Kylie Chan - Red Phoenix

‘Try to stay on your feet, Simone.’

‘There she is!’ Simone squealed, and raced to Charlie who stopped, crouched and threw her arms out to catch her.

Charlie rose with Simone held tightly in her arms and smiled over the top of the little girl’s head. She hadn’t changed at all; her cheerful soft face was still rosy, round and smiling. Her greying light-brown hair had come out of its bun but she didn’t seem to care. She rocked Simone in her arms. ‘I missed you, Princess.’

Charlie lowered Simone and pushed her trolley as I led her towards the car park. ‘I love this new airport.’ She bent to speak conspiratorially to Simone. ‘Have you been on the little train inside yet?’

Simone shook her head, eyes wide. ‘We’re not allowed in there. We have to take the silly small plane.’

Charlie laughed. ‘I missed you, darling.’ She patted my shoulder. ‘I missed you too, Emma.’

‘Let me take your trolley.’

‘No, Leo can do that.’ She looked around. ‘That’s not like Leo to leave you alone, Emma. Where is he?’

‘Leo’s teaching at the Academy.’

‘What Academy?’

‘Oh, dear Lord, John hasn’t told you anything, has he?’

‘John?’ She continued without waiting for an answer. ‘All Mr Chen said was to come to Hong Kong, help look after Simone, and brush up on my cooking while I was here. That’s all, Emma.’

‘It’s Lady Emma now,’ Simone said with relish.

‘No it isn’t, Simone, not for Charlie.’ I saw Charlie’s face. ‘Don’t worry about it, Charlie.’ I paid the parking ticket and guided Charlie to the car. ‘We need to talk. But we should wait until we have you settled in.’

When we reached the car Charlie stopped.

‘Daddy bought it for Emma,’ Simone said proudly.

Charlie glanced sharply at me.

‘I needed it,’ I said. ‘Simone starts school soon, and I’ll be taking her. I’ll be sharing it with Leo.’

Charlie nodded, but she was obviously unhappy. We put her bags into the boot and she sat in the back of the car with Simone. ‘How are you, my little Princess? You’ve grown so much. Starting school soon, eh? You’re a big girl already.’

‘I’m really good, Charlie. I’m learning energy work with Emma. Emma’s teaching the Disciples. She’s really good too. She’ll be in charge.’

‘Don’t worry about that, Simone,’ I said, not wanting to take the conversation in a difficult direction. ‘We’ll talk about that later.’

Charlie appeared very uncomfortable.

‘Charlie, I’ll tell you all about it when we’re back at the Peak. In private,’ I said pointedly, and she nodded. But I could see she was concerned.

When we arrived at the Peak I took Charlie into one of the student rooms behind the training room. ‘Is this okay? If it’s not good enough, you can go in with Simone, or you can have my room. I don’t mind.’

‘You can’t do that, Emma,’ Simone squeaked. ‘You can’t give Charlie your room, it’s not fitting.’

Charlie didn’t miss that. ‘This will be fine, Emma, I’ve had this room before.’ She put her bag down and folded her arms over her chest. ‘Please tell me what’s going on.’

‘Simone, could you go to Monica for a while?’ I said. ‘Call me if you need me, I’m right here.’

‘Okay, Emma.’ Simone waved one hand as she went out.

‘She’s very grown-up for such a little girl,’ Charlie said.

‘She’s been through a lot lately. We all have.’ I gestured for her to sit on the bed and I sat on the student chair next to the desk. I leaned my elbow on the desk and rested my chin on my hand.

‘I heard about the Attack,’ Charlie said. ‘I heard that most of the Mountain was destroyed. It’s awful. I hope Mr Chen is okay.’

‘We nearly lost him, but the White Tiger helped and managed to pull him back. It was a very bad time for all of us.’

‘How is he now?’

‘He’s fine. We moved the Wudang Academy from the Mountain to here in Hong Kong. The students are staying and learning in buildings that he owns here.’

‘That’s wonderful! It’s fantastic he can teach again.’ She became serious. ‘He’s teaching you?’

‘Apparently I’m very talented. He already has me teaching energy work to the juniors, as if I didn’t have enough to do already.’

‘Well, a nanny’s job is never easy,’ she said cheerfully.

I stopped and thought about what to say. This would be hard. I dropped my head and didn’t look at her. ‘I’m not the nanny any more, Charlie. He asked me to marry him.’

‘He can’t marry you. He can’t marry anyone.’

‘He promised to come back for me. And I promised to wait for him. When he comes back, we’ll be married.’

‘And in the meantime?’

I dropped my head even lower and mumbled, ‘I’ll be Regent, Charlie. I’ll be in charge of the Mountain, of Simone, everything.’

Charlie’s face screwed up with fury. ‘I knew it!’ She threw herself out of her chair and stood over me, shaking with rage. ‘You cow ? I knew you were after his money!’ She stormed into the hallway. ‘I don’t know what you did to him, but I’ll find out!’

I rushed to follow her. ‘Wait!’

She ignored me. She charged straight out the front door and slammed it behind her.

I poked my head into the kitchen. Simone sat at the table with Monica. ‘Simone, could you call Jade or Gold for me?’

Jade appeared behind me in the hallway and I closed the kitchen door. ‘Jade, you know Charlie? The housekeeper from London?’

‘Yes, ma’am.’

‘She just raced out the front door, furious with me. Could you follow her and make sure she’s okay? Don’t let her know you’re there. If she doesn’t come home by herself, bring her home in about an hour, but she needs time to think so leave her alone.’ I hesitated. ‘Also, could you ask Lord Xuan to come home? I think I need him.’

Jade bowed slightly. ‘My Lady.’ She disappeared.

I sagged. Nothing I could do now except wait. I went back into the kitchen. Simone and I could read a book together or play with Lego until Charlie came back.

I understood completely how she felt. I would have been that protective of him as well. John was so insensitive sometimes; he hadn’t even considered what Charlie would think, or warned her about the situation. He’d just expected her to follow orders.

Half an hour later Simone and I had nearly built a complete castle on the living room floor when my mobile phone rang. It was John.

‘I’m going to be late, Emma, I’m stuck in traffic at the bottom of Stubbs Road. There’s some construction work at the bottom here and the traffic is banked back to Ruttonjee.’

‘That’s fine, John, whenever you’re here is okay.’ I dropped my voice. ‘This is all your fault. You could have at least told her what was going on.’

‘I know.’ He sounded sheepish. ‘I’ll make it up to her. I keep forgetting that Westerners need to be treated differently.’

‘What, with a reasonable amount of respect and care?’

‘Exactly,’ he said with a smile in his voice, and hung up.

About half an hour later I heard arguing outside the front door and sent Simone into the kitchen with Monica. The front door opened and Jade entered, holding Charlie’s elbow.

‘She’s hypnotised all of you!’ Charlie said. ‘I don’t know what she’s done, but I’ll get help!’

Jade wore her usual pale green tailored suit but her hair had come out of its tight bun and fell over her shoulder. ‘Charlie, it’s true. Everything I’ve told you is true. She’s worthy.’

‘Worthy my eye.’ Charlie saw me and glared.

‘Come into the dining room and talk, Charlie,’ I said. ‘I really do have everybody’s best interest at heart.’