The Last Concubine Page 8

  “You call her ‘she’.”

  “It is safer for all concerned,” Ning answered. “Did you hear that? The first cock begins to crow.” Again he had to resist the urge to cackle at his own lewd wit.

  “Thank you, Ning.” Hüi Wei rested his hand on the eunuch’s shoulder for a moment and then was gone.

  Ning shut the door and rubbed his hands together in glee. “I know not how long we have left to live, but at last, it is my turn to poke fun at Lan’xiu! I thought the day would never come! I wager she will be eating her dinner standing up for a day or two!” Then he composed his face, thinking of the tasks at hand. “First, I must discover where these people keep their chickens. And I am sure Lan’xiu will enjoy a bath when she awakes.” Chuckling to himself, Ning went to the back of the house and down the stairs to find Jia.

  Chapter 8

  HÜI WEI hurried to put the harem square behind him before the sky grew light. He had never yet been spied having lingered so long in one of the houses. As a soldier, one did not wish to give the curious reason to suppose one could be seduced from one’s duty by the pleasures of the flesh. Hüi made it his custom to be sparing in all things in the name of discipline. Besides, if only to save Mei Ju pain, he would prefer to be gone before she took her accustomed place at her window.

  He had seen her watching for him before when he visited other houses, and he schooled his face to be serious and thoughtful, although he wanted nothing more than to shout his triumph from the rooftops. Never with any woman he had deflowered had he experienced the thrill of conquest so strongly as when he had taken Lan’xiu.

  The beautiful young man’s responses had been artlessly genuine; he had never experienced the tender touch of a lover before. He had come to their bed pure, Hüi Wei was positive. Taking his virginity and giving him pleasure in the same night made him feel proud. He, an accomplished lover, had only taken Lan’xiu on the first of many steps to discovering a universe of untapped pleasure together, and it made him feel dangerously adventurous. His cock felt heavy and a burst of adrenaline made the prospect of a bath and breakfast seem tame.

  He turned his steps toward the stable. The stablemaster was not yet about, and the stable boys were still cleaning out the stalls. When they saw him, they stood with their mouths hanging open, not knowing enough even to bow. Ordinarily, he might have voiced a few sharp words to school them, but he was anxious to be off and away. He had much to think about. Instead of exhorting one of the stunned lads to do it, he saddled his own horse and trotted to the city gates.

  His soldiers were alert and on guard, he was glad to see. One of them sprang forward to open the gate for him with a sharp salute. The clatter of his horse’s hooves on the stones of the street echoed against the walls of the tightly packed houses. Hüi Wei permitted himself a smile at the thought of some sleepy merchant opening his window to shout his irritation out into the street and retreating when he saw it was the lord governor making the untimely row.

  He turned his mount east, heading toward the rising sun. In that direction lay a hill where he went often to look down upon the city and province he guarded in the name of the emperor. There were times when a man needed to be alone to think.

  When he reached the apex of the tallest hill, Hüi Wei dismounted and allowed his horse to graze in the grass. The horse was well trained for war; he would not run away and leave his rider behind.

  Looking down upon the fortress of his palace, Hüi Wei was able to pick out the seventh house of his harem, gilded by the light of the rising sun. He wondered if Lan’xiu was awake yet and if he would wake thinking of him. Hüi chuckled with pride at the thought that he had certainly given Lan’xiu enough to make him remember, even if it was only a sore ass.

  It had been some years since Hüi Wei had had sex more than one time in a single night, and the score of three in itself was a source of pride for him. There was something about Lan’xiu—of course he had submitted to Hüi’s desires most properly, denying him nothing he had demanded, but there was something secret and intriguing about him.

  His head was filled with the novelty of making love to another man, feeling again the firmness of Lan’s muscles rather than yielding womanly softness, Lan’s resilience no matter how hard Hüi had fucked him, the eagerness with which he responded, the astonished gratitude at the pleasure Hüi had given him—

  Hüi Wei closed his eyes to better savor the vision of the lushly rounded bottom he had taken, the only softness of the finely muscled body. His hand strayed to the bulge in his trousers and he rubbed himself. If only Lan’xiu had been there, by the gods’ pleasure, Hüi would have taken him again!

