Sharing a Pavilion With You
Chapter 175: Please Don’t Dishonour Me

Chapter 175: Please Don’t Dishonour Me

Inside the throne room Meili did her best to be inconspicuous, hiding herself away behind a column where she hoped she wouldn’t be seen.

"Miss Mei," called the Prince in a singsong voice with a sinister edge to it.

Meili stepped out from her hiding place.

"Yes, your Highness?" she tried her hardest to sound confident, but she suspected that she was failing miserably. Even she could hear the quaver in her voice.

"Come over here and stay close by my side now, little girl. You are to be my wife after all. It won’t do at all for you to be keeping your distance from me, will it now? Shouldn’t we be getting to know each other?" he smirked.

The sounds of a renewed attack could clearly be heard through the papered doors. Shouts rang out, and the clash of metal-on-metal announced that hand-to-hand combat had commenced.

"Your Highness," Meili replied, "I’m certain you have far more important matters to be dealing with right now than me. It sounds as though your men have come under attack again. I assume you will want to head out there and join them in defending the throne room."

"I don’t see why I would," he drawled. "We’re far safer tucked away in here with the royal seal and my Emperor Father’s body."

Meili glanced in the Direction of the Emperor’s body, which was supposedly lying on ice behind the Dragon Throne. His body was just outside of her line of view, but he was not forgotten by her for an instant. She trembled slightly as the certainty of his death started to truly sink in.

"Neither of which will my little brother be willing to destroy," continued the prince. "And then of course there’s you, Miss Mei. The hidden beauty. Grown in secret by your father in the inner courtyards of the Mei Mansion. You really have no idea of the treasure you are, do you? China’s own Helen of Troy," he mused, more to himself than to her.

Meili had no idea who Helen of Troy was, but she had a fair idea who this man was, and the more she got to know him, the less she liked him.

"Come, come, Miss Mei, move closer to me as I’ve asked you to," he gestured at her to approach him.

His guards had already searched her for weapons, so he knew he had nothing to fear from her, a tiny, unarmed woman... She seethed with frustration at her helplessness. She knew that Bai Li and her brothers would be risking their lives to save her, and she wished desperately that it wasn’t so. If only she could do something useful to help them take this evil man down!

She racked her brains for something she could do, anything, as she walked closer to the rebel Prince. Her mind swirled with panic and white noise that made it impossible for her to think clearly.

And then, she stood close enough to see into the man’s eyes.

What she saw there filled her with terror. Flat, glassy; the eyes of a person without humanity... More crafty animal than human... She wondered if he had always been like this and she just hadn’t noticed, or had he been made this way by what had happened?

The man gestured at her to come closer again, a wicked little smile of delight crossing his face at her discomfiture.

She took one more tiny step forwards, deliberately staying beyond the reach of his arms.

His grin widened.

"Don’t make me come to you, little girl," he warned her, shaking his head menacingly.

By sheer force of will, she took another tiny step forward, though every ounce of her being was screaming at her not to get too close to this dangerous man.

"Thaat’s it, Meili."

She cringed as he called her too familiarly by her name.

He grabbed the long edge of her sleeve and drew her across the last foot that remained between them.

She let out an involuntary squeal which she quickly suppressed, not wanting to make this crazy man angry.

"Prince Haoran," she cried, "it’s not at all appropriate for us to touch like this before our wedding! I beg of you not to dishonour me before we are married. If I am to be your empress, I need to be able to command the respect of your men and the People. Please allow me to preserve my dignity," she begged him.

A little thrill of delight flashed across the face of the Prince to hear this gorgeous woman speak of their marriage and acknowledge that she would soon be his Empress.

It was definitely the right tactic on the part of Meili, borne of intuition rather than rational thought.

The Prince contented himself with planting a chaste kiss on her forehead, before stepping back to inspect her face and hair at close quarters.

She felt for all the world as though she was a piece of livestock being inspected for purchase. Would he part her lips and look at her teeth next? she wondered.

After creepily sweeping his eyes across her, he nodded his approval.

"Even better close up," he commented to himself.

The look that flashed across his face was no longer unfamiliar to Meili. She recognised it as desire, or maybe lust.

She shuddered with disgust. The man was ostensibly handsome, but his heart was so ugly she could think of few men she would be less willing to marry than him.

"Report, your Highness!" a soldier came pelting through the rear door and dropped to his knees before the prince.

Prince Haoran waved at the man to give his report, and Meili took the opportunity of the distraction to melt back into the crowd that surrounded him. She searched around the room for Chief Eunuch Feng, but she couldn’t see him anywhere.

Outside the throne room, Bai Li led his men in a full frontal attack on the rebel soldiers who lined the stairs and filled the portico.

It was desperate, bloody fighting where a man could see the whites of his enemy’s eyes as they battled.

Ju Rong fought at his Commander’s side, and the two men were making inroads into the defenders. But no sooner did they kill a man, then another would step forward to take his place, from some seemingly unending source of soldiers that kept pouring in to fill the gaps.

The two men fought on fiercely. It didn’t matter if there were reserves. This was Lord Mei’s ’make a sound in the east’ strategy.

"Do you think this is enough of a distraction?" Ju Rong grunted at his Commander, as he finished off a young man with a very round face and small eyes.

It was hard not to care when the men you were slaughtering looked to be in their teens.

"It has to be," responded Bai Li heavily.

He placed his boot on the chest of the soldier he had just dispatched, wrenching his sword free from where it had pierced through the man’s leather armour.

He didn’t care how many soldiers he had to kill to save Meili and destroy that unlawful pretender.

If it took all day and he had to climb over a mountain of bodies and blood, he would do it. Whatever it took...

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