Mr Chen had tied back his long hair and was checking the mail as he ate a bowl of noodles.
‘Sit, Miss Donahoe.’ He pushed his ho fan noodles aside.
‘Eat,’ I said. ‘You look starving.’
He smiled and his eyes wrinkled up. ‘No, no, it can wait. Full-time. Yes or no?’
‘You haven’t said how much you’ll pay me or what hours I’ll be working, Mr Chen. I can’t decide until you tell me.’
‘Yes, you’re quite right. How about six days a week, live-in, full-time? Sunday off – that’s Monica’s and Leo’s day off. I can probably give you a few extra days off a month as well. Five thousand US a month.’
I fell back slightly. ‘Five thousand US?’
He nodded. ‘I think it’s a generous offer. Room and board as well. Is that acceptable?’
Sixty thousand US a year to be a nanny? I studied him. He seemed genuine. I’d worked for him for six months and he’d been perfectly honourable in his dealings. There was just one question I needed answered.
‘Mr Chen,’ I said, then finished the question in a rush, ‘are you involved in anything illegal?’
He stared at me, his expression completely blank.
‘I mean, is the ICAC likely to burst in with guns and drag you away?’
He stared at me a little longer, then snapped out of it. ‘Nothing I am involved in is illegal. The ICAC could not possibly be interested in me. All of my activities are perfectly legal. I would never put Simone’s happiness in danger.’
‘Why do you have a bodyguard then?’
He watched me silently for a while, then said, ‘Leo protects Simone.’
‘Are there people after you?’
His eyes were very intense. ‘I am powerful. That makes me a target. You don’t need to worry – you will never be in danger if you work for me.’
‘Is that why you carry a sword around? Don’t the police stop you?’
‘I never carry the sword in the street. It stays in the car when I go out.’
I leaned over the dining table. ‘What do you do for a living, Mr Chen?’
His dark eyes looked straight into mine. ‘I will tell you after you’ve worked here for a while. If you decide to stay.’
‘Why wouldn’t I decide to stay?’
He smoothly avoided the question. ‘Will you take the job, Miss Donahoe?’
I hesitated. Sixty thousand US dollars a year, a delightful little girl and a handsome mystery man. How could I say no? ‘Yes.’
He smiled, full of warmth and good humour. ‘When can you start?’
‘I could start tomorrow, but I’d need to sort out my rent first. Oh,’ I said as I remembered, ‘I have to give Miss Kwok two weeks’ notice.’
He waved it away. ‘I know Kitty Kwok. She gave me your number in the first place. I’ll sort it out with her, and I’ll fix it up with your flatmate. You can move in tomorrow if you like. You can live in?’
‘Sure.’
He rose and held out his hand, and I shook it. He had surprisingly cool hands, with hard calluses on his fingers. ‘Leo will help you move your belongings tomorrow,’ he said. ‘Welcome aboard.’
I shook my head as I went down the hall to say goodnight to Simone. Done it again. Two snap decisions in one day. That was a new record, even for me.
It took me more than an hour on crowded MTR and KCR trains to make it home to Sha Tin. I stopped at the shopping mall under our apartment block to grab some takeout, and when I was home I sat at our tiny four-seater table and pulled the foam box out of the plastic bag. ‘Louise, come and sit down,’ I called. ‘I have news.’ Louise poked her head around the doorway from our minuscule kitchen. ‘Wait till the water boils.’
‘Okay.’ I used the plastic cutlery provided by the fast-food place to attack the baked pork chop on its bed of rice.
Louise came out of the kitchen with a mug of coffee and sat across from me. Her blue eyes sparkled under her short, spiky blonde hair. She was about the same height as me, and Australian like me, but the resemblance ended there. She was thin, blonde, bony and covered in freckles; I was soft and round and not nearly as good-looking. People noticed her and ignored me, and that suited me just fine.
She gestured towards the takeaway box. ‘Where’s mine?’
‘You starve,’ I said. ‘Where’s my tea?’
‘You die of thirst,’ she said. ‘What’s up?’
‘I’m moving in with Mr Chen,’ I said. ‘I’ll be full-time–’
I didn’t have a chance to finish because she flew to her feet and yelled with delight. ‘Way to go, Emma!’
I stared at her.
‘That hunky guy on the Peak? The Chinese widower? The really rich one? What a catch!’
I sighed with exasperation. ‘Full-time, live-in nanny.’
‘Yeah, yeah,’ she said suggestively. ‘I know what you mean.’
‘That’s all it is, Louise. Nanny. That’s all.’
She sat down again. ‘Geez, Emma, can’t you do better than that? You have a freaking degree, girl. Go out and work for a bank or something.’
‘What, like you?’
‘Yeah, like me. I meet heaps of guys in the bank. Lots of traders from Europe. Really cute. What about Miss Kwok?’
‘I already resigned from the kindergarten.’
‘You could do a lot better than being a nanny, Emma. I’m on nearly twenty thousand a month.’
‘I’ll be on five thousand US a month. That’s nearly forty thousand Hong Kong.’
Her mouth dropped open.
‘I’ll be moving out tomorrow,’ I went on.
She shook her head. ‘Okay. Tell me all about it. Will it be just you and him? There is some hope for you, isn’t there?’
‘Me, the bodyguard, Monica the domestic helper, and of course Simone, his daughter.’
‘Bodyguard? Is he cute?’
‘God, Louise, is that all you think about? Leo’s a big black American, lovely guy. But I don’t think he’s into chicks.’
Her eyebrows creased. ‘Wait a minute. Leo, you said? Big American guy? Black?’
‘You know him?’
‘Not personally, but I’ve seen him at the Last Hurrah. Really popular. Knows everybody.’
‘What the hell were you doing at the Hurrah?’ I demanded. ‘You won’t find a date there, none of them are into chicks.’
She shrugged. ‘Sometimes it’s nice to have a quiet drink in a place you won’t be hit on. Scenery’s always good, too.’
‘That sounds like fun. Let me know next time you’re going.’
‘We’ll still go out on the town together, right?’ She was sounding concerned. ‘I mean, we’re