Lucy Gordon - And the Bride Wore Red

Olivia held her breath. For some reason what would happen next mattered to her.

The music swelled. The tomb doors opened. Zhu Yingtai threw up her arms in ecstatic gratitude and walked triumphantly inside.

The lights dimmed, except for one brilliant beam over the tomb. From somewhere overhead a hologram was projected into the light, and two large butterflies came into view. They hovered for a moment before flying off together into the darkness.

These were the souls of the lovers, now united for ever. The audience gasped, then applauded ecstatically. The lights came up and Olivia hastily dried her eyes.

All about them people were exclaiming with appreciation. Lang and Olivia quietly slipped away and went up on deck.

‘Did I understand the end properly?’ she asked as they strolled hand in hand. ‘The butterflies were the lovers, and now they’ll always be together?’

‘That’s right.’

She stopped and looked up at the moon. No full moon tonight, but a crescent hanging in the sky. Lang followed her gaze.

‘According to Meihui,’ he said, ‘the two butterflies didn’t only signify reunion in death, but eternal fidelity in life also. She said there were so many different stage versions all over China that one or other was always being performed. When I came here, almost the first thing I did was to find a performance, to see if it spoke to me in her voice, and it did. I was so glad it was on here tonight, so that I could show it to you.’

‘Butterflies,’ she mused. ‘Flying away together for eternity. What a lovely thought!’

‘Eternity,’ he echoed. ‘That’s what I want with you, if it’s what you want.’

‘It’s all I shall ever want,’ she told him passionately.

‘Then we have everything. Let’s go inside.’

‘We can go on travelling for another couple of weeks,’ Lang said next morning. ‘And then it’ll be back to Beijing to plan the wedding.’

‘And that’s going to take a lot of planning,’ Olivia mused.

‘Nonsense, we just give Biyu the date and leave everything to her. In fact, why don’t we just let her choose the date?’

‘Good idea. She’ll be better at planning it than I will.’

Biyu thought so too. In a feverish telephone call, she tried to make them return at once and plunge into arrangements. It took all Lang’s strength to resist, and when he hung up Olivia had to take drastic steps to restore his energy. That distracted them so long that they got behind with their packing and nearly weren’t ready when the boat docked at Yichang.

From there they took a plane to Shangai on the coast. During the flight, they planned out the rest of their trip.

‘We could go to Chengdu and see the panda sanctuary,’ he said. ‘I’ve got some more relatives up there, and I’d like them to meet you. But let’s enjoy Shanghai first.’

It was a revelation, an ultra-modern, bustling city where almost every inch seemed to be neon-lit. On the first night they took a boat down the river, gazing up at the skyscrapers adorned with multi-coloured lights. Then they escaped to their hotel room on the thirty-fifth floor and watched from the window.

‘I’m dizzy being up so high,’ she murmured, leaning back against him.

‘I’m dizzy too,’ he whispered against her neck. ‘But it’s not from the height.’

She chuckled but didn’t move, even when he drew his lips across the skin below her ear, although it sent delicious tremors through her.

‘Come to bed,’ he urged.

‘Can’t you just let a girl enjoy the view?’

‘No,’ he said firmly, sweeping her up and carrying her to the huge bed, where she forgot all about skyscrapers and neon lights.

They slept late, rose late and sauntered out, meaning to do some serious educational sightseeing. They ended up in a theatre where motorbike riders diced with death, crossing each other’s path within inches at high speed.

‘Well, I’ve learned something,’ she remarked as they walked slowly back to the hotel. ‘I’ve learned never to get on a motorbike.’

They had the elevator to themselves and kissed all the way to the thirty-fifth floor, their minds running ahead to the pleasures to come.

But as they reached their room Lang’s mobile phone began to buzz. Groaning, he answered, and Olivia saw him grow instantly alert. The next moment he swung away from her, as though she had no part of what was happening, and went to stand by the window.

He was talking too rapidly for her to follow, and his whole body was alive with excitement. When he hung up, he looked as though he was lit from within.

‘That’s it!’ he cried. ‘I knew it must happen some time.’

He hurled himself on the bed and lay back with his hands behind his head, the picture of triumph. Then he saw her regarding him, puzzled, and opened his arms to her. She went into them and nearly had the breath squeezed out of her.

‘What’s happened?’ she gasped, laughing.

‘That vacancy for a consultant has come up at the hospital!’ he cried exultantly. ‘It’s a brilliant opportunity. Just what I’ve been waiting for.’

‘That’s wonderful. Who called you?’

‘Another doctor, a friend who knows how badly I want this. He’s put my name forward, and he called to tell me when the interviews start.’

‘So we have to go back now,’ she said, trying not to sound too disappointed.

‘No, nothing’s going to happen until next week. We can have another couple of days. And then…’ He sighed. ‘Back to the real world.’

‘But the real world is going to be wonderful,’ she reminded him. ‘You’re going to be a great consultant, and in a few years you’ll be in charge of the whole hospital.’

‘I hope so. If you only knew how much I hope so. I want it so much it scares me.’

That night was different. They made love and slept close as always, but when Olivia awoke in the small hours she saw him standing at the window looking out, so preoccupied that he never once looked back at the bed.

She wondered where he was now, inside his mind, and concluded that wherever it was she wasn’t there with him. It was the first shadow on their relationship, only a tiny one, but perceptible.

Next day he seemed preoccupied over breakfast, and she said little, understanding that he would wish to mull over the situation that was opening up to him. They went out on a brief shopping-expedition, but over lunch he suddenly left her alone and was away for nearly an hour. Returning, he apologised profusely, but didn’t say where he’d been. Sadly, she realised that part of him was already returning to ‘the real world’, where she seemed to live on the margins.

Or did she live anywhere at all? Had she, in the end, been nothing but a holiday romance? Lang had spoken of marriage and eternity, but that was before he’d been offered the chance of the thing he admitted he wanted more than anything in the world.

Suddenly she was in darkness, stumbling about an alien universe. She had survived Andy’s betrayal. She knew she wouldn’t survive Lang’s.

But the moment of doubt passed, and that evening her fears were eased when Lang suggested talking to Norah.

In a moment they were online, and there was Norah’s face, beaming at them.

‘Hello, darling! And, Lang-is that you I see?’

‘Hello, Norah,’ he said, seating himself on the bed next to Olivia, before the little camera. ‘How are you?’

‘Better than ever since my gifts arrived. Look.’

She held up the tiny figurine of a terracotta warrior in one hand, and a book in the other.

‘The postman delivered them this morning,’ she bubbled. ‘It was so kind of you.’

He told her about Biyu and the wedding plans.

‘As soon as we’ve set the date we’ll arrange your flight out here,’ he told her.