The Captain's Pearl Read Online Free

food.”
    Mother’s Younger Brother dropped some coins into his hand. “Sister’s Daughter, now you shall have the life for which you are fit.”
    She grabbed his trousers. “I plead with you in the memory of the father you share with my mother, do not shame our family.”
    â€œYou are what shames us.” He slapped her hands away. “The curse has been excised.”
    Lian leapt to follow him. When Sun Niang caught her arm, she tried to pull away. His fingers dug into her arm until she moaned. He threw her to the floor, knocking out her breath in an explosion of pain.
    â€œGet up!” he ordered.
    When the order was repeated, she found the strength to rise to her knees. Anguish sent nausea through her.
    â€œGet up!”
    She knew the price of disobedience. Pushing against the floor, she stood. She lowered her head as she faced her tormentor.
    Sun Niang said, “Disobey, and you will die.”
    Lian nodded.
    â€œCome, woman.”
    She said nothing. To speak was to chance more abuse.
    Sun Niang led her into the fading sunshine. The inner courtyard was even more despicable than the outer, but, when she saw what awaited her there, she was sure few who entered it noticed.
    A dozen small shacks filled the garden. She stared at the brazen women who were dressed in silk drapes. Her hand went to the collar of her ch ’eÅ­ng shaam . She had heard how the foreign devils’ women bared their bodies, but she had never imagined a Cantonese woman would be so bold.
    Sun Niang pointed at a little shack which was half the size of the hut she had shared with Mother. The strands of rice in the doorway struck her, and she moaned in dismay. On the earthen floor was nothing but a pallet.
    â€œYou shall stay here.” Sun Niang shoved silk into her hands. “I usually check my new girls to be sure they are virgins.” With a laugh, he pushed aside the rice curtain and squeezed through the narrow door. “I need not worry with you, ugly one. No man could look upon you with desire.” He walked away.
    Lian closed her eyes to hold in tears. She could not change the color of her eyes, but she had begged Mother to let her have her feet bound. Mother had told her that no daughter of an American sea captain would bind her feet. Not that it mattered now.
    Holding up the light blue drape, she shivered. She was of the family of Ch’en, although she had not been permitted to claim the name. Daughters of her family had been sold as concubines to the finest houses. None had been prostitutes. Yet to disobey Sun Niang meant death. She turned her back on the door as she undressed.
    The silk slipped along her skin, caressing her. In other circumstances she might have enjoyed the luxury. She sat on the reeking pallet and cursed Mother’s Younger Brother to be tormented for all eternity by every green-eyed demon in hell.
    Green eyes!
    She shuddered again. How had she failed to see that the Yang Kuei-tzÅ­ with the green eyes was an omen for disaster?
    â€œMother’s Father,” she whispered, “send me salvation. I will do whatever I must to flee from this.”
    Voices approached the shack. Lian looked up. Surely they would pass by, as others had all night. Sun Niang had been right. No man wanted her.
    Horror clamped around her throat as the rice curtain was pushed aside. Sun Niang pointed to the dirt. Although every inch of her rebelled, she dropped to her knees and pressed her head to the earth.
    â€œShe is a virgin, kind sir,” said Sun Niang in a wheedling voice. “A rare pearl.”
    She heard coins being counted. As the rice curtain rattled into place, she recoiled as fingers brushed her shoulders.
    â€œLian, rise. Look at me, please.”
    She gasped at the thickly accented Cantonese speaking her name. A finger under her chin brought her face up, and she stared into blue eyes. Davis Catherwood!
    â€œLian,” he whispered. “Remember? Brother