I did not give up, however. While exploring the village and its surrounding areas, I ended up meeting two sisters, Lady Rey and Lady Ay. Lady Rey is the most beautiful creature I ever beheld. She captured my heart immediately, though in my hubris I believed myself immune to her charms and behaved abominably, hidingfrom her like a cowardly child. (You see how naive a fool I have been?) Today I confessed my feelings and wait on tenterhooks for her reply.
I send you a few of my watercolours of the scenes I’ve described above which I hope you enjoy. Be sure and write as soon as you receive this. I will either be broken-hearted and in dire need of succour, or have a heart fit to bursting and desirous of sharing my felicity. I very much hope it is the latter.
Yours ever,
Romain
Please direct your answer to:
???
????
?? ??
??
(I have taken the liberty of including address slips for you to paste on your letter, which I await with pleasure)
I fold the letter, musing about connections. If not for my father’s long-ago good deed for Lady Longnu, they would not have become friends. If not for Lady Longnu’s insistence on my father visiting Likiang, he would not have met Crispin. If not for Crispin’s influence, my father would not have met my mother. All those circumstances led also to Big Wang adopting me, and me meeting Tony Lee, as well as Ah Lang, Gigi, and Lord Aengus. Without Lord Aengus I would not have met my vampire family and I would not have discovered my own history; knowing all of this is the result of happenstance makes me cherish it so much more.
I read the other letter; another slip of paper falls out. It is a rough sketch of a white fox which looks remarkably like Maomao – the annotation says the original was painted in full colour.
31 January 1835
My dear Crispin,
I received yesterday your letter of 15 December with great pleasure. Your adventures in hen-rearing had me laughing until I cried, though I entreat you to give my namesake a different name. Perhaps Crispin would do?
As for me, I shall not torment you further and finish my tale for which you have so patiently waited.
Me, too,I think to myself. I only had half a journal to go on! I can’t wait to share this with Mémère and Marianne.
When I finished writing your letter, I put it aside and tried to busy myself. I swept, then mopped, washed the windows, wiped the shutters. Folded my clothes, and even went so far as to do some weeding. The shadows lengthened until the sun kissed the horizon and still she did not come.
Honestly, I do not understand my father’s obsession with cleaning. Maybe it’s a French thing.
I was a wreck and fully convinced Lady Rey had forsaken me. When the last rays of sunlight spilled across my floors, she sauntered into my rooms, chin high, haughty as ever. She ran her hand over my recently replaced wooden shutters. Rather indifferently, she said, ‘I thought maybe a hunter had gotten you.’
In the woods here, hunters are common. Some are rough and violent, with little care of whom they injure. She is the type to hide a bruised heart with callous words. I knew I had hurt her deeply. So I said I was terribly sorry to have run away. The intensity of my emotions were new and unfamiliar. I reacted in fear of the unknown. But, I reassured her that I was no longer afraid.
‘Mmm,’ she said. As if I hadn’t turned my heart inside out for her to see. She bowed formally, eyes averted and said in the most formal, distant manner, ‘Stay your steps. Ten thousand years of good health.’
Can you believe it, Crispin, after rejecting me so coldly, she turned to leave?
Remembering your good advice that I should honestly and openly speak my heart’s desires and not pretend indifference, I closed the space between us and took her hand.
‘Wait, Lady Rey,’ I said. To my sorrow, she did not turn. However, she did not try to pull free. That small action allowed me to hope, for her disposition is honest and scrupulously frank. Had she absolutely, irrevocably decided against me, she would have cheerfully torn my arm off to free herself from my grip. ‘Please stay?’ I said.
Her response was true to her nature. ‘Why should I?’
I explained that I should like to bring my family here to meet her mother, who is a matriarch of a grand court.
By this time, she was beginning to have an inkling of my intentions so I laid it out plain. ‘I wish to court you and make you my wife.’ I shall never forget the way she looked in that moment – the setting sun haloed her in golden light, and the angle of it made her eyes shine silver.
As a gentleman, I shall not tell you what happened next, but suffice to say she accepted my proposal. I have not the words to describe my joy in these past two months. She is my life.
If you are at leisure to travel, I should be very glad to see you here and introduce you to my Lady Rey. I plan to sail back to France and fetch my family in April, so will be gone between April and July.
