The Compradors Son

In the candlelight I recognise the oval features of Mei, one of the maids. About my age and quiet, shy, meek; she has always reminded me of a timid mouse. The look on her face tells me that she has summoned up some hidden reserve of courage to do what it is she is doing now though. I wonder why.

She looks at me expectantly. Perhaps the most important decision in my life comes down to the simple nod which I give her. As she leaves I go to my dressing table and look at myself in the mirror. Self consciously I brush back a wisp of hair, stupidly I almost call out to Amah for help. Waiting for his approach is almost overwhelming...

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It is the first time I have been alone with a man. It is also the first time I have had to talk to one without the scripted conventions of polite society. These, I imagine; he would have no experience of.

It is not a problem.

We sit there in a silence which is both comfortable and enticing. Myself in my white night gown, him in his blue tunic and curious pantalons. He removes his hat to reveal a head that is shaved at the front and at the top of his scalp but which is thick and luxuriant at the back before it courses down into the form of that long queue. It is something laughed at by my compatriots but I find it strangely alluring. Self consciously, I reach out and run my hand around the back of his head enjoying its slightly coarse texture. His rich dark eyes shine with mischief as a boyish smile forms on his thin lips. I blush and look away to the side. A ripple of excitement goes through me as he places one of his extended fingers under my chin and redirects my gaze to him. I drink in his face. Not quite round and not quite oval, not quite youthful and not quite seasoned while the light in his dark eyes is to die for. That pleasurable stirring that I am beginning to get under my nightshift; the one that hitherto I had only been able to get by myself and by imagining something very specific; that until now I had been taught was evil and that I should pray for deliverance from; now he is giving that feeling to me with no action required on my part and once again it just feels so good, so right.

His smooth hand moves up my cheek and I feel myself purr like a cat. I let my face rest there and shyly I start to lightly kiss the side of his palm. His refined fingers slide down my face and softly part my lips. I find myself beginning to suck and lick at them as I begin to pant and feel wet under my nightgown. I feel myself as if being carried on a wave I cannot control. In the past, I have, in secret explored myself down there seeing how far I could go but always staying within myself. But now the feeling is irresistible; it frightens and entices me as it overwhelms my senses and my mind. He draws his face to mine and he fills my entire view. The scent of him fills my nostrils as my eyes hungrily explore every aspect of his face close up. My lips taste his cheeks, his nose, his mouth as I shower him with kisses. He responds in kind and soon we are in each others arms tumbling on the bed. It is here I can finally be sure that he does speak English as his ardent proclamations of my beauty and his love for me are intermixed with hot, Chinese whispers whose meaning I can only guess at but which I also understand perfectly. I moan quietly as his lips caress my ears, slide down my neck and cover my shoulders. I bite my own hand in pleasure but also in frustration.

Frustration at a world with which I cannot proclaim more loudly my true desires. Thus silenced this desire of mine refocuses on his tunic and I giggle as I move my greedy hands all the way down his silk clothing and slide them up his lower legs in a bid to get inside. I rub my palms and press my fingertips into his lean, smooth flesh. I sense him stir in response and he removes his tunic and undershirt to reveal a slim, nicely proportioned physique. I have never seen a man like this close up before and I am entranced. Like a hungry tigress I forget all propriety and throw myself at him biting and kissing all over his torso and chest. I sense him struggle to muffle his gasps and I get a strange, dark thrill from testing his resolve even though I know that one mistake from either of us could lead to the ruin of us both. I want him. I want to consume him. I need him so much. I notice the hard bulge under his trousers and my curious, lustful animal paws caress and adore it in its package. A long low groan of arousal and excitement booms quietly from his lips and shakes the room.

He can hold back no longer. Suddenly he rises and I find myself thrown onto my back. His fingers effortlessly undo the buttons of my nightgown and my skin immediately blooms in goosebumps as my defences are weakened by the soft, caressing bombardment of his fingers down my middle. His lips and teeth follow to secure the conquest. My moans smash into the pillow which I have clenched between my teeth as his hands explore all over my upper body. I clench my eyes shut in ecstasy as he teases and cups my breasts. He presses his face hard against my chest and inhales me before running his hands through my hair with curious hunger. The sheets begin to get damp as he alternately caresses and squeezes my nipples. Responding to his touch, to his presence all around and within me I arch my back up and beg him to keep going; to keep doing what it is he is doing to me; what he has done to me since I first saw him

His hands continue to explore further down. The warmth of his palms and his finger tips as they slide up and down and around my legs elicit purring moans. His lips first smoothly and then roughly brush my thighs as I prepare to open myself for him fully. He stands and pulls me up effortlessly as an irresistible thrill goes through me. He gestures down towards his curiously wide sleeved trousers. Strange that I should blush at this after behaving so wontonly earlier. For a moment I rest my head in the space between his neck and shoulder. It feels like a refuge; the one place I can go to when there is nowhere else to go. He kisses the side of my face tenderly just an inch to the side of my eye before taking my head in his hands. I am drunk at the sight of him; his dark intense eyes and his quiet sense of strength and control. Hungrily my eyes slide down his smooth chest and lean but slightly soft torso as I kneel before him.

