The Gilded Fan Part 10

'Is there a special lady waiting for you? A wife or fiancee perhaps? If so, you'd best not be stingy.' Van Diemen laughed. 'Your homecoming will be much sweeter if you arrive with a gift in hand, in my experience.'

Nico forced a smile. 'I'll bear that in mind, but no, I'm not married or betrothed yet.'

'Well, if you're hoping to win someone's fair hand, here's your chance. You're in the very best place when it comes to purchasing gifts, I'd say.'

Nico hadn't intended to buy anything, but he didn't want to offend the governor-general when he was being so affable. He improvised quickly. 'Actually, I was planning to take a walk this very afternoon to see what I could find. Would a length or two of silk be suitable, do you think, or perhaps some jewellery?'

'Knowing the ladies, my friend, a bit of both would be welcome.' Van Diemen smiled. 'Their appet.i.te for such things seems to be insatiable. Not to mention any accessories you can find. Fans are very popular, as are shawls; both always go down well with my female relatives.'

'Oh, yes, in fact, I remember my aunt once saying ... G.o.dverdamme!' Nico, who was standing near the window, had happened to glance out into the square, where a familiar figure was wandering around, taking in the sights with interest.

'I beg your pardon? Your aunt said what?' Mijnheer van Diemen was goggling at him and Nico held up his hands in defence.

'No, sir, I wasn't quoting my aunt, of course not, she never swears. It's just that I've caught sight of M ... er, one of my crewmembers out there.' He pointed out of the window. 'This young ... varmint has specifically been told to stay on the ship and I don't like my orders disobeyed.'

The governor-general's facial expression relaxed. 'No, of course not. I quite see your point.' He nodded towards the square. 'You'd better go after the culprit then, eh? Before he goes too far. Could get himself into a lot of trouble here.'

'Yes, my thoughts exactly. Thank you, I'll do just that.' Nico bowed. 'Thank you for granting me so much of your time. It was a pleasure to meet you, sir.'

'Not at all, the pleasure was all mine.' Van Diemen inclined his head in return. 'I wish you a safe journey back to Amsterdam.'

Batavia was a delight and Midori wandered around aimlessly at first, simply taking it all in. Harding followed in her wake, keeping her firmly in his sights, but Midori didn't pay him much attention. She was so intent on everything around her that for a while she forgot all about her purpose in coming.

Because the original town had been more or less razed to the ground when the Dutch took it over, she'd been told they had rebuilt it almost entirely in their style. Now she could see what that meant: namely, rows of st.u.r.dy, brick houses unlike any she had ever seen before. Most of them faced a grid of tree-lined ca.n.a.ls, which apparently provided the main means of transporting goods. The houses had tiny windows and were fairly small and unostentatious. Nevertheless, they were a pleasing sight.

She reached a cobbled square where a much larger building stood. Someone had mentioned a town hall, and she a.s.sumed this must be it. A white building, two storeys high with a large entrance and painted shutters, it was impressive. A small bell tower on top of the entrance porch drew her eye and she stopped to admire it for a while, before continuing on her way.

'That's lovely, don't you think?' she said to Harding, who nodded but replied without much conviction.

'Mmm, to be sure it is. Would you like to go find the shops now, mistress?'

'Oh, yes, we mustn't stay too long. Thank you for reminding me.'

Midori soon found the back streets of the town were not as nice as those close to the ca.n.a.ls, but she hardly noticed because they had reached the merchant's shops and stalls. First she sought out the herbs she needed for Jochem, and stored them in a small pouch she'd brought for that purpose. That done, she couldn't resist a quick look at all the other merchandise on offer. After all, she might not have another opportunity to come here, so she had to seize her chance. There was every conceivable shade of silk, as well as leather goods, wooden artefacts, jewellery and much more.

The silver she had brought proved acceptable as payment, though a few of the merchants looked suspicious at first.

'Can you speak their language?' she asked Harding. Although it was possible to haggle without talking, she knew it would be faster if they could communicate.

'Only a few words, but I'll do my best,' Harding replied. 'Most of the people here speak Malay or Portuguese, which are the two more commonly used languages in this part of the world. I know a little of each. Some of 'em might speak Dutch, if we're lucky.'

So engrossed did she become in trying to choose what she wanted to buy, that when she had finally completed her purchases, quite a long time had pa.s.sed. Panic and guilt welled up inside her. Jochem how could I have forgotten about him? She was supposed to be bringing back a cure for him, not dawdling here among the shops.

'Thank you for being so patient, Harding,' she said to the big man. 'But now we really must be getting back. Let's try and find the quickest route.'

