Noble House Read online

“The front entrance seems to be on a slight tilt—it’s not quite straight—I was wondering why.”

  “You’re very observant. The answer is fung sui. When the building was put up four years ago, somehow or other we forgot to consult our house fung sui man. He’s like an astrologer, a man who specializes in heaven, earth, water currents and devils, that sort of thing, and makes sure you’re building on the Earth Dragon’s back and not on his head.”

  “What?”

  “Oh yes. You see every building in the whole of China’s on some part of the Earth Dragon. To be on his back’s perfect, but if you’re on his head it’s very bad, and terrible if you’re on his eyeball. Anyway, when we did get around to asking, our fung sui man said we were on the Dragon’s back—thank God, otherwise we’d’ve had to move—but that devils were getting in the door and this was what was causing all the trouble. He advised me to reposition the door, and so, under his direction we changed the angle and now the devils are all deflected.”

  She laughed. “Now tell me the real reason.”

  “Fung sui. We had very bad joss here—bad luck—rotten in fact until the door was changed.” His face hardened momentarily then the shadow passed. “The moment we changed the angle, everything became good again.”

  “You’re telling me you really believe that? Devils and dragons?”

  “I believe none of it. But you learn the hard way when you’re in China that it’s best to act a little Chinese. Never forget that though Hong Kong’s British it’s still China.”

  “Did you learn th—”

  The elevator stopped and opened on a paneled hallway and a desk and a neat, efficient Chinese receptionist. Her eyes priced Casey’s clothes and jewelry instantly.

  Cow, Casey thought, reading her loud and clear, and smiled back as sweetly.

  “Morning, tai-pan,” the receptionist said smoothly.

  “Mary, this is Miss K. C. Tcholok. Please show her into Mr. Struan’s office.”

  “Oh but—” Mary Li tried to cover her shock. “They’re, they’re waiting for a …” She picked up the phone but he stopped her. “Just show her in. Now. No need to announce her.” He turned back to Casey and smiled. “You’re launched. I’ll see you shortly.”

  “Yes, thanks. See you.”

  “Please follow me, Miss Tchuluck,” Mary Li said and started down the hall, her chong-sam tight and slit high on her thighs, long silk-stockinged legs and saucy walk. Casey watched her for a moment. It must be the cut that makes their walk so blatantly sexual, she thought, amused by such obviousness. She glanced at Dunross and raised an eyebrow.

  He grinned. “See you later, Miss Tcholok.”

  “Please call me Casey.”

  “Perhaps I’d prefer Kamalian Ciranoush.”

  She gaped at him. “How do you know my names? I doubt if even Linc remembers.”

  “Ah, it pays to have friends in high places, doesn’t it?” he said with a smile. “À bientôt.”

  “Oui, merci,” she replied automatically.

  He strode for the elevator opposite and pressed the button. The doors opened instantly and closed after him.

  Thoughtfully Casey walked after Mary Li who was waiting, ears still tuned for every nuance.

  Inside the elevator Dunross took out a key and inserted it into the lock and twisted it. Now the elevator was activated. It serviced the top two floors only. He pressed the lower button. Only three other persons had similar keys: Claudia Chen, his executive-secretary; his personal secretary, Sandra Yi; and his Number One Houseboy, Lim Chu.

  The twenty-first floor contained his private offices, and the Inner Court boardroom. The twenty-second, the penthouse, was the tai-pan’s personal suite. And he alone had the key to the last private elevator that connected the basement garage directly with the penthouse.

  “Ian,” his predecessor tai-pan, Alastair Struan, had said when he handed over the keys after Phillip Chen had left them, “your privacy’s the most valuable thing you have. That too Dirk Struan laid down in his legacy and how wise he was! Never forget, the private lifts aren’t for luxury or ostentation, any more than the tai-pan’s suite is. They’re there just to give you the measure of secrecy you’ll need, perhaps even a place to hide yourself. You’ll understand better after you’ve read the legacy and been through the tai-pan’s safe. Guard that safe with all you’ve got. You can’t be too careful, there’s lots of secrets there—too many I think sometimes—and some are not so pretty.”

  “I hope I won’t fail,” he had said politely, detesting his cousin, his excitement huge that at long last he had the prize he had worked so hard to achieve and gambled so much for.

