Stanley - 4

[grubby41]

[COLOR=white]Stanley?s Cup ? 4[/COLOR]

[COLOR=white]Young Harry Parkes braced himself against the floor-boards of the rickshaw as it rattled and clattered its way along the uneven pavement. It was always remarkable to him the strength and speed of the runners, with their hard and sinewy bodies which looked so small and even delicate, and yet were hard and tough. How it was that they could run all day and live simply on rice, broth, kai-lan and bok-choy was forever astonishing to him.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=white]This runner, however, was different. Harry could see beneath the loose chemise a wide, powerful back and broad thick shoulders, and extending out from the loose cotton trousers were wide, low calf muscles, covered with an astonishing network of veins, that writhed and contorted with each well-placed footfall. Suddenly, Harry realised that he was gawking, and looked away. He placed his right hand on his now sweat-soaked panama to prevent it from falling off his head, and fanned himself with his left. As they sped along the street named after his father, the erstwhile Ambassador to the Imperial Chinese court, Harry watched the daily life of the old fishing port, which had gone on unchanged for hundreds of years, pass him by without taking any notice of him. The loud, high, strident Cantonese voices, where even the most tender of feelings are expressed in harsh tones, fell upon his ear with familiarity, if not with complete comprehension. Harry had been raised in Peking and then, just before they had left again for England, in Shanghai. There, he had learned Mandarin, and still could speak it fairly fluently. The Cantonese dialect spoken in Kowloon, however, was for him almost unintelligible; but still, knowing the Chinese temperament, and the Chinese manner, he could guess at much, and with accuracy.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=white]Harry was meeting an old friend of his from school, Arthur Stanley, who was his cousin and, though five years his junior, was his best friend and closest confidant. There was something about Arthur that drew people to him. He was athletic, physically powerful, self-confident, outgoing, and outwardly happy, and very kind. Harry knew that he was in love with his cousin, but that kind of love could never be talked of, and certainly never named. But Harry knew it, and maybe so did Arthur. In fact, it might even have been reciprocated in some manner. And here, once again in China, where so much that was forbidden was always allowed for those with money and the right connections, Harry was fearful that he might be treading on dangerous ground.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=white]The runner began to slow down, and drew the rickshaw up to a circular green door set into a wall of plaster-covered brick. Harry alighted from the rickshaw and, looking away from the runner, placed four shillings in his huge hand. The runner said, ?thank-you?. Harry looked up in surprise, but the runner had already backed up the vehicle, and was making to leave. Harry asked quickly, ?did you say ?thank-you??? Briefly, the runner lifted up his head, the wideness of his neck with its heavy jugular veins standing out prominently below a refined and handsome face, and simply smiled at Harry. He lowered his head again, and moved off down the cobblestoned avenue. Harry did not know what had disturbed him more, the overwhelming feeling of desire for this man, or the shock at having a rickshaw runner address him in the Queen?s English.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=white]Harry then realised that he was quite alone. Quite alone in a strange street in an section of Kowloon completely unknown to him. He had asked to be taken to the home of the Imperial Agent in Hong Kong, Cheng Fan-Min. Harry had expected a guard of some sort, or else some sort of attendant; but instead, he had only the rickshaw runner to see him there, and now he stood before the round door alone in the midst of a long and deserted street. [/COLOR]

[COLOR=white]?Well?, thought Harry, ?there?s nothing for it but to make my presence known?. There was no bell in evidence, and so he struck against the painted wooden door three times with the flat of his palm.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=white]After a few moments, having received no answer, he struck at the door again. This time, the door moved. Rather than swing upon its hinges, it moved backwards two feet. Around the edges of the door appeared a circle of black space. The two halves of the door parted, and each slid separately into the darkness of the hollow wall along a metal track. Behind the open door was a red wall which began to move upwards, revealing a wrought-iron grille. And behind the grille stood a very tall, very muscular man, shaven-headed except for a long queue. The sleeves of his tunic had been cut away, and Harry had never before seen arms so big, so thickly-muscled, and so powerful. Harry?s mouth went dry, his hands went cold, and he felt both profoundly aroused and profoundly dizzy at the sight.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=white]The huge man looked directly at Harry, in his white linen suit and silk tie, his fine angular face, small and neatly clipped beard, and round green eyes looking out from under the sweat-stained panama. And Harry, remembering his manners, quickly took off his hat, and bowed to the big guard. ?Henry Rutherford Parkes presents his compliments to His Excellency Sir Cheng Fan-Min.? Without smiling, the guard opened the right-hand portion of the grille which proved to be a gate within a gate.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=white]?The Imperial Agent is expecting you, Mr Parkes, please follow me?, the giant man said in perfect English. Harry was, by this time, so confused in his mind, that he had not noticed the fine, clipped English spoken by this Chinese Hercules. As the guard turned, Harry noticed that the muscles at the base of the guard?s neck were high, round, and very large, and were set between two other round muscles that covered either shoulder. He wished he had listened more to his cousin Theo as he had tried to teach him something about the human anatomy, but Harry had paid no attention at the time. So he had absolutely no idea what each muscle was called, nor even that he possessed such muscles himself; but he knew that they marked this man as extraordinary; and, more than that, Harry liked very much what he saw.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=white]Harry suddenly found himself in a garden. Peonies and chrysanthemums flowered under dark-leafed plum trees. In the midst of the garden was a still pool with a weeping-willow, behind which rose the summit of the Peak. Jasmine scented the air; and as they approached the entrance to the house itself there was a large shrine with two great incense burners. As the scent of jasmine gave way to the odour of incense, Harry found himself standing before three Ho-tai and pictures of the ancestors of Cheng. Golden bowls of fruit were placed before each god and each picture, and the small white flames in the small red glasses cast dark shadows against the deep red walls.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=white]Presently, they came into the large reception hall. Up three steps on a platform was a low couch upon which the Imperial Agent lounged in his changfu, calmly smoking a long pipe. Next to him was an extraordinarily handsome young Englishman, also dressed in silk changfu, with thick dark hair that fell over one eye, eating lychee nuts from a bowl, and sipping tea.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=white]?Theo??[/COLOR]

