‘Everything manages to find its place,’ Lady Yi said wisely. ‘Men and women are made to fit together.’
And they seemed to fit in interesting ways at that. Bronze arms and legs writhed over the back of the mirror. In three days, she was to share her marital bed with Yang doing that. Her throat went dry.
A knock on the door made her jump. Hastily, she dragged her embroidery over her lap just as her father entered.
‘Husband.’ Lady Yi stood to greet him. ‘We are nearly finished putting Jin-mei’s dowry together. She is very excited about the wedding.’
Father nodded and laid a hand over Lady Yi’s shoulder. Her stepmother always appeared so delicate next to Father’s heavier build. ‘May I speak to my daughter privately?’
This was worse than the time Father had caught her sneaking out to the Spring Lantern Festival. With her face burning, she glanced down at her lap. The mirror wasn’t entirely covered. An image of a man lying on his back with the woman straddled on top of him peeked out from the corner of the silk. Her stepmother’s delaying tactics as she turned to make a comment to her husband gave Jin-mei enough time to pull the handkerchief over the amorous couple.
Lady Yi then exited the room, and Father pulled the stool beside her before sitting down. ‘How is my daughter?’
‘Well.’ Her voice was pitched a note too high. ‘How was Father’s trip?’
Father grunted. ‘A disaster, but everything is taken care of now.’ With a deep breath, he met her eyes. ‘I left so quickly after the betrothal, I never asked you whether you had any objections to this marriage.’
‘What objections would I have?’ she asked. ‘Mister Bao is a long-time friend of Father’s. He seems a gentleman.’
She’d looked away while saying it. Her father would undoubtedly notice. All of a sudden, she wondered if he could read the events of that fateful afternoon on her face: how she’d tried to flirt instead of walking away, Bao Yang disappearing beneath the bridge with her following like an eager young duckling. Then there was the near kiss—even if that had only been in her own imagination.
‘My only objection is having to leave you,’ she said, as a dutiful daughter should.
‘Dear girl, you can’t stay with this old man for ever.’
A tiny ache grew in Jin-mei’s chest. She would miss him. As excited as she was at the prospect of being wed to someone she found to her liking, this was the end of her childhood. She would leave home to become part of a new family she knew so little about.
‘Bao Yang said something to me that I’ve been wondering about. He told me if he was discovered, his life would be in danger.’
Her father frowned. ‘When did he say such a thing?’
‘In the park. That was why he went to hide beneath the bridge.’
Yang had made it sound as if she had the power of life and death over him. The situation was so startling and exciting that before she knew what was happening, she was beneath the bridge and practically in his arms.
‘Mister Bao isn’t in any danger,’ Father assured. ‘He must have been teasing you.’
It hadn’t seemed as though he was teasing, but she would have to trust her father on this. Yang was a guest in their villa outside the city while awaiting the wedding date. Certainly there was no danger for him there.
Father kissed her forehead. ‘Now I must go to the tribunal, but we’ll have dinner together this evening. Not too many more meals before my daughter is a married woman, hmm?’
She ducked her head shyly. ‘Yes, Father.’
He pinched her cheek, something he hadn’t done for years. She usually hated the gesture, but today she didn’t mind so much. She listened for the door to close before setting the bronze mirror aside.
‘Is everything all right?’ Lady Yi asked when she returned to her stool.
‘Yes, of course,’ Jin-mei said, picking up her embroidery.
They set about once again working on their designs, but Jin-mei couldn’t escape the nagging feeling at the back of her mind.
When she was very young, Father had explained to her that magistrates were trained to read faces in order to discern whether a subject was telling the truth or lying. The discipline was called reading the five signs. The easiest trick was to watch the eyes: look for a twitch to the left or right, rapid blinking, the inability to focus. Father’s skill had made it very hard for her to misbehave during her childhood.
Perhaps because of such training, her father’s gaze was difficult to decipher. Jin-mei had learned instead to watch his mouth. After she’d asked about Yang’s remark, Father’s mouth had tightened for half a count before twitching into a grin. For that one breath, he had been calculating what to say to her, carefully constructing his response. If she were a magistrate, she would have insisted her father was hiding something.
Fate was a funny thing. Five days ago, he had been hiding from the city guards. Today Yang was getting married to the magistrate’s daughter. Such was fate. If it wasn’t such an important occasion, he would have laughed aloud when he arrived by sedan chair at Magistrate Tan’s residence.
It was late in the evening, during the hour of the Dog, which had been deemed auspicious for them by the fortune-teller. More importantly, the sky was dark and the streets relatively empty due to the curfew.
The wedding was to be a quiet one with the festivities to take place far outside of Minzhou at the magistrate’s villa. Though the city’s constables didn’t have his name or face to attach to the earlier attack on the warlord, neither he nor Tan wanted to risk too much attention. It was enough that any rumours of impropriety surrounding Lady Tan would be immediately banished by news of her marriage.
The porters carried an empty sedan chair alongside him for his intended bride while lantern bearers illuminated the way. Attendants bearing wedding gifts lined up at the head of the procession.
Tan Li Kuo had negotiated a long list of demands on behalf of his daughter. There would be a proper bridal procession to the guest villa where Yang was staying. The bridal suite had been laid out there as well as preparations for a respectably sized banquet. His dear daughter would receive the lavish wedding she deserved.
Who would have thought the crafty official would turn out to be so sentimental?
Two red lanterns hung on either side of the gate. Tan emerged just as Yang stepped down from the sedan. The magistrate’s expression was so serious, exaggerated by the shadows of the flickering light.
Yang bowed formally. As he straightened, doubt crept in. The magistrate’s black eyes fixed on to him; judging Yang as if he were kneeling before the tribunal.
‘Honourable sir,’ Yang began, returning the magistrate’s hard gaze without flinching. ‘I have come on this auspicious day to take your daughter as my most precious bride.’
Perhaps the cold stare meant that Tan had reconsidered this hasty marriage, but that was nonsense. The entire procession wedding procession was gathered in the street.
Tan regarded him with the iron look for another heartbeat, then his stern expression cracked into a grin. ‘Why so formal?’ He chuckled, patting Yang heartily on the back. ‘We’re soon to be family.’
The show of cheerfulness was more in line with Tan’s usual demeanour, but something felt out of place about the whole situation. Perhaps that was inevitable given the nature of the arrangement. He and Tan might have been long-time allies, but they were far from friends.
Yang let out