The Gilded Fan Part 11

'How is the boy?'

'I've just been to see him and he's still feverish, but someone's been spongin' him and it seems to help like she said.' Harding shrugged. 'I gave the herbs she bought to the ship's surgeon and he said he'd make up a tisane.'

'You'd best return to Jochem straight away then.'

'Yes, Cap'n.' Harding bowed himself out and Nico returned his attention to Midori.

Some time later her dreamy gaze came to rest on him and she smiled a smile so dazzling he had to blink. 'Nico.' She stretched out her arms to him, tempting him to lean forward. Her hands caressed his neck, pulling him towards her. 'Nico,' she whispered again. 'You're scowling today. I don't like it when you're scowling.'

'Midori, you shouldn't-' he started to say, but his words were cut off abruptly when she suddenly put her mouth on his.

He made a strangled sound and tried to pull back, but she twined her arms around his neck and trapped him. He could have used force, he knew that, but her lips were so soft and they were moving slowly over his in a sensuous way he couldn't resist. Just this once, he promised himself. What harm could it do? There's no one to see. Wrapping his own arms around her, he pulled her on to his lap, holding her so close he could feel her calm heartbeat. She was warm and pliant, and she smelled wonderful, despite the slight odour of opium which still clung to her. When the kiss ended at last, he buried his face in her hair, inhaling its fresh scent and tried not to remember the incredible sight of her naked to the waist.

Dear Lord, but she was perfection itself, with a figure like a G.o.ddess!

'Nico.' She repeated his name, over and over again like a mantra, and he loved the sound of it on her lips. That mouth was too close for comfort, too close to be ignored and so beautiful ...

Nico didn't know how long the second kiss lasted a minute, an eternity, it made no difference. It felt like a lifetime and he never wanted to stop. The taste of her and her joyful response made him almost crazy with desire, and it was only with the utmost effort he tore his mouth away at last, simply in order to breathe.

Still holding her tight, he could feel her shaking and his own body responded. He bent to recapture her lips, but just then she tensed and let out a moan which sounded as far from desire as was possible. He looked into her face, which had gone deathly pale.

'Midori? What's the matter?'

'I ... I don't feel well. I'm going to be sick. I ... sorry ...' She leaned over and Nico only just had time to s.n.a.t.c.h up a chamber pot before she cast up the contents of her stomach.

'A plague on it,' he muttered and cursed himself for a fool. Midori had made him forget that the initial stage of euphoria induced by the opium soon wore off and could give way to more unpleasant effects. He should have been on his guard, not dallying with a woman he had no business touching. He swore again, if only to combat the desire that still raged within him.

The nausea continued to plague Midori for another hour or more, then she broke into a sweat and her limbs took turns to cramp up. She doubled over in agony, and Nico ma.s.saged the afflicted parts as best he could without removing her clothing. He tried not to notice how soft the skin of her arms was and how perfectly formed the limbs he was touching through the silky material. He gave her some water, then at last she fell into a restless slumber, which by the look of it was broken by nightmares.

Nico collapsed into his chair, exhausted by his efforts and emotionally drained. He closed his eyes and wished himself a thousand miles away.

Nico was kissing her and it was the most wondrous thing. Midori squirmed in his arms, urging him ever closer until they were all but joined up, but just then fear tore through her and she opened her eyes to find that she wasn't kissing Nico, but Barker.

She could smell his fetid breath, see the rotten stumps of his teeth as he smiled in triumph. 'I've got you now, woman. I've got you now ...' His laughter echoed all around her and she put her hands over her ears to shut it out, but that only made it louder.

'Let go of me! Leave me alone!'

Barker's voice taunted her. 'I will have you, I will ...' His words bounced from one side of Midori's head to the other, making it spin. Weakly, she fought against him, against his voice and that ever-present mouth.

