“Zhing?” Will was furious but too ill, at the moment, to do anything about it. “What do you know about Zhing?” He didn’t know what she would say or how he would answer, but whatever he said had to sound authentic. Madam Harpy had just poisoned him out of jealousy. What would she do to Zhing? Or Julie if she found her . . . ?
“Zhing Wu goes to Silken Angel every morning.” Li Toy fixed him with a clever look. “And every night.”
“She washes my shirts,” Will bit out. “She collects in the morning and delivers in the afternoon, not at night. Our relationship is strictly business.”
“Market Street Laundry does the Silken Angel Saloon laundry,” Madam Harpy corrected. It was a point of honor for Market Street Laundry that they did the laundry for the newest and finest saloon in Chinatown, and everybody knew it. “Market Street has saloon business.”
“Market Street does the saloon’s laundry. Zhing does my personal laundry.”
“Since when?”
“Since last week, when I decided I didn’t like the way Market Street starched my shirts.” He didn’t have to pretend to be irritated by her interrogation. He was angry.
“You protect Zhing from hotel man,” she accused.
“Why shouldn’t I?” Will demanded. “The hotel had a ‘no Celestials’ policy. He hurt her because she went inside to collect laundry. Yes, I protected Zhing.” He looked at Li Toy. “I would have protected any woman from a man of his size and strength—including you, madam.”
The ruthless madam old enough to be his grandmother beamed. “You would give me a dollar for acupuncturist, too?”
“If you needed it.”
Li Toy chewed on her thumbnail. “You do all these nice things for Zhing and you give her a tin of Ghirardelli chocolates and she not your girl?”
“No.” Will shook his head, then wished he hadn’t. He tried to bite back his groan. “Who told you she was?”
“Wu.”
“Wu?” Will repeated the man’s name, and it sounded to his own ears as if he’d never heard it before. The word of Zhing’s honorable father-in-law would be hard to refute. He shared a house and a business with her.
Li Toy nodded. “If Wu want to keep his laundry, he tell Li Toy what she wants to know.”
“I see.” Everything became clear except his vision. He was seeing two Madam Harpys, both of them blurred and fuzzy around the edges. Will closed his eyes.
Li Toy patted his chest. “Go to sleep, Keegan. Not to worry. Not die tonight. Just sick.”
“I’m relieved to hear it.”
Chapter Thirty
“It is not so much our friends’ help that helps us as the confident knowledge that they will help us.”
—EPICURUS, 341–270 B.C.
Julie! It’s Jack. Open up!”
Julie was roused from sleep by pounding on her bedroom door. She turned the bedside lamp up, grabbed her robe, and pulled it on as she hurried to the door. She swung it open to find Jack struggling to hold Will upright. “What happened?” she demanded. “What’s wrong with him?”
“I don’t know,” Jack admitted. “I found him at the back door.” He walked Will into the bedroom and straight onto the bed Julie had just vacated.
Julie stared down at Will, pale against the white sheets. Something was terribly wrong. She leaned close. “Will?” He was breathing, but it was shallow.
“Watch him,” Jack ordered. “I’ve got to send someone for the doctor, and I can’t put him in the room next door.”
“Why not?” Julie flipped the coverlet back to make room for Will’s legs, then bent to untie his shoes.
Jack shot her a disgusted look. “Because he’s hurt or sick or worse, and I’m not leaving him in a room alone and vulnerable and at the mercy of anyone who might slip past us and get upstairs.” He waited until she had his shoes off; then Jack helped her settle Will onto the bed. “Lock the door behind me and don’t open it for anyone except me. I’m going to get Hammond.”
“Wait!” Julie stopped him. “There’s something in his jacket. Help me get it off.”
Jack lifted Will enough for Julie to remove his jacket. Jack watched as she struggled to get Will’s arms out of his sleeves. Once she’d managed to get his arms out, the weight of his torso pinned the jacket beneath him. Reaching over, Jack grabbed the jacket by the collar, pulled it from beneath Will, and handed it to Julie.
She held it up. A slip of red paper was pinned to the right breast of his jacket.
