As if reading her mind Peter said, “I buried David intact in the American legation cemetery.”
“Peter,” Lydia wept, groping for some words to comfort him, knowing there were none.
He let her cry for the both of them. After a moment, he tilted her face up to his. “We’ve lost them, Lydia. Your daughter and my son. We’ve lost them. I don’t think April will ever return now.”
Lydia sniffed back her tears and frowned up at him. “But I received a cable from her just today. It said she is coming home and would let me know when to expect her.” She fumbled in her pocket and handed him the message.
Peter read it and shook his head. “I don’t understand. David told me April had been restored to her royal station as Ke Loo’s daughter...a Manchu princess. David was going to try and force April to leave with him, but....” He sighed. “I wouldn’t put too much hope in that cable, Lydia, unless April is coming on orders of the Empress—and we know what that means. No, dear, I’m afraid we’ve both lost. April is where and what she has always wanted to be. I think it would be best if we just tried to forget.”
“April can’t remain in China, Peter. We both know that. She has as much of my blood in her veins as she does Prince Ke Loo’s. The Dowager Empress will never forget that, regardless of how many privileges and honors she grants the girl.” She forced back the tears. “I know her well, Peter. Believe me when I say that April is more me than she wants to accept.” She looked at the cable. “No. April will come home. Maybe not tomorrow, but she’ll come home.”
CHAPTER TWO
China — 1894
April told herself something was wrong. The signal had not come, which meant that the Empress’s soldiers were still watching the escape route. If the way had been unguarded she and little Adam would have been on their way to Shanghai harbor an hour ago.
She heaved a sigh, and in the darkened room rose from the window-seat and lifted Adam onto her lap. “I’m sorry, darling,” April said as she hugged her three-year-old son. “We won’t be leaving tonight either.”
The little boy yawned and put his arms about her neck. “Why won’t the soldiers let us leave, Mama?”
“Because the great Empress wants us to stay with her in the palace.”
“Will they cut off our heads then?”
A shudder ran through her body as April remembered what had happened to Adam’s father. One day she would have her revenge on all those responsible for David’s execution, including the Dragon Empress herself. She remembered the vow of vengeance she’d made that gray day four years ago when she had stood over David’s grave. She had sought refuge in the American legation, never imagining her refuge would wind up being her prison. Her need to escape to America and make her mother and David’s father suffer for what they’d caused was as great now as before—greater. The years had only increased her bitterness.
Moving through the dark room she’d come to know so well, she carried Adam to the trundle bed in the alcove, undressed him, and tucked him snugly beneath the covers. Slowly, and with a sinking heart, she unpacked the small portmanteau.
“Four years,” she said as she went back to the window and looked out at the deserted compound surrounded by the high Tartar wall. The moon was high and full and deep yellow in the black sky, adding to the eeriness of the night. It had been a similar night four years before when she’d climbed the bare apricot tree that leaned over the garden wall of the Imperial Palace and went to swear vengeance over her husband’s grave.
Her plans for vengeance had necessarily been postponed. The weather had turned treacherous, delaying her departure, and she had found herself pregnant with David’s child. To complicate matters she’d left her travel documents in the palace and had to lie to the American minister, telling him she had lost them. He had told her it would take months to obtain new ones—if they could be obtained at all.
“To be perfectly candid, my dear,” he said, looking uncomfortable, “there is no way of disguising the fact that you are...err...Chinese,” he’d said. “Your father is Prince Ke Loo, I understand. Surely you are familiar with the problems in Washington and the Chinese Exclusion Act.”
“But my mother is an American. I lived in America. Mother is very prominent in San Francisco society. She owns a very large cosmetic enterprise. Surely you could cable her and she would verify whatever needs verification.”
The minister shrugged and began shuffling through the stack of papers on his desk. “The Oriental Exclusion Act is enforced most strictly. The odds are very much against your petition, I fear.”
It took a year before her application was officially and decidedly denied, and by then her situation was further complicated by the birth of her son. She knew they’d never bothered to contact her mother because she herself had written her mother and her letters had gone unanswered, which Lydia would never have done. The legation was filled with ambitious politicians who didn’t want to make waves with their superiors in Washington, and April was positive her letters home were never put into the dispatch pouch. China was a subject Washington did not want to be reminded of. A revolution was brewing and both sides preferred to ignore it.
The wasted years only deepened her need for revenge, until it became an obsession. She spent her days constantly dreaming of the glorious satisfaction that awaited her in America. First she would avenge herself on David’s father, the man who’d induced his own son to steal from the Forbidden City. Making Peter MacNair suffer would make Lydia suffer, for as much as her mother protested, she was desperately in love with Peter MacNair.
“You’ll never have him, Mother,” April swore as she leaned her forehead against the windowpane. “You will both pay dearly for killing my husband.”
A sudden wind whipped across the compound, setting the lanterns swinging. Her eyes stung as she thought of David lying in the cold grave just beyond the rise. April gave her head a hard shake. She would never again think about the execution, the ax severing David’s young, handsome head from his body.
You must never look back. She’d cried the last of her tears; now she wanted nothing more than to punish those who’d killed her only love, a love that she would never replace.
The baby moved restlessly, kicking aside the covers. April tucked him in again and kissed his tousled head. His forehead felt warm to the touch. She smiled down at him. He looked so like his father. Apart from her need for retribution, little Adam was her only reason to keep herself alive.
She paced the room, wondering for the thousandth time when she could get away, reminding herself that if Edward Wells hadn’t been appointed as an embassy official last year, she’d never have had any hope of leaving China.
She heard the quick, careful footsteps on the stairs and hurried to light the lamp on the table. A moment later, Eddie tapped on her door.
“They’re thicker than gnats,” he said breathlessly as he came into the room, taking her in his arms. He kissed her. “I’m sorry, darling, but the Empress’s men would have overtaken us before we’d gone more than a mile. Our scouts reported that there are three of them to every one of us.”
“Oh, Eddie,” April moaned dejectedly as she leaned against him. “Will I ever be allowed to escape?”
“Of course you will.” He tilted