Arms grabbed at her from every direction, holding her down, lifting her up, dropping her and then suddenly throwing her up in the air. Her stomach did somersaults, the nausea rising and falling with the rest of her, and she heard herself cry out. Fingers clawed at her, tearing her skin to reach inside her. Pain exploded in every part of her body.

When at last they let go of her, she opened her eyelids to find herself surrounded by Chinese lanterns. Dusty and blood red, they all had Barker's face stamped on to their surface, laughing again and leering at her. The lanterns swirled around her head in a huge circle, coming closer and closer until each of them attacked her in turn, leaving Barker's mouth imprinted on her skin like leeches wherever he touched her.

Revulsion and horror welled up inside her and she screamed until one of the mouths fastened itself on to hers, cutting off her breathing. She fought for air, but the mouth wouldn't let go and her arms were held down once more. Her lungs burned, the pain branding her from the inside out, until at last the blessed darkness claimed her...

'Nico? Where am I?'

The weak voice woke Nico some time later. He opened his eyes and realised he'd fallen asleep in his chair, and his body was now telling him just how uncomfortable that was. He tried to straighten his neck, rubbing it with both hands, and then stretched to ease his twisted back.

Midori was still lying on his bunk, staring at him with a strange expression on her lovely face. The memory of how she had clung to him earlier suddenly came flooding back. Nico felt as if someone had punched him in the stomach and drew in a deep breath.

'Nico?'

He brought his gaze back to Midori with an effort. 'You're in my cabin,' he said, 'so I could watch over you until the drug had run its course.'

'The drug? Oh, yes, I remember now.' Her eyes clouded over and she turned her head towards the wall. 'Thank you for coming to my aid. It was you, wasn't it?'

'Yes.'

She glanced over her shoulder. 'Did he ... had Barker ...?' She closed her eyes as if she couldn't bear to say the words.

Nico clenched his fists and stared at the floor. The thought of what she had gone through made him go cold all over. Barker and his cronies had had her in their power for long enough to do whatever they wanted and the worst of it was Nico had no idea whether that included rape or not. There were no outward signs, apart from dirt and bruising, but then he hadn't wanted to remove her clothes to have a closer look. Somehow he'd a.s.sumed she would know herself. He wanted to kill Barker with his bare hands for this and for his cowardly way of going about it, too. Nico knew as well as Barker that he could never have bested Midori one-to-one except for when he'd caught her by surprise in her cabin.

'No, he didn't,' he said flatly. If she couldn't tell, there was no point in making her suffer more by adding to her burdens, he reasoned. Midori didn't reply and Nico looked up to find her regarding him with a small frown. 'Are you feeling ill again? Shall I have you carried to your own cabin?'

'Yes, please. That would be ... kind.'

Nico went to the door and shouted for Harding. He heard the message being relayed and turned to rea.s.sure Midori. 'He'll be here any moment. Is there anything else you would like?'

'Some water, perhaps? My throat feels as if it's been singed in a fire.' She hesitated, then added, 'Nico, when I was asleep before, I dreamed that you ... that we ...' A faint blush spread across her cheeks as she struggled to formulate her question.

Nico knew very well what she was asking, but had no intention of helping her. In his opinion, it would be best if the entire episode was forgotten. He smiled as if humouring a child. 'I'm sure you dreamed many things. Judging by the smile on your face as you slept, they were very pleasant dreams, too, at least at first. Then came the nightmares. It's all part of the effects of the drug; you must put it out of your mind.'

'I see.' Midori nodded, as if trying to convince herself. She opened her mouth to add something, but just then Harding knocked and came charging into the cabin.

'Mistress Midori! Are you well? I can't believe-'

'Harding.' Nico put a hand on the big man's arm. 'She is very tired and would like to be taken to her cabin. Can you carry her, please?'

'Why yes, of course. Yes, sir.'

Harding lifted Midori almost reverently and bore her out of the door, which Nico held open for them. Nico didn't look at Midori as they went past. If he had, he might have reached out and taken her from Harding's arms to carry her himself. He was strangely reluctant to let anyone else touch her.

