Pearl Buck - Peony

All the way home she wept, wiping her eyes dry only when they turned into their own street. When she was in the house she was busy again and she kept her face turned away, and in the weariness of all, the fret of her mistress and the crying of the children, she was not noticed, for David withdrew to his own rooms as he always did when the children were troublesome. So this day ended, and when all were at rest Peony went to bed too, without having seen David. She wept again and asked herself whether she must tell David, but being weary with fear and excitement, she too fell asleep before she could answer her own question.

David discovered her plight himself the next morning before Peony had so much as seen him. He had finished his breakfast and was about to set forth on a visit to a new shop in the south end of the city where rugs were being woven in new patterns, when a messenger came to the gate in the yellow garments that meant that he was from the Imperial Palace. He was very haughty and he frightened the gateman and the servants by his loud voice and his high manners, saying that he brought out a letter addressed to “The Foreigner Surnamed Chao, from the City of K’aifeng, Now Resident in the Hutung of the Silver Horse.”

Chao was the Chinese surname of Ezra’s family and the letter was for David. The gateman received it, and begging the imperial messenger to be seated, he ran with the letter to the head servant, who took it to David as he was about to come out from his own door.

“Master — from the palace!” the servant gasped.

David took the letter with wonder, and opened it. His face changed as he read the words it contained. He looked astonished and then stern.

“Does the messenger still wait?” he asked.

“At the gate, Master,” the servant replied.

“Pay him well and tell him that I shall send an answer when I have considered the proposal.”

The man went away and paid the messenger and then spread throughout the household the rumor that the master had been offered a high post in the Imperial Court. This rumor came to Peony and immediately she grew afraid. If David were tempted indeed to stay near the court, then how could she remain with him? She could never be safe from that evil eunuch. Her life fell into pieces before her eyes, and she felt so faint that she could scarcely continue with her task of arranging lilies in a bowl. Now indeed she must speak to David and tell him what had befallen her.

But David sent for her before she could speak. It was not usual that he sent for her, since when he had anything to say to her he strolled about the house until he found her. Peony knew, therefore, that he wished to speak privately to her, and she inclined her head when the servant came to call her and she put the flowers into the water and went at once.

David stood in the middle of his sitting room when she came in. In his hand was a large yellow envelope. When he saw Peony he held it out to her. “What is the meaning of this?” he asked.

She took the letter and read it. It was an offer from the Chief Steward to purchase her as a maid for one of the ladies of the court. Arrogantly phrased, it was all but a command. She folded the letter and thrust it into its envelope and looked speechlessly at David. Tears welled into her eyes again.

David sat down. “Sit down, Peony,” he said.

She sat down, bending her head and wiping her eyes with the edge of her sleeve.

“Do you know any reason for this?” he asked kindly.

To her dismay she saw that he imagined she knew that this offer was to be made. She shook her head and could not speak for weeping.

“Come, Peony,” he said at last, growing angry with her. “Have the courage to tell me if you want to leave my house!”

His anger dried her tears immediately. “Dare to say that I have no courage!” she retorted.

“This is more like you,” he said. “Now tell me everything.”

So Peony told him what had happened the day before, and the further David heard the more angry and dismayed he was.

“What a quandary!” he exclaimed. “We cannot stay here any more, or the Chief Steward will make our life wretched for us. A word from him and the very merchants will fear to deal with us!”

“It is all because of me,” Peony said in much distress. “Let me go.”

“Sell you?” David exclaimed. His voice was so hot that Peony took heart.

“I could run away,” she said.

“You could run away!” he repeated. “And what would become of me, Peony? Could I forgive myself?”

“If I ran away I might be able to find my way to you again,” Peony faltered.

They looked at one another and it was a strange long look. Peony was humble and trembling and frightened and David was fearful not only at what he saw in her face but at what he now perceived in his own heart. He could not let her leave him. He was jealous that the Chief Steward had so much as seen her and he blamed himself.

“How dare I let you out of my gate?” he muttered.

Peony looked down and did not answer. He saw her long straight lashes lying upon her cheeks and he rose abruptly.

“Prepare everything,” he commanded. “We leave for home tonight.”

She rose slowly, and lifted her eyes to his face.

“David,” she whispered, and did not know she spoke his name. “Do not think of me!”

“I do think of you,” he said shortly. “Obey me, Peony! I give it as my command.”

“I obey you, David.” Her voice was as soft as her breath.

That night soon after midnight David and his family left the city in hired mule carts. To his friend who was the head of Kung Chen’s shops in the city he explained truthfully why he must go. “The young woman has been like a sister to my wife rather than a bondmaid, and it cannot be allowed,” he said.

“That Chief Steward is a very devil,” the merchant agreed. “How many families in this city have suffered the loss of their daughters through him! You do well to escape.”

To his wife David also told the truth in a few simple words, and Kueilan was half frightened and yet unwilling to yield to fear. “It might be very well for Peony to be in the palace,” she reasoned. “We would have a friend there and she is so clever — who knows, she might even be a servingwoman to the Empress!”

To this David would not listen. “Peony has been in our house always, and it does not become me to sell her like a slave.” If Kueilan looked at him with suspicion he refused to see it. “Come,” he said. “Hasten yourself, Little Thing! We go tonight whether you are ready or not.”

It was a silent going. The city gate was closed and David had to bribe the gatemen well before they would open the great locks. But once they were open the carts passed through swiftly, and by morning they were well on their way to the canal.

UPON THAT HOMEWARD JOURNEY David said little indeed to anyone. The pleasure he had taken in the new countryside when they were going northward he scarcely felt now. The country was as beautiful as ever, and perhaps more beautiful, for every tree and field was at its ripest growth. Wheat had been harvested, and, in the north, sorghum corn stood high. This was the season for banditry, for the corn was so tall that robbers easily hid in it, and he was uneasy until they reached the canal. But good fortune was with them, for though they heard of highwaymen before them, none came near on the days when they passed.

The reason for this was that through some stupidity the robbers had not known that the governor of the province was traveling to the capital and they had taken him to be a common rich man. When his soldiers sprang at them they were so confounded that after a short battle they withdrew in dismay and hid in their caves and hills for a few days. It was held a crime to attack a governor or some high official, and the king of the bandits sent tribute quickly to the governor and cursed himself heartily for molesting so august a personage, and he promised that he would cut off the heads of those who had led the attack, and deliver them to the governor on any day he was ready to receive them. To this the governor replied that the men were to be spared. He set a punishment, nevertheless, that for a month there was to be no robbery whatever along the roads from the capital to the river. Within this month by luck David and his family went southward to the river and took a junk homeward. River pirates there were, but David bade the boatmen use the same flags that he had used before, which had on them the name of the Imperial Court, and under these they were safe.