Jack recognized it as a note written in Chinese characters. Notes like these were tacked to boards all over Chinatown. He saw them all the time, but he couldn’t decipher them. He wanted to know what it said, who had written it, and who had pinned it to Will’s jacket.
But Julie could read it. She glanced at the characters on the red paper and immediately reached into Will’s pocket and pulled out a vial filled with dark powder. “Mix this with water. It’s the antidote.”
“Antidote?” Jack was mystified. “To what?”
“The poison.” Julie didn’t wait for Jack to react. Grabbing the water carafe from the bedside table, she filled a glass with water and poured the contents of the glass vial into it. She didn’t have a spoon, so she stirred the powder into the water with her index finger, mixing it until it dissolved. She hesitated long enough to touch her finger to the tip of her tongue to taste the mixture. She grimaced at the taste. Julie couldn’t remember what it was called, only that it was a powder the Chinese apothecaries sold to cure people who had been poisoned—accidentally or otherwise. Lolly had used it once when she and Su Mi had made a tea out of poisonous weeds as children.
“Help me give this to him; then send for Dr. Stone.”
Jack was skeptical. “How do you know it’s safe?”
“I had it when I was a child.” She spared a look at Jack as she began plumping pillows behind Will’s back. “And I’m still here to tell about it.”
Jack hurried over to help her, holding Will’s mouth open so Julie could pour the mixture down his throat. When she finished, she covered his mouth and held his nose so he would have to swallow, the way Lolly had covered hers and Su Mi’s.
“That’s it,” she said. “That’s all we can do until Dr. Stone arrives.”
Jack nodded. “I’ll send for him and then I’ll come back to check on Will.” With one last glance at his friend, Jack left the bedroom and hurried downstairs.
* * *
WILL AWOKE WITH A START TO DISCOVER HE WAS IN BED and naked from the waist up. Mind racing, heart pumping, he looked wildly around, seeking a familiar point of reference, something to help him escape from his nightmare.
Squinting in the half-light of the room lit by a single low-burning lamp, Will recognized his surroundings. He was in his bedroom at the Silken Angel. In his own bed.
Someone was sleeping in the chair next to him. He moved his hand and his fingers brushed hers. “Julie.”
“Will.” She breathed his name on a sigh of supreme relief. “You’re awake.”
He crooked his lips in a slight smile. “I’m alive.”
She nodded. “Dr. Stone was here.”
“I don’t remember . . .” he began.
“You don’t remember what happened to you?” Julie asked.
“I remember Li Toy poisoning me,” he revealed. “I don’t remember Galen Stone visiting me.”
“You were unconscious. You slept through his visit,” she told him. “But he’s downstairs with Jack. He’ll be back up to see you before he leaves.”
“How did I get here?” Will asked. “The last thing I remember is Madam Harpy telling me not to worry—that I wouldn’t die tonight but would be sick.”
“Someone put the antidote to the poison in your pocket, along with this.” Julie got up from her chair and walked over to the table to retrieve the note written in Chinese. Bringing it back to the bed, she turned the wick on the lamp up higher and held the note out for Will to see. She was going to translate it for him, but Will read
it for himself, aloud. “‘Poison antidote in pocket. Mix with water.’” He looked at Julie. “Succinct and to the point, wouldn’t you say?”
“I’d say you’re very lucky to be alive. And lucky that I read Chinese characters.” Her voice cracked.
“You found me?”
She shook her head. “Jack found you at the back door.”
Will managed a ghost of his normal smile. “It’s very lucky for me that you read Chinese characters, because I know for a fact that Jack can’t. You saved me.”
Julie felt compelled to defend Jack. He might not be able to read Chinese, but he had been worried enough about Will to go out the back door on his way to find him when he hadn’t returned. “Yes, but he’s allowed downstairs and out of doors. I’m not. His finding you allowed me to save you.”
“You’re right.” He didn’t try to argue the point. “You both saved me.”
“What were you doing at the Jade Dragon—or was it the Lotus Blossom? And why did Li Toy want you dead?”
