She'll scream bloody murder for one thing, he thought, almost wincing. Obviously she'd want the burial there, it should be there, at sea or not at sea, whatever the truth or untruth of the story, and fifty pounds against a bent farthing in any event she'll try and overturn the marriage, with a fair chance of doing it. So you poor lady, like it or not, are on a very dicey wicket. "I'm afraid you are making an already tragic happening even more complicated than it need be. The poor fellow can be buried at sea just as easily from Hong Kong as here. So the best thing..."
"Excuse me for butting in, Sir William," Skye said, then added as a brilliant Queen's Counsel cross-examining would, "But unless you are formally challenging the legality of my client's marriage, she does have certain rights. May I therefore ask you to approve that her late husband's wishes and hers prevail in this matter and let him be buried here." Then, the same Queen's Counsel finishing his summation for the defense, he said so softly, kindly: "Malcolm Struan was ours, Yokohama's, as much as theirs. His tragedy began here, his should end here."
In spite of her resolve, Angelique felt the tears begin. But she gave no sound of crying.
For an hour after Sir William and the others left Skye and Jamie argued. She listened.
Nothing they said made any difference. She had lost. Following Skye's impassioned appeal, Sir William pronounced: "I regret I've heard nothing here this afternoon to change my mind. The body should go back to Hong Kong for burial, either with Prancing Cloud or the mail ship. As you choose, Madam. This meeting is over."
Skye said bitterly, "If we were in Hong Kong I could apply for a writ on a dozen grounds, but here Sir William is court, judge and jury. There isn't time enough to go there and back whatever we do."
"Then there's nothing more to be done." Jamie was grim, rocked by her story. "You have to accept it, Angelique. There's nothing more to be done, God rot it."
"I cannot go to Hong Kong--I must be at the burial."
"I agree," Skye said, nodding.
"Why? What's to stop you, Angelique?"
Jamie asked.
"Tess Struan," she said.
"What can she do? She can't stop you going to the funeral and she can't break the marriage.
Nettlesmith's afternoon editorial says it's perfectly legal even though you're both minors.
Go with the mail ship, I'll get her to sail at the same time."
"No. Sorry, Jamie, Mr.Skye already said the editorial is only an opinion. I know Tess Struan won't bury him at sea as he wanted, I'm sure she won't. And she will attack me in any way she can. Here, read her letters to Malcolm."
Both men were jolted by the intensity of venom.
Skye said queasily, "Pity, there's nothing actionable in them. She'd claim they were private letters from a mother to a son, desperately warning him against marriage as is her right, even to forbid it--as is her right. And the threats against you, you as a person, Mrs. Struan, there's nothing we could attack her with."
"That's not fair," she said.
"Heavenly, what about "if that woman ever steps foot in Hong Kong I'll make sure ..." eh?" Not wanting to hurt Angelique further, Jamie did not read all of what Tess Struan had written: I'll make sure every decent person in Hong Kong knows her history, her father's, uncle's and that her aunt was an itinerant actress in a travelling group of players, gypsies and mountebanks, and about her own personal finances.
"I'm not ashamed that my mother was an actress," she had said sharply, "even though most English consider them harlots. She wasn't, ever. And they weren't mountebanks. I'm not responsible for the sins of my father--I wasn't penniless, he stole my money, not only other people's."
"I know." Jamie wished he had not mentioned the letter. "Heavenly, can you get proof of Dirk's burial with May-may?"
"Oh yes, from Compradore Chen and Tess herself. But neither would volunteer, or admit it, would they? We would be jeered at and never get a court order to open the family crypt." Skye coughed and coughed again. "Mrs. Angelique Struan must go with her husband's remains, if she doesn't she'll immeasurably hurt her position, both legally and publicly. But to go to Hong Kong? Dangerous." He had asked Babcott and Hoag to smooth the wording of the death certificates but was told, as expected, it could not be done. "In my considered opinion, Mrs.Angelique is right not to take that risk at the moment, Jamie. I'm concerned she'd be more defenseless in Hong Kong than here."
"You'd go too, you can provide any shield necessary."
"Yes, but there's bound to be a scandal and I want to prevent that at all costs, for everyone's sake. Including Tess Struan's. She's not a bad woman if you look at her position from a mother's point of view. My considered opinion is that there's bound to be a stink--how to avoid it or minimize it, that's the question."
"Perhaps it can be contained," Jamie said.
"Tess isn't an ogre, she's always been fair in her way."
"She won't be fair, not with me,"
Angelique said. "I understand her. Only a woman can really understand. She'll believe I've stolen her eldest son and killed him. Malcolm warned me against her."
"To contain her we need time," Skye said.
"We need time to negotiate, and there's not enough before a burial."
When the two men left her, nothing had been resolved.
Never mind, she thought. I will bury my husband as he wished, I will inherit his worldly goods, if any, I will beat Tess Struan. And I will be revenged.
The letters had hurt, but not as much as she expected. Her tears were not tears as before. They had not racked her as before. Nor am I as before.
I don't understand. I'm really very strange. Will it last? I surely hope so. Oh, Blessed Mother, how stupid I was.
Through the window she saw that day would soon be night, and in the bay, ships' riding lights, port, starboard and at their mastheads, blinked with the rise and fall of the swell. In the fire bucket coals settled noisily, flames flared briefly drawing her attention back. What to do?
"Missee?" Ah Soh stalked in.
"Tai-tai, Ah Soh! You deaf heya?" she said curtly. Malcolm had explained tai-tai to her, and on his last night Malcolm had made Ah Tok, Ah Soh and Chen address her as such in front of him--and Skye had also reminded her to make the servants use it.
"Missee wan' my pack chop chop?"
"Tai-tai. You deaf, heya?"
"You wan' my pack, chop chop... tai-tai?"
"No. Tomorrow. If at all," she added quietly.
"Missee?" She sighed. "Tai-tai!"
"Missee-tai-tai?"
"Go away!"
"Med'sin man wan' see-ah."
She was going to say, Go away again, then changed her mind. "Medicine man what?"
"Med'sin frog, missee tai-tai."
Hoag. Yes, he is froglike, she thought and was surprised to find that she was smiling. "Yes.