White Tiger

‘Don’t worry, as long as one of us is with you, you’ll be perfectly safe.’

‘Tell me, Leo.’

‘Right now, just settle in, get the feel for the job. I’ll tell you more later.’

‘Promise?’

He smiled. ‘Promise. Mr Chen teaches her Wu shu as well – he’ll tell you when they have a session. Drop her off in the training room, come back half an hour later…easy.’

‘What’s Wu shu?’

‘Martial arts. Kung fu. Ask her to show you; she’s really cute.’

‘It’s normal for children to learn off their parents, isn’t it?’

‘If there’s a family tradition, then it’s absolutely expected. He teaches me too.’

‘Mr Chen learnt from his father?’

‘What an interesting idea,’ he said. ‘But I don’t think so.’

‘Leo?’ I tapped on his bedroom door.

‘Come on in, Emma.’

Leo sat at his desk reading a website on his computer.

I raised the pile of books. ‘Someone left these on the desk in my room.’

‘Oh.’ He spun in his chair to face me. ‘The last nanny must have left them there. You can have them if you want.’

‘This one looks valuable,’ I said, indicating the large illustrated compendium of Chinese gods.

He shrugged. ‘Keep ’em.’

I shrugged as well. ‘Okay. I’m interested in Chinese mythology, anyway. I go with my friend April when she has festival stuff to do, it’s really interesting.’

That caught his attention. ‘You’re interested in the Chinese gods?’

‘Yeah.’ I raised the books again. ‘This is a good collection. I borrowed some of these from the library before.’

He turned back to his computer. ‘Definitely keep them then. They’ll be useful.’

‘How come all the furniture’s new? Even though there was someone there before?’

‘Just is,’ Leo said.

I shrugged again. ‘Whatever.’

When I returned to my room I put the books on the desk and did an internet search on John Chen. It was a very common name and produced more than a million hits. When I narrowed it with his address, ‘One Black Road, Peak’, I found a news story in the English newspaper, a translation of an article in one of the Chinese tabloids. Apparently Mr Chen’s building was widely considered to be haunted because many people had seen dragons flying around the top floor. The reporter had asked the opinion of a number of local experts in the supernatural. Three said it was because the building was cursed; two said it was because the building had exceptionally good luck; and one said it was the spirit of a dragon that had died when the building was constructed.

I shrugged, and opened the large compendium of Chinese gods. It was a good one; the introduction explained how Chinese mythology was a mishmash of Confucian precepts, Taoist alchemy and Buddhist philosophy. All three religions existed side by side in Chinese society (although Confucianism was widely regarded as a set of social rules rather than a true religion). Confucianism had sets of gods that were rather like saints: deified humans. Buddhism taught reincarnation and karma, and the eternal search for freedom of the soul and attainment of Nirvana; but there were also Buddhist gods who returned to Earth to help people attain Nirvana themselves.

I found Taoism the most interesting. Taoism’s basic principle was similar to Buddhism, in the search for the Tao, or the Way, and attainment of Immortality, something similar to Nirvana. But Taoism also taught a variety of ways to gain Immortality, including physical and elemental alchemy and magic.

I put the book down and returned to unpacking the last of my stuff from the boxes. I didn’t really have much to show for my four years in Hong Kong; I’d never had space to store very much in any of the places I’d lived. But it looked as though my life had taken a turn for the better: a tremendously attractive employer and his daughter, who was a delight to be with.

CHAPTER THREE (#ud15e178b-55da-58d7-83d3-070620fa7604)

Later in the afternoon the door slammed and Simone yelled, ‘Is Emma here?’

I went out to find them taking their shoes off at the front door, Simone and Mr Chen together. He hadn’t taken his sword, he’d left it on its hooks near the front door. Simone carefully put her little shoes in the shoe cupboard, then did the same for her father. He watched her with delight, then smiled at me. He looked right into my eyes, and for a split second those gorgeous dark eyes hypnotised me; then Simone charged to tackle me, nearly knocking me over.

‘Hello, Emma!’ she yelled. ‘Are you here all the time now?’

I bent and picked her up, warm with pleasure at the thought of being full-time with her. ‘Yes, sweetheart, I’m all yours.’

She threw her little arms around my neck and kissed me on the cheek. Then she rested her forehead against mine and looked seriously into my eyes. ‘Good.’

She wriggled out of my arms and took my hand. ‘Have you seen everything?’

‘Yes I have, Simone. Leo showed me around.’

She screwed up her face. ‘I’m hungry.’

‘Dinner will be soon, Simone, don’t ruin your appetite,’ Mr Chen said from the doorway where he was watching us with amusement. ‘Did Leo tell you about meals, Miss Donahoe?’

‘No, sir.’

‘When I am home at dinner time, we’ll have a family dinner together – me and Simone, you and Leo. We can discuss what we’ve done during the day. Is that acceptable?’

‘Sure,’ I said. ‘Will I be able to go out occasionally? I’m supposed to be having dinner with some friends this evening. I usually go out on Saturday night.’

‘Of course. We don’t want to impinge too much on your private life. If you want to have dinner with someone outside, of course, go.’

Louise didn’t bring a guy along for me for a change. She seemed to know every unattached male in Hong Kong and constantly set me up. Sometimes it worked and I would spend a few months in a pleasant casual relationship; sometimes it didn’t and I was left to my own devices. Either way suited me just fine. I couldn’t keep a relationship in Hong Kong for long anyway; people were always coming and going.

We all drank far too much and stayed well past our welcome in the Thai restaurant in Wan Chai, but we continued to order food so the staff tolerated us.

‘You should go and see Miss Kwok,’ April said. ‘You should have talked to me if you were unhappy there. She’s very upset that you left.’

‘Of course she’s upset.’ I sipped my beer. ‘She’ll lose half the kids without me working there.’

Louise’s blue eyes sparkled. ‘Don’t go back to working for that bitch, Emma. You can do better.’

April was offended. ‘Don’t be mean. Miss Kwok is a nice person. She’s very rich; you should respect her.’

‘You’re just saying that because your fiancé’s related to her,’ Louise said. ‘She doesn’t even pay you to fix the computers at the kindergarten.’