When they had gone, he thumped his fist on the wall until the pain became unbearable.

This has to stop!

Midori woke abruptly and found herself lying on her own bunk with nothing but the screeching of gulls to disturb her. She felt dirty and bruised, and her throat was dry and scratchy, but these were minor irritations compared to the turmoil inside her head. As the vague memories returned, she frowned, trying to piece together the fragmented images in her mind. The opium den, she remembered clearly, and the strange feeling of calm which had descended on her, but after that everything was hazy. Barker's face, with its ugly expression, appeared at various stages. He had carried her, of that she was sure, but where to? What had he done to her?

Midori knew what he'd intended, but had he succeeded? Nico had said nothing had happened, but what if he'd been trying to spare her from learning the truth? She needed to know for sure. With determination, she sat up and removed her clothes to check for signs of violation, but didn't find any. There was slight bruising to her upper body, but nothing anywhere else. The relief was so great, she burst into tears.

Nico came in time. He saved me.

Midori hadn't cried since she was a little girl, but now the tears came pouring out in a great, unstoppable torrent. Huge, painful sobs racked her body, and in her weakened state she let them have their way. It was all too much and her mother would have said it was cleansing. Oh, Mother, if only you were here to guide me ...

When the tears dried up at last, Midori tried to think rationally. Samurai women were expected to kill themselves if their chast.i.ty was so much as threatened. If she had still been in j.a.pan, Midori knew she would have been expected to take her own life, since her honour was now gone. In fact, she should have turned the knife on herself immediately, instead of trying to harm Barker with it. But her only thought at the time had been to hurt him.

'I fought as best I could,' she muttered. 'But not even Father could have expected me to beat four men on my own and they didn't fight fair.' Although, as she well knew, that wasn't the point.

There was only one thing to do. Hara-kiri.

With gritted teeth, she made herself stand up and seek out her swords. After checking that the blades were honed to perfection as always, she sat down on top of her bunk, cross-legged, and put the two swords neatly by her side. They gleamed and shimmered in the dazzling sunlight streaming in through the tiny portholes. She felt as if they were trying to encourage her with their shining beauty, saying, 'Look at us, we're your friends, we will help you to do the deed quickly.' She took deep breaths to steady her nerves, and tried to clear her mind of everything except thoughts of what she must do, what honour required her to do.

She wrapped a cloth round the blade of the shorter sword and took a firm grip on it about halfway down, then slowly undid her garments and bared her taut stomach. Then she pushed the tip of the sword into the smooth skin until she knew it couldn't go any further without piercing the flesh.

But I don't want to die.

The treacherous thought came out of nowhere, startling her, interrupting her measured breathing and making her heart thump painfully. When she looked down again, she saw a drop of blood trickle out of a small wound and realised she must have jumped as well, but she hadn't felt anything. She tried to a.n.a.lyse her emotions, tried to make sense of her unwillingness to do what she knew was right. After a while, she came to the conclusion she wasn't afraid of dying as such, nor even of the pain this would entail, but she simply wasn't ready. She hadn't finished living.

That's no excuse. No one has ever finished with life when their time comes. Everyone wants to stay alive just that little bit longer.

And yet, she knew she wasn't prepared for this, the ultimate act.

A small, insidious voice whispered inside her brain, giving her the perfect excuse as to why she shouldn't commit hara-kiri or seppuku as it was also known. My fellow countrymen didn't want me. Why then should I follow their rules? Besides, had her chast.i.ty really been threatened, or was she overreacting? Suicide on such shaky grounds seemed a bit too drastic a step. Another thought occurred to her samurai women were only supposed to commit hara-kiri with the permission of their clan leader. As she didn't have anyone here to authorise it, surely she ought to wait?

She closed her eyes and put the blade aside. It was a dilemma, and one she couldn't solve without a lot of thought. She decided the best thing to do for the moment was to bide her time and see what the future brought.

