The Silver Lotus Page 3

Lady Yee, on the other hand, instinctually knew exactly what was afoot, and did everything she could, within the bounds of propriety, to stimulate his condition, hopefully to a point where he would be encouraged to take some overt steps in the desired direction she had already marked out in her own mind.

  Lady Yee and Captain Hammond spent time together whenever there were a few leisure moments to spare. They read to each other from their favorite books in English, and when the other family members recovered their equilibrium, the captain and Lady Yee kept up the readings for their amusement. Lady Yee would read to her father in Chinese, and sometimes even translated Chinese texts for Captain Hammond, which he very much enjoyed. He found Chinese commentaries about pirates very edifying, as they remained an ongoing scourge. Merchant captains in the China trade, especially those who still used the economy of sail, were wise to voyage well armed and alert to every detail of their own security. By all accounts, Chinese pirates were an audacious breed, and they had been known to take ships many times their size for ransom. Lady Yee read one entry that talked about a pirate crew that captured a vessel while it was anchoring in the roadstead within sight of the authorities in Shanghai. Nothing could be done to save the ship in time.

  Once Master Yee and his family had been safely ensconced in appropriate quarters in the Chinese quarter of Singapore, and his worldly wealth was securely stashed away, Captain Hammond purchased lucrative cargos for his two ships, took his leave, and quietly sailed away. Though she showed no outward signs of distress, Lady Yee grieved at the captain’s departure until her father informed her that Captain Hammond would be returning to Singapore to retrieve a special cargo in approximately two months’ time.

  Recovering her composure, Lady Yee became determined to substantially affix her own future happiness at the next feasible opportunity, regardless of any and all traditional obstacles. To that end she began to lay her plans and make her lists. She believed in lists—they helped her think in an orderly fashion—and at the top of her list Lady Yee had written the characters for “Prime the Celestial Well,” by which she meant laying the necessary foundation to gain her ends. Beneath the first entry she wrote, “Cue my beloved toward courage and empathy.”

  Lady Yee might have saved herself all the concern and effort for the slight nubbin of good it accomplished. For while Captain Hammond was far away trading palm oil, rice, dried fruits, and building tools for prime Russian pelts, resin, and amber, something totally unforeseen transpired.

  As sometimes happens to men habitually harnessed to the gnawing loneliness that comes with a life at sea, Captain Hammond awoke one day and somehow patently decided that he was indeed already deeply in love with a woman of phenomenal intellect, charm, and flawless compassion, and that woman was Lady Yee.

  Being a creature accustomed to competition, he immediately concluded that it was time for him to move forward and, despite the obvious cultural difficulties that were sure to arise, take on the object of his growing adoration and press his suit before someone else, most likely a gentleman with far more impressive credentials, vied for the same goal. Soon the heart-struck captain was wandering the decks at night practicing courtly versions of his introductory speech to Master Yee. After all, asking such an important, powerful, and possibly dangerous man for his daughter’s hand in marriage wasn’t like bargaining for a cargo of copra or cowhides. His presentation had better be clear-hearted, authentic in all particulars, and totally convincing. Yet there were other times on the windswept poop deck, though he blushed to think about it, when he practiced what he believed were grand romantic sentiments to be addressed to his intended, words hopefully composed to turn a girl’s head in the direction of his affection.

  When Captain Hammond at last sailed back into the roads of Singapore, he thought himself as prepared as crude nature could make him for the emotionally dangerous task ahead. In all modesty, he well knew he lacked the cultural sophistication so prized by educated Chinese, but he hoped his failings in that regard might be overlooked in favor of his strength of character, his joss, his complete lack of racial chauvinism, his obvious wealth, and his reputation for unimpeachable loyalty, not to mention his growing and unassailable adoration for Lady Yee.

  Little did the captain know that Lady Yee had arranged to be the only one awaiting his arrival at the Yee company pier, and she too had come armed, like Cupid, with an emotional quiver of her own expectations and hopes. For even as her father suspected, she had in fact been deeply enamored with this handsome and gentle barbarian for more than three years. Her approaching womanhood had only solidified her instincts and given them even greater substance, foundation, and justification.