I had heard much rumour and gossip about what lay inside a man's trousers. My one visual image was a sketch in a medical textbook which had been carelessly left on the table in the study at home. Needless to say it has not prepared me for what I see now. As I watch it grow before me the look in my eyes must have been funny as I hear him chuckle. Gently he pulls my hands up to it, intimating what he would like me to do. I feel the hard, wet tip between my fingers as it continues to swell warmly between my hands. He places his hand behind my head and seamlessly guides my face close. I begin to taste him on my lips but what makes my insides surge with happiness are his shudders and groans of pleasure as my tongue, lips and mouth, hesitantly at first and then more and more assertively caress, lick, kiss and then envelop his manhood. He winces slightly and gently corrects me as he comes into contact with one of my teeth and I know not to repeat the mistake again. As I continue to adore him I feel his hands tightly on the side of my head as he growls desperately trying to keep the noise down. With pleasure I think briefly of my public persona as a young, innocent, refined English lady. She seems oceans away from me now as I revel in my new role kneeling before my man as he gasps with increasing abandon.

Slowly, he tilts my head back and withdraws. I moan as I lick the traces of him on my lips. His slim yet strong hands now guide me up and onto the bed as I enjoy the sight of his smooth arms. I feel him twitch as he rubs against me gently. He smiles as he teases me with his sex making me moan and plead for more. I am fully prepared for him. Hungrily, I look up into his deep dark eyes and I want him more than anything. I place my hands around the back of his neck and pull him down towards me. I sigh in pleasure as he enters and moan in quiet ecstasy as be slides down and fills me up. Warm, wet and full I begin to pull him down with my desire, wanting to take him there and hold him for an eternity. Ravenously now, his face devours my lips, neck, shoulders and breasts as he moves expertly inside me. I cannot repress the small squeals of delight which I hear coming out of my panting mouth as a constant stream of pleasure pulses out from my centre and encases my entire body. I sense him feel it too as his teeth dig into my shoulder but this pain is as nothing to the other sensations I am now feeling. My nails dig deep into his back leaving deep crescent marks of lust and love as all over I hold both him and it down tight as I go higher, lighter, deeper. Hard, strong and on fire he explores and dominates my insides as tightly I wrap my raised legs around his lower back. Together my body and mind abandon themselves in him completely as I splash into a warm, red ocean that goes beyond pleasure. I drown in the intensity of his deep eyes and I know that just like me he is so very close. We tear the sheets with our hands as together we reach the summit and then plunge over the edge in ecstatic, orgasmic abandon; our hearts surrendering all the secrets of our bodies.

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I nestle against his chest. My cheek feels nice pressed against his warm skin. I learn that his name is Shai and he laughs at my pronunciation of it even though, to me, his correction sounds exactly the same. I tease him playfully running my hand up and down his torso like a spider and twirling the end of his queue around my fingers. He grips my wrist and tells me, his dark eyes solid, that to do such a thing here is a mortal insult. I stop...uncertain...and then his face creases up in laughter. As I pound his face with the pillow I realise that I have never been happier. He talks of his father's business and his role in it and how he learned his English from a Royal Navy deserter who they took in after finding him starving and bedraggled on the streets of Canton; that huge city to the north where countless goods are traded in and out of China. He talks of seeing me for the first time, and of the poem that he translated which was originally written by a great poet called Li Zhiyi and which evokes a long, mighty river connecting the lovesick and how we may get to see it one day. Maybe by that point I had already fallen asleep and was dreaming...

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"Across the milky way the cowherd meets the maid

When autumn's golden wind embraces dew of jade

Our tender love flows like a stream

Now our happy date seems but a dream

How can we bear a separate homeward way

When we can be together night and day."

I hold his handwritten note close. He must have left on hearing the household begin to stir. I know the reference and the story of the cowherd and the maid; lovers separated by the milky way and kept fixed in their places in the heavens who but once a year are permitted to meet when a flock of magpies form a bridge allowing them to cross the expanse of the night sky. My father explained the story once to me when I saw a picture of it on a fine blue and white porcelain plate that he had brought back. Unlike those ill fated lovers though I want us to do more than meet just once a year. I think of how our own forbidden love can bridge the river between us.

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At breakfast, mother and father speak of how successful last night was and I cannot help smiling to myself.

"You may well smile," my mother says; "tell her Henry."

My father beams at me benevolently;

"Two proposals of marriage. One from Mr. Bruiston's son and one from Captain Gleesom."

My hand shakes as I try to put my tea cup down without spilling...