'Er, yes.' He scratched his head. 'That way p'rhaps?' He pointed to the right. Midori wasn't quite sure where they were either, so she was happy to follow his lead. But it soon became clear they should have paid more attention to where they were going.

'I don't think this is right, Harding,' she said and stopped. Just as he was about to answer her, however, another crew member from the Zwarte Zwaan came walking towards them. 'Oh, look, there's one of your fellow Englishmen. Jessop, isn't it? Let's ask him the way.'

'I don't know, mistress, he's one of Barker's cohorts.' Harding frowned, but Midori was desperate to get back to the ship now and took no notice.

'Yes, but he's alone, so we needn't worry about that.'

When asked, Jessop Midori didn't remember whether he was Abe or Peter seemed only too pleased to show them which direction to go and they followed him quickly. It wasn't long before they found themselves in an even more insalubrious area than before, however. Midori started to feel uneasy and Harding muttered under his breath. Drunken sailors were wending their way along the narrow street, singing loudly and shouting to each other. Some were brawling and others simply slumped in a heap, dead to the world.

'How much fer yer services?' one of them yelled at her in English, but Midori ignored him and scurried on.

'Are you sure this is the right way, Mr Jessop?' she asked anxiously.

'Yes, this is the best short cut. Don't pay no attention to them, they're all three sheets to the wind.'

Midori kept a firm grip on the knife inside her sleeve. She tried to look neither left nor right, preferring to keep her head down.

They turned a corner, and Jessop came to a sudden halt.

'What's the matter? Why have we stopped?' Midori looked around her and noticed that Harding wasn't behind her any longer. 'Harding?'

They were in a tiny alley which appeared to be a dead end. Jessop opened his mouth to reply, a sullen look on his face, but without warning, a hand shot out of a doorway and grabbed Midori by the hand, yanking her inside. It happened so fast she didn't have a chance to react and her knife never even made it out of her sleeve. An arm was firmly clamped around her from behind, pinning her arms to her sides. Although she tried every way she knew of breaking such a grip, it was no use.

'Let me go, you sc.u.m!' She kicked and wriggled for all she was worth. All she received in return was a blow to the side of her head, which made her senses swim, and a stream of what might have been abuse in an unintelligible language. Before she could do anything else, another blow to the head made everything go black.

'Where the h.e.l.l are you? d.a.m.ned stubborn woman,' Nico muttered to himself as he walked the streets, endlessly scanning the crowds for a sign of Midori. He wanted to throttle her for disobeying his orders, but he couldn't find her anywhere.

As he hadn't seen in which direction she was headed, he walked around in a huge circle, coming back to the town square several times. Whenever possible, he stopped to question the merchants selling goods he thought she might be interested in, but most of them only shrugged.

'We have a lot of customers, sir, cannot remember each one. Would you like some silk, sir? Very good quality, the lady will like it, I guarantee.'

Nico swore under his breath and ground his teeth in frustration. 'Why can't she ever do as she's told?' he asked of no one in particular, although he knew this was unfair. Midori had done her best to remain inconspicuous on board his ship and had never intentionally caused any trouble. So why does she have to start now?

As if to emphasise the misery engulfing him, the heavens opened and torrential rain started to pour down. It doused the streets in seconds and bounced off the nearby roofs. Most of the town's inhabitants scattered like c.o.c.kroaches in a beam of light, and Nico hunched deeper into the collar of his shirt. It made no difference; the entire shirt was drenched in an instant. Nevertheless, he continued with his search.

When at last a merchant did appear to remember Midori, he was told she had pa.s.sed that way at least an hour ago, after leaving instructions for her purchases to be delivered to the Zwarte Zwaan. The sun was going down and Nico's hopes of finding her unharmed were growing increasingly dim.

d.a.m.nation! There has to be a way ...

'A few puffs of this, and she might be a bit more amenable.'

The disembodied voice dragged Midori back to awareness through a haze of pain, and a strong smell invaded her nostrils, teasing her senses. She recognised it, but didn't immediately understand its significance. Lightning bolts shot through her head when she opened her eyes, but thankfully the place she found herself in was very dim, giving her eyes more of a chance to adjust.

'She's stirrin'.'

'Yeah, hands off! You can have your turn when I'm done, but I want her good and ready first.'

Midori frowned as a group of faces swam into view, fuzzy at first, then becoming clearer. She blinked. 'Jessop?' she whispered, almost to herself. 'And ... Barker?' Oh, no ... They grinned at her in a leering, malicious way. Midori shuddered.

'So you recognise me, do you?' Barker rubbed his hands together in glee, before turning to issue an order to someone behind him. 'Bring it, then.'

