Эльвира Барякина - White Ghosts

He ran his hand over her breast, and Nina, hardly realizing what she was doing, slapped him across the face. “Don’t you dare!”

Daniel stepped away from her.

“What the hell—” he began but didn’t finish and got out from the archway into the rain. A moment later his car speeded past her.

Stunned, Nina watched it disappear. Did he dump me just like that?

4

It took a long time for her to find a rickshaw, and Nina reached home only when it was already dark. Her dress was soaking and her teeth were chattering from the cold.

Now what? she thought in panic. But it’s not my fault! Daniel should blame himself for what happened. Who told him he could paw me about as though I’m a hooker?

While Qin was preparing a hot bath for her, Nina paced in her bedroom. She prayed incoherently, then threw things on the carpet or twisted her fingers, deliberately trying to hurt herself.

What if Daniel spills the beans about her fake consulate? Oh no, he’s not that sneaky.

I should calm down and develop an action plan, Nina told herself. Nothing is yet lost. Tomorrow Daniel will call me, we’ll make peace and forget about this stupid incident.

“Your bath is ready, Missy,” said Qin as she appeared in the doorway.

Nina took her clothes off and descended into the lavender-scented water.

“Today I went to the temple on Babbling Well Road,” Qin said. “I lit red candles and burned joss sticks for Guan Yin goddess, so your labor will go easily.”

Startled, Nina stared at her. “What labor? What are you talking about?”

A smile spread across Qin’s round face. “Oh Missy, you don’t have to hide from me. Do you think I haven’t seen anyone pregnant before? You’ll have a baby on the Chinese New Year, so you too should go to the temple and asked Guan Yin to give you a son.”

5

Nina rushed into Tamara’s room, pale and untidy.

“What’s wrong?” Tamara gasped.

Nina collapsed on the low stool and pressed her knees to her chest as if something was burning her from inside.

“It’s all over,” she whispered, looking up at Tamara, her eyes full of tears. “Daniel left me. This morning I’ve got this—”

She handed Tamara his business card.

“I’m going to Guangdong province for a few months,” he had written on its back side. “Take care of yourself.”

“I don’t get it—” Tamara began.

“That’s not all,” Nina said in a shaky voice. “I’m… I’m pregnant.”

Tamara was silent for a while, trying to realize what had happened.

“I don’t want any children!” Nina sobbed. “Maybe you know a doctor who… well, who can—” Her thoughts were scattering. “I should have guessed long ago. Oh, I’ll poison myself!”

“There, there…” Tamara felt so sorry for her that she was about to cry too. “You’ll be fine. How far along are you?”

“Five months.”

Tamara scrutinized Nina’s belly. It had just slightly rounded. “Keep the baby,” she said firmly. “I have no other advice for you. Children are the best thing in the world. An abortion could result in infertility or some nasty complication.”

“But how will I explain the child to everyone?” Nina moaned.

“We’ll figure something out. Promise you won’t make any rash decisions.”

“All right,” Nina replied almost inaudibly.

6

In the evening, Tony brought Tamara an orchid in a glossy pot.

“It’s for you. Now kiss your victorious husband. I won in court, in polo, and on the stock exchange.”

His head had a special smell, but it was so delicate that Tamara could feel it only on her first breath.

“Nina visited today,” she said. “What do you think of her?”

“She’s lovely.” Tony raised his smiling eyes. “Let’s have a chess match after dinner? If you win I’ll be amazed. Today I’m feeling as lucky and shrewd as Odysseus.”

Love and tenderness, thought Tamara. After all, it was very flattering that he, the best of husbands, was totally uninterested in the most fascinating of women.

“Nina’s pregnant,” Tamara said.

“Really? Who’s the father?”

“Daniel Bernard, who else? And he immediately left for Guangdong province in order to bear no responsibility.”

The news was such a shock for Tony that he lost a game of chess after all.

1

At first Ada had been terrified that the Bernards would fire her, but it turned out that nobody gave her checkered past much thought. Her salary was so insignificant and she herself was so quiet and inconspicuous that it never occurred to Edna to check up on her background.