  “You won’t. Not you,” the old man had said tautly. “You’ve been tested, and you’ve wanted the job ever since you could think. Eh?”

  “Yes,” Dunross had said. “I’ve tried to train for it. Yes. I’m only surprised you’ve given it to me.”

  “You’re being given the ultimate in Struan’s not because of your birthright—that only made you eligible for the Inner Court—but because I think you’re the best we’ve got to follow me, and you’ve been conniving and pushing and shoving for years. That’s the truth, isn’t it?”

  “Struan’s needs changing. Let’s have more truth: The Noble House is in a mess. It’s not all your fault, there was the war, then Korea, then Suez—you’ve had bad joss for several years. It’ll take years to make us safe. If Quillan Gornt—or any one of twenty enemies—knew half the truth, knew how far we’re overextended, we’d be drowned in our own useless paper within the week.”

  “Our paper’s good—it’s not useless! You’re exaggerating—as usual!”

  “It’s worth twenty cents on the dollar because we’ve insufficient capital, not enough cash flow and we’re absolutely in mortal danger.”

  “Rubbish!”

  “Is it?” Dunross’s voice had sharpened for the first time. “Rothwell-Gornt could swallow us in a month if they knew the value of our present accounts receivable, against our pressing liabilities.”

  The old man had just stared at him without answering. Then he said, “It’s a temporary condition. Seasonable and temporary.”

  “Rubbish! You know very well you’re giving me the job because I’m the only man who can clean up the mess you leave, you, my father, and your brother.”

  “Aye, I’m gambling you can. That’s true enough,” Alastair had flared at him. “Aye. You’ve surely got the right amount of Devil Struan in your blood to serve that master if you’ve a mind.”

  “Thank you. I admit I’ll let nothing stand in my way. And since this is a night for truth, I can tell you why you’ve always hated me, why my own father has also hated me.”

  “Can you now?”

  “Yes. It’s because I survived the war and your son didn’t and your nephew, Linbar, the last of your branch of the Struan’s, is a nice lad but useless. Yes, I survived but my poor brothers didn’t, and that’s still sending my father around the bend. It’s the truth, isn’t it?”

  “Yes,” Alastair Struan had said. “Aye, I’m afraid it is.”

  “I’m not afraid it is. I’m not afraid of anything. Granny Dunross saw to that.”

  “Heya, tai-pan,” Claudia Chen said brightly as the elevator door opened. She was a jolly, gray-haired Eurasian woman in her midsixties, and she sat behind a huge desk that dominated the twenty-first-floor foyer. She had served the Noble House for forty-two years and succeeding tai-pans, exclusively, for twenty-five of them. “Neh hoh mah?” How’re you?

  “Ho ho,” he replied absently. Good. Then in English, “Did Bartlett call?”

  “No.” She frowned. “He’s not expected until lunch. Do you want me to try to reach him?”

  “No, never mind. What about my call to Foster in Sydney?”

  “That’s not through either. Or your call to Mr. MacStruan in Edinburgh. Something’s troubling you?” she asked, having instantly sensed his mood.

  “What? Oh, no, nothing.” He threw off his te
nsion and walked past her desk into his office that overlooked the harbor and sat in an easy chair beside the phone. She closed the door and sat down nearby, her notepad ready.

  “I was just remembering my D Day,” he said. “The day I took over.”

  “Oh. Joss, tai-pan.”

  “Yes.”

  “Joss,” she repeated, “and a long time ago.”

  He laughed. “Long time? It’s forty lifetimes. It’s barely three years but the whole world’s changed and it’s going so fast. What’s the next couple of years going to be like?”

  “More of the same, tai-pan. I hear you met Miss Casey Tcholok at our front door.”

  “Eh, who told you that?” he asked sharply.

  “Great good God, tai-pan, I can’t reveal my sources. But I heard you stared at her and she stared at you. Heya?”

  “Nonsense! Who told you about her?”

  “Last night I called the hotel to see that everything was all right. The manager told me. Do you know that silly man was going to be ‘overbooked’? Huh, if they share a suite or a bed or don’t, never mind I told him. This is 1963 and the modern age with lots of liberations, and anyway it’s a fine suite with two entrances and separate rooms and most important they’re our guests.” She chortled. “I pulled a little rank … . Ayeeyah, power is a pretty toy.”

