A HAZARD OF HEARTS by Frances Burke Read Free Book Online Page A

amongst the rubble
of the Protestant Mission where she had taken refuge, listened to the sporadic
crackle of musketry and decided it sounded far enough away for her to creep out
down to the river. For that was the only way of escape – the highway to the sea
and a ship to take her in search of her brother. She would hide on the wharves,
scavenge for food, await her chance.
    She thought, with a mixture of compassion and
derision, of her missionary hosts, buried beneath their own fallen roof. How could
they have been so stupid as to believe the Tai Ping promises of brotherhood in
Jesus? This was an army of beggars, pirates, deserters, the country’s scourings
whose only aim was ravishment and plunder. The high visionary outlook of Hung
Hsiu-ch’uan, their leader, had degenerated into fanaticism, allowing the extreme
brutality that would forever discredit the movement.
    Pearl had tried to disillusion the people at the
mission, describing the sacking of her home and her mother’s murder. However,
these had been seen as isolated incidents carried out by disaffected troops. Everyone
knew the Triads were thugs, yet they formed only a part of Hung’s great army. Doubtless,
when Hung himself arrived the Church Missionary Society would make fruitful
contact, which would lead to the Christian Word being spread throughout China. With
their eyes fixed firmly on the Holy Grail of conversion, the missionaries ignored
the almost overwhelming obstacles to China’s Christianisation, putting their
trust in the Divine Will. And thus they had died in the fires set by invaders
too filled with blood-lust to differentiate between friend and foe.
    Pearl had arrived in Nanking a few days earlier,
having worked her passage on a fishing boat. She headed immediately for the
House of Five Lanterns, where western friends of her foster family lived and evangelised
discreetly on sufferance, regarded more as an entertainment than a source of
trouble. Here she did obtain news of the brother she had not seen since her
babyhood. Mrs. Edna Horbury, tall, angular, self-satisfied as a wading bird in
a fish-filled pond, had broken the news in a tediously roundabout way.
     ‘I’m sorry if you hoped to find Edgar here. When
your family... er... dissipated, as you know, Edgar sold himself as a labourer.
Later he was able to come to us but he was never... well, he was never a
success, you know. Too independent, by far.’
    ‘Edgar?’
    ‘We gave him a proper Christian name, you know,
one we could pronounce.’
    ‘His name is Li Po,’ Pearl said firmly,
irritated by the arrogance.
    ‘Yes, well, as I said, he was with us for a
year, then he ran away. It was most inconvenient, you know. We had to train
another boy in his duties and it’s difficult to find a family that will sell a
male child, as you know.’
    Pearl tightened her lips. ‘Li Po is not a boy,
he is a man. No wonder he ran away, if you treated him like a child.’ Her heart
had become a weight in her chest. Her brother, her last remaining relative, had
left before she could reach him.
    Edna Horbury bridled. ‘You are just a little
impertinent. I’m sure my husband and I did our best for the b... for Edgar. We
were quite hurt when he left us without a word, you know.’
    ‘Do you know where he went? Is he still in
Nanking?’
    ‘I really couldn’t say.’
    Pearl saw that she’d given offence, and hastened
to alter her tone. ‘Mrs Horbury, I apologise. I was too abrupt. My excuse is my
anxiety to find my brother. He is all I have left in the world.’
    ‘You have the Lord Jesus, my child, and are
therefore never alone.’
    ‘Of course.’ Pearl’s voice was smooth. ‘And if
my prayers are answered I will find my brother. Could you possibly be
instrumental in answering those prayers, Mrs Horbury? Could you?’
    Edna Horbury succumbed. ‘Well, do you know, I
just might be. Thomas, our gardener, was Edgar’s friend. They may have secretly
kept in touch.’
    When consulted, Thomas, a