"Yesterday I asked Hoag point-blank."

"Good God, just like that? I'd never have had the balls, old boy." Pallidar leaned closer, his mount a dragoon gelding grey, and a hand bigger than Gornt's pony. "What did he say?"

"He says he doesn't know any more than we do. You know what he's like so I believe him."

Gornt hid his impatience, missing her company.

They had agreed to keep up the pretense of avoiding each other until she was sure if she wasn't, nothing could begin until then--or until the second month. "The 11th or 12th are right though he did say she could be late but not much later to... start. If she doesn't, she's bearing."

"Christ! Makes you think, what? Tough for her if she is, poor lady, more than tough when you think of Hong Kong Tess and the problems. And tougher if she isn't, if you believe the rumors --don't know which is tougher." Bugles began sounding on the bluff above the racecourse where the soldier's tented encampment lay--a thousand soldiers there. "Bloody hell," Pallidar muttered.

"What?"

"It's a "Return to base." The General's probably just got a hangover and wants to snarl at everyone."

"You going with Sir William tomorrow?"

"The Kanagawa-Yoshi conference? Suppose so. Generally I'm the dogsbody. I'd better go. Dinner in the Mess?"

"Thanks, I'd like that." Gornt watched Pallidar pirouette his horse impeccably to gallop off and mingle with other army officers streaming away. He noticed Hoag coming up from the Settlement to join the circuit. The Doctor rode well, easy in the saddle for such a heavy man. Deciding to intercept him he heeled his pony--a brown stallion, the best in the Brock stable--into a canter, then changed his mind. He had ridden enough for today. They would hear soon enough, Hoag would never be able to keep that news to himself once it was fact.

Before leaving the track he waved to Angelique and called out, "'morning, Ma'am, you're a joy to see on a chill day."

She looked up, pulled from her own private world. "Oh. Thank you, Mr. Gornt."

He saw her melancholy, but she smiled at him. Reassured he trotted on, content, no need to rush her. First is she or isn't she?

Either way is fine with me.

Angelique had been pleased to see him, enjoying his open admiration and elegance and masculinity. The strain of the waiting, remaining alone, holding to her regime of mourning, bottling up secrets, was beginning to tell--her early morning ride, occasional promenades, reading as many new books as she could find, talking to Vargas about silk and silkworms, trying to work up an enthusiasm, were the only luxuries she allowed herself. Then she saw Hoag.

Hoag! If she continued her canter she would catch up with him. A trot would avoid him, and even easier to turn and go home. "Good morning, Monsieur le docteur, how are you?"

"Oh hello, you're looking well."

"I'm not," she said, "I'm piqued. But thank you anyway." A slight hesitation and she added casually, "a woman never feels well during that time of the month."

Startled he jerked his reins and his mare bridled, neighed and shook her head, frightening Angelique's mount. In moments both were in tight control again. "Sorry," he said gruffly, "I'd... I'd expected the opposite." The suddenness and her nonchalance was so unsettling that he almost said, Are you sure? Must be getting old, he thought, irritated with himself for not seeing the obvious--obvious now that he looked at her.

"Well, at least you know."

"I'm terribly disappointed, for Malcolm's sake, but somehow it doesn't seem to, to skewer me anymore. Of course I cried my heart out but now..." Her guilelessness made him want to reach out and comfort her.

"With all the rest, that's understandable, Angelique. Better that way. I told you before, so long as you can cry, none of it will damage you. May I ask when you started?"

There were more bugles from the bluff. "What's going on? I saw Settry and other officers rush off."

"The bugles are just recalling officers, routine, nothing to worry about." Hoag looked around to make sure no one was near. "Thanks for telling me," he laughed nervously, "if a little abruptly. Can we talk as we ride?"

"Certainly," she said, knowing full well why she had told him. It was seeing Gornt today and Hoag convenient. And because she wanted the fight to begin. "It began Sunday."

"I don't know whether to say, you're lucky or unlucky."

"It's neither," she said. "It was the will of God, I accept that. I'm sorry for Malcolm, not for me. For me, it's the will of God. What do you do now, inform her?"

"Yes, but first I have to give you a letter."

It was her turn to be startled. "You had a letter all this time but didn't give it to me?"

"She asked me to give it to you if you were not bearing Malcolm's child."

"Oh." She thought about that, feeling slightly sick. "And if I was what then?"

"That's a hypothetical question now, isn't it?" he said gently, her sudden pallor worrisome.

This young lady's not out of the woods yet, not by a long shot.

"I want to know."

"I was asked to give you this letter if your period began, Angelique. Would you like to go back now?

I'll bring it to your suite."

"Thank you but I'll... I'll wait while you collect it, I'll wait outside Struan's." She spurred ahead, finished this circuit, oblivious of the others--every one of them watching her. On a whim she wheeled to take the path for a short gallop to clear her head of fear.

Spurs and knees and hands and the pony was smoothly flat out.

Ahead were two church spires and the perimeter fence, the Yoshiwara nestling outside but inside its own walls, the bridge and guard house. For a moment her mind took her back in time and it was as if she was galloping towards them panic-stricken, the bloody Tokaido behind her, hat gone, clothes torn, frightened nearly to death. The vision evaporated as she reined in--how long ago that all seemed. A different kind of fear remained.

She had cast the die.

Tess's letter read: I'm sure you will agree there is no need for pleasantries that are meaningless between us.

I'm glad that you are not bearing my son's child. That makes the future simpler and less messy. I do not accept or acknowledge the "marriage" or that you have any legal claims whatsoever against him--to the contrary.

By the time you read this the Noble House will have begun a new era, or be teetering on bankruptcy. If the first, it will be due in part to your sending me that person.

Because of that, as a finder's fee, I will pay capital into the Bank of England, in trust, necessary to provide you with an income of two thousand guineas a year--if, in turn, you provide me within thirty days from today's date (when your period has been established), with an affidavit on the following conditions: First, that you repudiate and relinquish forever any and all claims you or any representatives might dream up against my son's nonexistent estate--you realize that as a minor and never accredited legally as tai-pan, he had no estate to leave.

Second, that you agree to relinquish all claims to, and agree no longer to use the "Mrs. Malcolm Struan" title or any version of it. (for face, yrs, I suggest you have regretfully decided to do this because, being Catholic, you accept you were not legally married according to your faith and your Church, not that I accept the ceremony was valid in any way.) Third, that you will not set foot in Hong Kong again, other than to transship, nor seek to meet me, write to me or have any contact with me or my line in the future.

Fourth, that your affidavit formally notarized by Sir William Aylesbury, H.m.'s Minister for Japan, be delivered to me here in Hong Kong, via Dr. Hoag as surety, by February 14th, a little over thirty days approximately from today (the date your period has been established).