Chapter Four
Ten hours after they had left the Peacecraft residence, Wu Fei decided to stop for the night. The day had been a small nightmare for Relena, although Sally had tried her best to cheer her up, the young woman was not used to this kind of trips.
It wasn't that she didn't enjoy the view from the carriage, thankfully it was an open one and, since Sally herself was driving it, Relena could distract herself with the pagodas, the temples and other magnificent constructions they found along the way.
A few times she had found herself observing the two men in front of them. Wu Fei seemed to be enjoying the ride and, every now and then, turned around to speak to Sally, naturally, in Chinese. Heero didn't speak a single word. He just rode silently.
He turned around just once and found Relena staring at him. Relena blushed quite violently and tried to cover her face with the straw hat she was wearing to protect her fair skin from the sun.
Half way to the border they stopped briefly to eat the packed lunch Lucrezia had given to them. Relena hoped that, this time, she would be able to start a conversation.
"So, how long do you think we will be travelling Wu Fei?".
"Six days, five if you don't hold us up…" he replied starling Relena with his rudeness.
"He meant if we're not held up…" said Sally glaring at Wu Fei, then, with a wink and smiling , added "His English is not very good…".
This provoked a glare from Wu Fei but, Sally, instead of being afraid, she just gave a small laugh.
Turning her attention to the Japanese man, Relena, gathering all her courage, managed to ask:
"How long have you been in Indochina?" .
Then Heero did something strange. He got up, said something in Chinese and walked towards the horses.
"His English is not very good either…" said Sally trying to justify him. Then she asked Wu Fei something in Chinese and Wu Fei replied. Unfortunately, Sally 'forgot' to translate the exchange so Relena was left there feeling stupid for not understanding anything.
That was Relena's first and last attempt to talk to Heero that day.
"Where are we going to sleep?" Relena asked Sally seeing that they were stopping for the night.
"Wu Fei is going to speak to the owner of that house over there to see if he's got any room for us…" Sally replied, in fact Wu Fei had got off his horse while Heero stayed near the carriage.
"Sally…is not that I don't feel safe but, why is it that my brother is sending me away without any protection other than Wu Fei and Heero?" Relena asked.
"Well, to start with, we've just finished a war against the Burmese and they still don't appreciate the presence of British soldiers around their villages…also, they would be able to accompany us only up to the border…the same applies to the French soldiers once we cross the border tomorrow morning. There's a lot of tension in Indochina at the moment…we're travelling with Wu Fei because he's got an extensive knowledge of this land and its people. Regarding our safety you have to know that he's a master in martial arts and sword fighting so, he can defend us alright but he won't be offending any of the locals..." explained Sally.
Relena thought for a minute or two that Sally seemed to be very fond of Wu Fei. She quickly put aside that thought thinking she was getting a bit paranoid.
"And what about Heero?" Relena asked not caring whether the man could hear them or not.
"I don't know much about him, I think he used to be a samurai in his homeland…" Sally whispered to Relena.
Relena took a furtive look at the Japanese man. He was sitting on his horse with his face as expressionless as that morning. It seemed as though as he did not feel anything ever. 'A samurai?' Relena thought. That sounded very scary indeed.
They spent the night in a tiny house. There were three people living there, a young couple with a small boy. The couple gave up their room so Relena and Sally could sleep there. Relena felt very grateful so she insisted on helping the housewife and, while she was cooking, Relena busied herself feeding the young boy.
"You're good with kids…" commented Sally seeing how well Relena was getting on with the boy.
"Well, I used to help a friend of mine…she was a school teacher…" said Relena thinking of the days she spent helping Hilde in her job in the village's school.
"That's good…you'll be a good mother then…" commented Sally casually.
Relena, suddenly, realised that having agreed to marry Monsieur Barton, she had also agreed to have his children. That thought shocked her so much that she had almost dropped the wooden spoon she was using to feed the little boy.
"Are you alright Relena? Is it something I said?" Sally said concerned.
"Yes, I'm sorry…is just…oh, it doesn't matter…" Relena said feeling all flustered. Instinctively, she looked up and saw Heero staring at her. He had a strange look in his eyes but Relena couldn't make up what it meant.
Once the boy had finished his food, Relena tried to get him to sleep. She was very lucky because the boy was pretty tired so he fell asleep fairly quickly.
The mother, seeing her baby sleeping, stopped cooking and said something in her tongue.
"She wants you to put him in his cradle. It's behind you…" Wu Fei translated.
"Ah…ok…will you please tell her she's lucky to have such a good child?" Relena asked while standing up carefully.
Wu Fei translated it and the mother smiled and said a word that Relena understood as 'thank you'.
"If I have to live here, I better learn some of the language as well…I hate not understanding what's going on…" Relena said sitting back next to Sally after having put the baby inside his cradle.
Sally blushed deeply and said:
"Oh…I've just realised…we've been so rude today…I shouldn't have spoken in Chinese…".
"Don't worry, it's not your fault…it's mine…I seriously need to learn some languages other the the very little French I know. It's a common thing between us Britons, we all think everyone will speak English for us…that's why we never learn another language…" Relena explained trying to make Sally feel better.
