Captive Bride (24 page)

If Huiann was his wife, it would change things. Xie Fuhua couldn’t just snatch her away or kill her. Could he? Maybe it would be best to simply sell everything and flee the city with her, move far beyond the man’s reach. It didn’t sit well with Alan to run away but he’d swallow his pride and do it, if that’s what it took for her to be truly safe.

Excitement and hope swelled through him, bearing him the rest of the way home on air. He would ask her tonight to be his wife, wipe away the sad shadow from her eyes.

As he drew closer to his street, the acrid smell of smoke singed his nostrils. Fear stabbed him. A fire in a city full of wooden buildings was serious. More than once entire blocks had been consumed. His heart sped when he saw flickering light coming from up ahead.

Alan ran around the corner. His street was in chaos, crowded with residents who lived above their shops and people from neighboring blocks. They were working in a bucket brigade, trying to douse the flames that shot from the windows of Alan’s store. His stomach lurched and plummeted as he ran faster.

Huiann!

A steam engine drawn by a team of four horses was parked in front of the building and a fire crew pumped water from the cistern on the back of the wagon. Water gushed through a wide hose, as the firemen drenched the wooden structures on either side of Alan’s store to keep them from burning.

Alan shoved through the crowd. His skin felt as if it was searing before he even reached the heat of the fire.

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He mentally chanted Huiann’s name over and over as if he could protect her by his willpower alone.
Please,
God, let her be all right!

The heat from the store was like a blast furnace.

The stench of burning dry goods and wood choked him. He grabbed one of the firemen by the arm. “Did anyone come out of the building? Two women?” The man shrugged off his hand. “You’re in the way, sir. Move aside or join one of the bucket brigades.”

“I own this store. I’m telling you someone might still be inside,” Alan yelled. He raced toward the blazing windows, screaming Huiann’s name.

Chapter Sixteen

Huiann was still floating like a kite on a string from dancing with Alan when the distant crash of shattering glass brought her down to earth. She and Dora bolted from the kitchen chairs where they were sitting, drinking tea, and dashed into the store. Fire was spreading across the floor in a crooked line. The smell of kerosene mingled with smoke rose from the burning trail. Flames licked at the bottom of the dry goods shelves, singeing a burlap bag here and a cardboard box there.

For a moment, Huiann stared in horror at the spreading disaster then snatched up a broom to beat out the fire. Her heart pounded but she was too shocked to feel afraid. Her only focus was on exterminating the flames, which were spreading like hungry locusts. She must save Alan’s store.

A hulking figure of a man crashed through what remained of the front window and crunched across the broken glass and strewn merchandise toward her. Only then did Huiann consider who’d started the fire and why. The sleeping dragon, Xie Fuhua, had finally awakened and reached out his long, sharp claws to pull her back to him.

Pistol! I should’ve brought Alan’s pistol.
She cursed her foolishness in coming here unarmed as the big red-bearded man lunged at her. She brought up the broom, straws still smoking from the flames, and jabbed at him. He swatted the broom from her hand 222

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and grabbed her arm, dragging her toward him hard enough to lift her off her feet.

Another man entered the store behind his partner and hurried to help contain Huiann, who thrashed about in a helpless attempt to free herself from Xie’s henchman. She’d once thought of Alan as a giant. This man was larger and far more unyielding, gripping her arms so hard she gasped with pain.

“Hey!” Dora rushed across the room to help, but the second man shoved her away, knocking her on her backside. The last glimpse Huiann had of her friend, she was on the floor rolling away from the fire that threatened to set her skirts alight.

The shorter man shoved a bag over Huiann’s head and tightened a drawstring around her neck. She gasped for air as rough burlap swathed her face. Her arms were pulled behind her and bound at the wrists, then she was hoisted off the floor and slung over someone’s shoulder. His muscle dug into her stomach as she hung upside-down against his back.

And at last Huiann felt real terror coursing through her in an icy river. Xie would not be content to kill her for her transgression. A man like that would want to see her suffer first. Her mind scrambled over all the possible methods of torture he might devise. She twisted in her captor’s grip and cried out.