  His eyes flew open at the thought. Already all thoughts of killing Lan’xiu or sending him away had flown from his mind. Hüi could barely wait to see Lan again.

  And yet….

  He remembered his conversation with Ning. How difficult would it be to continue to keep Lan’xiu in his harem and prevent anyone from finding out? Would he need to school his tongue to refer to him as her? What about children? If he continued to have her lantern lit, it would soon become obvious to everyone that Lan’xiu was unable to bear children. How would he explain that? Not that he needed more children; he had been blessed with many, but a man had his reputation to think of. If he could not get his youngest wife with child, some might question his potency, a dangerous position to be in when one was a general and governor and entrusted with keeping the emperor’s northern border safe.

  The difficulty of how to keep Lan’xiu’s secret and still get what he wanted consumed Hüi’s brain. All his life he had punctiliously made his responsibility to the emperor his first priority—now his entire being cried to him to grab what he wanted! He realized that before this, doing his duty had been easy. Lying with women had been a pleasurable diversion in his busy schedule; making love to Lan’xiu was a sublime experience, one he feared he might never tire of.

  It was not that the act of a man loving a man was thought to be immoral in his society. Taking a male lover if he so chose, seeing as he had discharged his duties to emperor and ancestors by siring male children to carry his name forward, would occasion no censure or even comment. In fact, for the first time, it dawned on Hüi that many might well believe he had taken Jiang as a lover, for they were often together.

  But the exigencies of his life might not permit him to do just as he liked without consideration of his responsibilities. He had always been a private man, and flaunting a male lover was not like him. It would give his enemies ammunition and another avenue of vulnerability to pursue. Besides, it seemed that Lan’xiu preferred to dress and live as a woman, although Hüi did not understand that impulse at all. That in itself created what seemed an insurmountable difficulty.

  Happiness drained away from Hüi Wei, and he groaned in misery. What he ought to do is carry out Lan’xiu’s wish and send him to live in a monastery.

  “One cannot fall in love in a single night!” he cried out in rebuke of himself. “You are infatuated, nothing more. This isn’t real. It will pass.”

  But he knew that was not true. The arrival of Lan’xiu had proved more momentous than even his brother, Wu Min, could have hoped. Taking Lan’xiu had thrown Hüi Wei’s entire life into turmoil, and for the first time, his future was not clear to him. He did not know what to do.

  CAPTAIN WEN was waiting impatiently for his rotation assignment as commander of the household guard to come to an end so he could once again take up the real work of a soldier. Guarding the harem was not precisely challenging work. Located within a fortress city, within the walls that surrounded the palace of General Qiang, within yet another set of walls made of stone and barred with iron, it would have taken a determined man and an army to make it within to carry off any of the wives, who presumably would have proved an unwilling hostage and therefore not easy to handle.

  Seeing as no outsider ever received permission to see the concubines, there could be nothing to motivate such an attack, unless an enemy sought t
o undo the general with emotional distress. Captain Wen permitted himself a small smile at the thought. General Hüi Wei was a disciplined man, a hardened soldier. He couldn’t imagine the man would show distress even if one of his wives was to be killed. To watch him enter the walls of the household, one would have thought he was there to inspect the barracks. Besides, there were easier ways to get his attention than through the wives.

  Being as he was captain of the guard, Wen knew the true reason his men were stationed there. It was not so much to keep people out as to keep the people inside in. In particular, they were there to keep Second Wife from escaping or hurting any of the other women.

  Being a careful man, Captain Wen had made his observations of Second Wife in the spirit of knowing his enemy. For his taste, her beauty was too obvious, but he had noticed that some of his men were susceptible to the sexual snares she set for them. When Lord Jiang had posted Wen, he had suggested strongly that he change the men’s assignments weekly so that none would have time to fall under Second Wife’s spell and possibly be lured into complicity to enable one of her plots. It puzzled Wen that his men did not respond to the sweeter beauty of some of the other wives, but instead were entranced by the unstable but fascinating Second Wife.