“I was at the Nightingale Song and Li Toy doesn’t want me dead.”
Julie wasn’t sure she’d heard him correctly. “But you said she poisoned you. . . .”
“She did poison me,” Will explained, “but she also dropped the antidote vial in my pocket.” He thought of something. “Will you bring my jacket?”
Julie crossed the floor from her bedside chair to the armoire and removed his jacket from where she’d hung it, then walked to the bed and handed it to him.
Will pushed himself up against the backboard and the pillows positioned behind him. His vision had cleared and he wasn’t feeling ill any longer, but he was surprisingly weak for a man in robust health a few hours earlier. Reaching inside his jacket to the inner pocket, Will pulled out his wallet and counted the cash. He’d gone to the Nightingale Song with five thousand dollars in his wallet. He counted four thousand. He was missing a thousand dollars. He looked at Julie. “What time is it?”
Julie rubbed her eyes with the heels of her hands and glanced at the mantel clock. “Nearly five.”
Heart pounding again, he asked, “In the afternoon?”
“In the morning. Sunday morning.”
He relaxed. “How long have I been out?”
“I don’t know exactly, but Jack found you a little after eleven.”
Will did a quick calculation. He’d arrived at the Nightingale Song before nine and had been there less than twenty minutes. He’d been unconscious for close to eight hours. “Was I by myself when Jack found me?”
Julie furrowed her brows, puzzled by his question. Had he been out with someone? A friend? Business associate? A woman? Someone Jack hadn’t seen? Or found? Had he been paying a call on a lady friend? The thought that he might have been with someone other than her hurt like a physical pain, mixed with anger and disappointment. Julie realized she didn’t like the idea of Will courting another woman. Teasing another woman. Kissing another woman. He was hers. And whether he knew it or not, she was his. He might as well get used to the idea. There wasn’t going to be room for another woman, because Julie intended to take up residence in his heart.
Will was surprised by the ferocious look on her face. She looked the way she did when she played billiards. It was the look that said she intended to win. At all costs. No matter what . . . “Julia Jane? Was I alone when Jack found me?”
“I suppose so,” she snapped. “Jack didn’t mention anyone else to me.” She glared at him. “Why? Were you with someone else when Madam Harpy poisoned you?”
He was astonished by her reaction. She was acting almost as if she were spoiling for a fight. . . . Or . . . Will looked at her again with new eyes. Jealous. Green-eyed-monster jealous. It was a thought that didn’t seem as ridiculous as it should. Was it possible that she felt more than the first stirring of sexual attraction for him? Was there a chance? The idea burrowed into his brain, refusing to go away. “I was alone,” Will said. “At an auction at the Nightingale Song. I was there to buy more girls. Li Toy took a thousand dollars out of my wallet to pay for five girls at two hundred dollars apiece.”
Julie sucked in a breath, then went completely still. Her eyes lost their customary sparkle and her face paled. She looked completely stricken, and so utterly betrayed that Will feared he’d dealt her a mortal blow. He was glad she didn’t have a parasol or a pool cue handy. “The Nightingale Song? Even the recruiters at the mission warned us not to go looking for converts or help in that notorious place. Sailors go in there and are never seen or heard from again. Have you lost what wits you possessed? You could have been killed! You almost were killed!”
“It’s not what you think. . . .”
“What I think is that you went to an auction to buy girls from that . . . that . . . monster. From the person who hired someone to kill me. Who tried to kill you.” She didn’t realize her voice had risen above a whisper, or that she was crying until the tears rolled down her face and she tasted the salt of them on her tongue. “Tell me it wasn’t like that.”
“It was and it wasn’t.”
Julie buried her face in her hands. “I know you rescue the girls and keep them upstairs until you can spirit them to safety. But, Will, don’t you see that when you give that monster money it keeps her in business? It allows her to keep buying and selling human beings? And makes you something I know in my heart that you are not. . . .”
