Chapter 13
Paul paced nervously in the hospital hallway awaiting the final reports from the emergency room doctor who was examining the condition of Jan's ravaged body. He was pounding his knuckled fist into his hand when the doctor emerged.
Paul swung. "How is she?" His dark eyes were wild with concern.
The doctor stared at him silently for a moment, then guided him by the elbow down the hallway to the privacy of his office. "It's hard to say... but she appears to be doing fine, except for the trauma, of course. She'd been given opium which of course helped to ease the pain of-"
"Pain? What did they do to her?" Paul stiffened. "Quite frankly, your fiancée has been raped in every orifice of her body." Paul buried his face in his hands and moaned, feeling sorry for himself as well as Jan. It infuriated him that some yellow-bellied, slant-eyed bastard had stolen his fiancée's cherry before he'd been given a fair crack at that treasure.
"Let me warn you," cautioned the doctor. "I've seen a lot of rape cases and some of the women can handle the trauma better than others. It's normally who they are closest to who can help. I would assume that's you...?"
Paul glanced up in disbelief at the doctor "In that case I guess I can expect the worse." He studied his thumbnail with exaggerated concern.
"It depends on you... entirely.
Paul shuffled clumsily about the room, fighting off rage and a hatred so strong it momentarily wiped out the tenderness he felt for Jan. But not being one to delay the inevitable, he gritted his teeth and stomped down the hallway with a confidence he didn't feel. The doctor's eyes were on him from the back.
He pranced into the emergency room and faced Jan laying there under the white sheet, appearing smaller and more frail than he'd remembered her to be. When he spoke, it was in a voice unrecognizable to himself. "The doctor... says you'll be all right."
She nodded, just once, the long lines of her graceful throat flexing as she swallowed painfully.
Timidly he reached for her hand. Odd, he thought as he gazed at her swollen lips. Those yellow bastards raped her mouth... came in her mouth! Someone else took her cherry, took everything that belonged to me! But when he spotted the bruises on her neck, he felt a wave of pity and love for her.
"Paul... Paul, it's all right." She gripped his hands so tightly in hers he could feel her fingernails biting into his flesh. Then she drew in a deep breath for courage and started to speak.
"Paul, I want to tell you something, and I know you might hate me for it later... I know how you despise Chinese and all but..." When she looked up into his hate-smoldering eyes, she ceased her confession. "They weren't that terrible to me, Paul... of course they raped me." And here she stopped to draw in a deep calming breath to check the tears. "...but I learned something about my body, too. I came... lots of times... even with a woman..." Then reading the pain in his eyes once more she stopped. "It's going to be okay with us. I mean when we get married, I think you'll realize that this Victorian bitch has softened a bit..."
From the slow-growing grin crossing his handsome features, she knew he was pleased. That's what counted. He was her man.