another.
"As the sun came up, the grandfather pronounced that their fight had been most unfortunate, and the son agreed. The ancient one said he had not felt such peace in the thirty years since his wife had died. The innkeeper repeated the Chinese proverb that says, 'One night's talk with a good man excels ten years of study.' And I reminded them then that there were two good men in their family and another growing into one before their eyes."
Grace nuzzled against his side. "Your mission thus succeeded?"
"Truly, I'm not sure anymore. I was grateful that the men found one another. Perhaps I was the catalyst. But, as you see, they're still starving. The Lord has seen to that as well." He bent and kissed her forehead, and she ached for more, but he said, "But now, to bed with you." Then the Reverend called into the dark, "Mai Lin, Mrs. Watson needs your assistance."
Mai Lin, who had been sitting nearby, grumbled as she planted herself in front of the couple. "Reverend wastes his time here," she said. "Sure a family is reunited, but who cares about these ignorant country people?" She spat over her shoulder onto the dusty road.
"Prejudice dies hard," he spoke patiently to her. "But you need to be a model, Mai Lin, to your fellow countrymen."
"And you," she pointed at him, "you need to be a model of a husband understanding his wife."
Grace's eyes popped open at her amah's disrespectful remark. "Mai Lin," she said, "behave yourself."
"Reverend does not see what is right in front of him," Mai Lin said. "Mistress is not well enough to travel. To think so is madness!"
The Reverend stood and loomed over Mai Lin, "Whatever do you mean by speaking to me this way?"
"I speak to you this way because Mistress Grace is ill."
Both the Reverend and Mai Lin looked down at Grace, seated on the bench. She attempted to stand to prove Mai Lin wrong but felt too light-headed and stumbled back upon the bench.
"Look at her, blind man," Mai Lin said. "See how pale she is? She is soon to be the ghost, not you!"
The Reverend put his hand delicately under his wife's chin and tipped her face toward the lantern light. "Yes, she is most pale."
"She carries a baby in her belly these many months, and she is all the time also very sick."
"Is this true that you are terribly ill?" the Reverend asked Grace. "Why haven't you told me?"
Grace felt her face go hot and twist into a miserable frown. A sob finally issued forth from her with decided force.
"Mai Lin," the Reverend said, "you should never have allowed her to come on this trip."
"Aeiiii!" Mai Lin let out a screeching sound, "I tell her, but she will not listen to me. And you have cotton in your ears."
The Reverend stood taller. "We shall return to the mission tomorrow. I see the error of my decision."
He knelt before Grace, and she fell weeping into his arms.
"The situation is most grave," Mai Lin said. She shrugged her shoulders and stepped away. "I can only do what I can do."
The Reverend kissed Grace's hair and held her in his arms. "My darling," he said, "can you ever forgive me?"
Grace could not answer, for the coughing had begun again.
Seventeen
A fter a swift return from their aborted expedition, the Reverend kept vigil at his wife's bedside on the second floor of the Watson home in the mission compound. Numerous times, she coughed up blood into a basin, but Mai Lin appeared more concerned about the several spots that stained the sheets from the baby inside. The Reverend tried not to be in the way, but on the second day Grace's nursemaid shooed him into the hall so that she might administer to her patient without distraction. He then proceeded to pace back and forth outside the bedroom door for he wasn't sure how long until Mai Lin finally stepped into the hallway and spoke to him under her breath. "We need food. The fields are dry, and there is nothing at the market anymore. Mistress must have sustenance to keep the baby inside alive. I need beans, at least, to mash into a paste. I must give her something, anything. You go and find some!"
The Reverend answered quickly, "Whatever you say, Mai Lin. I will bring food back right away."
She raised a gnarled finger and said, "Don't get lost out there. Ahcho will go with you to see that you come