  Therefore Wen found Jiang’s advice to be wise and followed it. To his credit, Second Wife’s schemes had been frustrated at almost every turn, but he found it fatiguing to always try to anticipate the machinations of a woman with nothing but revenge to occupy her clever brain and many empty hours to fill. Wen would welcome a posting to a front line somewhere after this. He needed a nice, relaxing war for a holiday.

  He was usually up before dawn, patrolling the square for signs of activity on the off chance Second Wife managed to find someone to carry out her errands of evil. Wen had already frustrated the attempt of one maid to smuggle a weapon in to Second Wife, so he had found it profitable to be on the alert in the small hours.

  It was thus that he was entertained and puzzled by the strange activities of last night.

  First General Hüi Wei had entered the compound. Wen had noticed the twitch of a curtain at First Wife’s windows; it was known that she always watched when Hüi Wei was within the walls to see where he went.

  Hüi Wei had seemed hesitant, which surprised Wen, as his leader was a decisive man in general. Finally Hüi went completely around the square, as if he knew not which house he planned to visit although the lantern burned brightly at the seventh.

  After Hüi Wei was admitted, Wen expected nothing further of note and had returned to his quarters to nap, rising again after the midnight bell was struck to witness Hüi Wei leave as was his habit. The moon was high, although a mere crescent in the sky, but the stars were bright enough to see by had there been anything to see.

  Hüi Wei lingered within the seventh house. At least, so Captain Wen surmised. It was possible that Hüi Wei had merely paid a short courtesy call and left promptly, but Wen had observed the Princess Lan’xiu when she walked in the square or visited with First Wife. She was one of the few women whose beauty he could appreciate. Like Second Wife, Lan’xiu was quite lovely, but despite her beautifully sculpted face, a softer quality seemed to shine from within. Despite her obvious unhappiness, there was no hardness in her expression.

  Therefore Wen assumed that Hüi Wei had found good reasons to remain within the seventh house. Captain Wen returned to his quarters to take another nap because it was not part of his job to record Hüi Wei’s comings and goings. When he arose to make his first patrol at dawn, the sky was just welcoming the sun, but it was still mostly dark. A movement caught his eyes and he was astonished to see Hüi Wei hurrying across the square. His soldiers opened the gate for the general, and he slipped away before the first rosy fingers of dawn could reach into the square.

  That was very interesting indeed.

  Slivers of light at two windows told Wen that several other occupants of the household also found the general’s activities of interest.

  No light burned in the second story windows of Lan’xiu’s house, but naturally the lamps burned in the kitchens as breakfast was being prepared. Wen was about to turn away when a rectangle of gold caught his eye and the princess’s eunuch emerged from the kitchen door, looking about the square in a suspicious manner. This was just the sort of activity Wen was trained to watch for.

  Accordingly, he kept his eyes trained on the slim man, expecting to see him slip away to another house, perhaps with a message or even a weapon. Being as the princess and her retainer were new, there was no telling what mischief they meant to get up to, not that Wen was unequal to the task. And the eunuch was rather attractive, so it didn’t hurt the eyes to watch him.

  Of all the lurid possibilities that occurred to Wen, he never expected to witness the retainer of a princess steal to the communal kitchen gardens, take a guarded glance around and then sneak into the hen house! When the eunuch emerged, holding a lifeless chicken by the head, the body dangling from his hand, Wen almost laughed out loud. He reproved himself, for it was possible this was some poison plot, but then he laughed again as the eunuch scuttled back into the seventh house, trying to stuff the chicken inside his robe.

  He would have to inquire of the cook later. Perhaps this plot was nothing more than the princess expressing a desire for chicken soup, but he would need to make sure. Wen laughed quietly to himself and then sighed. It would be good to get back to border patrol.