Chapter Fifteen.

January 1642 A day later, just as the new year began, the Zwarte Zwaan left the harbour in convoy with a fleet of other homeward-bound merchantmen. All were heavily loaded with exotic goods and, in case anyone should dare to attack them, they were escorted by a couple of warships. It wasn't long before they cleared the Straits of Sunda and reached the open sea. Midori felt an intense sense of relief, as if in leaving Batavia behind she also left the bad memories, but the thought that Barker was still with them niggled at her mind.

'The cap'n will deal with him in his own time,' Harding had told her. 'Let 'im stew for a while first.'

She tried not to think about it, and instead concentrated her energies on making Jochem better. To her delight, he responded well to the remedy de Jong had concocted out of the herbs she'd bought. After that, they merely had to help the boy regain his strength with nourishing broths and the fresh fruit which was available at the beginning of the journey. Jochem was soon on his feet again, back to his normal, bouncy self. He did his best to take her mind off things, and she was grateful to both him and Harding.

Three days into the voyage, Nico came to knock on her cabin door and when she opened it he came straight to the point, looking very solemn. 'Do you want to be present when we mete out justice to your abductors?'

Midori managed to keep her face expressionless, even though her stomach flipped over uncomfortably at the thought of having to face Barker. 'Yes, of course. You mean now?'

'Yes, but if you'd rather not, I will understand. It might be ... too unpleasant.' His eyes searched hers as if he was making sure this was what she really wanted.

'I need to be there. If you could just give me a moment to ready myself?'

He nodded. 'I'll wait for you on deck.'

Harding escorted her and stood very close to her side, as if trying to imbue her with his strength. Midori appreciated this gesture, although she didn't consider it necessary. It was her duty to watch these proceedings, and she thought seeing Barker punished might help her to combat the nightmares which continued to plague her. She schooled her expression into one of outward calm and watched as Barker and his friends were brought up from the hold, blinking against the piercing sunlight.

A bedraggled individual was dragged forward and Midori realised that it was Abe Jessop. She had thought a lot about his perfidy in leading her to Barker, but she'd come to the conclusion he'd only acted under duress. She remembered something Barker had said which indicated he had a hold over his crony.

'Well, Jessop, and have you thought of anything you would like to tell us?' Nico barked at him in English. 'Remember what I said to you?'

Jessop nodded and darted a look of fear at Barker, who was pretending indifference, although Midori noticed he was shaking slightly.

Nico continued in Dutch for the benefit of the rest of the crew. Jochem, who was on her other side, translated for Midori in whispers. 'We are gathered today to see that justice is done. This lady,' Nico indicated Midori, 'was abducted and badly treated, and I have asked Jessop here to give us his version of events. Proceed, please.'

Jessop wet his lips and cleared his throat several times. 'I, er, that's to say, uhm, he ...' he nodded towards Barker, 'was sure the lady would leave the ship at some point and he made plans to ... to abduct her, because he wanted to have some s-sport with her.' His voice cracked and he had to clear his throat once more.

'Go on,' Nico said.

'Barker said as how he'd hit on a really good idea. I was to try and lure her into the Chinamen's area of town, to a place we'd been before.' Jessop took a deep breath before continuing. 'He and the others went on ahead.'

Nico, visibly impatient, interrupted at this point. 'Very well. The lady was then abducted and taken to an opium den, is that correct?' Jessop nodded, while Barker spat nonchalantly on deck, as if the entire proceedings were of no interest to him whatsoever. One of his guards cuffed him hard. 'What happened next?' Nico asked Jessop.

'We helped Barker force the lady to smoke a pipe of opium, sir. She ... she tried to defend herself and fought something fierce, but we held her down. I didn't want to, honest, but I owed Barker money and he threatened me and ... After that, you came,' Jessop finished lamely, his shoulders slumped, as if in defeat.

