Chapter 2

My feet went stiff, rooted to the ground.

Why had I taken the hill path just to save a little time?

One careless step, and I had walked into trouble that could cost me my life.

But the girl looked barely twenty, so pitiful with that great belly. My heart softened despite myself.

Gritting my teeth, I helped her up.

First I stripped off her conspicuous long jacket, bundled it into the bottom of my basket, and covered it with my things. Then I took off my own outer garment and gave it to her.

I wiped the blood and tears from her face with a handkerchief.

Next came the glittering gold and jade in her hair. I undid that towering hairstyle and combed it into an ordinary married woman’s bun.

Finally, I tore the pearls off her shoes, shoved them into her pale fingers, and patted dust all over her.

Only then did I let out a small breath.

I looked her over again.

There was still something wealthy about her, a pampered air that would not quite disappear, but she no longer stood out as she had before.

At a glance, she might pass for a rich family’s daughter fallen on hard times.

I caught her hand and repeated my instructions.

“You’re a cousin from my side of the family. You married a wealthy merchant in the next county as his concubine, but his new wife turned out to be a nasty piece of work and drove you out. With nowhere else to go, you came to me.”

“Understand?”

She nodded firmly and called me Cousin without prompting, then lowered her head and followed in my footsteps.

I thought that finding a pregnant woman and spending all that time disguising her would mean getting down the hill late.

But she followed steadily without a word, never falling behind. We actually reached the entrance to Yangliu Village before sunset.

Sister Li, the village’s greatest gossip, was sitting outside her door on a rickety bamboo stool, picking vegetables from a square basket and tossing the rotten leaves to her chickens.

Her eyes swept up and down, skimmed past me, and fastened on one of the woman’s embroidered Sichuan-brocade shoes.

“Well, well, Midwife Lin. I never knew you had such grand relations. Why haven’t they taken you to town so our Xiaohua can be a young lady for once?”

The spite in her voice was enough to turn the sky sour. I rolled my eyes, planted my hands on my hips, and stepped forward to give as good as I got.

“Spare me your sour grapes! One look at her face should tell you she’s my cousin.”

“She had a bit of luck—a rich man in the next county took a fancy to her.” I clicked my tongue, looking disgruntled. “But the wife he married afterward is a jealous one. Drove my cousin out while he was away on business. Otherwise she’d still be living in comfort.”

Sister Li’s expression changed at once. She dropped her work and looked regretfully at that pretty face, still lovely beneath the dust.

“At least she’s had a taste of a good life. And a pretty girl can always marry again. Don’t you worry.”

There was a decent thing to say, for once. My expression softened, and I motioned my cousin inside.

Then I turned to take one last jab at my old adversary.

“My cousin’s carrying a baby. When her man comes home, he’ll be falling over himself to fetch her back.”

The closed door shut out Sister Li’s scolding about people who couldn’t recognize a kind word.

Only then could I breathe. With a start, I realized my back was soaked in cold sweat.

“Mama!”