Jane Orcutt - All the Tea in China

He lifted my hand and kissed my fingers. “I want only to belong to you.”

“Then give up this foolish plan of revenge.”

“If I do, it will mean that you give up your dream, for I am headed inland with my partners for the golden tea leaf. Was it not your plan to travel farther into China to spread the gospel?”

“Yes, but-”

“I am traveling to the Mo Tong mountains,” he continued. “They are in the Hupei Province where there are many monasteries and temples.”

“Monasteries and temples? No one there would listen to me.”

“Perhaps you do not believe in your mission,” he said.

I said nothing. How could I respond?

“The monks would not even see you-or me-for neither of us are fully Chinese,” he said gently, covering my silence, “but the villagers in the province might. I do not believe any Christians have traveled to that area.”

“What you offer, then, is a chance to fulfill my calling, yet at the cost of seeing you fulfill what you believe is yours. Even though I disagree with it strongly.”

“That is the way of it.”

All the joy of our wedding evaporated like cold water on hot stones. “Blackmail seems to have been the way of our relationship since the beginning.” Moisture gathered in my eyes, despite my effort to stop it. “We have come so far, Phineas. I do not want to lose you.”

“Isabella.” Phineas wiped a tear from my cheek. “Isabella, please do not cry. I would see you happy, not sad. Our love will be well. But I have a duty-a calling-as you have yours. Can we not both be true to that?”

Perhaps we could, but I wept anyway because I did not believe that in the process we could be true to one another.

Morning brought a fair amount of awkwardness, for though we had spent countless nights in adjacent hammocks aboard ship, we had never been husband and wife. I found myself blushing when, in my early morning grogginess, I threw out my arm and hit Phineas across the chest. I am not certain who was more startled-he, because I woke him from sleep, or I, because he was so close beside me. He smiled at me and pulled me closer yet. It was still nearly beyond belief that I should find myself wed, but our first morning together made me more cheerfully accustomed to our situation.

My old gray dress lay neatly folded where I had laid it the previous day before donning the wedding dress, but Phineas retrieved new clothes for me from Precious Spring, a loose-fitting skirt and long blouse made of dark cotton. He handed them to me, and I ducked behind a screen to dress. He might have thought me overly modest, but he was kind enough to speak to me of practical matters while I donned the clothing. “You must look Chinese if we are to leave Macao,” he said. “Remember that no foreign ladies are allowed to leave here. But with your dark hair styled properly and if you act like a proper wife, keeping her head down, no one should suspect you are not Chinese.”

“How should I act?”

He grinned. “Though it will grieve you, you must obey me.”

“That does not sound so very different from Britain,” I said mildly. “Wives are expected to obey their husbands there as well.”

“Are they expected to walk behind their husbands? For that is what you must do when we are in public, Isabella.”

“Very well.” It would no doubt grieve me, but I could act the role.

I emerged from behind the screen, and Phineas studied me as I adjusted the skirt and tunic. His frank gaze made me blush, but he smiled tenderly. “You should have a Chinese name. I cannot very well refer to you as Isabella when we are within the city walls of Canton.”

“Is your family name not Wong? That should be mine too,” I said.

“Names are not the same in China as in Britain. A woman does not take her husband’s name but retains the name of her father’s clan. It would be disrespectful to do otherwise. I only have my mother’s family name because my father was British.”

“But I have no Chinese clan at all,” I said. “May I not take yours?”

He touched my shoulder, then smoothed the length of my arm. Again, I blushed. I was unaccustomed to such familiarity, though I confess I did not find it displeasing. “You may have my family name, for indeed we belong fully to each other now,” he said softly. “I think Wong Si-yan would be a beautiful name for you.”

“Wong Si-yan,” I repeated, trying it out. “And it means…” I struggled to put the words together.

“Gracious Thoughts,” he murmured, his fingers caressing the nape of my neck.

I closed my eyes despite myself. “I do not believe that your own thoughts are gracious at the moment,” I murmured. “Perhaps they are of another nature?”

Phineas laughed softly then kissed me…

Precious Spring was feeding Honor when we entered the main room of the bamboo house. Her eyes lit like small firecrackers when she saw us, and she served us congee- rice porridge-for breakfast. I held Honor on my lap and played with him while Phineas, Glory, and Precious Spring discussed our impending journey. I picked up enough of their discussion to learn the details of our journey to Canton. They could not have been averse to my participation in the conversation, but in truth, I enjoyed Honor’s company. He was a happy baby who gurgled and smiled most obligingly at the silly faces I presented him. I bounced him on my knee, and he squealed with pleasure. I confess that Lewis had never allowed himself to be amused in such a way, and Honor’s reactions delighted me much more, I am certain, than I delighted him.

“He likes you,” Precious Spring said, sitting beside me.

“I like him. He is a cheerful baby. You and Glory are indeed blessed.” Phineas and Glory had finished their discussion and were watching us, so I reluctantly handed Honor back to his mother.

“May you have many sons,” Precious Spring said softly.

“I would gladly have a dozen if they were each like Honor,” I said.

Phineas approached, smiling, evidently having heard my words, though he did not speak of them. “We must leave, Isabella.”

“So soon?” I did not want to impose on Glory and Precious Spring’s hospitality, but I felt great contentment within their bamboo walls.

Phineas nodded. “We must be on our way to Canton.”

“You are forgetting something.” Precious Spring went back to the bedroom and retrieved a long switch of black hair. She motioned Phineas to sit, and she skillfully wove the hair into his much shorter queue. At first I thought the switch was from the tail of a horse, but when Precious Spring had finished her weaving, I realized it was Phineas’s own hair.

“I had to cut the length when I left China, and I must wear it again when I return,” he said.

“It is law that a man must wear a queue in China and is punishable by death if he does not,” Glory said. “It is the same with a shaved head.”

I glanced at Phineas, alarmed. “Will you have to do that as well?”

He smiled, obviously reading that I could not bear the thought of his losing any hair to a razor. “If I wear a cap, I think it will cover enough.”

I sighed with relief.

We said good-bye, tearfully on my part, for I was not certain that I would ever see these wonderful people again. I wondered if their desire was to spread Christianity in Macao, for I sensed that the Chinese community in which they lived was much in need of the gospel message. Yet they had no tracts and politely refused the ones I offered them, declaring that they might be more needed farther inland.

For my part, I would never forget the kindness they showed Phineas and me, a stranger. It was with much reluctance that I left the red brocade dress, but it would remain a happy memory of my wedding to Phineas.