Chapter 124 Ensnared in the Baron's Web
Ju rose very early the following morning and dressed quietly. After a
brief glance at her sleeping guest, she decided to allow her new friend to
continue to sleep while she woke and dressed her son. As was her custom, she
dropped the toddler off at the house of a drowsy-eyed Mrs. Wong before
continuing on, in the pre-dawn darkness, to her place of employment. She had
intentionally contrived to arrive at the embassy before the appointed hour, so
that she would have a few minutes to search for the green healing powder. She
had every expectation that it would prove as beneficial to her new friend as it
had been to Erika Weiss during the German woman's recovery from her own savage
beating.
As she expected, at that early hour the long corridor to the doctor's
second-floor office and laboratory was deserted. Ju walked down the hallway at
a brisk pace and after cautiously looking up and down the corridor to make sure
that she had not been observed, she stealthily turned the knob on Dr Kauffmann's
office door. She breathed a soft sigh of relief when it opened. The doctor, a
trusting man, had left it unlocked, as was his custom, in case any of the
employees or guests of the embassy needed minor medical attention.
Ju slipped into the room and closed the door behind her quietly, and then
made her way toward the cabinet on the far wall. She opened the cabinet door
wide and was confronted by the bewildering array of powders and potions that
provided raw material for the Doctor's researches into the comparative
properties of drugs invented by European science and those which had evolved out
of the Asian tradition.
Not being familiar with Kauffmann's system of classifying and arranging
the hundreds of items in his pharmacopeia, and not knowing the proper name of
the medicinal powder, Ju was obliged to sort through dozens of bottles. But
after some minutes her spirits leapt when she found the glass vial she was
looking for - the one containing the pain-soothing green powder that she had
sprinkled into Erika's bath on several occasions.
Ju opened it and sniffed at its contents to confirm her belief that it was
indeed the powder for which she had been searching, and then she slipped the
vial into the pocket of her apron. Then she retreated to the office door and
peered out. Seeing no one in the hallway, she quickly slid through the door,
closed it behind her and set about performing her maidenly duties.
How could she have known that one of the doorways in the corridor was
not quite closed, and that a pair of watchful eyes had seen her enter and exit
Dr Kauffmann's office ?
********
Ju's day was long and eventful. Early that morning Greta Stahl, the
tall, serious-looking Bavarian woman who supervised the housemaids and other
servants at the embassy, advised her that her assistance would be needed in
making the preparations for a large luncheon party for a group of German bankers
and businessmen. Ju spent the morning polishing silver, cleaning crystal, and
preparing scores of place settings. The guests began arriving at 11:30 and
then there were rounds of aperitifs and canapes to serve. The luncheon itself
lasted upwards of two hours, thanks to an endless series of toasts to the
Kaiser, to Bismarck, to the Army and to the heroes of the 1870 war against
France. Then followed a number of long-winded speeches declaring that the day
was not far off when German commerce would dominate the Far East.
The guests were all male, of course, and since she was the youngest and by
far the prettiest of the four women who served the guests, Ju was more than once
subjected to a masculine hand sliding discreetly under her skirt while she
reached over the table to refill a glass of wine. She had had to bite her lip
to refrain from emptying a bottle of Riesling over the head of a white-whiskered
textile trader from Weimar who had cleverly chosen a seat at the far end of a
table in a remote corner of the banquet room. The old coot pretended to
participate in the toasts with chauvinistic fervor, but only as an excuse to
empty his wine glass again and again. Once it was empty, he would catch Ju's eye
and she would be obliged to come round to refill his glass. Since all the eyes
in the room were focused on the parade of pompous speakers at the head table,
the desiccated Thuringian was at liberty to slide his gnarled hands under Ju's
skirt with impunity.
His face flushed from wine and arousal, the lecherous Weimaraner handled
the flesh of Ju's bare legs as he would fruit at a green-grocer's. Each time
she filled his glass, one of his arms stole around her legs to prevent her from
pulling away while his other hand slipped under her skirt to explore the
smoothness, firmness, and texture of her squirming thighs.
When at last the banquet came to an end, Ju and the rest of the domestic
staff were occupied for another hour or two cleaning up the banquet room. And
only then could she set about her normal routine of cleaning the offices and
suites in the building.
