“Please just call me by my first name,” Tamara replied. “I’m so used to it here—I've become completely shanghaied.”
Her hair was not blond but white, and her young face looked emaciated; the dimples on her cheeks were gone. Tamara’s blue silk dress emphasized her turquoise eyes, and her wrist was adorned with a string of pearls that looked very expensive.
“Go along and play outside,” Tamara told the boys. “Roger, would you mind taking the dogs out with you as well? They’ve already made a mess of the carpet. Would you like some coffee, Nina Vasilievna?”
Tamara asked lots of questions, and Nina told her all about herself in much the same way as Klim used to—making light of herself and her circumstances. One would have thought there had been no misfortune in her life, just a series of funny adventures. Had she fled the length of Russia from the Bolsheviks? Oh yes, it had been an unforgettable trip! All the way, Nina had been on a diet of bread and water—quite the rage among refugees at that time. And as for the dirt, well, they do say that taking a mud bath is very good for the complexion. She had shared her cattle truck with the cream of society: professors from Moscow University, officers from the General Staff, opera singers, and leading members of the nobility. Everyone had been very kind, crushing the lice from each other’s bodies and cursing the revolution in the politest and the most cultured way.
Tamara was thrilled with Nina’s story. She had arrived in China twenty years previously, with her father, who had a job with the Russian-Chinese Bank, and now she only had a very vague idea about what was going on in Russia.
“Do you speak English?” Tamara asked.
“A little,” Nina admitted. “But my Russian accent is a real handicap.”
“You must think of it as a cute little quirk that makes you stand out from the crowd. My friends are fine with my accent.”
Well, they would be, wouldn’t they? Nina thought. If you lived in a luxurious mansion and had a husband like Tony Aulman, you’d be accepted if you had three heads and spoke Martian with a forked tongue.
“Tony told me about your venture,” Tamara said. “We have a house near the race course, and we can rent it to you for a nominal fee. There’s plenty of room there for the balls.”
“What do you mean by ‘balls’?” Nina asked, surprised. “I was thinking that we’d mainly be organizing small receptions.”
“It’s much more interesting to play big,” Tamara replied with a smile. “While I was listening to you, I came up with a great idea. We can introduce you as a Russian countess, who has come from Europe to visit her cousin, the Czechoslovak Consul. To honor your arrival, you’ll arrange a fancy dress masquerade, and the theme shall be: High Society in One Hundred Years Time. I read in the newspaper that somebody has brought a new material to Shanghai, called ‘cellophane,’ all the way from Switzerland. We could use it for futuristic costumes. I’ll foot the expenses and you’ll make a start on your champagne sales. Now all we have to decide upon is the guest list.”
Tamara took a pencil and notebook from the table next to her armchair and began to write down some names.
“The Smiths are out of the question,” she stated matter-of-factly. “They’re good friends with the British Consul, and we should steer clear of officials for the time being. We’d be wiser to invite the McGraths. They’re not interested in politics at all.” She looked up at Nina and smiled playfully. “Lucille McGrath claims to be my best friend, but I haven’t seen her here for two months. I think she needs to be taught a lesson or two.”
Nina realized that Tamara was very angry with her friends. She was no longer on their guest lists, and they had started to visit her less and less. Apparently, Tamara had decided that she could be a social lioness again through Nina, and at the same time get back at her disloyal friends by fooling them into thinking that a couple of refugee con artists were European aristocrats.
Nina had secretly hoped that she and Tamara would become soul mates, but that was out of the question. Tony Aulman was hiring Nina in order to divert and cheer up his wife.
I have no other choice, Nina repeated to herself. My main goal now is to get my foot in the door, and then we'll see how things turn out.
As soon as Tony Aulman got back from work, dinner was served. It turned out to be a boisterous and fun affair. Tamara showed the boys how to catapult peas with their spoons and make ballet dancers’ legs out of their napkins. Tony had almost lost his voice after a three-hour deposition at the court, but he ate with a huge appetite and laughed more than anyone at the antics around him. He was in high spirits and recounted the day’s case with great humor.
The police had raided a warehouse packed with counterfeit records that had been worth over twenty thousand dollars. Tony explained that the Chinese would forge and illegally copy practically every product that had ever been advertised in the press, from cough medicine to sheets of music. He was representing the interests of the affected companies and had hired several sleuths to snoop around the Chinese warehouses. Then Aulman would either settle the case in his client’s favor, with a big payout, or demand the destruction of the fake goods.
“How can you tell a legal copy from an illegal one?” Nina asked.
“We look at the labels,” Tony explained. “The Chinese typesetters don’t speak any foreign languages and often they put the letters upside down or mix up the word order. Another giveaway is a lack of spaces between words or punctuation marks. When my sleuths find a forged item in a store, they will pose as a big wholesaler and discover who the manufacturer is via the entire chain of suppliers.”
“Why don’t the police carry out the investigation?”
Tony and Tamara exchanged knowing glances and laughed.
“Because the purpose of holding any official position in China,” said Tamara, “is to provide for yourself, not the public. If you don’t give the police a bribe, they won’t lift a finger for you.”
“What if the counterfeiters provide them with an even bigger bribe?”
“In that case, we ask Don Fernando to intervene,” said Tony. “He knows how to resolve that sort of issue.”
Nina recalled Fernando’s innuendoes at the funeral earlier that week. So that was why Aulman was friends with a murderer and a gangster.
Throughout the entire evening she observed Tony closely. It was clear that he really adored his wife and that his entertaining stories were largely meant for Tamara’s amusement. He didn’t wait for the servants to pour her orange juice, preferring to do it himself, and assiduously made sure that she wouldn’t get cold sitting in a draft. For the first time in her life, Nina was looking at a man who was successful, strong, and wealthy and utterly loved a woman regardless of her health and beauty. The impression was strange and delightful.
When the maid announced the arrival of the taxi, Tony accompanied Nina to the porch. It was dark outside, and the servants had lit a garland of Chinese lanterns along the driveway.
“Thank you,” Tony said quietly, shaking Nina’s hand. “I’m so glad Tamara has met you. I haven’t seen her so cheerful for a long time.”
Nina felt confused. “It’s my pleasure.”
Klim had once told her that the most important things in life were to be loved, to be healthy, and to be capable of doing good deeds. Tamara could only boast one of these three—the love of her husband and children, but this didn’t seem to be enough for her to be happy.
Nina had nothing but her health, and if tomorrow she were to break her spine, she would have no one willing to take care of her.