A hand pressed something against her nose and mouth, further stifling her breath. She sucked desperately for air and inhaled a strong medicinal scent through the burlap. Immediately her head began to go cloudy.

Before consciousness slipped away, she pictured Alan’s face, his glowing eyes as he’d looked at her Bonnie Dee

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tonight in her borrowed gown. Sorrow filled her. She would never see him again.

It was inevitable. Did you think you could escape
Xie Fuhua forever?
was her last thought before everything went black.

Alan fought against hands that held his arms, keeping him from charging into the burning building. He continued to call out her name, his voice hoarse from inhaling smoke.

“Mr. Sommers, they took her. Some men came and took her!” Dora’s soot-streaked face bobbed up before him, dragging his attention from the smoke billowing from the shop windows.

“Who? When?”

“Sometime after you left. We were in the kitchen and heard glass break in the store. Someone had thrown bricks and flaming bottles through the front window. We tried to douse the fire, but then a couple of men came right through the window frame. A big man with a beard grabbed Huiann. His partner knocked me down on the ground and they dragged her away. By the time I got up they were gone.” Tears streaked Dora’s cheeks and she ground the heels of her hands into her eyes.

Alan’s pulse throbbed in his temples and his feet felt frozen to the ground. He couldn’t move, didn’t know what to do. His chest was so tight he could scarcely breathe. His gaze darted around the crowd as if he might see Huiann suddenly there. “Can you describe the men?”

“The one who grabbed her had a red beard. He’s the same one that followed us the day I took Huiann to 224

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the doctor. I don’t think she ever told you about how he followed us so I never said anything either. The man who knocked me down had a long scar down one side of his face. I couldn’t stop them. I tried.” She broke down again, sobbing into her hands.

“All right.” Alan glanced at the bucket brigade and the firemen working to extinguish the blaze. He couldn’t stop to help. Let the store burn. Nothing was more important than getting to Huiann before Xie hurt her. How had he imagined she’d be safe living in the same city as that monster? He’d been stupid, kept her in harm’s way, and now Huiann would pay the price.

Alan hadn’t felt so helpless and frustrated since his days locked in the prison stockade. He couldn’t stop blaming himself for Huiann’s kidnapping. If only he’d stayed home tonight, or gotten her out of the city sooner. If only he’d found Xie and killed him.

A police officer was standing nearby. Alan and Dora approached him and he took down Dora’s description of the arsonists and the kidnapping. But when Alan explained about Xie Fuhua, the man was blunt. “If she was his property, you’d best let her go.

Find some other Chink gal to sew for you. Best to leave those people to their own affairs.”

“You son of a bitch, Huiann ain’t no Chink!” Dora yelled. “She’s my friend and she’s in trouble. You’re supposed to help people.”

Alan put a restraining hand on her arm. “Are you finished taking our testimony, officer?”

“If I need anything else, I’ll let you know.” The policeman glared at them both before he walked away.

Tears tracked through the soot on Dora’s face as she looked up at Alan. “What are you gonna do?” Bonnie Dee

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“Get her back.”

Huiann huddled on the floor in the corner of the dark room, her arms clasped around her legs, breathing in the acrid stench of scorched wood on the red dress.

She stroked the material of the gown Mrs. Sanderson would never get to wear.
Ruined, after all our hard
work.
She should’ve taken it off after Alan left, but had wanted to be wearing it when he returned. She’d wanted to see again the admiration in his face, like a groom gazing on his bride. But her pride in wearing another woman’s gown had brought bad luck upon her.

She had no idea how much time passed after she’d been taken. When she awoke, she was here in the bedroom where Xie had kept her prisoner before. Her plans for a future, her love for Alan, the safety of his arms, all seemed like dreams now. This was the reality from which she could never escape—Master Xie’s world in which she was a mere playing piece to be moved at his whim.

She prayed the fire in Alan’s store had been quenched before it destroyed everything. Her shame at the destruction she’d brought to him was immeasurable. He’d saved her life and she’d ruined his.

Huiann lifted her face from her knees, and the faint smells of incense and starched sheets in this evil room made her stomach churn. The panicked feeling of being trapped made her body quiver. She wanted to lie down on the floor, close her eyes and drift back into blackness so she wouldn’t have to face what was happening. But she rose to her feet, both physically and mentally dragging herself off the floor. This was no time to give in and become weak. It would be all 226

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too easy to surrender to the notion of powerlessness, but she needed to search every part of this room for something to protect herself with.

