Sharing a Pavilion With You
Chapter 30: The ’Good Man’

Chapter 30: The ’Good Man’

Mei Meili had already had a little turn playing the precious instrument, but First Brother had stuck his head into the tent and told her to go to sleep, so she sat on the edge of her bed in her cosy tent admiring Tiger Roaring and Dragon Howling, which sat with pride of place on the side table.

She had asked Manni to leave a candle lit so she could keep admiring the guqin. She was beyond excited to get to know the zither better when she got back home.

Her mind was a whirl of emotions so that even though she was completely exhausted, she wasn’t ready for sleep yet.

The images of the past two days flashed in her head, tumbling over each other wildly despite her efforts to calm her mind.

Natural beauty, riding freely into the horizon, pain, fear, shame, Bai Li, her beloved Tricky, her brothers’ arrival, the banquet, Li Fengfeng’s cruelty, no hated veil, playing ’On the Frontier’ with Tan Bowen...

The excitement of these two days felt like more than she had experienced in the last five years.

Even with all of the pain and fear of yesterday, the shame and devastation on discovering Bai Li had treated her wound, she wouldn’t trade this wonderful, beautiful, messy, free existence for anything...

Her heart swelled with a quiet joy at simply living what she had only heard about and had so desperately yearned for, for as long as she could remember.

Her last thought for the night was that she would never be able to get to sleep.

Tricky quietly got up from her side and padded outside. He lay down at the tent entrance, sleeping very lightly.

The change of environment was a lot for the dog as well as for his mistress. His ears twitched in his sleep at every chirp and rustle in the deep night. He bristled and growled sleepily at the constant step and call of the perimeter guards.

Bai Li wasn’t on duty tonight, but he too found himself unable to sleep, and he was drawn, inexorably, towards Mei Meili’s tent.

He walked quietly towards the Mei encampment in the depths of the night. He could see through the hide of her tent that she had left a candle burning through the night. He hoped Manni had secured it for her. Being outside in a tent was a much more volatile environment for fire than a bedroom in a mansion.

He was frightened for the naïve young woman’s safety out here. She was swimming so far beyond her abilities in these political waters filled with sharks. A literal babe in the woods.

There was a time when he had had faith in her brothers to protect her, but the last twenty-four hours had shot holes in that pretty fairytale.

Like now, for instance, one of them should have been on guard outside her tent. Here he was, able to approach her without the least hindrance.

The commander was pleased when he saw that Tricky slept at the entrance, the corners of his mouth curving upwards.

Good boy! he thought approvingly. You’re smarter than her brothers...

The dog opened one black eye and peered up at him. He recognised this man as a good one. The one that had cared for his mistress. She trusted him. Eye closed. Back to his light sleep.

Bai Li slid down next to the Chow Chow. He intended to sit for a while until his state of high alert relaxed enough for him to be able to get some sleep.

Tricky gave a quiet chuff and moved to rest his fluffy head on the man’s lap. Bai Li chuckled softly and gave him a head ruffle, resting his hands in the dog’s thick fur.

He liked to think that Mei Meili stroked and brushed this fur every day too. He laughed inwardly at himself. He was no better than a teenage boy mooning over his chosen sweetheart.

Mei Meili awoke in the middle of the night and looked about the candlelit tent in confusion. Where on earth was she? Oh, that was right, in her tent on the Royal Hunt. Where was Tricky? He wasn’t in his usual spot guarding beside her bed.

She tiptoed outside to look for him.

The dog’s cream fur glowed in the moonlight at the entrance to her tent.

Meili was startled when she saw that he slept with his head and half of his body on a soldier’s lap. She peered cautiously into the man’s face in the dim light.

Oh! It was Bai Li! What was he doing here? Had the man come to call on her but found her asleep? Or was he perhaps worried about her because of Li Fengfeng’s attack?

It was not that surprising she guessed, that a soldier with such a strong sense of duty like Commander Bai had, would take upon himself protective responsibilities towards Lord Mei’s only daughter.

She thought again how strange it was that Tricky-Wu liked Bai Li. It put the soldier in a rarified class with only her Third Brother. Even Fifth, who constantly snuck the dog treats, was not accepted by Tricky.

She felt her heart clench tenderly at the sight of these two, man and dog.

She hurried inside and fetched a warm blanket, laying it lightly over them both, before hurrying back into her tent to climb into her snug bed.

She couldn’t afford to care for a man like Commander Bai; a handsome, popular, famous, military man. He was a man as high as the stars and the moon, and she knew instinctively that she would only be hurt if she allowed herself to truly care for him.

It was hard not to daydream though... She hoped he would stop pursuing a marriage with her because she knew that eventually the temptation would encourage self-deception.

She planned to save her heart and her love for the ’good man’ she knew her parents would choose for her in the future, and who her mother had often spoken of, ever since her early childhood.

A man who loved her as she was, who didn’t require her to change, who belong to her and her alone...

It wouldn’t do to have an unrequited crush on this eminent son of a General just because he was her saviour... though she felt the increasing pull of her heart.

Did he have to make it so hard on her? Saving her life, caring for her while she was in pain, holding her while she cried, and now protecting her and winning over her Tricky-Wu.

It was almost like she was the target of some campaign by the man to win her heart so she would agree to their families being joined by marriage...

She sighed, now she was just imagining things. How could he possibly know Li Fengfeng was going to try to do away with her?

Outside the tent, Bai Li smiled and pulled up the blanket she’d given him.

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