A Concubine for the Family: A Family Saga in China Read Online Free

young mistress’s warm water. Peony, get me the wood-shaving water from second young mistress’s room. I am doing her hair today. You’d better go and clean yourself.” Iris’s lips quivered as she spoke, but her voice was firm. “You’d better hurry. It is almost time for the young mistresses to pay their morning respects to their parents.”

P URPLE JADE fidgeted. New worries were nagging at her. The dread of war was her constant companion, and this tragedy near her home added to her apprehension. For a long while she sat, fretting. She tapped her fingers on the desk to calm herself.
    Finally, she decided to recalculate her priorities. Her husband would have to handle the details of the drowning. She hoped things would become clearer in a few days. In the meantime, she must carry on her household duties. She dipped her sable-hair brush into a small porcelain cup full of water and shook a few droplets onto the inkstone. She placed the brush on the edge of the stone. Every morning, she checked the accountant’s report of her household’s expenses, and wrote out her instructions for the kitchen staff. Today she would meet with Lao Wang the accountant, and make plans for her husband’s birthday feast. The courts of the house must be prepared for days of celebratory activities: mahjong, games of chance, chess, pantomime, magic shows, music played on the Chinese mandolins — pi-pa, the two string violin — erhu and the bamboo flute. A troupe of Shanghai opera singers should perform every night, she thought. The band that played in the Tai Wha Restaurant was exceptionally good; perhaps they could be hired as strolling minstrels. Lao Wang probably had more ideas about other troupes of singers, comics, jugglers and dancers they could engage. Now she must compile the guest list.
    “Morning peace,
M-ma
.” Her daughters bowed, and their personal maids followed.
    “Morning peace, girls. Have you eaten your morning rice?”
    “Oh,
M-ma
, let me grind the ink for you.” Silver Bell ran to the desk. She picked up the ink stick and rubbed it around and around in the water on the inkstone. “
M-ma
, did you hear what they found in the river?”
    “Of course! Orchid said the kitchen was in an uproar when she went to fetch my hot water this morning.” She composed herself as her voice turned metallic. “This shouldn’t be your concern. Who told you so early in the morning?”
    Golden Bell glared at her sister. She brushed a finger over her compressed lips. “Oh,
M-ma
, everyone knows because there are so many servants in the house!”
    “
Tai-tai
.” Iris addressed the mistress of the house but gave Golden Bell a conspiratorial look. “The weather is so warm today, do you think the silkworm eggs will hatch?”
    “They’d better not.” Golden Bell had caught on immediately. “I don’t think any mulberry leaves are out yet.”
    “Orchid,” Purple Jade responded, “go fetch the sheets of silkworm eggs from the workroom and place them on the rafters of the cold house. That should keep them cool until the mulberry leaves are out.”
    Every winter, large chunks of ice were hauled into a thatched hut north of the kitchen, where they remained through August.
    “
M-ma
, oh,
M-ma
. . .” Silver Bell tugged on her mother’s sleeve. “I want to help Orchid. I promise I won’t climb. Peony will climb to the rafters for Orchid.” She splattered ink onto her hand.
    “Aiya, my little heart-and-liver.” Purple Jade grabbed her daughter’s hand. “You are so careless. Orchid, fetch me some fresh water.” She noticed the cut on her daughter’s finger. “Where did your young mistress get that nasty cut?” she asked Peony.
    “Uh, uh . . .” Peony twisted the corner of her cotton tunic. “Young mistress was making a bamboo whistle by the back garden.”
    “Why weren’t you studying the Three Character Book I assigned you?”
    Silver Bell felt her cheeks burn. Golden Bell hastened to comment: “
M-ma
, you