“Receiving apples?” he asked. “Not flirting with some groom?”
Was he talking about Pheasant? Did he know us? My hands trembled. But it was not possible. He could not know. We had been very careful, and I had not seen anyone around us when we had met.
“No, the One Above All. I would not dare.”
He did not speak, and my heart pounded. Could it be possible that someone had reported to him that I was not in the wardrobe chamber all the time?
“The Noble Lady?” he said.
“Yes, the One Above All.” The Noble Lady folded her hands across her abdomen and bowed.
“You know about this?”
“She is telling the truth, the One Above All.”
“Have you searched?”
“Only in the wardrobe chamber, the One Above All.”
“Search again, and ask the other ladies too. Report to me when you find them. You have my order.”
“Yes, the One Above All.”
“And let all know that if any mischief happens in the future, all of you Ladies will be held accountable. Now go.”
The Noble Lady bowed deeply and left. I wanted to leave with her. I wanted to get out of there as fast as possible.
“I haven’t dismissed you yet.” His mallet pushed harder against my chin.
I stiffened. He wanted to punish me after all. “Yes, the One Above All.”
“Have you seen a polo game?”
“What? Polo? No.”
“Then get yourself ready. Join me at the competition.” The mallet withdrew. The dragon turned around. Facing me, on the back of his robe, was another dragon coiled in a medallion. “Now, get me my morning audience robe.”
Relief washing over me, I rose and hurried out of the courtyard. In the corridor, the Pure Lady stood alone and watched me, her eyes narrowing. Jewel was not there.
When I arrived at the wardrobe chamber, the Noble Lady beckoned to me. “Look, Mei.” She pointed at a chest near the wardrobe.
I ran to open it. Inside were the stolen crowns and hairpins. After counting everything to ensure all the items were in place, I sat on the chest and sighed. Tomorrow, I would ask for locks to be put on all the chests.
“Have you received all of the missing items, Mei?” the Noble Lady asked and tilted her head to listen as one of her maids whispered to her.
“Yes. She was fast.” I eyed the maid, wondering what message she had brought.
“She should be.”
“Do you think the Emperor knows it was Jewel?”
“He might. He is not a stranger to the household conflicts.” She waved away her maid and fingered the pearls around her neck. “But I don’t think we should worry about Most Adored right now. We shall talk about the honor he has bestowed upon you.”
“Honor?”
“You didn’t hear her?” She pointed at her maid, who had whispered to her. “He’s given you the honor to sit next to him at the polo game. This was his way of rewarding you, I imagine.”
“He ordered me to join him, but not sit next to him.”
She smiled. “Had he not meant that, he’d not ask you to come to the game, and I assume you would sit with him as he receives the vassals’ vow of allegiance after the game as well.”
That was an ultimate honor I never ever had dreamed of. “But you are supposed to…”
“I suppose he has changed his mind.”
A flood of sublime euphoria overwhelmed me. “But what about you? I’m sorry, my Noble Lady.”
“Don’t be.” She strolled to the door. “This is the best outcome I could have imagined. The Pure Lady has her warning, and I keep my duty in the workshops. And the best of all—” She turned around to give me a meaningful stare. “You are part of the game now, my friend. Play well.”
“I thank you, my Noble Lady.” I gave her a deep bow, for she was the vital force that helped me spring forth and, because of her, a true ally, I slipped out of the door of treachery and leaped into a window of opportunity. I would never forget that. “I shall not disappoint you.”
Yes. I would play well. I had to.
AD 642
the Sixteenth Year of Emperor Taizong’s Reign of Peaceful Prospect
LATE SPRING
17
I sensed a change in the air that afternoon. Very subtle. Like the wind shifting its direction. People glanced at me curiously when I passed and whispered among themselves, and later that day, some eunuchs came to my bedchamber to deliver a bolt of fine silk, a pair of exquisite silver figurines playing pipa, a pair of jade combs carved with deer, and four boxes of fresh fragrances: cassia, camphor, musk, and rose mallow. Soon a gaggle of seamstresses arrived to take my measurements.
“What an honor you have received! They are treating you as if you are already Most Adored,” Plum said after the seamstresses left. She picked up the boxes of fragrances, eyes filled with envy. These were my bestowals from the Emperor, the token of his favor. No one could take them away from me, and I could do with them as I pleased.
“He has yet to summon me for the night, Plum.”