  “Did you tell young Linbar or the others, about K. C. being female?”

  “No. No one. I knew you knew. Barbara Chen told me Master John had already phoned you about Casey Tcholok. What’s she like?”

  “Beddable would be one word,” he said and grinned.

  “Yes—but what else?”

  Dunross thought a moment. “She’s very attractive, very well dressed—though subdued today, for our benefit I imagine. Very confident and very observant—she noticed the front door was out of whack and asked about it.” He picked up an ivory paper knife and toyed with it. “John didn’t like her at all. He said he’d bet she was one of those pathetic American women who’re like California fruit: great to look at, with plenty of body, but no taste whatsoever!”

  “Poor Master John, much as he likes America, he does prefer certain, er, aspects of Asia!”

  Dunross laughed. “How clever a negotiator she is we’ll soon find out.” He smiled. “I sent her in unannounced.”

  “I’ll wager 50 HK at least one of them knew in advance she was a she.”

  “Phillip Chen of course—but that old fox wouldn’t tell the others. A hundred says neither Linbar, Jacques or Andrew Gavallan knew.”

  “Done,” Claudia said happily. “You can pay me now, tai-pan. I checked very discreetly, this morning.”

  “Take it out of petty cash,” he told her sourly.

  “So sorry.” She held out her hand. “A bet is a bet, tai-pan.”

  Reluctantly he gave her the red one-hundred-dollar note.

  “Thank you. Now, a hundred says Casey Tcholok will walk all over Master Linbar, Master Jacques and Andrew Gavallan.”

  “What do you know?” he asked her suspiciously. “Eh?”

  “A hundred?”

  “All right.”

  “Excellent!” she said briskly, changing the subject. “What about the dinners for Mr. Bartlett? The golf match and the trip to Taipei? Of course, you can’t take a woman along on those. Shall I cancel them?”

  “No. I’ll talk to Bartlett—he’ll understand. I did invite her to Saturday’s races though, with him.”

  “Oh, that’s two too many. I’ll cancel the Pangs, they won’t mind. Do you want to sit them together at your table?”

  Dunross frowned. “She should be at my table, guest of honor, and sit him next to Penelope, guest of honor.”

  “Very well. I’ll call Mrs. Dunross and tell her. Oh and Barbara—Master John’s wife—wants to talk with you.” Claudia sighed and smoothed a crease in her neat dark blue chong-sam. “Master John didn’t come back last night—not that that’s anything out of the ordinary. But it’s 10:10 now and I can’t find him either. It seems he wasn’t at Morning Prayers.”

  “Yes, I know. Since he dealt with Bartlett last night I told him to skip them.” Morning Prayers was the jocular way that insiders in Struan’s referred to the daily obligatory 8:00 A.M. meeting with the tai-pan of all managing directors of all Struan’s subsidiaries. “No need for him to come today, there’s nothing for him to do until lunch.” Dunross pointed out of the window at the harbor. “He’s probably on his boat. It’s a great day for a sail.”

  “Her temperature’s very high, tai-pan, even for her.”

  “Her temperature’s always high, poor bugger! John’s on his boat—or at Mingli’s flat. Did you try her flat?”

  She sniffed. “Your father used to say a closed mouth catches no wee beasties. Even so, I suppose I can tell you now, Mingli’s been Number Two Girl Friend for almost two months. The new favorite calls herself Fragrant Flower, and she occupies one of his ‘private flats’ off Aberdeen Main Road.”

  “Ah, conveniently near his mooring!”

  “Oh very yes. She’s a flower all right, a Fallen Flower from the Good Luck Dragon Dance Hall in Wanchai. But she doesn’t know where Master John is either. He didn’t visit either of them though he had a date with Miss Fallen Flower, so she says, at midnight.”

  “How did you find out all this?” he asked, filled with admiration.

  “Power, tai-pan—and a network of relations built up over five generations. How else do we survive, heya?” She chuckled. “Of course if you want a little real scandal, John Chen doesn’t know she wasn’t the virgin she and the broker claimed she was when he first pillowed her.”

  “Eh?”