"In fact I should apologise to you…I've been acting like a spoilt little brat lately…is just that I was so angry…" Relena added.
"Why was that? Aren't you happy to marry Monsieur Barton?" said Sally.
"I don't know…I guess I should be…is just that, it's so soon…when my father died two months ago and Milliardo asked me to come here, I just thought that I would stay in Burma for quite a long time…I wasn't expecting that my brother would have found me a husband so quickly…" Relena explained to Sally.
"Oh…I'm sorry to hear that…if it helps, Hanoi is a beautiful place and…I think the governor is trying to set up a project to build the railway to connect Rangoon to the French Indochina so, if you want to see your brother you may be able to visit him quite often…" Sally said smiling.
"That's good…I'll be better than travelling with the carriage and a lot safer as well…" said Relena.
After finishing their meal, they all went to bed. The couple slept in a makeshift bed placed on the living room's floor. Wu Fei and Heero went to sleep outside.
The morning after, they left a bit before dusk. It was safer to travel at that time of the morning, Wu Fei said. Relena insisted on leaving some money to the couple and she gave to the baby boy one of the tennis balls she had with her.
Relena caught Heero staring at her again. This time he was looking at her with an amused look in his eyes. As soon as he felt observed, his expression went blank once more.
The four next days were event-free. They basically followed the same schedule every day: departure early in the morning, brief stop half way through to freshen up and eat something, then in the evening they stopped in the nearest village and slept. Sally had explained to her that she had met her husband while she was working as a doctor for a catholic mission near the Burmese border with China. They had married soon afterwards and had moved to Rangoon where she had met Lucrezia during a charity dinner, three weeks after the wedding, her husband got sick with malaria and died. This was probably why Sally insisted on making Relena drink so much tonic water.
The fifth day did not look too different from the previous ones. The only thing was that Wu Fei and Heero were very tense. They were travelling through the jungle of a territory that did not belong to neither the French nor the British. They had just crossed the Mekong river when Sally had to stop the carriage so suddenly that Relena almost fell from it.
Looking ahead, she saw a group of six local men. Wu Fei said something in their tongue. They replied. It seemed as though as everything was alright when one of the men saw Relena. He said something to Wu Fei. The Chinese man looked back, first to Relena and then to Sally. Then turned his attention to the local man and said something else.
Whatever it was, he did not appreciate it. Sally made the horse that pulled the carriage move forward while Heero reached them with his horse. He placed himself next to where Relena was.
Then, something absurd happened. One of the men took a pistol from his belt and tried to shoot at Relena. Heero, not thinking twice, grabbed Relena and lifted her to his horse. Unfortunately, Relena was not prepared for this sudden move and made Heero lose his balance resulting in both of them falling from the horse. She would have hit the ground pretty heavily had it not been because Heero had embraced her and protected her with his own body.
Heero rolled with her to under some bushes while Wu Fei jumping off the horse shouted at Sally to get out of the way and went to fight with the men.
Heero had ended up on the top of Relena and was pressing her to the ground. His face was only a couple of inches away from her own and his left hand was holding her head to protect it from the ground, Relena, having her chest pressed by his, started to feel faint, due to the lack of oxygen, she tried to convince herself.
"Are you ok?" Heero asked astonishing Relena so much she only managed to nod.
Then Heero got up and went to help Wu Fei leaving her laying down.
"Oh, are you alright?" Said Sally as soon as the whole thing ended.
"I think so…I only have a couple of bruises…I feel so stupid though…I made Heero fall and I think he's hurt himself…" Relena said nervously.
"I wouldn't worry about it. He's stronger than he looks…come on…" Sally said helping her up.
Relena took a look around herself and saw that the six men were now lying unconscious on the floor. The carriage had a pretty big hole produced by the bullet. Then Relena remembered that they had tried to kill her and started shivering so violently that Sally had to hold her in her arms.
"Sush…it's over now…don't worry darling…we're going to be alright…" Sally said trying to soothe her.
"Is she alright?" Relena heard Wu Fei ask.
"Yes…she's a bit shaken, that's all…" replied Sally helping her up the carriage.
That same night they crossed the border to the province of Tonkin the capital of which was Hanoi.
Wu Fei and Heero felt relieved that they had gone through that territory and Wu Fei had started to have his chats with Sally again.
While they were having dinner in the house of an old woman that apparently lived alone, Relena sat next to Heero.
"I never thanked you for saving my life…" the girl said hoping that, this time, she would get a reply.
"It's my job" Heero replied.
"Well, you did it well and I thank you for it…" she added. Then, not getting any further remark from him, she added:
"Why did they want to kill me?".
"Because you're white…" he replied leaving Relena so horrified that she almost forgot to ask him why he had pretended not to speak English.
"Why didn't you say you speak English?".
"You didn't ask" he replied and, as if he considered the conversation over, he took his blanket and went to sleep outside.
Wu Fei said something in Chinese to Sally and followed Heero outside.
Sally turned around and said to Relena:
"Wu Fei says that tomorrow night we will arrive to Hanoi and so we should get some rest…".
END OF CHAPTER FOUR