Midori sat up gingerly and opened her mouth to protest. Before she had time to utter a single word, someone grabbed her from behind again and twisted her arms up. Barker suddenly advanced on her with something in his hand. 'Hold her, Abe,' he ordered Jessop, who was standing next to him, looking nervous now.

'Do we really have to?' the man asked.

'Just do as you're b.l.o.o.d.y well told,' Barker snarled. 'You owe me, remember?'

'Not any more, I don't,' Jessop muttered mutinously, but Barker wasn't listening.

'Do it,' he ordered and Jessop reluctantly bent to perform his task.

'What? I ... umph, mphh ...' A pipe of some sort was stuffed into Midori's mouth, while Jessop's cousin Peter pinched her nose shut. Barker ordered her to breathe in deeply.

She shook her head and tried to wriggle out of Jessop's grip, but a fourth man came to their aid, grabbing her chin. Barker did his best to push her mouth together and his filthy hands on her face made her skin crawl. Despite holding out for as long as possible, Midori was eventually forced to take a deep breath, and as she did so her lungs filled with smoke. She was overtaken by a coughing fit, and the men relaxed their hold sufficiently to slap her on the back.

'What ... is that?' Midori choked out, but she already knew the answer. The smell which pervaded the room was unmistakeable and when she looked around her she could see a pall of smoke hanging in the air, confirming her thoughts. I'm in an opium den! She'd heard of such places, but never in her wildest dreams had she ever thought she'd actually find herself inside one.

The decor of the room, such as it was, appeared to be Chinese. Faded red silk lanterns cast a muted glow over piles of cushions, and there were girls lolling about dressed in silk outfits in the Chinese style. Midori thought they must be ladies of the night. Chinamen with long pigtails hanging down their backs scurried about handing customers pipes and other implements. Fear rose inside her. There was an ambiance of evil in this place and it made her want to scream.

Her mother had been given opium in the final stages of her illness to spare her from pain. The strange odour of it had filled the entire sickroom, and it wasn't one Midori would ever forget. She clenched her teeth as the agonising memories of that time briefly returned.

The men around her decided she'd had long enough to recover, and advanced on her again. This time she was a bit faster, however, and managed to whip out the knife from inside her sleeve. She slashed wildly in every direction and had the satisfaction of hearing grunts of pain and a hissed oath from behind her. She was pleased to find that Barker's fighting techniques hadn't improved markedly since their first encounter. Midori managed to cut his arm in roughly the same place she had gashed him with her sword. He screamed and shouted out a string of profanities.

'Hold her, you lackwits!' he ordered, clutching his wounded arm with one hand. 'Are you goin' to let one tiny little woman get the better of four grown men? Pathetic!'

He was so furious, spittle sprayed from his mouth as he yelled. Unfortunately for Midori, his words had the desired effect, and after a further struggle she found herself without the knife and held in a vicious grip once more. 'Keep still, woman,' Jessop hissed behind her and the menace in his voice made her shiver. Barker kicked her for good measure, presumably to expend some of his anger. Then he ripped her clothing from throat to waist, leaving her exposed and humiliated. Midori shut her eyes so she wouldn't have to see the men's voracious expressions.

The whole process of smoking the pipe was now repeated. No matter how much she tried to fight them, she ended up sucking the hateful smoke into her lungs time after time. Her insides felt dry and burning, threatening to burst, and her throat was on fire. Midori coughed until she thought her ribs might crack.

When she was sure she couldn't take any more of it, Barker and his friends suddenly stopped and stood in a circle, staring at her expectantly. Midori frowned, not understanding. Soon, however, her body began to feel strange, floating almost, as if her limbs were no longer part of her. Weightless, relaxed, she sank back on to the cushions placed behind her.

Calm descended on her brain, making her smile up at her tormentors, who all grinned at each other knowingly. Midori didn't care. A state of well-being invaded her entire body, so much so that she stopped wondering about anything happening around her. Instead, her gaze drifted to one of the silk lanterns, studying it in minute detail and admiring its beauty. The rest of the room swam in and out of focus.

'Remember, she's mine first,' she vaguely heard Barker say. 'Is the back room free?'

Midori closed her eyes, giving herself up to the enjoyment of floating freely. Someone picked her up, jolting the pleasurable feeling slightly, but it soon returned. She leaned her head against the shoulder of whoever had lifted her.

'That's my girl. I knew this'd do the trick.' An evil chuckle failed to stir any response in Midori other than another smile.

Time held no meaning and when she was dropped unceremoniously on to another pile of cushions, she didn't know whether a minute or an hour had pa.s.sed. She didn't care. A commotion broke out around her as she landed with a whoosh and she opened her eyes a fraction to see what was going on. There was a flash of metal and the clang of steel against steel, but Midori couldn't make any sense of it. Slowly, she sank back against the cushions and rested her head. It felt so wonderful, so soft, she wanted to stay like this forever ...

