City of God : A Novel of Passion and Wonder in Old New York

by Beverly Swerling

• ISBN13: 9781416549215
• ISBN10: 1416549218
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-12-09
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Summary

The saga of the Turner and Devrey families continues in this captivating historical epic set in New York City during the years before the Civil War--an era of corrupt Tammany Hall politicians, evangelical preachers, millionaire entrepreneurs, opium smokers, and immigrants. This is the fourth volume in Swerling's engrossing series.

Excerpts

Chapter OneMei-hua lay curled next to him in the glow that followed love, her back against his chest, his arm around her waist, their breathing synchronized. Everything was perfect. Or so it seemed to Samuel Devrey.After a time she moved just enough so one foot caressed his calf. The silken wrappings of her golden lily, the foot that had been first bound when she was three -- excruciating pain inflicted and endured for him, indeed at his behest -- were exquisitely erotic. Sam felt the sap rise in him yet again but he resisted. "There isn't time." He breathed the words into the jasmine scent of her hair.His Mandarin could be understood, but it had been learned too late to be perfect. His tones were never exactly right. He spoke always the speech of the yang gwei zih, the foreign devil. Mei-hua would die a slow death before she would correct him. "My lord not need do much. Quick and easy. See."She arched profoundly, one of those supple adjustments of her body that always astonished him, and her hips realigned so that he could take her effortlessly, in an act of possession as natural and undemanding as a whisper. It would have been against nature to refuse a generosity offered with such elegance. He moved the hand that had stroked her belly so it gripped her thigh, pressing her more closely to him. Both golden lilies were touching him now, wrapped around his legs. She was a silken splendid butterfly, tiny but exquisite, cocooned in his bulk. Her sigh of pleasure -- more a vibration than a sound -- thrilled him as if it were again the first time, three years earlier, when she was thirteen."You are astonishing," he said when he could speak.She gently pulled away, then settled back against his body and pulled his hand back to her belly where it had been before. "What do you feel, lord?""Samuel," he corrected. "If I have to tell you again, I will spank you." Her smile was hidden from him, but he knew it was there. "For real this time." He attempted to sound severe. "You won't be able to sit for a week.""I am sure I will deserve it. You are right in all things, lo -- Samuel. But you cannot spank me now.""Why not?""It maybe..." He heard the hesitation though she hurried to cover it. "Maybe disturb harmony. Yourtai-tainever lose harmony. Never."Repetition was the way the Chinese conveyed emphasis.Tai-taimeant not simply wife but senior wife, she to whom all other wives -- if such there might be -- owed allegiance. Devrey knew both things, but he seldom remembered to repeat a word he meant to strengthen. As for the rest, it wasn't practical.He had married Mei-hua in the room beyond this one, in a ceremony he remembered as a bewildering shimmer of gongs and incense. Afterward she had been brought to this bed on its raised red satin platform hung about with quilted red velvet to perform her first duty as his wife, to sit absolutely still for hours and demonstrate her inner harmony. Meanwhile Devrey had been taken downstairs to eat and drink, and only occasionally remind himself that if he stepped out the door he would be not in this exotic Chinese world but on Cherry Street in New York, a few steps from the busy waterfront. Four hours later, when he had returned to the bedroom to claim what was his, Meihua was exactly as he'd left her. Except for her smile of joyous welcome."You could never be disharmonious," he said now.His voice was steady, the words without any hint of anger or disapproval, but she could feel his fury in the heat of his skin and the coldness of his breath. "I try never displease you, lord." Not true. She had tried very hard. For many months now, as soon as he left her after lovemaking, she lay for long, boring hours with her feet above her head so his seed would find the son-making place deep inside. She had eaten only son-making food, though it was not always her favorite. Only the gods knew how hard she tried. And Ah Chee.Mei-hua could