That meant that she would again have to seek her father’s help. Perhaps by then Prince Ke Loo would have lost the incestuous interest he’d expressed in her. She’d learned early that in China a woman was a woman, nothing more, a mere commodity any man could bid for, regardless of kinship. A shudder ran through her as she thought of the way her father, had coveted her with his eyes.
Outside the legation compound was beginning to stir with the approach of dawn. In the years she’d lived here she noticed the gradual dwindling of the presence of foreigners. Eddie said it was the ever growing threat of the Chinese rebels who called themselves Boxers. April couldn’t understand why the Occidentals feared these Boxers, an unorganized ragtag of Chinese peasantry who wanted change, but did not know what kind. It took any peasant forever to accomplish anything so she could not see what everyone feared. There was no immediate danger.
The light in the sky heightened. April unlatched the casement window to relieve the closeness of the small room. There was a winter chill in the air and the sky was already beginning to turn slate gray. Winter was getting nearer and Peking would again be a deserted city when the royal parties retreated into the recesses of the Forbidden City, and peasants stayed sheltered in their hovels, having no need to bend under the yokes of their lords. Winter in China was a time for quiet and boredom, a time when the people, like the earth itself, turned hard and cold and slept.
“I pray I’ll never see another winter here for some time to come,” she said, closing the window against the cold morning.
She went over and checked Adam’s temperature again. It seemed higher. She scooped him up and carried him to her bed, then crawled in beside him, cuddling him protectively in her arms.
CHAPTER THREE
The following morning Adam’s temperature felt still higher. She went to find the doctor and found Eddie instead at the bottom of the stairs leading to the doctor’s quarters.
“Doctor Lemming had to go out on an emergency,” Eddie told her. “Are you feeling unwell, April?”
“It’s Adam. He’s feverish, I’m afraid. It may be nothing, but I want to be on the safe side.”
“I understand.” He thought for a moment, then snapped his fingers. “There’s a Chinese chap who arrived here in the compound late yesterday. He lists himself as a doctor on his travel papers. Shall I find him and send him up to your rooms?”
“I’d very much appreciate it, Eddie. Thank you.”
The Chinese man who entered her rooms a while later was stocky and short, dressed in western clothes. His black hair was slicked back and he wore a wide, flat moustache. He seemed to have no neck; his round, Oriental face rested heavily on a high celluloid collar and string tie. He was carrying a small black satchel.
He bowed low. “I am Sun Yat-sen. Your child is not well, I am told,” he said in almost flawless English.
“He appears to be running a temperature,” April answered in Chinese.
The man bowed again. “With your permission, Princess, I would prefer if we spoke in English. I want to perfect my knowledge of the language as much as I can before I arrive on those shores.”
April stared at him. Her mind had stopped on the word Princess. “You know me?” she asked.
“Permit me, Princess,” Sun Yat-sen said, ignoring her for a moment. He laid his hand on Adam’s forehead. “I know your father, Prince Ke Loo.” He took a thermometer from his case and put it under Adam’s tongue, muttering childlike instructions and at the same time checking the boy’s pulse.
April frowned as she watched him. It seemed incongruous that this very Western-type Oriental would be acquainted with her father. “You lived in Kalgan then, I assume?”
“No, Princess. I was born of humble parents in the Chungshan district of Kwangtung province. I met your father through mutual...shall we say, friends?”
“Has my father been ill?” April persisted, trying to make a connection between these two men of unequal stations.
Sun Yat-sen shook his head slowly. “I do not practice medicine anymore. I was coming to visit you, Princess, when I met up with Mr. Wells and he expressed his concern for your son’s fever.”
He felt the glands at the sides of Adam’s neck and nodded approvingly. “Your father told me of your beauty. He is a man who is sometimes prone to exaggeration; I am glad in this instance he spoke truthfully.”
April returned his bow. “Then I presume you have come with a message from my father?” She suddenly felt wary.
He nodded and took the thermometer from Adam’s mouth, holding it up to the light from the window. “The boy is running a slight temperature, but not one of any significance. Some aspirin powder should bring it to normal.”
“Thank you, I feel much relieved.” She reached for her money purse.
Sun Yat-sen held up both hands and gave her what she construed to be an angry look, though he was smiling. He replaced the thermometer in the case.
An uneasiness gripped her, a sense of apprehension, as if the man had come bearing terrible news. She lifted Adam and carried him to the deep chair near the window. “You said you have a message for me from my father?”
He came closer and leaned toward her. In a low, conspiratorial voice he said, “Your father is in great danger, Princess. The Empress suspects Prince Ke Loo is plotting to overthrow the throne. She intends making you a hostage in the summer palace. Ke Loo requests that you come to him in Kalgan where he can keep you safe from the dragon’s claws.”
April watched him with suspicion. “I have no intention of being made a prisoner in either palace, doctor.” She did not trust this man. It was highly possible that he was but another agent of the Empress’s who’d come to trick her.
“The Empress, as you know, is having you closely watched.”
“I am only too well aware of that,” April said. She thought for a moment. “You know then that my efforts to leave here have thus far been unsuccessful. If the Americans can’t get me safely past the Empress’s soldiers and spies, how do you propose to manage it?”
He smiled a secret, sly smile. “They are Americans. I am an Oriental and know secrets.”
She definitely did not trust him. “I am going to America,” she said firmly.
He only smiled and bowed. “I, too, go to America, but unlike you, Princess, the Empress has no plans to prevent my leaving. If she knew my mission she would most assuredly make certain I never left China.”
“Mission?”
His eyes narrowed as he smiled his enigmatic smile. “Your father’s ambitions are not far from my own. We have that in common.”
April looked surprised. “You are helping my father to unseat the Empress?”
He nodded gravely. “I go first to Hawaii to begin organizing sympathizers to our movement and to seek financial assistance. I plan on touring the United States, Europe, Japan—anywhere where I can find an ear and a pocketbook that shows interest in a better China.”
She
