Tang Dynasty China, 824 A.D.
Dao was raised as a servant, but when her half-sister flees an arranged marriage to a chieftain, Dao is sent in her place as Princess An-Ming. Such a future is better than she could have hoped for, yet she dreads a passionless union with a stranger.
Taken as a virtual hostage to the Imperial court, Kwan-Li is torn between his people and his duty to the emperor. He is bound by honor to escort the princess safely across the wild and untamed steppe, but the greatest danger they face on the long journey may be the forbidden temptation of each other…
An Illicit Temptation
Jeannie Lin
Dear Reader,
The Princess’ Forbidden Love continues from where My Fair Concubine ended and shows a journey into Khitan in Inner Mongolia, a land that at the time was considered by the Tang Dynasty to be savage and primitive. It was easy to see parallels to the American West and interactions with Native American tribes. For this reason, I think of Dao’s journey as a “Tang Dynasty Western” akin to the stories of frontier romance in historical westerns.
The research for this short story nearly equaled the amount I collected for My Fair Concubine. This time was at the cusp of change for Khitan culture. The Khitans largely had an oral tradition until during the later part of the Tang Dynasty when they united under an emperor and formed their own autonomous empire under the Liao Dynasty. Unlike many other peoples who were consumed by the Chinese, the Khitan were dedicated to preserving their culture even as they adopted many Han customs.
I tried to recreate Khitan culture from a blend of information from later Khitan writings, brief references in Tang records, and used Mongolian culture to fill in the gaps. I hope the steppe emerges as a wild and untamed land with its own sense of power and beauty. A perfect place to discover love!
More historical background and information on my stories can be found online at http://www.jeannielin.com.
Acknowledgments
Sometimes a story just flows from your mind onto the page. This is not that story.
I must dedicate this story to my husband, who was busy setting up a nursery and buying a mini-van while I was hospitalized and attempting to type up this new story. I owe a huge debt of gratitude for Shawntelle Madison and Amanda Berry for offering emotional and writing support during a very trying time. I wouldn’t have been able to finish if you weren’t with me every step of the way. Thank you to Bria Quinlan and Stephanie Draven for lending your tough love and critical skills to the final product. Special thanks goes out to Alvania Scarborough and Sandy Raven for their input on horses and horsemanship. I’ve only ridden a horse once and he didn’t particularly like me.
Contents
Chapter One
Tang Dynasty China, 824 A.D.
Pretending to be a princess wasn’t any hardship. Dao hadn’t grown up in a palace, dressed in silk and jewels. She didn’t miss her cot in the Chang family’s servant quarters. Now there were no more clothes to mend, floors to sweep, chamber pots to empty. The only thing required of her was that she recline inside a gilded palanquin while the wedding procession made its way through the steppe toward the Khitan central capital. She even had an army of her own attendants to wait on her. No hardship at all…another day of it and she would go mad.
Dao stabbed her needle through the eye of crane she was embroidering. The afternoon was lazy and warm as the palanquin rolled over the wild grass of the northern plains, lulling her to sleep with the rhythm. It seemed that was all she did on this journey: embroider or nap.
With a snap of her wrist, she pulled the curtain aside. A square of sunlight opened up revealing the endless green of the steppe and cloudless sky beyond. Khitan tribesmen on horseback surrounded the procession to serve as her escort. She was in an exotic land and she was squandering the experience in meager glances through this tiny window.
She searched among the riders. “Kwan-Li!”
Kwan-Li was tasked with bringing her to Khitan to be married to the khagan, the chieftain over all chieftains of this land of nomadic tribes. The khagan was without a wife so the two empires had negotiated for a peace marriage.
Kwan-Li was astride a horse at the head of the procession and absorbed in conversation with one of the tribesmen. Despite his responsibilities, she didn’t have to repeat herself before he broke away to ride up alongside the window. Princesses gave commands and others obeyed. Dao still felt a foolish little thrill whenever it happened.
Kwan-Li was tall and looked more like an imperial soldier than a statesman. He wore the traditional deel, the heavy folded tunic favored by the nomads, except for his was fashioned from a vibrant blue brocade. A broad yellow sash wrapped around his waist, highlighting a lean, masculine frame. His features were strong, almost harsh, with a distinctiveness that she couldn’t quite place.
“Princess An-Ming,” he acknowledged, his expression stern.
The court had also seen fit to bestow an imperial name upon her. It meant Bright Peace and she quite liked it. The name sounded very princesslike to her ears unlike her own name, which simply meant Peach. She was so very tired of being plain.
“I want to ride,” she said.
He blinked once. “Now?”
His eyes had the sharpness of an eagle’s with gold flecks within them that caught the sun.
“Yes, now,” she said simply, pleasantly.
The procession continued to move along. He kept pace with her as he took in the caravan of wagons transporting gifts from the imperial court as well as an army of attendants to take care of her every need.
“It’s nearly time for us to stop and rest, isn’t it?” she asked.
She could see from the uncompromising line of his jaw that it wasn’t.
“The princess might find it more suitable to practice at the end of the day when the sun is low,” Kwan-Li suggested coolly. This is what a refusal sounded like from the very proper diplomat.
“I’m not afraid of a little sunlight. Have a horse ready for me when we next stop for rest.”
Dao let the curtain fall back in place, ending the discussion. When she stepped out of the palanquin an hour later, the Khitans were tending to the horses while her attendants erected canopies set on bamboo poles to shield the party from the sun while they had their tea and refreshments.
A tent was erected for her privacy. Moon, her personal attendant, helped Dao change out of the light silk hanfu into the sturdier deel. The