  When the couple finally met again on the pier, the captain suddenly stepped out of character and took Lady Yee’s hands in his, but after a long searching moment he found he had lost his voice altogether. Lady Yee seemed to comprehend his predicament, for she squeezed his hands in warm reassurance, nodded, and then, standing on her toes, kissed him gently on the cheek. The captain was somewhat taken aback at such affection demonstrated in public, especially when instigated by a highborn Chinese daughter of a man who could have the captain’s head for the price of a sweet melon and a measure of rice. However, there was a clear, almost crystal quality about her moral certainty and courage that was intrinsically infectious, and before he knew what he was about, Captain Hammond drew Lady Yee’s hands to his lips and gently kissed each in turn several times. Then he removed his grandfather’s wedding ring, which had been made from a hundred-peso gold piece, and still without words, placed it in her palms and folded her fingers over it. She could feel his body heat still radiating from the pure gold. Their unspoken expressions of tender, loving consideration, melded with a growing passion, drove all the captain’s schemes and rehearsed speeches away like dried leaves in an autumn breeze.

  The details of the nuptial negotiations with Master Yee, who was hardly caught off guard by this time, and the formal betrothal rites and ceremonies that sealed the arrangement came and went like a frenetic blur of mysterious and colorful traditions. Master Yee proved truly a gracious father-in-law once Lady Yee gently convinced her father that he really had no choice in the matter. He owed Captain Hammond his life, his family’s honor, and the security of his wealth. Added to that was the sum of his daughter’s explicit wishes in the matter, and Master Yee soon found it expedient and far less distressing to bow to matters as they stood. If his daughter had her heart set on becoming Captain Hammond’s bride, then the gods would have to see to the details of fortune, because he no longer had the power to petition the gods for anything. They had already kept their part of the bargain, and if his youngest daughter, the incomparable and beloved Lady Yee, was the price of their favor, then so be it. Besides, as Lady Yee so pointedly remarked to her father, he was gaining a whole shipping company at the nominal cost of just one insignificant girl child. Any upstanding Chinese gentleman of business would have boasted of such a lucrative exchange.

  Master Yee eventually bowed to his daughter’s logic, but his private tears stood mute testimony to the fact that his Silver Lotus was far more to him than just another girl child. She was proof that he had fathered a creature of beauty, compassion, and genius, an intellect worthy to study with the great sages of her race. But now, as the fates would have it, she was to become the wife of a barbarian. An honorable, honest, and courageous barbarian to be sure, but a barbarian all the same. Master Yee could hear the gods laughing, and he bowed his head in humble submission. One was never too old to practice humility in the face of heaven’s will, or at the very least acknowledge that Lady Yee had once again played him like a liuqin with a broken string.

  Lady Yee’s mother, who normally chose not to venture an opinion on such subjects, admonished her husband that if he’d really wanted nothing more than complete obedience from his children, he should have sired boys. They were easier to intimidate than girls, but far less affectionate, and certainly less gifted in the main. Again Master Ye
e was forced to acknowledge an unavoidable truth. A father with clever daughters was never master of his own fate, much less his own house. His wife smiled and said that sometimes the mandate of heaven was a little justice for women to balance the scales of fortune.

  Captain Hammond, in the meantime, had been making his own arrangements for the future. He sold his two smaller schooners to his cousin John Macy, who already held command of one of his ships, and then purchased a larger five-mast schooner that had been built in North Bend, Oregon, three years previously. She could carry twice the cargo of the smaller schooners, and with very little addition to the number of crew required to sail her. But her most attractive feature was the captain’s accommodations. The previous owner had taken his wife and children to sea with him, which at that time was not an uncommon practice. The large captain’s suite therefore reflected much that would please a woman’s taste for comfort and convenience. In Singapore these amenities were beautifully enhanced and decorated to accommodate Lady Yee’s Chinese sensibilities, and two small adjoining cabins were also reconfigured to lodge Lady Yee’s maid, wardrobe chests, and cook.

