Sharing a Pavilion With You
Chapter 153: Princess Sofya and Mei Renlong

Chapter 153: Princess Sofya and Mei Renlong

[Suggested song for this Chapter – Don’t Speak, No Doubt]

Sofya was having an awful nightmare that frightened her so much that the scream from her dream followed her into wakefulness, until she could hear herself giving a long blood-curdling scream.

She sat up suddenly and looked around her in confusion. Where was she?

Mei Renlong came striding across the tent to sit by her bedside, and the bloody scene from the bamboo forest came flooding back to her in vivid colour, such that she couldn’t help panting for air and clutching at her chest.

"Princess, Princess," Mei Renlong called gently to her, taking her hand in his, "you’re okay. You’re safe now. Everything’s fine. You’re in Commander Bai’s camp. Your maid Terbish, is in good health. She’s just fetching you some medicine. You fainted in my arms back in the forest, and you’ve been running a fever since I got you back to camp yesterday."

"Was Terbish injured?" she asked him anxiously.

"No. Our soldiers helped me kill all of the bandits who kidnapped you both, and your maid hadn’t been injured or touched by them. We arrived in the nick of time," he gave her a grave look of admonishment. "Any later and it doesn’t bear thinking about."

"Don’t scold me, Mei Renlong," tears started to pour down Sofya’s cheeks. "I know, I know, alright? How could I be oblivious to what you saved us from?"

"I’m sorry," the man was softened by her reaction.

So she did understand the seriousness of the situation she had put herself in, after all.

"Don’t cry. You’re safe now. No one will hurt you anymore. Your Father’s men are on their way to take you back home where you belong."

She started to cry even harder.

"No, Mei Renlong!" she sobbed. "I don’t want to go home! I can’t! I came all the way here at great risk, nearly losing my life, to escape my home. To escape Father and the marriage he has in store for me. He wants me to marry Prince Dayan, Mei Renlong!" she cried. "Surely even you in the capital have heard of his reputation? It’s the most famous thing about him."

"I know about your marriage arrangement, Princess," he said softly. "My meimei sent me a message about it, knowing you were on your way here. She was very worried about your safety. Thank goodness she did, or no one would have known you were missing," he spoke seriously to her.

It didn’t do the girl any good to downplay the very narrow escape she had just had.

"Running away is not the answer," he said, and she closed her eyes against his words, as he reminded her of her Father.

"Marriages are decided by the parents, and you are a princess. Your marriage was always going to be a political one. You know that."

"But I didn’t know that I was going to meet you, Mei Renlong. That I would lose my heart to you," she looked at his familiar handsome face piteously, her beautiful eyes glistening with tears.

She was breaking his heart, this girl, but he had to be strong... for both of them.

"Princess, be that as it may, there’s nothing you or I can do about it. Without the blessing of both sets of parents, we can never marry. What would you have me do? Elope with you? How would we live? Where would we live? Both of us would be cut off from our families and from our friends, never to see them again. That’s not any kind of life. It’s not the life I would want for you."

"I don’t care," she said. "I just want to be with you. If we were married, I could live anywhere with you. I don’t need a palace. I don’t need my family. You’re enough."

She knew she was laying her heart on the line, laying everything on the line, for him. But she loved him so much, she had to do it. If she didn’t try everything she possibly could, how could she live with the result? She would forever be wondering ’what if?’

"You don’t care if you never see your gege again?" he asked her gently. "Or Meili? Or Terbish? Your Mother?"

"They’ll come around," she pouted. "Not everyone will cut us off."

"They’ll have to," he said harshly. "The Khan will order it. So will my Father. I’ll also be cut off by my family. I’m the eldest son, Princess. The hopes and expectations of my parents ride on my shoulders. I have responsibilities to my younger siblings," his face was closed.

"I’m the Chief Strategist on the frontline of a war. Commander Bai relies on me and needs me. I can’t just walk away from these things, Princess. I too have a marriage my parents arranged for me when I was a child. The hopes and dreams of that woman and her family would be ruined, through no fault of her own. I’m not that kind of person, Princess. I’m sorry and I know it’s hard, but if I was that sort of a man, I don’t think you would have feelings for me in the first place."

"I know all this, Mei Renlong, but still I need to try. If I didn’t try my hardest for us, I couldn’t live with myself."

He gripped her hand tighter. "And that’s what makes you, you, Princess. You’re an incredible woman. I wish things were different, but you and I are not fated to be together in this lifetime," his face was a bitter mask.

Her face crumpled on hearing these words from him, and she reached up and covered his lips with her hand. His eyes widened at the intimate gesture.

"Don’t say anything more, Mei Renlong," she whispered. "It’s too painful. I don’t want to hear it. Leave me now. I want to be alone for a while."

He rose to his feet.

"I’m sorry, Princess," he said sadly. "I wish things were different."

She lay back down on the bed and turned away from him.

He looked wretchedly at her back, wishing this wasn’t the way they would part.

"Princess," he said before he left her tent, "now that you’ve run away like this and put your parents through so much worry, you have a potential opportunity to escape this marriage with Prince Dayan. Your Khan Father will be angry, but remorseful. Take advantage of it before he hardens his heart again," he advised her, before he turned and strode outside.

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