********
The sun had long since set when Ju finally completed her duties. She
was just about to leave for the day when Frau Stahl, the head of the household
staff, stopped her at the door and explained, politely but firmly, that the
vice-consul wanted his dinner brought to him in his office.
Ju hesitated. It had been her plan that this day would be her last at
the embassy. She had hoped that, using the money Erika had left her, she and
her child could begin a new life. She had intended to write Dr Kauffman later,
once she had gotten settled, explaining her situation and wishing him and Erika
luck in their future lives.
She had no wish to see the baron again, nor the office in which she had
earned the money to buy her husband's opium, at the cost of unspeakable pain and
humiliation. She did not need the baron's money now.
"Ju!" Stahl spoke again, this time more harshly. "I told you that the
vice-consul is waiting. The tray is ready in the kitchen. Take his dinner to
him before it gets cold. Quickly now!"
Sighing resignedly, the dark-haired maid reversed her path and retreated to
the kitchen, where she found a large rectangular tray, laden with several
tightly-covered serving dishes, and small beakers of chili paste, reddish
sweet-and-sour sauce, and hot Chinese mustard. Alongside the tray stood a
nicely-chilled bottle of champagne and a long-stemmed flute. Ju, moving
hurriedly, knowing that the baron was very particular about his food being
served hot, carefully arranged the bottle and glass in the center of the tray,
where they were less likely to tip over. Ju could almost sense the steam
trapped within the aromatic covered dishes as she slowly began her long walk to
the rear wing of the second floor -- and the office she had come to dread.
As she stepped onto the landing on the second floor, she was surprised to
find Stahl waiting for her impatiently, and even more surprised when the head of
staff accompanied her on the long walk down the south wing toward Baron
Gutmayer's elegant, but isolated, personal office. As the two women strode down
the long corridor side by side, Ju found herself becoming slightly unnerved by
the rhythmic, hollow tapping sound caused by the clicking of Stahl's heels on
the hardwood floor.... If Stahl were going to make this journey anyway, Ju
thought irritably, she might just as well have brought the cursed tray herself.
********
When they reached the familiar door at the end of the long hallway, Frau
Stahl turned the knob and the door opened inward into the office that Ju had
come to know so well. As she stood in the doorway, Ju glanced up at the
painting of Mephistopheles on the wall to her left. On her prior visits,
Mephisto's piercing eyes had seemed to follow her across the room, gloating with
guilty pride. As if it were his malevolent will which had conceived the
depravities which the baron had acted out within the four walls of his chamber
of carnal delights.
Not for the first time, a presentiment of danger caused Ju's body to tense
in fear the moment she stepped across the threshold of the baron's office.
She took a short step backward toward the door, but the impassive-visaged matron
grasped her firmly by the elbow and guided her toward the long table in front of
the divan.
Scolding herself for her childish fears - surely, given Stahl's presence,
this errand would prove routine -- Ju carefully set the tray down on the table,
equidistant between two round, flat-bottomed candle-holders whose short, squat
candles burned cheerfully as if they had been patiently awaiting her arrival.
She bowed politely to the baron, who was seated at the far end of the divan
wearing a gray, pin-striped suit and a sardonic smile. Then she turned toward
the door to leave.
"Not just yet, Ju," Stahl snapped in a brittle voice as she placed a hand
on one of her shoulders. "The baron wishes to have a word with you."
"Take your hands off of me," Ju protested, trying to pull free, but the
superior strength of the Bavarian matron caused Ju to lose her balance and she
fall backwards against the divan, her dark skirt riding well up her pretty legs.
"Ah, so here is our kleine Diebin, Frau Stahl!" The vice consul leaned
forward slightly from his comfortable position at the other end of the brocaded
divan, which was only a few steps to the right of his massive desk. As usual,
he was immaculately groomed, his starched white wing collar protruding stiffly
beneath his tailored suit, each blonde hair on his head looking as if it had
been combed into place with Euclidean precision. Ju's dark eyes strayed
nervously from the divan to the desk - two pieces of furniture that she had come
to know only too well during her past visits to the baron's private office.
"Our 'Diebin'? I don't understand, Herr Baron." Ju stammered
questioningly as she climbed to her feet, nervously smoothing her skirt back
into place, all too conscious of the fact that the vice-consul's steely-blue
eyes had brightened at the sight of her bare legs.
