“Because her face is gray from sleeping next to the fireplace.”
“You mean, she’s dirty.” I rubbed my cheek. “Like me.”
Tommy gently wiped the flour from my face. “I prefer flour to ashes.”
“You should go,” I mumbled, turning away. “Susu’ll be here soon for the birthday cake.”
“Don’t you want to know the rest of the story?”
Idid,but I didn’t want Susu seeing Tommy with me in the kitchen. The old maid was a snitch. “If I tell you my name, will you leave?”
Tommy lifted an eyebrow, but he nodded.
“It’s Yut Ying.”
“Yut Ying,” he repeated, grinning like a buffoon. “I won’t forget it.”
“Stop trying to flirt, just go.”
He ducked out of the kitchen right before Susu arrived. While I put Richard’s candles on the cake, I stole a glance out the window. As if he could sense my eyes on him, Tommy turned and gave me a wave.
For the first time, Hong Kong was starting to feel like home. Which, of course, meant everything was about to go horribly wrong.
Chapter Fifteen
I was in the kitchen early the next morning trimming snap peas when I heard the screams.
Lily burst inside. “Hurry, quick! Prince Cannonball went into the parlor.”
Aiya.I rushed after her, only to come face-to-face with Sai Ma. She was still in her nightgown, flanked by Susu and Tingting. Both maids held brooms.
The parlor was a disaster. Records were strewn about the floor, and the porcelain fruit bowl was shattered, its celadon shards jutting out of the carpet like toothpicks.
“What a good girl I thought you were,” Sai Ma said, clucking her tongue. “It seems you had me fooled.”
What?“Sai Ma, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
She grabbed my arm and spun me to face the phonograph.
An enormous rat lay dead inside the horn, its pink tail dangling limply, leaving a bloody trail.
“I can clean it,” I said, assuming Susu and Tingting were too squeamish. “If someone could bring me a box and some towels—”
Sai Ma crossed her arms. “I know you were upset that you couldn’t attend the party, Yut Ying, but such a tasteless prank is highly unbecoming. And frankly, disappointing. Your aunt will be so upset.”
“Wait, you don’t think that I—”
“I personally made sure that this door was locked before the party began,” Sai Ma interrupted. “Only four people know where the key is, and three of them—your father, your aunt, and myself—were at the banquet.Youwere not.”
I gestured with my kitchen scissors. “I was working. I didn’t come into the parlor.”
“It’s true, Gah Jeh was in the kitchen,” Lily said, coming to my defense. “She couldn’t have—”
“Quiet, Lily,” snapped Sai Ma. She snatched the scissors from my hand. “Your sister didn’t do this alone. Susu saw her with someone in the courtyard.”
I grimaced. “I went out for a minute—for air.”
“She’s lying. I saw her with aboy.” Susu uttered the word like it was a sin.
