Sharing a Pavilion With You
Chapter 122: Somewhere Only We Know <3

Chapter 122: Somewhere Only We Know <3

[Suggested song for this Chapter – Somewhere Only We Know by Lily Allen]

"How did you get the Emperor to agree to let me out for a day, Bai Li?" said Meili with pure joy to be out of the palace and free, in his company.

Meili rode Tufei alongside Bai Li’s warhorse, Rishi, down a quiet dirt road outside the capital.

She looked across at him shyly. The last time she had seen him had been in his command tent, when she had cried while she was confiding to him about the Second Prince’s request that she become his concubine.

"It’s amazing what people will agree to when you’re on the eve of leaving for war," he said wryly.

He was instantly sorry to have let that slip, as Meili’s smile disappeared, with the reminder that he and her two eldest brothers would soon be leaving.

"But let’s not let that ruin our time together today. You have to leave me with plenty of happy memories to draw on while I’m away in the north," he requested.

He watched her square her graceful shoulders, determined to give him exactly that, and he allowed himself a tiny smile at how adorable she was.

"Where are you taking me?" she asked him for at least the third time.

"You’ll see when we get there," he replied mysteriously.

"You have no idea how cross Tricky was when I left him behind with the Emperor," she giggled. "As soon as he realised he wasn’t coming, he turned his back on me and wouldn’t be coaxed, even with his favourite dried chicken strips."

"I can imagine. He’s a very loyal dog. He worries about you when he’s not with you."

Bai Li realised he could just as easily be talking about himself...

She nodded happily, "yes, he’s a good boy. But the Emperor loves him and spoils him rotten. So he’ll have a happy day eating too many treats without me there to stop him."

Bai Li’s palace spies had told him that Meili now played the guqin for the Emperor nightly, and slept in his bed chamber...

How could he not be concerned, as it seemed that she inched closer and closer to being taken into the harem.

Just the thought of that happening felt like a kick to his core, that left him gasping for air.

"I understand you play Tiger Roaring & Dragon Howling for the Emperor every night now?" he asked her lightly.

She nodded, "yes, that guqin turns out to be a gift for himself as much as for me," she laughed with obvious affection for their Lord.

"I hope he doesn’t tax you too much," Bai Li said solicitously. "You do a lot for His Majesty over a very long day."

"It’s not much really, Bai Li," she said modestly. "I just help him get ready, serve him tea and snacks, and play the guqin for him as he falls asleep."

It sounded very much like the role of a wife, he thought sourly.

"I know it is a lot, and you downplay it for me. You don’t need to hide the truth from me to stop me from worrying about you, Mei Meili," he chided her gently.

"It’s really not much, Bai Li," she replied earnestly. "I don’t feel too tired at all. I like to feel useful; it gives me a sense of purpose and happiness. And our Lord is very good to me really. He sometimes teases me, but he doesn’t scold me often... only when I deserve it," she amended.

"You sleep in his chamber now?" he tried to sound nonchalant.

He just couldn’t help raising it. It was like his mind was stuck on repeat in a rut where that fact was desperately troubling to him.

Her cheeks flushed, and she looked away from him, confirming for him that even she knew that this was dangerous to her. She nodded reluctantly.

"Look at me, Mei Meili," he commanded softly.

She turned back to face him, her eyes still downcast, her face hot with shame.

"It’s not your fault. You have nothing to be ashamed of. This is the Son of Heaven we’re talking about, after all, not just some ordinary man. As you’ve said before, if you can help him in some small way, that’s your honour and duty to your country and the People."

She looked up and smiled gratefully at him. "Thank you for saying that Bai Li. It’s not what I wanted. It feels awfully close to being pulled into the harem, but he seems just to want my company to play him to sleep, and to be there if he wakes during the night."

It didn’t seem that surprising to her. After all, she was not a beautiful woman, and he had so many great beauties to choose from nightly in his harem.

She sometimes wondered if that was why the Emperor enjoyed her company, because of the absence of desire, which would usually complicate his relationships with women.

Bai Li could definitively say that seeing as how the Emperor was still a man, he did not just enjoy Mei Meili’s skills on the guqin...

He didn’t need to ask her if the Emperor had touched her inappropriately. He knew Feng Bao well enough to know that if that happened, she would instantly be made a consort.

"Turn left here and pass through that bamboo grove and we’ll be there," he pointed ahead at a tall copse of bamboo, with a narrow gap in the centre, where the horses had to move to single file.

Meili rode through the tunnel of bamboo first and emerged into a beautiful sea of late-winter red plum blossoms.

There were plum blossom trees in neat straight rows as far as the eye could see, the blooms bright and charming against the black trunks and branches of the plum trees. A clear blue winter sky was high overhead, contrasting with the red blossoms in an almost overwhelming display of nature at her best.

Bai Li pulled Rishi up alongside Tufei, and secretly watched Mei Meili’s face, as her lips curled into a smile of pure delight, her eyes aglow.

She looked like a fairy princess, mounted on her golden palomino, dressed in a pale pink silk satin cape lined with white fur at the collar and cuffs, her hair half up with a delicate gold headdress, the rest falling down her back, where it caught the sunlight and shimmered and flowed like water.

"Bai Li," she breathed. "It’s so beautiful it hurts to look at it."

He closed his eyes for a few beats. "You stole those words before I could utter them..."