Chapter Fourteen.

The noise wouldn't leave her in peace. Each clang reverberated around her skull, making her wince, and in order to escape it Midori opened her eyes a crack. She blinked to try and understand what she was seeing, but there was movement everywhere, flashing in and out of her vision. Nico, scowling ferociously and jumping around in what looked like a strange dance. Barker, Jessop, shadowy and vague, joining in. Midori wanted to laugh out loud, they looked so ridiculous.

Tiny heads suddenly became huge and inflated. Faces with grimacing expressions like the strange masks worn by kabuki players absurd, inhuman. Metal, bright as the sun, weaving in and out of the dance, so beautiful. Nico floating above the floor, circling, never still.

The ladies of the night with mouths and eyes wide open, their sinuous bodies merged and separated, like a writhing nest of snakes suddenly joined together into one enormous ent.i.ty. Shiny clothing turned into smooth reptile skin, flailing arms weaving in and out among the snake's tails.

Midori shut her eyes for a moment. She couldn't make sense of it all.

What sounded like the distant roar of dangerous animals made her open them again, and she saw that Nico was now dancing by himself. The others were all lying down, obviously tired out from their efforts, but howling like dogs in the night. Midori knew how they felt. She was so tired herself, so exhausted. She just had to rest.

He had arrived in the nick of time, and only because he'd hit on the idea of bribing a gang of street urchins. They kept their eyes and ears open and saw everything going on, leading him first to Harding, who'd been hit over the head and left in a doorway, and then to the opium den. Thank the Lord! Nico pulled a hand through his hair and drew in a deep breath. It had been very close.

By the time he'd rescued Midori, Harding had recovered enough to take charge of Barker so that Nico was able to carry Midori back to the ship. He sat beside her now, watching over her as she lay on his bunk. He'd brought her to his own cabin, as there was more s.p.a.ce and light, but he wished now that he hadn't. The image of her in his bed wasn't one he'd forget in a hurry, even though she was decently dressed now. She looked as if she didn't have a care in the world. Smiling dreamily, she stirred from time to time, but mostly she just gazed into s.p.a.ce. Nico wanted to shake her and ask what had possessed her to go wandering around the back streets of Batavia, but he knew it wouldn't have any effect whatsoever. The drug had to run its course.

Harding burst in through the door without even knocking and stopped dead at the sight of Midori. 'Cap'n? Is she ...? I'm so sorry, I should've ...'

Nico held up a hand. 'It's all right. I don't think she has come to any harm. She's just drugged.' At least I hope that's the case. He had no way of knowing for sure, but he wasn't about to tell Harding that.

'Drugged?' Harding stared at her as if he hadn't taken in her appearance before. 'How? I mean, why ...?' He walked over to peer closely at Midori, who smiled benignly as before.

'Barker's doing.' Nico's fists clenched involuntarily and he shoved them into his pockets. 'No doubt he thought to ravish her while she was incapacitated.'

'The scurvy worm!'

'My sentiments exactly. Did you take him to the hold as I instructed?'

'Yes and I sent five men to collect the others. They've just arrived. Good thing you bribed the Chinamen so they didn't let 'em escape.'

'Yes, I doubt Barker had paid them as much. Where are his henchmen now?'

'They've been fettered on deck. One of 'em was spoutin' a lot of nonsense, but I think we can make him talk sense a bit later. If he gives evidence, we can hang Barker, though I'd prefer to choke him with my bare hands, the brainsickly little wh.o.r.eson.'

'No, no, there's no need for that, Harding. The matter will be dealt with properly.' Nico made himself sound calm, when in fact he'd wanted to kill the man, too. He knew he had to stick to the rules, however, and put his own feelings aside.

Harding growled, then glanced at Midori once more. 'You sure she'll be all right, Cap'n?'

'Yes. They made her smoke opium, but it should wear off soon. I've seen it before. A friend of mine was foolish enough to try.'

'Well, I'll go below deck and await my punishment then, sir.'

'Punishment?'

'For not guardin' her properly, like you told me to.'

'Oh, that. Don't worry, I won't hold you responsible. They hit you on the head from behind, you wouldn't have stood a chance. You were only just coming round when I found you. Does it hurt much?'

Harding rubbed the back of his bald pate. 'Just a bit, but it's no more'n I deserve. Although I did try to tell her not to follow that Jessop fellow.'

Nico shook his head. 'And no doubt she wouldn't listen. I know how headstrong she can be and it's not your fault, so don't fret.'

'Thank you, sir. I ... thank you.'