"Yes, our 'kleine Diebin', fraulein. Our little thief. Or would you
prefer culprit? Or criminal?" the baron muttered testily. He leaned forward to
lift the metal lid from one of the dishes on the tray, allowing a burst of steam
and aroma to billow upwards. "Ahh -- snow peas with garlic and ginger," he
murmured, "very nice."
" 'Our thief'? ... What ... what are you talking about?" Ju asked as she
felt the icy fingers of panic stretch around her neck.
"It would be better for you to confess your wrongdoing, Miss Hua," the
Prussian snapped as he replaced the lid, before you make things any worse for
yourself. Come now, girl," he snapped peevishly. "Do you still deny that
you're a thief?"
"I ... I don't understand," Ju responded in a rattled voice as she took a
step backward, glancing uneasily first at the confident-looking baron and then
at the inscrutable housekeeper. "Are you speaking of the money that you gave
me?"
The baron gave Stahl a look which suggested that she should dismiss Ju's
feeble defense out of hand. "I gave her some extra pocket change a few times,"
he explained, "when she said that she needed money for her child." Then he
turned back toward Ju. "No, this is not about the money that I was kind enough
to give you, fraulein."
Stahl looked on with a dour expression; she had few illusions about men,
and the circumstances under which they were likely to part with money. "Will
you be needing me any longer, Herr Baron?"
Baron Gutmayer regarded his capable head-housekeeper with interest.
Despite her attempts at equanimity, her breathing was irregular, her complexion
was flushed, and she could not seem to take her eyes off of Ju's sylph-like
figure.
Although her ash-blonde hair had begun to gray and she was unlikely to see
the near side of forty again, Greta Stahl was still a handsome woman and an
imposing presence, standing nearly as tall as the baron and towering over the
petite Ju. Gutmayer had been surprised to learn from her dossier, that, while
she presented herself as the widow of an officer who had died at the battle of
Sedan, she did not seem to be receiving the customary stipend accorded the
survivors of those who had fallen fighting for Germany, nor was there any record
that she had ever applied for such. He had watched his lecherous aide, Hans
Schumacher, attempt to soften the mysterious Stahl's icy exterior on more than
one occasion, but the capable matron had rebuffed him each time. Schumacher had
also mentioned that Stahl had offered to play a more active role in attending to
Erika Weiss. But the latter had declined, not wishing, she had said, to keep
Frau Stahl from her primary duty -- the management of the embassy's domestic
staff.
"Yes, Frau Stahl, I will need you to remain for just a moment longer," the
Baron said as he rose from the divan and clasped his hands together behind his
back. With his brow furled in concentration he began pacing back and forth in
front of Ju like a criminal prosecutor. When at last he spoke, the baron's
voice cut through the stillness of the room like a knife.
"Miss Hua!"
"Y-yes, sir?"
"Do you still insist on maintaining your innocence?"
"But Herr Baron ... you gave me that money. After we ... after you ..."
"Silence!!" The baron's face was flushed with anger. "I have already made
it clear that I was not referring to my ...charity. You are not to mention that
subject again," he added, casting a guilty eye at a composed- looking Frau
Stahl. "Miss Hua, it would be far better for you to admit your wrongdoing and
make restitution than to continue in this fashion."
"Herr Baron, I have taken nothing from you, nor from the embassy. Whenever
I find so much as a coin under the carpet or in the furniture, I give it to Frau
Stahl."
"You're a liar as well as a thief! Empty the contents of your apron on the
table!"
"But there is nothing in my .... " Ju patted the front of the apron
confidently and then she felt the blood slowly drain from her face. The powder!
She had completely forgotten about the vial she had pocketed so many hours
earlier.
"Do as I said!"
Silenced by the rage in the baron's voice, Ju guiltily set the vial of
medicinal powder on the edge of the low table. "Herr Baron, I can explain," she
stammered.
"You shall have time to ... explain ... later." Gutmayer turned stiffly
toward Frau Stahl and clicked his heels in a gesture of dismissal. "Vielen
dank, Frau Stahl, for coming forward - and for providing the evidence of this
young woman's thievery. That will be all. Lock the door behind you, please,
while I ... finish my dinner ... and decide whether Miss Hua is to remain in our
employ."
"As you wish, Herr Vice-Consul," Stahl replied dutifully. Ju noticed that
Stahl's naturally pale complexion was somewhat flushed. "But if you need any ...
assistance, Herr Baron, please do not hesitate to ring."
