The Master Of Rain

“Do you know how these women died?” Field asked, taking a step toward her. “He stabbed them so many times, bits of skin were left strung across craters in their bodies the size of a bloody fist.”

Penelope bowed her head.

“No one can give you absolution for that.”

Field sat back down. He watched her shaking with her grief, but made no move to comfort her.

When Penelope looked up, her eyes were dark hollows, her face streaked with makeup. “I used to tell him he was the bravest man I’d ever met,” she said. “But when he looked in the mirror, that wasn’t what he saw.”

“Everything changed at Delville Wood,” Field said.

She nodded.

“And he took his anger out first on you, then on the Russian girls.”

“He blamed me because I could not arouse him. At first it didn’t seem to matter.” She smiled sadly at him. “I thought love would provide the answer.” She started to cry. “I thought it would be temporary. The impotence and the anger.” She looked up. “His temper was so terrible, Richard. He would become furious with himself, with me. And then with the world.”

“We know about Irina, Natalya, Lena. Were there others?”

“When we came to Shanghai . . .” She sighed. “Oh, six years ago, it was to be a new start. For a time, I thought it had worked. At least he stopped hurting me. He didn’t touch me anymore.”

“But you knew he was hurting others?”

She looked down again. “I couldn’t face going back, Richard. Please understand. I couldn’t bear to go back.”

“You knew he’d killed Lena.”

A sad smile played at the corner of her lips. “Everything changed when you came, Richard.”

“What do you mean?”

She sighed again. “Everything suddenly seemed so obvious. I—I don’t know why I hadn’t seen it before, but sitting opposite you on that first night, talking about that poor girl. I knew. I knew it must have been him. And, of course, I realized I had known since the beginning.” She smiled again. “And he was always so on edge around you. He hated having you here.”

“Why?”

She looked at him, amazed. “You really don’t know?”

Field shook his head.

“You reminded him of who he was, Richard. You’re the man he was and the man he could have been.”

Field stared at her. “What are you talking about?”

Her expression grew more serious. “When the demons faded, you know, he could still be so kind and decent. He was the man you saw, the man you liked and admired. Once, he was like that all the time. He hated what he had become, hated the fact that he could not control himself. And he looked at you and saw the man he used to be and he hated you for it. For all that you have been through, you have kept your honesty. And he couldn’t forgive you for that.”

Field put his head in his hands.

Penelope leaned forward. “You need shelter. I can give you that. You will need money, and I can give you that, too.”

“I don’t want your money.”

“It’s not my money, Richard.”

“They will turn the city upside down looking for me.”

“They will never think to look for you here.”

Field stared at the wall at the far end of the garden. He could hear a brass band on the Bund, practicing for tomorrow’s Empire Day celebrations. He stood, walked to the end of the veranda, and looked out across the lawn. A servant was watering flowers. “Geoffrey was involved in a syndicate to smuggle vast quantities of opium into Europe. Did you know about that?”

“I knew he was getting the money from somewhere. He thought that I didn’t know where he kept the key to his safe.”

Field moved back toward her. “The opium was being shipped through one of Charles Lewis’s factories, but Lewis’s name doesn’t appear on the list of payoffs that I have.”

“Geoffrey always wanted to be rich like Charlie.”

“The absence of Lewis’s name on the list doesn’t necessarily mean he wasn’t involved.”

“Charlie has more money than anyone could ever need.” She shook her head. “Anyway, he doesn’t think like that.”

“How does he think?”

She looked at him, her gaze level. “He’s more like you than you might imagine.” She raised her hand. “Oh, I know you wouldn’t accept that, and in an everyday sense you’re right. He’s unorthodox, even a little cruel at times. But he’s honorable in his own way. Consistent, anyway.”

“He’s close to Lu.”