Mr. Bernard’s books had long been catalogued and placed in order on the shelves and cabinets, and now Ada’s job was to be on call as and when she was needed to find and bring a relevant book from the library.

Following Sam’s advice, Ada came up with an additional task for herself. She would go to bookshops, copying the names of new titles, and then report them back to the Bernards. Sometimes they would choose a book or two, but more often they would tell Ada to use her own initiative and order the books herself. Naturally, she would always choose romantic novels, which she would read and then retell to Sam.

He would listen to Ada with great interest and then share the latest household gossip with her.

“Did you know that Yun has opened a secret cookery school?”

Every day boys aged ten to fifteen would climb through a hole in the fence and come to the servants’ kitchen to study Yun’s culinary arts.

One time Sam and Ada hid behind the garage and spied on Yun’s students handing him small envelopes.

“Those are the fees for his lessons,” Sam explained to Ada. “He gets a dollar apiece. Twenty boys mean twenty dollars. I wonder why Yun needs so much money?”

Every now and then Ada and Sam would split the cost of a lottery ticket and dream about their winnings.

“What would you do with your share?” Ada asked.

“I’d buy myself a library and hire you to manage it,” Sam replied in a serious voice.

Ada laughed. “That’s never going to work because I’m going to America.”

They studied the globe, looking for San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York.

The only fly in the ointment was Edna’s father, Captain Hugh Wyer. Once a week, he would visit his daughter and proceed to terrify everyone in the house. Only Mr. Bernard was unafraid of the captain, but even he detested spending any time with the old man, and as soon as Wyer’s car appeared in the driveway, he would take to his horse and gallop away.

More than anything, Captain Wyer loved to “instill order.” He would go around the rooms, finding the tiniest faults and chastising the servants accordingly. Ada had been on the wrong end of a tongue lashing several times for a misplaced book or a creaking window frame in the library.

Sam called Wyer “the rotten fish.”

“He ruins everything he touches. If we win the lottery,” he told Ada, “I’ll hire thugs to kill him.”

2

That week, as usual, Captain Wyer appeared at the Bernard’s at eight o’clock sharp. The lobby trembled and thundered under his heavy hobnail boots; the mirror reflected his tall figure in its habitual khaki jacket. Boy Two bowed and took the captain’s cane and pith helmet.

“Breakfast! Now!” barked Wyer. “And tell your master and mistress I’m here and waiting for them.”

The kitchen was thrown into complete pandemonium as the frightened kitchen staff dropped dishes and rattled pans to meet the order in the allotted regulation time. Ten minutes later on the dot, Boy One served up deviled kidneys, sizzling fried sausages, bacon, mushrooms and eggs, grilled tomatoes, and triangles of perfectly brown toast, delivered on an immaculate silver service.

When Sam served the coffee, his hands shook so much that the lid of the coffee pot rattled.

“Are you drunk, or just a gibbering idiot?” exploded Wyer, giving Sam the evil eye. “Get out of my sight, you imbecile!”

Having pronounced sentence on Sam, the captain then summoned Ada for interrogation. “Where’s Mr. Bernard?”

“He went on an expedition to the province of Guangdong,” she said, avoiding the old man’s gaze. “He’s looking for a supplier of rare teas.”

“Has he gone completely mad? What kind of daft expedition is that?”

“I… I don’t know, sir.”

“The bounder,” Wyer muttered. “Alright, I’ll deal with him later. What’s the news here?”

Ada wished there was something she could say but she could not think of anything.

The captain hurled his napkin onto his plate in his impatience. “What a driveling little fool! Can’t you even string a sentence together?”

 Finally, Edna entered the dining room, much to Ada’s relief.

“Here she is!” cried the captain as he offered Edna his dry, yellowish hand.

She greeted her father and asked Sam to give her some coffee.

“Ms. Marshall, would you mind going to see if we have any letters today?” she asked.

When Ada came back with the mail, the other servants had already vacated the dining room. She hesitated at the door, not knowing whether she would be scolded for interrupting Captain Wyer, who seem to be talking about something important.

“These hussies are ruining good English families,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Last week, there was a petition doing the rounds of the Shanghai Club to have every single one of these Russian jezebels expelled out of China for their loose moral behavior.”