Struck by her odd tone of voice, Von Gutmayer cast her an inquiring glance,
but the tall, elegant woman had already turned for the door. When he heard the
lock click shut behind her, he waited, listening to the sound of her footsteps
echoing into the distance and then he turned back to Ju.
"In a way, Ju, your thievery does not displease me. Now I shall no longer
have to engage in the childish charade of paying you for your personal ...
attentions." The tall Prussian, no longer inhibited by the presence of Frau
Stahl, examined Ju's figure with meticulous care. Even her chaste housemaid's
attire could not conceal the pressure of her firm young breasts against the
white cambric of her blouse, the trimness of her waist, the slender elegance of
her thighs
"Herr Baron ..."
"Silence!" The baron's blue eyes were glowing with triumph. He picked up
the vial and held it up toward the chandelier as if gauging its potency. "Do
you have any idea of the value of this powder, Ju?"
"N-no, Herr Baron. But you don't underst ..."
"I understand perfectly well, fraulein," the baron snapped as he slammed
the vial down on the table. The fact that he had no idea of the value of the
powder either was quite irrelevant to his plan of action. "Fraulein, Doctor
Kauffmann mentioned to me before he left that a number of containers of drugs
had turned up missing in recent days."
"But it's not possible ... I never ..."
"And all of them contained narcotics ... opiates."
Ju felt the room beginning to spin crazily. "Herr Baron, I don't know what
you are ..."
"Since you have worked so closely with the good doctor ..." the baron
began,
'No!' thought Ju to herself, alarmed by the hint of mockery in the
vice-consul's voice when he referred to Dr. Kauffmann. For it was the mockery
of a jealous man. She had been a bit apprehensive when she had learned that it
was the baron himself who would escort Erika Weiss to the steamship which was to
take her home. But she had never really imagined that he would have plotted
against his own countrywoman. But suddenly she was not so sure ....
"... I had one of my men look into your background." The baron finished
his thought and glared icily at Ju. "Isn't it true, Ju, that your husband is an
opium addict?"
"N-no." Ju replied meekly, wilting under the baron's steely gaze.
"The truth, you lying whore!" Gutmayer raged, his face only inches from
hers. " You shall pay dearly for that lie, and any others you tell me!"
"Y-yes," Ju murmured almost inaudibly. "I-I think he takes opium
sometimes."
"Sometimes, fraulein?" the baron snorted contemptuously. "Sometimes?
Does he not spent every groschen of your wages at the Den of White Candles?
Doesn't he!" the baron thundered.
"Yes - yes!" Ju admitted miserably, as tears began to stream down her face.
"And now you have taken advantage of your familiarity with the doctor and
his work, to steal narcotics to satisfy your husband's wicked cravings?"
"No! No!! Please, Herr Baron .... There must be some mistake ..."
"There has been no mistake, fraulein," the stern Prussian said with a
sneer. Or rather there would be none. He would see to it that by the time Dr.
Kauffmann returned from his trip, his cupboard would indeed have been pillaged
of any trace of opiates. Things had fallen together very nicely indeed.
Hans von Gutmayer's cold blue eyes stared unfeelingly at the petite
housemaid and then he spat out a single word. "Ausziehen!"
"Herr Baron, I didn't ..."
"Ausziehen! Strip! Take off your clothes, you thieving slut! Or would you
prefer that I call the authorities? Who will look after your little brat then,
if they throw you into one of their prisons for a year or two? Do you know what
goes on in the women's prison in Shanghai, Miss Hua?"
"N-no..." And indeed Ju Hua had never heard of such a prison.
"Well, the time you have spent with me here will seem like a paradise,
compared to how you would be treated there! Ausziehen!!" he repeated for the
third time. The baron had no idea whether there were a woman's prison in
Shanghai, or if there were, the nature of the conditions there. But he was
confident that his bluff about the prison would be as terrifying to his
frightened housemaid as his fiction about the man with the hook had been to the
lush-breasted Erika Weiss. He had always found women, especially attractive
young women, as easy to manipulate as string puppets. And soon this slender
beauty would once again be dancing to his tune, just as all the others had.
Tears of helplessness streamed from Ju's soft brown eyes as she slipped her
tiny feet out of her worn shoes and undid the waistband of her skirt. She had
no choice. Tomorrow, or perhaps the next day, she could flee the city. But
for one more night she was in the baron's power....