[COLOR=white]?Harry!?[/COLOR]

[COLOR=white]?What in the blazes are you doing here??[/COLOR]

[COLOR=white]The muscular guard took a step towards Harry.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=white]Harry recovered himself, and turned toward his host.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=white]With a very deep and correct bow, Harry Parkes addressed the Imperial Agent in the Chinese of the Imperial Court.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=white]?With great reverence and deepest respect, the unworthy subject of Her Britannic Majesty Queen Victoria proffers his humble greetings to the exalted and most excellent Agent of His Majesty the Celestial Emperor?.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=white]Harry did not kowtow, since according to the Treaty of Tientsin a British subject was exempt from having to perform the traditional act of obeisance; but in the solemn splendour of the great house and from the sense that he had already been unspeakably rude, he almost felt compelled to get on his knees. However, the lowness of the bow, and the obvious sincerity of Harry?s demeanour, left no room on the part of his host to doubt that the young man before him was not only a gentleman, but a man of true gentility and honesty.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=white]The Imperial Agent said something in court Mandarin to the guard, and the huge man turned to face Harry.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=white]?The Agent of the Celestial Emperor bids you welcome, Mr Parkes.? And with that, the guard bowed to the man on the divan, turned, and withdrew from the hall.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=white]Addressing Harry directly, the Agent said, ?You are welcome to our house, Mr Parkes. I knew your father and mother well, and esteemed them greatly. If, Mr Parkes, you are anything like your very honourable and respected parents, you also will have my esteem and approbation?. ?Please?, said the great Mandarin, ?come up, and make yourself at home with us.?[/COLOR]

[COLOR=white]A young man appeared from behind a screen, and bowed to Harry. He indicated to Harry that he should surrender his hat and his coat. As Harry handed his panama to the young man, he was struck by how beautifully made he was, and how fine his features. Another young man dressed in a green silk jacket came from behind another screen, and took Harry?s shoes, replacing them with red and black silk slippers. The first boy returned with a red and black changfu, and slipped its sleeves over Harry?s arms, adjusted it for his shoulders, and wrapped it around him, securing it at his waist.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=white]The other boy returned as well, and together they escorted Harry up the three steps to the wide dais, and seated him on a couch near the Imperial Agent. As the two youths bowed, Harry noticed how wide their shoulders were, and how thick the muscles in their necks. The young men could not have been more than sixteen years of age, but they had the look of the strongest of fighting men, the martial men that Harry had seen in the Emperor?s court when his father was Ambassador at Peking. It made Harry feel small and, strangely, for a man raised amongst aristocrats and gentry, and comfortable in the houses of the rich and powerful, somewhat inadequate and even inferior.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=white]Just as Harry had settled himself upon the deep silk divan, his attention was drawn towards a young woman, almost still a girl, actually, who entered the hall. Dressed in green and yellow with dark red slippers, her hands concealed beneath the wide sleeves of her cheongsam, she knelt before the great man seated in his hall, and touched her head to the floor three times. She rose, and then turned to Theo, and bowed. She then turned to Harry, and bowed, and said, ?I am Liang-Su, the daughter of Cheng, the intended wife of your cousin, and therefore your kinswoman.?[/COLOR]

[COLOR=white]Liang-Su seated herself on a cushion below Theo?s divan, and lowered her eyes. Never before had Harry so wanted to desire women as when he looked upon this beautiful maiden who sat next to his mother?s nephew. How lucky could a man be, as was his cousin Theo?[/COLOR]

[COLOR=white]But just as this thought was passing through Harry?s mind, he saw Theo look up at Cheng, and what he saw took him aback. Theo had hardly even looked at Liang-Su, but he looked at Cheng; and what Harry saw in Theo?s eyes was love. It was the same look that Harry gave to his cousin Arthur. And in that moment, Harry understood that Theo did not belong to Liang-Su; rather, Theo belonged only to Cheng, and the price of that love was to be his daughter.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=white]And then consciousness slipped away from Harry Parkes.[/COLOR]

[arpeejay]

Well, that's some cool back story!

xoxo

Richard

[2bored]

You are a masterful writer

[imfit]

I enjoyed reading this. I appreciate the background information and set up. I am looking forward to how you develop this into a tale to remember.

[philat99]

Great backstory! Thanks!

[Reeza]

I am very reluctant to revive old threads, but I have to wonder if there will be any more of this excellent story. It is really unlike anything else I have read here, and the writing is just superb.

[grubby41]

Thank-you for your kind comments. Unfortunately, I have not had time to write anything much of late since my work takes up the time that I might have used to write fiction. That is not to say that Stanley will not assert his presence again - it just may not be any time very soon. That said, I love Stanley, and miss writing about him. I just wonder if he misses me?