‘Yes.’

‘Sure?’

‘Yes, I am sure. Lots of blood. You need stitching.’

‘Get me to a hospital, Max.’

He did as he was told.

Lucy was allowed to go home the following morning. She had come off well, considering. She had some bad cuts to her face and two cracked ribs, and she had extensive bruising. She needed stitches to the cuts around her eyes and forehead.

‘I knew this would happen to you one day.’ Ka Lei’s voice was shrill. She was shaking uncontrollably. She couldn’t look at her sister without physically crumbling. ‘Please, Lucy, don’t go back there. Find some other job. We can manage, we’ll be all right.’

Georgina was equally as wide-eyed and dumbstruck as Ka Lei. Looking at Lucy’s battered face made her feel sick. Lucy didn’t answer; her lungs were bruised and it was painful to talk or breathe. She shuffled around the flat, resting every few steps, and, after pausing for a few minutes at the entrance to her bedroom, she moved inside and eased herself onto the bed.

She squinted at the bright blanket of sunlight that stabbed her eyes as it blasted through the windows. Ka Lei went round to pull down the blinds, before joining Georgina and Lucy on the bed. Max stood in the doorway – waiting for her to tell him she didn’t need him any more.

‘Why did they do it, Lucy? Do you have any idea? Did you recognise them?’ Georgina asked. Lucy didn’t answer. She closed her eyes and shook her head miserably.

Georgina turned to Ka Lei. ‘We should call the police.’

Lucy groaned and shook her head.

‘I know you don’t want to, Lucy, but we can’t just sit here and do nothing, can we?’

Georgina turned to Ka Lei for support but Ka Lei shook her head.

‘I don tink we call police, no goo, dey do nudding,’ she said.

Lucy started to cry. Silently, one tear at a time squeezed out and negotiated a difficult downward path between the swellings.

It was not just the memory of the beating and the rape that made her wince, made the blood pound in her face and the swellings tighten around the stitches. She wasn’t crying because of the pain. Lucy was thinking about the debt and the fact that she would have no chance of paying it back looking like she did.

64

It would be several weeks before Lucy would be able to return to work. While Georgina and Ka Lei were out earning the money to stay afloat, Lucy took on the role of housemaid. She stayed in the flat all day and drifted in and out of shock-induced lethargy that made her sleep for several hours in the day and stay awake all night. In between resting periods she shuffled about the flat, slowly and deliberately carrying out mundane tasks. She folded blankets, smoothed sheets. She arranged clothes into neat piles. She spent an hour on a task that would normally have taken her a few minutes.

Ka Lei and Georgina tiptoed around the flat. They tried to stay out of Lucy’s way. At night-time they lay wide-eyed in the darkness and whispered to one another. They looked towards the wall where they knew Lucy would be listening: Lucy – the bringer of evil, the spoiler of everything. As much as they sympathised with her, she had thrown them into a world they had never asked to enter. The happy home that they had created was ruined. Now they had to get out of the flat to find any privacy. Lucy was always there.

Their favourite bar was Bar Paris. It was a small bar in Causeway Bay.

Georgina sat beneath the peeling Parisian posters, picking at the wax that spilled from a wine-bottle candleholder, while Edith Piaf warbled from the speaker. The bar was empty except for a delivery man and the bar manager, who were deep in animated conversation, gossiping about other patrons on the delivery man’s rounds. It was still only five o’clock and too early to expect much custom. Ka Lei arrived flustered and anxious. Georgina had left her an urgent message about meeting.

‘Waz wrong?’ She dropped into the seat opposite. ‘Is it Lucy? Something new happen?’

Georgina calmed her. ‘No, it’s all right, Ka Lei, nothing new,’ she reassured her. ‘It’s only that I wanted to talk to you about what we are going to do.’

Ka Lei screwed up her face and nodded.

Georgina continued: ‘I’ve been thinking, I think we should talk to him. I’m going to tell Mr Chan that Lucy is sick and she needs more time …’

The bar manager and the deliveryman stopped their gossiping to listen. Georgina lowered her voice. ‘We have to think of a way to help Lucy. We must do everything we can.’

‘Yes, no juz Lucy ploblem now, is family ploblem. Tese very bat men, you unnerstan?’ Ka Lei tried to smile. ‘Maybe better you go back to England, more safe dere. Maybe better go home now, huh?’ She looked away as she spoke, dreading the answer.

‘No way! This is my home now. You are my family. Where else am I going to go, hey?’ Georgina smiled and squeezed Ka Lei’s hand. ‘You know I would never leave you.’

‘I am glat. Very glat. Ten we muz pay him.’

‘But how? None of us have that kind of money. How are we going to get it?’

After a few minutes Ka Lei broke the silence. ‘Maybe I star workin at te club, just till te money is finished.’

‘No, Ka Lei, you mustn’t. You would hate it. And what about your nursing?’

‘Tese men will kill Lucy, or me, maybe you. Everyting is different now.’

‘Is there no one who could help us?’

‘Tere is no one. We muz get money. Tat’s te way it is here in Hong Kong: nobody care – nobody help you – only money.’

They trudged their way home from the bar and talked it through endlessly. It took them nearly an hour, but by the end they had raised each other’s hopes slightly and steeled themselves for whatever lay ahead.

They stood outside their mansion block, pausing to gather their resolve and comfort one another. They hugged.

‘We will face it together, right … anything … Yes?’ said Georgina. Ka Lei nodded and smiled bravely. ‘Then I will talk to Mr Chan.’

65

The next day Lucy was the only one home when the call came.

‘Hello, Ka Mei. I was sorry to hear about your accident. I understand from your mamasan that you were hit by a car. You must be more careful next time. Meet me at the paper stand in Admiralty MTR station in fifteen minutes.’

Lucy found a large pair of sunglasses to hide her face, and set off immediately. It would take her a few minutes to reach the Wanchai MTR station, then about three minutes to walk to the platform. The next stop was Admiralty. She was there on time. He sent his chauffeur down to find her.

‘Poor Lucy.’ They sat in the back of his car while the chauffeur drove them around. Chan reached out to touch her face. ‘Still, you’re used to pain, aren’t you?’ He smiled smugly. ‘You won’t be able to work for a while, though, will you?’

She gave a small shake of the head.

‘Pity.’ He stared out of the window. ‘How is your sister?’ Lucy saw the corner of his mouth tug. ‘You know, Lucy, I have been thinking and I would like to see her again.’ Chan turned back to look at her and waited.

‘I don’t think so, Mr Chan.’

He leaned over to pat her leg. ‘Your mamasan tells me that yours is not a happy home at the moment.’

Lucy searched his face incredulously.

‘You see I know all about your life.’ He grinned. ‘I know that things have not been easy for you, Lucy. I know that you have been a very good sister to Ka Lei, like a mother. You have had to bring her up and you have done a good job – she is a lovely girl.’ He leaned closer. ‘This English cousin of yours, I hope she isn’t coming between you. That would be a terrible shame. Ka Lei needs you and I am sure you wouldn’t want to lose her.’ He paused to see what effect his rhetoric was having on Lucy. She wasn’t looking at him; she was staring at her lap. ‘Maybe I haven’t helped the situation. I have been a little hard on you.’ He sat back to observe her. ‘Never mind, maybe I can make it up to you. I have an offer for you, Lucy. Come on, a smile, things are not so bad, are they?’