  Chapter 9

  “WILL you wear the primrose or the jade green?” Ning asked, hovering at the wardrobe.

  “I will wear the silver.” Lan’xiu said listlessly, watching the rain obscure the view across the square as it streamed down her window.

  “First Wife has invited you to meet the other wives formally for the first time. You must look your best,” Ning scolded. “That gray is dull, fit for sitting by the window on a rainy day, that’s all. Or scrubbing the floor. You should give it to one of the maids. The idea of you going about in the color of mud or sand!”

  “It has a purple lining,” Lan’xiu said.

  “Brilliant!” Ning said, sarcasm heavy in his voice. “You can wear it turned, inside to the outside. What is amiss with you? You are a princess; you must put on a show worthy of your rank!”

  “I am no princess here,” Lan’xiu said.

  The desolation in her voice made Ning’s heart ache for her. He knew however much she might dread meeting the other wives, it was the fact that her lantern had remained dark in the weeks that followed Hüi Wei’s first visit that made her so sad. However, no matter how closely their lives were entwined, this was not a subject he could discuss openly. Any servant would be forbidden from speaking freely about the master. “Lan’xiu, you are the most beautiful princess in all of China. If you dressed in a rice sack and bare feet you would outshine all of those women anyway.”

  “Then it doesn’t really matter what I wear, does it?” Lan’xiu pointed out waspishly. “And have you checked every princess personally by way of comparison?”

  In an odd way, Ning rejoiced to hear her snap; at least she was not sinking into the slough of despond if she was still able to ignite a spark of anger. “You do no honor to your husband if you dress like a servant. Nor to your hostess. First Wife has been very gracious to you and she is not required to treat you well. Besides, you do yourself no honor to wear your emotions on your sleeve in public. That is not how you were brought up.”

  “You are right, First Wife has been most kind,” Lan’xiu said, bowing her head. The fact that Mei Ju could have treated her cruelly with impunity was true; as first wife, not even Hüi Wei would have rebuked her if she had ignored, mistreated, or even struck Lan’xiu. “It was wrong of me to give way. I will wear the turquoise robe with the chrysanthemums in her honor.”

  “A very auspicious choice, Lan’xiu. And a delicate compliment for First Wife,” Ning approved. Although he would never call her by name, he knew well Mei Ju was named for the flower. He withdrew the hanfu in ques
tion, a shimmering turquoise silk heavily embroidered with gold chrysanthemums at the neckline, hem, and sleeves. He selected a black under-tunic with gold and green designs to peek out at the neckline.

  Lan’xiu stood patiently as Ning arranged her green satin sash, embroidered with cranes of good luck, and hung the ornaments of silver coins and carved jade beads from the buckle attached to the sash. She sat before her mirror so Ning could place jeweled sticks in her hair; her favorites, topped with cloisonné butterflies enameled in rainbow colors. Delicate antenna of wire quivered with every movement, making the pearl tips move gracefully as she inclined her head.

  The same long silver earrings dangling with the turquoise drops adorned her ears. Ning slid a ring that had belonged to Lan’s mother on the middle finger of her left hand. It was shaped like a dragonfly and the body was studded with gems. The wings were almost transparent, woven of thin wire into lacy swirling patterns to resemble the actual wings of the insect, and large enough to extend over the back of her hand.

  He stood back to assess her appearance and smoothed back a stray hair. Then he powdered her face one last time and touched up her already reddened lips. “You look beautiful, as always, Lan’xiu. The gods will make the other wives turn jade green with envy.”

  Lan’xiu gave a sigh but her lips curved into a smile that hurt Ning to witness, although he would not burden her with his feelings. He could not know how she felt after her one night with the general, but if only as a matter of pride, it had to gall that her lantern had remained dark and her nights cold and lonely. And she went now to face the very women who knew better than anyone that she had been left alone since Hüi’s first visit.

  “Do not let them see how you feel,” Ning said quietly, his mouth near her ear in case of eavesdroppers. “It would not be seemly in a princess.”