time ago when I not want you to be friend of Su Lin.’

‘I remember,’ she said, and she pulled her single braid over her shoulder and started sucking the tip of it.

Smiling, he gently separated her hand from her hair.

‘But we are not in China now. In China, unmarried Chinese girl is not seen outside home by people who are not family, but we not easily able to live here if Su Lin never come out of room behind store. So Su Lin do like an American girl and she come out. Chinese people in America understand this and it not harm her reputation. If we do one thing different from in China, we also can do another thing different. Do you agree?’

She shifted her weight from one foot to another. ‘I guess.’

‘So I like to walk with you, Charity. You want to come with me to river over there tomorrow?’

He pointed towards the river.

She looked up at the dark eyes that gazed at her with warmth and hope, at the mouth that smiled a smile which reached the eyes, at the face she’d grown to know so well since she’d met Su Lin, at the man Su Lin called a good brother and who’d never shown her anything but kindness.

She took a deep breath. ‘Sure,’ she said. ‘Why not?’