Sharing a Pavilion With You
Chapter 126: I Fell in Love With You When...

Chapter 126: I Fell in Love With You When...

[Suggested song for this Chapter - Over the Rainbow by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole]

"Shouldn’t you tell me when you fell for me first, Li?" she asked him shyly. "After all, isn’t it men who should confess and such?"

"All in good time. I will definitely tell you that story, but I asked you first and you mustn’t keep me in suspense a moment longer."

She sighed deeply. Incorrigible man!

"I can’t really say for certain... It was a gradual thing that snuck up on me over time despite my best efforts. If I had to put a finger on the first time that I noticed my feelings for you had changed, it was probably when I discovered you and Tricky asleep together outside my tent on the royal hunt. Tricky had half-climbed onto your lap. It was a very delightful scene," the tenderness in her voice made his heart squeeze.

Good boy, Tricky! Bai Li thought. You definitely furthered my cause. He would be sure to reward that dog well after they were married...

"When did you first know that you had romantic feelings for me?" she asked him, suddenly dying to know how such a miracle had come about.

"I’m afraid it’s not a story you’ll be happy to hear. Are you sure you’re ready for it, or shall we wait until after we’re married before I tell you?" he teased her. "I’d hate for you to change your mind about marrying me. But I don’t want any secrets between us."

"I definitely won’t ever change my mind, Li," she said firmly. "And now I admit you’ve got me very curious about what this story could possibly be!"

He sighed deeply. He had always known he would have to tell her the truth one day, and he decided that now was probably the right time, before the moment for sharing it had passed, and it became too difficult.

"That day when you saw someone on your rooftop spying on you bathing..."

She sat up ramrod straight with alarm. Surely that couldn’t have been this serious and dutiful man? It would be completely out of character...

"That man was me," he said with evident discomfiture.

"Bai Li!" she squealed, covering her face in embarrassment yet again. "Noooo," she cried, her voice muffled from behind her hands. "How could that be?"

"I’m sorry Meili, I’m afraid it’s true. Let me explain what happened. It’s a sordid tale I’m ashamed to say."

She didn’t reply, continuing to hold her hands over her face, which was burning hot with a flush that threatened to make her swoon.

"The Second Prince..."

She flinched at the mention. Surely, he wasn’t there too?

"Tan Bowen..."

She flinched again. No, no, no! Say this wasn’t true!

"and I were out drinking after winning the polo match against Prince Nur. We were playing a game of truth or dare, and Tan Bowen dared the three of us to climb into the inner courtyards of your mansion to lay eyes on the mythical youngest sister of our friends the Mei brothers."

An awful kaleidoscope of puzzle pieces were rapidly dropping into place in her mind as Bai Li said these words...

Bai Li’s sudden betrothal request that happened days after the incident. Tan Bowen’s unexpected ability to drop into her courtyard to visit her. Tan Bowen’s betrothal request. Perhaps even the Second Prince’s pursuit of her...

Could all of these inexplicable events actually be explained by these young men trying to take responsibility for their folly?

And what did that mean about Bai Li’s actions, even now? How much were his feelings still coloured by his need to take responsibility for her after seeing her bathing?

"Unfortunately, you know where this sorry tale is going, Meili. We had no idea of course that you have a hot spring in your private courtyard, nor that you would be bathing in it so early in the morning."

She thought back to that fateful day. She was up particularly early to bathe in order to purify herself for a temple visit with Second Brother, she recalled.

He cleared his throat awkwardly. "Well, you know what happened next... We crept across the rooftops of the mansion and the three of us looked over the ridgeline of your courtyard roof. You were in the hot spring... Well, you know the rest..."

He tried not to make her feel worse than she already did.

"You had your back to us," he said helpfully.

He was kindly refraining from stating the obvious, that she was completely naked, she thought, with intense shame.

In normal circumstances she would have worn a bathing robe, but as part of the purification rites, Manni had removed it.

"But then you started to turn around to face us," his voice was regretful.

She squeezed her eyes tightly shut, wishing she was anywhere but here.

Perhaps she could slip across onto Tufei and gallop away into the forest to hide... Forever...

"When I saw that you were about to raise your hair which would uncover your... ahem..." he cleared his throat. "Well... you know... Anyway, when that happened, I pushed his highness and Tan Bowen off the ridgeline so that they wouldn’t see your... And that’s when you looked up and saw me."

She nodded miserably. It all made so much sense now. So that’s what had happened...

It was her brothers’ friends trying to solve a mystery.

And as fate would have it, she was purifying herself for the temple at that exact moment.

They had seen her unclad, and Bai Li had tried to stop the disaster before it ran its complete, ugly course. In the end, it was just him who had laid eyes on her completely unclothed.

She supposed that probably made that unhappy event one that had occurred twice over for him. After all, he had undressed her in the cave when she was stung by the murder hornet.

"Now you know everything," he said with some relief to have that burden off his chest.

It was actually him who knew everything, she thought dejectedly.

"As to when I knew that my feelings for you had changed... I tried to deceive myself that I sought to be betrothed to you in order to take responsibility for that fateful morning. But in truth, I fell in love with you when I first saw you."

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