  Captain Hammond retained the services of his best officers and crewmen, and since they already knew and revered the beautiful Lady Yee, they too set about making small changes to the vessel that were calculated to please her. Mr. Hanks, the chief bosun and sailmaker, even stitched and rigged a collapsible canvas enclosure that sheltered the stern of the ship like a tented veranda. In this manner Lady Yee could enjoy taking the air in pleasant sailing weather, or when in port, without having to endure the gaze of prying eyes. Captain Hammond had never seen anything like it, but he agreed that it was a thoughtful and remarkably inventive addition to the ship’s comforts. He rewarded Mr. Hanks with five pounds of the very finest tobacco he could find. Lady Yee’s gift of thanks was an ivory-mounted meerschaum pipe, the bowl of which was elaborately carved to resemble a Turk’s head knot. It came nested in a handsome ivory box decorated with flying bats and rampant dragons and was lined with the finest maroon velvet. From that moment on, Lady Yee enjoyed the complete adoration and loyalty of Mr. Hanks.

  After coming to an equitable understanding and arrangement with Master Yee, Captain Hammond was forced to endure two weeks of elaborate prenuptial celebrations, which included a number of clan feasts that almost laid the captain low. The captain next shouldered a ceaseless round of ceremonial interviews from Taoist priests and scholars whose function it was to examine the prospective groom for moral and spiritual suitability. This was more rooted in ancient tradition than anything else, but it served its purpose, which was to place the prospective groom under some degree of social stress and see how he behaved. As an aside, Lady Yee had warned her love in advance to guard against people maneuvering him into drinking too much strong wine at the various feasts, as this too was a tactic by which people would judge his suitability as a groom. Chinese wines, she said, could be subtle to the palate and yet surprisingly potent. She cued him to sip these offerings only ceremonially to be polite, but to avoid serious consumption at all costs. His liver would bless him for the discretion. Besides, she laughed, a groom who couldn’t stand up easily on his own, or could not walk in a straight line unaided, eventually became a figure of ridicule and an embarrassment to the bride’s family. Lady Yee needn’t have worried, as Captain Hammond had never been overly fond of hard liquor in any fashion, though like most of his crew he enjoyed dark beer and porter with his rations.

  The wedding ceremony, though modest in physical dimensions, proved cunningly elaborate in every detail of festive decoration and ceremony. Exotic flower arrangements filled the house with color and perfume, and numerous liveried servants attended to every need. There were only sixty-five invited guests, most of the Yee clan having remained in Canton, but what the gathering lacked in numbers it made up for in the elaborate luxury of their costumes and the lavish quality of their gifts.

  Lady Yee, who looked as though she had just stepped off a temple altar, was presented by her father last of all. She was magnificently veiled in the finest white silk, and her brow was surmounted with a jade-encrusted diadem that supported multiple looping chains of matched pearls that framed her veiled head on three sides. She was richly cocooned in yards of the finest silver brocade embroidered with heavy gold thread to simulate a lotus flower pattern. The garment bloomed pearls everywhere. Near the hem of her robes, two small golden carp with amethyst eyes peeked up through the silver brocaded waves as if in greeting.

  To note that Captain Hammond was astonished by the sight of his bride would hardly flavor half the truth. He was truly speechless once again. It seemed to him that Lady Yee veritably shimmered with a kind of celestial light; she appeared as from a dream, looking exactly like the artistic characterizations he had so often seen of the Chinese moon goddess, Ch’ang O. The only thing missing was the goddess’s symbolic rabbit. However, he later discovered that a small silver hare had been deftly embroidered into the long train of Lady Yee’s robes, and it could only be seen in a cross-light as she walked away. The captain thought this gesture most propitious, and very much in key with his bride’s sense of satire and respect all in one gesture.

  When Captain Hammond commissioned a brand-new and smartly tailored uniform to be married in, Master Yee got wind of this and gently took him aside. Using his most respectful tone, and being extremely polite and forthcoming, he attempted to convince his soon-to-be son-in-law that though he respected the gesture, it was his considered opinion that Western military-style attire, as handsome as it could be on most occasions, would artistically clash with the traditional Chinese ceremonial decor. He feared this would create a cultural imbalance that some guests might find slightly unsettling, or even disquieting. Master Yee said that the officiating Taoists priests could get very prickly when they sensed that all the spiritual elements ceased to appear in a state of natural equilibrium. In conclusion, Master Yee humbly begged that the groom bow to tradition, and that the captain allow himself to be attired in appropriate Chinese fashion. Master Yee said it would give him great pleasure to commission the robes and accoutrements personally, and he even offered to pay for the uniform, which was to be set aside until the ceremonies had concluded and the guests departed.

