Chapter 7

The shove sent my hand against the nearby tree. I hurried to inspect the jade bracelet. Perhaps the flexible chain had absorbed the impact, for it was entirely unharmed.

I did not need to look back to know it was Prince Chun again.

So although I had stumbled, this time I did not even turn my head. I simply ran for home.

“How cheap you are,” came his odious voice behind me. “He won’t give you the slightest consideration in public, then coaxes you in private with something that already belonged to you, and he’s your darling again.”

I stopped and turned, putting my hand behind my back. “What business is it of yours?” I asked coldly.

If you hadn’t led the sneering and contempt, why would he have been afraid to speak for me?

“I’m afraid my nephew will lose his wits over a little witch like you.”

Ha.

Your nephew is two years older than you, and now you want to manage him. You really do think you’re an elder.

“Then tell him.”

I turned away again, unwilling to waste words on his nonsense.

But he caught my arm. “I haven’t finished speaking. Is turning your back and walking away any way to treat an elder?”

I looked down at my wrist in his grasp, then glared up at him. “Didn’t Your Highness say I was filthy, that even the paths I walked on stank? Why touch me? Aren’t you afraid of dirtying your hands? Besides, I am the daughter of the late Grand Secretary Zeng Jingyuan. I have no family relationship with an imperial prince.”

My stare made him uncomfortable. After a long pause, he finally let go, rubbed his fingers together, and turned his face away. Stubbornly, he said, “You only turned eleven today, and you’ve already learned to exchange secret gifts with men outside your family. Is that what the late Grand Secretary Zeng taught you?”

“You!”

Again and again. First he insulted my mother; now he dragged my dead father’s name through the dirt.

I stared at him with such hatred that I could have torn into his flesh. At last, I unfastened the gold chain and gently stroked its graceful cloud patterns a few times. Then I closed my eyes, steeled myself, and flung it into the nearby pond.

Prince Chun froze. He was about to say something when I looked up at him again and asked coldly, “Secret gifts? What secret gifts? Where’s your proof?”

A crack finally appeared in his perpetually confident expression. He stared for a long time before squeezing out, “You’re ruthless.”

I curtsied. “If there is nothing else, I shall take my leave.”

“Wait. I have…”

Seeing me go, he grabbed at me again, catching the collar of my outer robe this time.

I shook out my arms and slipped neatly out of the wide-sleeved garment. Wearing only the paneled skirt and short jacket beneath it, I ran all the way back to Mother’s palace.

As soon as I entered, I felt something was wrong. Aunt Chen, Mother’s attendant, looked livid. There was not a trace of a smile on Mother’s face either.

I looked at Aunt Chen, silently asking what had happened.

With difficulty, she pulled her mouth into an ugly, stiff smile. “Consort Shu is pregnant.”