“Then the countess must teach her son to fight with her.”
Daniel groaned. “Except that will never work. A boy who wishes to stay with his mother will be ignored. He’s twelve years old. It is expected that he cut the apron strings and go to school.”
“The child’s voice will be heard only if he says what you want him to say?”
“Yes.” He hated that she had a point. Nevertheless, it was the system they had, and if Nessie wanted any say in her son’s life, Daniel needed to be the boy’s guardian. He looked at Li-Na. “Is it different in China?”
She shrugged. “I was sent to the Zhong family when I was seven. I never saw my parents again. No one fought for me, and no one listened to what I wanted.” She smiled. “Whatever the result, Stefan is a fortunate son.”
Daniel stared at her, his heart beating painfully in his throat. What would that have been like at seven years old? To be thrown into a new family, abandoned by those who loved and cared for you? “How did you stand it?”
“The tutor put a brush in my hand and told me to paint whatever I felt. A black slash for anger. A dot for a smile. Some days were all black. Some days had many dots.”
Here he received his greatest wish. He learned the mind behind her art, and he was struck dumb. So much pain in her life. She’d been thrust into the world at seven years old. And yet not only had she survived, she had found a way to put her feelings on canvas. Did the art she created give her the ability to live? Or was her life what she expressed on the page? It was hard to tell, and truthfully, it was probably both, art and life fully intertwined.
“Will you paint something please?” he asked, the words rushed. “I don’t need to sell it. I just want to see it.”
“So you can read my inner thoughts? So you can know what I feel when I feel it?”
Yes! A thousand times yes! “If you are willing to share it.”
She shook her head. She didn’t want to share. And yet, her mouth worked differently. She opened her lips as if to deny him, but then closed it again. And by her sides, her hands opened and closed. They tucked tight to her belly, then pressed back along her thighs. She was distressed, and he wanted to ease her fears, but he couldn’t take back his request.
Finally, she whispered. “I don’t know you.”
He smiled. “I will answer all your questions, show you whatever you want to see.” He laughed. “In truth, there isn’t much to me. I admire art, I buy and sell art, but I can’t create it on my own. I am nothing compared to you. Very dull, in fact.”
She rolled her eyes. “False modesty does not become you.”
It wasn’t false. The greatest failure in his life was the inability to draw. He was wretched at it and at all other artistic endeavors. He could barely carry a tune. “I am an admirer of other people’s talent. It’s all I can do.”
She didn’t answer and they began walking again beside one another. Eventually her words came. They were whispered, but he heard them nonetheless.
“It is just squiggles on paper,” she said.
“Then that is all I will see. You were just playing in the sand this afternoon.”
“It was terrible.”
“Not to me. I’ve never seen something like that before.”
She laughed, the sound more like a puff of air than voice. “You haven’t seen the true art of China. I am nothing compared to them.”
He let the lantern drop then. His arm was tired, and he let it swing to the far side such that the night enfolded them more closely. “I want to see your art,” he said. “Not theirs.”
“Then you are a backwards kind of man.”
She wasn’t the first to say something like that. “Very well,” he confessed. “I want to see theirs too, but as they are not here, I shall have to content myself with yours.”
They continued on in silence for a bit until they made it to his favorite spot on the path. The village was hidden by a turn, the trees were sparse, and the ocean too far away to hear clearly.
“Will you stop with me a moment?” he asked.
“You are my guide. I must stop when you do.”
A practical answer. “I am going to shutter the lantern so it will be full dark. Don’t be afraid.”
He darkened the lantern until the night surrounded them completely. The sky stretched full and wide above them. And here, they could stand in awe of God’s artistry. She was already looking up when he straightened to his full height. Her hands were placed to her mouth as she scanned the sky.