'Nothing else occurred?' Nico frowned. 'Was the lady mistreated in any other way?'

'Not that I saw, but then again, Barker did carry her off to a back room, though he can't have been there more'n a few moments when you arrived.'

Barker, who had been standing docilely between his guards until that moment, suddenly sprang to life. Before anyone had time to react, he managed to s.n.a.t.c.h a knife out of the belt of the nearest guard and then made a dive for Jessop. The man stood stock still, his expression that of a petrified animal. Barker, obviously expecting some resistance, feinted to the left and came up behind Jessop, who still hadn't moved. With the knife at Jessop's throat, Barker hissed, 'I want you to lower the dinghy now or I kill him. Abe and I are leaving, understand?'

'We're three days out of Batavia. Where do you think you're going in a rowing boat?' Nico asked. He sounded calm, although Midori saw a muscle twitch in his jaw, as if he was keeping himself under tight control.

'I don't care! Anywhere's better than dancin' at the end of a rope here on account o' that wh.o.r.e of yours.' He nodded towards Midori, who sent him what she hoped was a fierce glare.

'Who said you were going to be hanged?' Nico took a step towards Barker. 'You haven't killed anyone, so the cat-o'-nine-tails seems a more appropriate punishment. Now give me that knife and accept your fate like a man. You'll die on the open sea otherwise.'

'D-do as he s-says, John, please,' Jessop begged. 'I'd rather sstay here and be flogged.'

'Fool! You think we'd survive the cat?' He glared at Nico. 'He'll not stop till we're good and dead.'

'Y-yes, he would. He's a fair man.' Finding some courage at last, Jessop drove his right elbow into Barker's gut and tried to twist away from the knife. But Barker managed to grab hold of Jessop's left arm and pulled him back.

'Traitor!' he shouted. 'Mewling, lily-livered worm!' Then, without the slightest hesitation, Barker sank the knife into the smaller man's back.

A collective gasp was heard from the crew as Jessop froze, made a gurgling noise, then sank slowly down into a lifeless heap. Blood flowed freely, staining both the victim and his murderer, as well as the deck planking. Nico took his chance and before Barker could retrieve the knife, he ran full tilt at the man and knocked into his shoulder. Off balance, Barker stumbled and Nico hit him square on the chin. The blackguard was quickly overpowered and Nico bent over Jessop's body with a muttered oath. 'He's dead,' he said, unnecessarily.

A murmuring broke out among the crew and there were shouts of 'hang him' and 'keelhaul the wh.o.r.eson'. Jochem tried his best to keep up with his translations, but the words came out rapidly and disjointed, making it difficult for Midori to follow. She gathered that, although telling tales was never encouraged among the men, outright murder was a different matter altogether. It couldn't be tolerated.

'You think I care?' Barker shouted defiantly, glaring at Nico with hatred in his eyes. 'You was goin' to kill me anyway for darin' to touch your precious wh.o.r.e.' He spat once more. 'Well, I'm glad I had her, and I hope you rot in h.e.l.l the pair of you!'

Midori drew in a steadying breath and told herself the man was saying such things out of sheer desperation. The words 'I had her' stuck in her mind, however, and echoed round and round inside her brain, even though she knew them to be false. The mere thought of such a thing turned her stomach.

Nico's mouth thinned, but he didn't reply. Instead he turned to the crew and asked, 'Are we all agreed this was cold-blooded murder of the worst kind?' A resounding 'Ja!' acknowledged the truth of this. 'Very well, fetch me some ropes.'

These were soon found and Barker brought forward. He raised his neck in yet another gesture of defiance, but the expected noose didn't descend over his head. Instead, at a nod from Nico, Jessop's body was raised up by two men to stand face to face with Barker, who swore and tried to jerk away. 'What the h.e.l.l? What are you ...?'

'Stand still. You will die with your victim, as is the custom,' Nico said.

'How? What? No! No, you can't ... you wh.o.r.esons!'