Thank heaven he was honorable.
“I think I have learned enough tonight,” she said, her voice rough.
He gave a wry chuckle. “You have learned, that is for certain. But it is not enough.”
“It is enough for tonight,” she said sternly.
He didn’t argue. And she didn’t run away. And because she thought him honorable, she pressed him for the truth.
“Will this truly help me catch the emperor’s eye?”
Of course, a cad would lie to her and say, “Certainly!” He didn’t. Instead, he shrugged. “I don’t know. But it will serve you better than memorizing the Confucian virtues.” Then he rubbed a hand over his face. “We are both fools to do this.”
She grinned. That was the answer of an honorable man. “Thank you for the lesson,” she said. Then with a quick twist, she began to scramble away. She had set up a chair for her use, and so she landed easily back in her garden despite her wounded toes.
Then she looked up to see him watching her, his face in shadow but clear enough to her eyes. “Will you come back tomorrow night?” he asked. “There is more to learn.”
“There is always more to learn,” she whispered back. It was not an answer. Let him wonder whether she would appear tomorrow night. She wasn’t sure herself.
She waved to him as she gathered the chair and slipped as quietly as possible back into her house. As she moved, she felt her clothing brush against her sensitive breasts. She felt the liquid tension in her belly, and she ached to know more.
She was so aroused that she didn’t see the lump in her bed. Not at first. Her mind was still back in the garden. But then she lifted the covers only to have that lump grumble in annoyance.
“Li Fei!” Ling Xin hissed. “What are you doing in my bed?”
“I came to talk with you, but you weren’t here.” Her cousin sat up and rubbed her eyes. “How was your conversation with Zhi Hao?”
Thankfully, the room was dark enough to cover her blush. “I learned that he has an uncle who is a eunuch in the Forbidden City.”
Li Fei sat up with a grin. “But that’s excellent! What’s his name? What does he do?”
Ling Xin slipped under the covers, keeping her voice low as she spoke. “I’ll ask him that tomorrow,” she said.
Her cousin rolled her eyes. “What do you two talk about?” she huffed. “You were gone long enough for me to fall asleep.”
A tremor of fear skated through Ling Xin’s body. Li Fei could not find out what she’d done. Much as she adored her cousin, she couldn’t trust that the girl would keep that big a secret. “Hush! No one can know what I’m doing.”
Her cousin rolled her eyes. “I won’t tell. It was my idea! But you cannot be a prim miss about this. An empress will have daggers on every side. You must learn to take what you want and not get caught!”
“I begin to fear the Forbidden City.”
Li Fei huffed out a breath. “Surely you know that every position of power has enemies. Life in the Forbidden City is very different from out here. Your father must have taught you that.”
“Not like you do.” Not like Zhi Hao did. What they told her frightened her, and she began to fear her future.
“An empress must be bold. And she must be wary of those who would hurt her. You must learn to take advantage where you can and hide when you cannot.”
Ling Xin studied her cousin with new eyes. Two years ago, Li Fei had giggled about laborers with their muscled bodies dripping sweat. The two of them had whispered about what men and women did in bedrooms and wondered what it would be like when it was their turn.
But now Li Fei spoke about daggers and deception as if it were a matter of course. During the day, she practiced singing and discussed the merits of different cosmetics. It was as though the girl had no more interest in men and was completely focusedon competing for the emperor’s hand. And yet, she already knew she would not be the one to go.
It made no sense.
“Did something happen last year?” she abruptly asked her cousin.
Li Fei pulled back. “What? No! Why would you ask that?” Her outrage was overdone. The girl was not as good at deception as she thought.
Ling Xin leaned forward, her voice dropping into a barely audible whisper. “You can trust me. I won’t say anything. You know all my secrets.” It was a lie. She would take what she had done this night to her grave.