  “No. He paid the broker …” One of the phones rang and she picked it up and said “Please hold one moment,” clicked on the hold button and continued happily in the same breath, “… 500 cash, U.S. dollars, but all her tears and all the, er, evidence, was a pretend. Poor fellow, but it serves him right, eh, tai-pan? What should a man like him at his age want virginity to nourish the yang for—he’s only forty-two, heya?” She pressed the on connection. “Tai-pan’s office, good morning,” she said attentively.

  He watched her. He was amused and bemused, astounded as always at her sources of information, pithy and otherwise, and her delight in knowing secrets. And passing them on. But only to clan members and special insiders.

  “Just one moment please.” She clicked the hold button. “Super intendent Armstrong would like to see you. He’s downstairs with Superintendent Kwok. He’s sorry to come without an appointment but could you spare them a moment?”

  “Ah, the guns. Our police’re getting more efficient every day,” he said with a grim smile. “I didn’t expect them till after lunch.”

  At seven this morning he had had a detailed report from Phillip Chen who had been called by one of the police sergeants who made the raid and was a relation of the Chens.

  “You’d better put all our private sources on finding out the who and the why, Phillip,” he had said, very concerned.

  “I already have. It’s too much of a coincidence that guns should be on Bartlett’s plane.”

  “It could be highly embarrassing if we’re found to be connected with it in any way.”

  “Yes.”

  He saw Claudia waiting patiently. “Ask Armstrong to give me ten minutes. Bring them up then.”

  She dealt with that, then said, “If Superintendent Kwok’s been brought in so soon, it must be more serious than we thought, heya, tai-pan?”

  “Special Branch or Special Intelligence has to be involved at once. I’ll bet the FBI and CIA have already been contacted. Brian Kwok’s logical because he’s an old mate of Armstrong’s—and one of the best they’ve got.”

  “Yes,” Claudia agreed proudly. “Eeeee what a lovely husband he’d make for someone.”

  “Provided she’s a Chen—all that extra power, heya?” It was common knowledge that Brian Kwok was being groomed to be the first Chinese assistant commissioner.


  “Of course such power has to be kept in the family.” The phone rang. She answered it. “Yes, I’ll tell him, thank you.” She replaced the phone huffily. “The governor’s equerry—he called to remind you about cocktails at 6:00 P.M.—huh, as if I’d forget!”

  Dunross picked up one of the phones and dialed.

  “Weyyyy?” came the coarse voice of the amah, the Chinese servant. Hello?

  “Chen tai-tai,” he said into the phone, his Cantonese perfect. “Mrs. Chen please, this is Mr. Dunross.”

  He waited. “Ah, Barbara, good morning.”

  “Oh hello, Ian. Have you heard from John yet? Sorry to bother you,” she said.

  “No bother. No, not yet. But the moment I do I’ll get him to call you. He might have gone down to the track early to watch Golden Lady work out. Have you tried the Turf Club?”

  “Yes, but they don’t remember him breakfasting there, and the workout’s between 5:00 and 6:00. Damn him! He’s so inconsiderate. Ayeeyah, men!”

  “He’s probably out on his boat. He’s got nothing here until lunch and it’s a great day for a sail. You know how he is—have you checked the mooring?”

  “I can’t, Ian, not without going there, there’s no phone. I have a hairdressing appointment which I simply can’t break—all Hong Kong will be at your party tonight—I simply can’t go rushing off to Aberdeen.”

  “Send one of your chauffeurs,” Dunross said dryly.

  “Tang’s off today and I need Wu-chat to drive me around, Ian. I simply can’t send him over to Aberdeen—that could take an hour and I’ve a mah-jong game from two till four.”

  “I’ll get John to call you. It’ll be around lunch.”

  “I won’t be back till five at the earliest. When I catch up with him he’s going to get what for never mind. Oh well, thanks, sorry to bother you. ’Bye.”

  “’Bye.” Dunross put the phone down and sighed. “I feel like a bloody nursemaid.”

  “Talk to John’s father, tai-pan,” Claudia Chen said.

  “I have. Once. And that’s enough. It’s not all John’s fault. That lady’s enough to drive anyone bonkers.” He grinned. “But I agree her temperature’s gone to the moon—this time it’s going to cost John an emerald ring or at least a mink coat.”