Chapter 9
Ji Yue waited in the garden, fidgeting with her clothing. Lunch with the Dowager Consort had gone exactly as predicted. Fortunately, Ji Yue had kept her head. No matter how the woman picked, Ji Yue had responded with her most insipid thought. It went against the grain, especially since every answer made the Dowager Consort even more angry. It rarely helped to make the head female upset, but Ji Yue put her faith in Bo Tao’s advice and remained as stupid as a bowl of rice.
But the longer Ji Yue waited in the garden, the more she doubted her sanity. Why would she put her faith in a man who clearly disregarded every rule of proper conduct? He had climbed into her palanquin, he had taken her last night to a place that no decent woman would ever see, and the things he had done to her!
Her face heated, but not with shame. The things they had done had been incredible, and she desperately longed to do them again. Then she shivered in true fear. He was teaching her the delights of physical congress. What if she did not become the Empress? What if the Emperor wasnota frequent visitor to her bedroom or worse, not even remotely as skilled as Bo Tao? Would she end up like those women in the dead Emperor’s harem? Would she stretch herself out for all to see while she ordered someone to pleasure her?
The thought was horrifying, but it was also a real possibility. Having tasted ecstasy with Bo Tao, she wanted more. She wanted a lot more. Thankfully, she was saved from further thinking as a young eunuch approached, bowing deeply before her.
“Chen Ji Yue? Are you ill?”
She nodded and pressed a silk handkerchief to her lips.
“Sun Bo Tao worries for your health and asks that you follow me. He has found some medicine to strengthen your health for the festival ahead.”
She nodded and smiled. “I would be most grateful.”
She started to move, but he pressed a cloak into her hands. “The sun might damage your skin and make you feel worse, Chen Ji Yue. Perhaps this would help.”
She frowned and wrinkled her nose at the perfume stench that rose from the cheap garment. It was the kind of thing that merchant wives wore or... She swallowed. Or prostitutes. He was dressing her as a prostitute.
At her hesitation, the eunuch nodded again. “Many women come and go in these garments, and no one sees.”
No one was trained to see the whores who visited, he meant. Clearly the Emperor and his friends had a regular habit of entertaining such ladies. And just as clearly, she would be safer moving about the Forbidden City in one of these cloaks than as Virgin Chen Ji Yue.
With a reluctant grimace, she drew the cloak around her and covered her head. Then she followed the eunuch through what seemed to be little used pathways behind and around buildings. She saw workers–eunuchs and servants of all kinds–but no dignitaries and none of the other virgins. And though she peered from under her hood at the washer women and couriers, all cast their eyes discreetly away from her.
Until one woman did notice her. An older woman–aconcubine by the looks of her gown–spit and cursed the whore that polluted the Emperor. Her words were loud and vicious, and an ugly reminder of what would happen to Ji Yue if she lost her Virgin status.
As a disgraced virgin, she could not go home. Even if her parents wanted her, it would damage her father’s honor so much that he would not get further work. Certainly nothing from the Imperial court. Without that income, the entire family would starve.
So if she could not go home, she would be forced onto the street with only one way to survive. From pampered aristocrat to street whore in one fatal step. She could not do such a thing. She wouldn’t! She would strip off this hateful cloak and return to the virgin’s palace and pray that no one noticed her absence. She would–
“Inside here, please,” said the eunuch.
Ji Yue frowned at the small room. “What is to happen–”
“Please,” the eunuch whispered, his eyes darting around. There were male people talking somewhere up the hallway, and from the depth of their voices, Ji Yue knew they were not eunuchs.
She slipped inside the dark room. The door shut behind her, and she shivered at the total darkness inside. Ahead, a flint sparked. Sharp and bright, it lit a single candle wick. The light grew steadily, expanding its glow until she saw Sun Bo Tao, his angled features looking like stroked gold.
She stepped forward, relief making her breath loud. His eyes widened and he quickly pressed a finger to his mouth. She abruptly stilled. With the candlelight, she was able to see more of the room. Bo Tao stood next to a writing table on which rested brush, ink stone, and paper. Then he raised the candle higher, and she saw a tiny room with no decoration at all, but she could hear echoing noises from the near wall. It felt as if a great roomstood on the other side.
Bo Tao came close, snaked an arm around her waist and pulled her tight. Her mind trembled in its fear, but her body went willingly into his arms. He leaned close to whisper into her ear.
“I meet with a Dutch envoy today. Can you speak their language?”
She shook her head, no. “But I have seen an English child’s book,” she whispered. “I think I can learn their language.”
“Excellent,” he breathed, truly sounding pleased, “but of no help today. There will be a translator, in any event. I wish you to listen to our conversation and record it as best as you can. But you must do so without the candlelight.”
She smiled. “My memory is excellent. It is how I have learned so much from helping my father.”
His grip on her waist tightened in approval. Then he guided her to the wall, lifting her hand until she touched a latch over a bamboo shutter. “Extinguish the light, then open this shutter,” he said. “There are peepholes in the tapestry. Listen and look, but do not make the tapestry move!”
“My mother does this behind the women’s screen for my father.”
He grinned as he turned back to her. “Your father was most wise in his choice of bride.”
