Chapter 3

I didn’t stop Jiang Qingsong.

The more often we did it, the better my chances of getting pregnant.

Again, he stayed until daybreak. Whether or not there was aphrodisiac powder involved seemed to make little difference to him.

Numb and exhausted, I curled lazily beneath the quilt.

With his eyes half closed, Jiang Qingsong showed no hurry to leave. He put his arms around me from behind.

“Liu Wenyan, why did you seduce me?”

I was an accomplished liar. Without a moment’s thought, I gave him the answer a man most likes to hear.

“Because I like you, of course, my lord.”

“I fell in love at first sight. That’s why I tried everything to tempt you.”

Jiang Qingsong said nothing. He simply buried his face against my shoulder and gave a low hum. “At least you have good taste.”

Afterward, he brought me fresh water again. This time, however, he wrung out the cloth himself and carefully washed my body.

From that day on, Jiang Qingsong resumed the midnight rounds.

Having had a taste, he could never pass my cell without slipping inside and refusing to leave me alone.

When I called him “Qingsong,” he would crush me to him, stroke my cheek, and tell me hoarsely that he loved me.

I gave him the answers he wanted, but I knew perfectly well that a man’s words at such a moment could never be trusted.

Now there were fewer than ten days until my execution, and I grew increasingly anxious.

By my reckoning, my monthly bleeding was seven or eight days late.

I was very likely pregnant.

Getting a condemned prisoner with child was hardly honorable. Jiang Qingsong probably wanted nothing more than pleasure. If I told him, he might never report it.

So after he left at dawn, I called another jailer over. “Sir, my monthly bleeding is very late… I may be pregnant.”

“The law allows a pregnant woman’s execution to be postponed. Could you please ask a physician to examine me?”

I expected to have to argue, but to my surprise the jailer treated me very kindly.

He reported it to the warden, who quickly brought a physician.

As the physician felt my pulse, my heart nearly leaped into my throat.

After a while, he asked the warden, “How long has this girl been here?”

“Two or three months.”

The physician frowned in puzzlement. “How strange. Her pulse suggests she’s only a month into her pregnancy.”

I covered my belly in delight. At last, I could breathe.

It seemed I had conceived that first night with Jiang Qingsong.

For a moment, the warden looked flustered.

Distractedly, he saw the physician out, then hurried away himself, promising to arrange somewhere for me to stay.

I knew pregnant prisoners were sent to the outskirts of the capital to await childbirth, then brought back to the dungeon.

Security there would be far lighter. Escaping would be easier too.

I waited and waited. Near dusk, a curtained sedan chair was carried into the dungeon.

Its curtains were silk, and two plump cushions lay inside. One look at their sheen told me how fine the fabric was.

The warden urged me on. “Miss Liu, why are you standing there? Get in.”

“Oh, how could I forget? We can’t have you entering that chair in prison clothes.”

A servant brought a tray bearing an olive-gold skirt and jacket and a lake-blue cloak with ties.

A young maid helped me change. The warden himself lifted the curtain. “Please step inside, Miss Liu.”

As the maid helped me up, I asked in bewilderment, “What is all this for?”

Were pregnant women treated this well now?

Wasn’t this a little excessive?

The warden beamed. “Miss Liu, you’re carrying His Grace’s child. They’ve come to take you home to a life of comfort.”

My mind reeled.

“His Grace… Jiang Qingsong?”

“Of course.” His eyes shone with envy. “You’re a fortunate woman, Miss Liu. For three generations, the ducal family has had only one son in each generation. The present Duke of Ning refuses to marry. His grandmother has been beside herself.”

“You’ll be arriving already pregnant. They’ll practically worship you.”

Still dazed, I climbed into the sedan chair with my hands over my belly. I even pinched my arm hard to see whether I was dreaming.

The bearers lifted the chair. I raised the curtain, and daylight fell over me for the first time in so long that I narrowed my eyes against it.

We wound through the streets. The view grew more open, thatched houses giving way to imposing mansions.

The sedan stopped before a vermilion gate. The plaque above it read: Residence of the Duke of Ning.