The Painted Cage by Meira Chand Page A

the bar of the Singapore Club. There was this fellow Cooper-Hewitt there, on leave from Yokohama. Good kind of chap, full of tales of the place overtaking Shanghai as the Paris of the East. It seems they’veneed of a secretary there, at the Yokohama United Club. Cooper-Hewitt said I was the sort they wanted. He was on the club’s committee. He telegraphed my application himself. He thought I’d be accepted. And if not, according to him there’s no place like Yokohama for opportunity or fortune.’
    Reggie stood in new clothes of sophistication against the backdrop of the jungle. The verandah creaked beneath his agitation, a storm gathered in the sky. Amy stared at him. She had heard of Yokohama, a name so strange she closed her ears to it whenever it was mentioned. It was further than the end of the world, further still than China. She had an image of it clinging to the perimeter of the Earth, nearly falling off. She looked up at Reggie’s towering form in growing realization.
    â€˜Oh Reggie, it’s not possible. Please do let us go home. How can we go on to more strange lands and all their horrid deprivations?’ She gave a moan of sudden pain. The deadness in her cracked; she began to sob and could not stop. Reggie tried to cheer her up.
    â€˜Yokohama is nothing like Sungei Ujong. There are shops full of things from home, fashions from Paris and a social life like nowhere else. And of course, there is money. I can see it waiting in a pile for us, if we will only claim it. We’ll be rich, Amy. We can always go home. Is it not braver first to push forward?’ His voice was soft, his eyes feverish; there was no distracting him. He looked at Amy tenderly and put his arms about her. ‘At least we shall leave Sungei Ujong. No fate could be worse than remaining.’ And with this fact Amy had to agree, using it like a compass to navigate the future. Reggie stroked her hair.
    â€˜Poor little Kitten. I’ve put you through so much here. I promise I’ll make it up to you when we get to Yokohama.’ He took her chin in his hand and kissed her tearful face.
    â€˜You know I’ll do anything for you, go anywhere you want. Have I not already come so far?’ she cried, grateful for his love. ‘Perhaps Yokohama will not be so bad.’ She held him to her tightly.
    But there was already one more difference in their lives, she had not yet told Reggie. She had confided in the Resident’s wife, who said it must be so. Amy’s feelings were of terror and an excitement that spilt into disbelief. She did not know if she even wanted the child already within her.

3
Yokohama, 5 January 1897
    The Japan Weekly Mail summary of news:
    A considerable drop in the market price of commodities marks the close of the year 1896 in Japan.
    The Empress Dowager is indisposed.
    The Orient liner Orotawa has sunk at Tilbury whilst coaling.
    Cinderella, an original burlesque, drew a crowded house at the Public Hall and was excellently performed by local amateurs.
    Due to the smallpox and cholera epidemics Kobe and Yokohama have been declared infected ports.
FIRST DAY OF TRIAL
    ‘I call Dr Charles,’ Robert Russell announced.
    Dr Charles mounted the witness stand; he did not glance at Amy. A shaft of winter sun parted the dusty, brown curtains, to fall upon him. Hand upon the Bible, he repeated well-worn words, his voice boomed and his girth swelled with responsibility. For such a large man his features were small, lost in the fleshy hillocks of his face; his sideburns drooped like the cheek flaps of a bulldog. He was anxious to tell all he knew. His bulk faced the jury and so escaped any confrontation with Amy Redmore. She looked at him in distaste. He had counselled colds and eaten dinner at her table, but his manner always held disapproval; he had the complacency of porridge. It was Reggie he liked, Reggie who upheld the club and its gentlemanly rituals, whose lapses couldbe shrugged