Chapter 19: Mah Jong Night

The four girls were all together in their dormitory after a day’s efforts in the classroom. Collette and Daphne were quizzing each other on the day’s topics. Fara was lounging on her bed, scruffy in jeans and a tee shirt, reading a magazine and still feeling embarrassed about her mistake. Anna had been showering and now stood, wrapped in a towel, trying to dry her long hair in front of a mirror.

Liu Wei disturbed the group. “Madame Chao says we have special party tonight,” she announced. “Celebrate your first month here.” She didn’t look like she was looking forward to it.

Collette, Daphne and Anna were all enthused by the prospect. Even Fara thought it might take her mind off her stupid error.

“Yes. Madame Chao arrange good meal, then all go play Mah Jong.”

Although the meal sounded fine, neither Fara nor any of the others thought the game sounded like much fun. Fara, still upset by the slave escape and not wanting yet another reason to look stupid, tried to excuse herself saying she had no idea of how to play the game. Liu Wei brushed her protests aside and insisted that they should all put on their white qipaos and follow her. “Even you, Miss Careless,” Liu Wei added, looking at Fara

They left the Sunrise Tea Parlour. Although it was warm, Fara felt a little embarrassed to be wearing the thin silk dress out in the street. The short walk to the restaurant was all it took, though, to give her the very agreeable sensation of drawing the envious attention of other women and the cowed, covert glances of the few men that they passed.

The street was like many in London, segregated so that women would not have to share the same pavement with unaccompanied men. On Oxford Street or Regent Street, a woman could walk freely, knowing that the only men she would encounter would be under some woman’s control. Here, though, in Gerard Street, as so many in the capital, one side of the road was given over so that unaccompanied males could still move around. As she stepped confidently along the road, she suddenly understood some of what had been said about the Path of the Look. She caught sight of one man bowing his head as she swept past him, the slit silk of her dress swinging to expose her thighs and the tightly fitting fabric stretching across her belly and breasts. She smiled.

Tsai Linn saw her as she walked up to join the group. “See, Miss Fara, you have the power to control them without a word. Most impressive!” It made Fara feel a little better, even if she was still fretting over how she could have failed to fasten the padlock.

Dinner had been organised at Lee Ho Fook’s restaurant. One table had been set for the group: Liu Wei, Tsai Linn and Madame Chao sitting on a long couch and the four girls, next to one another, on chairs opposite. With all her guests seated, Madam Chao clapped her hands to get things under way and four uniformed waiters scuttled in obediently carrying dishes of food, bottles of rice wine and TsingTao beer.

The girls all enjoyed Chinese food and the sit-down restaurant meal was a pleasant contrast to the snatched lunches of sandwiches between training sessions that they had been used to since their training started. Tsai Linn explained some of the less familiar dishes and there was plenty for everyone to enjoy. Liu Wei, piling food on her plate enthusiastically, showed just how she had achieved her more than ample figure.

Liu Wei reached forward greedily for the bowl of pork balls. As she did so, she knocked her handbag from the couch, sending its contents spilling across the floor. Colette went to help. “Don’t worry!” Liu Wei lunged towards the small pile of things.

“No trouble,” said Colette as she retrieved a lipstick and powder compact that had fallen out. But then there was something else. “Hang on,” she said. “What’s this?”

She held up a small brass key with its orange plastic fob. On it was written “Cage #3”.

“Wasn’t this the cage that was found open? The one Fara is supposed to have left unlocked? What’s it doing here?”

“How would I know? Maybe she put in my bag to make it look as though I let slave out. Here, give it to me.”

Madam Chao sat quietly through the exchange and then spoke. “I don’t think so. The girls don’t have access to the keys. They are returned to the key cupboard when the males are let out in the morning. All Fara needed to do was fasten the padlock shut. Nobody has suggested she needed a key. I wonder why the key would be in your bag, Liu Wei, unless you had used it to open a cage.”

“One of the males, then. They are devious. Stole key, used it to escape, and then placed in bag to make me look foolish.”

“You would be foolish indeed to believe that. Slave escapes, then comes back to plant key? Not likely! Other slave steals key but only one slave escapes? Not likely. No. Please leave us. You and I will talk again in the morning but I do not wish to share my dinner with a foolish person.” Madame Chao folded her arms and looked directly at Liu Wei.