17 The Uninvited

~CHONG HO~

Normally Chong Ho would have had a pleasant meal at home in the shaded courtyard. His cook was excellent, and solitude suited him. Alas, today he had to entertain the uninvited yet important visitors.

Lady Tien Lyn did not commandeer much of his attention. The maiden was listless after the long journey from Xichon. The only words she offered him in a half-audible voice were: "Greetings, Master Chong Ho. May the Celestials smile upon you for your hospitality." Then her gaze fell down to her spoon and remained fixed on its ineffectual circling through the bowl of soup. She looked like she had been doing little else but crying for days. Given the ladies' circumstances, he could hardly blame the girl. In fact, he should have been grateful she was not salting his soup with more tears just now. But, for some reason, the paper-thin resolve irritated him. He wished she'd just cry already.

The girl's mother, Lady Chen Guang, was irritating in exactly the opposite way, by showing her sturdier fiber, the deceptively supple silk. And like the silk bonds, she was unyielding. She skillfully peppered the small talk with many references to his Benefactor.

Ho did not need his years of bargaining experience to detect that she was about to pitch a deal unfavorable to him.

Finally, Lady Chen Guang had enjoyed, and (of course!) graciously complimented the delicate dumplings.

"I will make sure the cook is rewarded, Madam." He smiled ruefully to his thought, They would have been that much more succulent were they savored in peace.

"It is a mark of the cultured man to be gracious with the domestiques." She dithered.

Was he right to suspect she meant 'common' not 'cultured'? If she did, was it an accidental slip or was he supposed to notice? He doubled his vigilance, but the lady's attention turned to her young charge.

The daughter must have had a supernatural ability to sense her mother's pointed glances. Without lifting her eyes from that blessed spoon, she immediately asked for permission to retire. "I need to recover from the fright the bandits gave me."

The bandits had been polite, in his opinion. They had relieved the ladies of their silver but wondrously left them unspoiled otherwise. Lady Chen Guang made an emphasis on that last detail, and Ho who caught Tien Lyn's furtive look at him as she bowed, reckoned that the 'unspoiled' part was true. The girl's beauty did have an innocent quality. A perfect oval for a face, unblemished skin as pale as he'd ever seen, unbitten lips. The brows arched gracefully over the semi-circle of long dark lashes. He was not quick enough to look directly into her eyes before she lowered them to her slippers (she likely welcomed the change from the spoon), and slipped away with drilled-in grace.

He pitied her for a minute, but it quickly gave way to resentment. There could be only one reason for her to be paraded in front of him bypassing the formalities. This was a prelude to negotiations. If he was to be treated as a lowly merchant, who needed to inspect the merchandise, he might as well act like one.

"My Lady," Ho ventured, "the Benefactor informs me in the letter that you have a private message for me."

Lady Chen Guang smiled ever so sweetly. "Master Ho, it would be better that from now on I am called Mistress Dew-on-a-petal."

He nodded. The Benefactor was able to muddy the waters and conceal his niece's escape from the purge of Chen family. It was only prudent to assume a different identity. "How can I serve our mutual Benefactor, Mistress Dew-on-a-petal?"

He was rewarded by the almost imperceptible clenching of her jaw. She hid it well, but the humiliating deception did rankle her. Yet her manner remained friendly enough and almost sincere: "Master Ho, the Benefactor does not ask you for service. He is already immensely pleased with your managing his assets."

Ho waited for the pitch.

"He wishes to honor you with a bride from his own bloodline. For the moment we cannot openly divulge Tien Lyn's lineage, of course. I have papers---"

Of course, you do. He accepted the scroll from her hands. It verified that Tien Lyn was a true-born daughter of a barbarian lordling, newly an Imperial citizen, and his Shen concubine. A decent lineage, and would raise no suspicions when she wed a rich merchant in Port Sutao.

A perfect match for me, particularly given the beauty and the gentle upbringing, the rational part of his mind supplied.

Mei was rough around the edges, and I've loved it about her, his heart argued, as the old wound reopened.

Ho had played this game for close to a decade now, avoiding every matchmaking offer. He refused his family's suggestions of hearty country maidens. He refused his business associates' offers of daughters with tempting dowries. No matter the offer, he politely yet firmly refused to remarry. This time he was trapped, but he gave it his best, asking after the dowry. And tried not to think about the one-horned cow called 'Sprite' Mei brought in, the sole reason he was allowed to marry her so young. It was the meanest bovine in the world, and he'd loved it. They probably had eaten the terrible beast long ago.

Dew-on-a-petal assured him that while the bandits had taken the silver they'd missed a small collection of family jewelry, robbing him of his only objection. Not that he could have refused the girl even if she were presented to him barefoot and in rags, something that would have put Tien Lyn on even footing with Mei. And Mei's toes had been so tiny that when she had let the carps in the fish pond nibble on them, Ho had worried they would bite them off.

He rubbed his forehead to chase the memory away. The Benefactor had uplifted him far above his station, which allowed him to defy his filial duty. He addressed the Benefactor as a 'father' both in his letters and in his heart, and he would not forswear this fealty over a personal desire. He would obey. Yet he felt disappointed that the nobleman had bestowed this particular reward on him without bothering to ask him first.

Meanwhile, Dew-on-a-petal continued in a tactfully lowered voice: "Master Ho, my Uncle mentioned that I might need to approach you with a diversion of sorts, but I am not a politicking woman."

He suppressed an exasperated sigh, not a single politicking fiber in her, not a shred, not an ounce!

"Master Ho, I carried six children to my husband. Six beautiful children," she paused collecting herself. "But you know what the faeries say about the mother's qi? Then when it's not strong enough----"

Ho froze. The abominable woman knew about Mei and the baby.

"Tien Lyn is my only surviving child. Her four brothers and a sister perished. I've grieved. I've asked the ancestors why I was punished. Through all these years my first-born, Tien Lyn, lived."

He lowered his head unable to look at the purring woman. The rational part of him understood that she was desperate to arrange the best possible outcome for her daughter, Ancestors, she might have even been trying to be kind to him.

"The living must comfort each other..."

Whatever her intentions, this was absurd. He would not confide in a complete stranger when he did not talk of Mei and the baby even to his kin. He jumped to his feet as if in a dream, and fled his own house on stiff legs.

Dew-on-a-petal's mouth did not hang open, but he saw her pinch her lips in disapproval. She could go visit with the demons, they will be glad to take her in their fold.