“Shh, shh.” He turned, bunching the pillows beneath his forearm to support him as he reached over and pulled her to him, gathering her against him. Draping his arm over her waist, he held her until they were fitted together like spoons in a drawer. “Julie, don’t cry. Shh, sweetheart, you’re right. About everything.” Will kissed the nape of her neck, then the side, and finally the hollow place behind her earlobe. His warm breath grazed her ear as he explained. “I understand that buying the girls from Li Toy allows her to keep buying other girls, but right now it’s the best way. . . .”
She tried to turn toward him to argue the point, but Will held her in place. “Shh. I know it sounds barbarous—and maybe it is. But as long as they have monetary value, they’re kept alive,” Will told her. “When they lose that value, they lose their lives.” He took a deep breath. “I know Madam Harpy will continue to import girls from China and force them to sell their bodies so that she can become rich.” He snorted in disgust. “So that she and half of San Francisco can become rich. I can’t stop that. I can’t prevent parents in China from selling their unwanted daughters to people like Li Toy, and without laws to prevent it, I can’t keep them from enslaving them here in California. There’s not much I can do except try to buy influence from greedy politicians and city leaders who take money from both sides, who spout platitudes about the evils of ‘yellow slavery,’ but never enact legislation to stop it, because stopping it means losing a lucrative, if immoral, stream of income for them. It’s all about money, Julie, and I’ve found that money is the most effective means of protecting the girls. . . .” His voice was hoarse. “God knows I would save them all if I could, but I can’t. So I save the ones I can save. It may seem immoral to you—hell, it may be immoral—but I buy girls from the most ruthless bitch in San Francisco in order to keep her from using them up and throwing them away. And if that’s a sin, I’ll gladly burn in hell for it when the time comes.”
“It almost came tonight, my friend.”
Galen Stone stood in the doorway, medical bag in hand, Jack at his shoulder.
“Hello, Will. Julie,” Jack drawled, humor and profound relief evident in his voice. “I see you’re feeling better.”
Julie squeaked at being caught in bed with Jack. She sat up like a cannonball shot from a cannon. She would have put distance between them, but Will caught a handful of her nightgown and held on. “Stay.” He guided her back down so that she sat on the foot of the bed, while he pushed himself into a sitting position. “The cat’s out of the bag, Julia Jane,” he said. “We might as well let them see it.”
“The fact that
you both have nine lives? Or that you two can’t keep your eyes—or your hands—off each other?” Jack queried, one eyebrow raised in mock horror and a smile playing on his lips.
“It’s quite apparent,” Dr. Stone continued in a similar vein, “that it’s mating season. You two have been hissing and spitting at each other since you first met,” he said. “What’s equally apparent is that you’re each down to eight lives.”
“You were lucky, Will.” Jack’s statement was heartfelt. “The doc says that without that antidote you’d have died.”
“I’m lucky you found me.” Will looked first at Jack and then at the doctor. “And I’m lucky you arrived in time to give me the antidote, Doctor.”
“I didn’t,” Dr. Stone told him. “Your lady did that.”
Will turned to Julie, a question in his eyes. She’d told him she translated the note. She hadn’t said anything about giving him the antidote.
“She mixed it up, tasted it to see if it was safe, and poured it down your throat while I held your mouth open,” Jack told him.
“The administration was crude, but effective,” Dr. Stone said. “For if they had not done it, you would not be here now.” The doctor smiled at Julie. “You could not have done a better job, my dear.”
Embarrassed by the praise, Julie deflected it. “I only did what the note told me to do.”
“And thank the good lord that you could read it,” Jack said.
Julie smiled at that. “Thank Lolly, our housekeeper, who began life as a peasant, but insisted that my father find someone to teach her how to read and write Cantonese so the shopkeepers and the butchers could not cheat her out of my father’s hard-earned coin.”
“I hope one day I may be able to thank her,” Will said.
Julie pinned him with her gaze. “Help me find her daughter,” she said. “Or help me find what became of her. That will be thanks enough for Lolly.”
Will met her gaze and nodded.
“Speaking of daughters and what’s become of them,” Jack said, “Madam Harpy sent you five. They were packed into a shipping crate and delivered here a couple of hours after I found you.”