She recalled the story of Jade Tiger and Clever Rabbit which her grandmother used to tell. Jade Tiger ruled the forest. He was so powerful no one dared cross him. One day he caught a young rabbit, pinning the quivering creature under his huge paw and staring into its brown eyes with his golden ones. Many rabbits before this one had filled the tiger’s belly, and the young buck realized he would join his ancestors very soon if he didn’t stop trembling and start thinking. As the tiger’s jaws yawned wide ready to engulf him, the rabbit spoke up.

“Honored Sir, poor lowly being that I am, it is my humble pleasure to serve you in any way, but I must warn you before you take a bite that I am not the meal for you.”

Jade Tiger closed his mouth to stare at the small being which had the effrontery to speak to him. “Little Brother, pray tell why should I not eat you. I’m most interested in hearing your reasoning.”

“The taste, sir, would not be to your liking. My family has often noted my sour disposition and terrible temper, and I fear I would not sit well on your stomach.

It would shame me to cause the king of the jungle indigestion.”

The tiger roared with laughter. “You care so much for my well-being that you would give up your death for me? What a clever one you are. You almost deserve to live for your wit.” He paused and showed his razor-sharp teeth, leaning so close that his rancid breath bathed the rabbit’s face. “Almost.” With that, Bonnie Dee

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Jade Tiger scooped up the rabbit and swallowed him whole.

At that point in the story, Grandma Mei used to stop. Huiann and her sisters would feign shock at the horrible fate of the clever rabbit then prod their grandmother toward the exciting conclusion of the story.

She could hear Grandmother’s voice now, as clearly as if the woman were beside her. “But sometimes, when all hope seems to be gone, that is the very time we must be our bravest. Clever Rabbit had not gone into the jaws of death unprepared. In his paw he clenched a long, sharp thorn, as well as the sharp little claws a rabbit is born with. All the way down greedy Jade Tiger’s throat he scratched a bloody trail, and once inside the belly of the beast, he ripped and shredded, causing the tiger unbearable pain.”

“What happened then, Grandma?” one of the girls would always ask. “Did the rabbit get free?”

“Yes, my child, he certainly did. The tiger rolled on the ground, groaning in agony, then he vomited the offending creature from his stomach. The young rabbit didn’t hesitate. Before the tiger could recover, he bounded away into the woods, and you can be sure he was never again so careless as to be caught by Jade Tiger.”

A wonderful story, Grandmother,
Huiann thought,
but I’m not sure it will help me now.

She navigated the bedroom in semidarkness, searching for a makeshift weapon. The bed frame was joined together with large bolts, and the mattress was supported by interwoven strips of leather lashed to the 228

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frame. She tried to loosen one of the bolts, but it was immovable.

After she’d investigated every bit of the bed, she went to the wardrobe. Inside were several hooks for hanging clothing. She tested each hook until she found one that was loose. After twisting and turning it, she wrenched it free of the wood, leaving a splintered hole behind. The pointed end of the hook was sharp. She tested it against her palm and scratched a thin red line.

Then she hid it up her sleeve and practiced letting the metal hook drop down into her hand then clawing at the face of an imaginary foe. She wouldn’t hesitate to stab Xie Fuhua or any of his men if the opportunity arose.

Footsteps approached her door. Heart pounding, Huiann tucked the hook into her sleeve along the inside of her wrist and stood waiting for whoever might enter.

Liu Dai threw open the door and strode into her room. Another man carrying a lamp entered behind him. Grabbing hold of her wrist, Lui Dai flung her onto the bed. His eyes were savage with hatred, and Huiann could imagine the trouble he’d gotten into for allowing her to escape.

“Pull up your skirt. The doctor will examine you.” Her gaze swept to the shorter, older man. He wore a pair of spectacles and a Western suit. He set the lantern on the nightstand and regarded Huiann. “Don’t be afraid, girl. I won’t hurt you. Master Xie wants your body checked for…intrusion. I need to make sure you are intact.”