  Master Yee was slightly shocked when Captain Hammond suddenly rose from his seat as though preparing to depart in a fit of pique. It had suddenly occurred to the captain to have a bit of fun with his prospective father-in-law before their relationship changed forever to one of father and son, when such things would seem improper. The captain stood over Master Yee and coldly asked if he was seriously being denied the dignity and apparel of his rank. He made it sound as though he were being forced to lose face.

  Master Yee muttered for a moment, looking this way and that for a way to salvage the situation. Then Captain Hammond turned on his host and laughed. “My dear Master Yee,” he said with charm, “my fine old friend, if you requested that I should drape myself with the fresh-killed hide of a mountain goat as the price of being wedded to our beloved Lady Yee, I would set out this very minute to hunt one down and butcher it with my own two hands if need be. I should hardly care to shame my bride’s family with barbarian insensitivity at so early a date. There will be plenty of time for all that later. You may rest assured, Master Yee, that I shall proudly wear whatever garments you deem proper. And not at your own expense, but at mine.”

  Master Yee beamed with sincere pleasure. At last he’d gotten something his own way.

  And so there he was, a Yankee captain clothed in richly crafted black satin robes trimmed in embroidered white shantung silk. He even wore the traditional embroidered black silk hat. And then, as if suspended in an ornate fantasy, Captain Hammond pledged his troth at the foot of an elaborate floral altar dedicated to the doe-eyed Guan Yin, goddess of mercy. For one hour Captain Hammond experienced emotional delights he had never known possible. He had been transported in time and space to a realm of ancient lights of immortality. And fo
r the first time in his life, Captain J. Macy Hammond felt as though he belonged to something far greater than himself. He wondered what his distant relatives back in Nantucket would make of all this. He harbored a mostly vacuous hope that they might be happy for him, but in the end he had to admit that the Nantucket Hammonds, and even the Macys, weren’t really those kinds of people. They were in the main hard-boiled Methodists, and as such mistrusted happiness and contentment as signs of self-indulgence and lazy thinking.

  The wedding feast was like nothing Captain Hammond had ever experienced before. All the food was delivered in small arranged portions, and served in exquisitely decorated dishes and bowls. But it was the endless variety and ingenuity of the presentations that truly impressed. It was impossible to keep count, but the groom estimated that in three hours of feasting he hadn’t seen a single dish pass him twice. Every course consisted of numerous variations on a theme, and all were prepared and decorated in such a way as to appear like something else altogether. Pickled fish came to the table looking like floating clusters of wildflowers. Crab dumplings were craftily made to look like baby golden carp. Ginger-cured salmon was sliced almost to the point of transparency and then fashioned to look like Persian roses. Lean pork, veal, and chicken were ground, seasoned with exotic herbs or dried fruit, and then hand-molded to look like small fish or turtles before being steamed or baked. Captain Hammond had no idea that there existed such an infinite variety of ways to serve rice, not to mention stuffed buns, dumplings, custards, and pastries of every conceivable description. The wines were numerous in variety and obviously expensive, but the captain had taken Lady Yee’s warning to heart, and except for ceremonial toasts and pledges he drank only tea and rose-scented water.

  Master Yee was delighted with the proceedings, and very grateful that his new son-in-law had seen fit to carry off his part with such finesse, modesty, and dignity. For a barbarian, the captain was most amenable to the esoteric traditions he was compelled to study and perform. As a reward, Master Yee had rented a lovely house across the road so that for the first few weeks of their marriage the couple could be well cared for by loyal family servants, thus giving the bride and groom plenty of leisure time to get better acquainted and enjoy each other’s company. And they took total advantage of the opportunity, rarely being out of each other’s sight for more than a few minutes at a time. The captain and Lady Yee went on numerous excursions to local sites of beauty or historic interest, and after giving his crew orders that all was to be placed in trim order and polished bright if it didn’t move, the captain took his bride out to the anchorage to inspect his ship.