The Lotus Palace (24 page)

“He must have followed us,” Bai Huang said as Zhou Dan pulled away. “He has always suspected you would lead him to Mingyu.”

Yue-ying scanned the area. “She must still be nearby. We have to find her.”

“In all this?” Bai Huang indicated the endless plots of farmland, some owned by wealthy families within the city and others by individual farmers. “That demon is already rushing back to report to Magistrate Li as we speak. Then they’ll return with fifty constables to search the area.”

He directed Zhou Dan back to the northern part of the city. As the carriage rolled away from the fields a sense of the inevitable crept over her. The magistrate was going to arrest Mingyu for murder.

“We don’t have much time,” Yue-ying murmured.

“No, we don’t,” Bai Huang agreed. “You need to stop protecting Mingyu and tell me the entire truth.”

“Me?” She was incredulous. “Tell
you
the truth?”

Bai Huang didn’t flinch at the accusation. “Did you know about the child?”

“I found out about her at the same time you did.”

He raised an eyebrow. “There was no mention that the child was a girl.”

She pulled the rag doll from her sleeve and held it out to him. The doll was the height of her palm, suitable for small hands. Bai Huang ran a finger over the blue robe. No doubt he recognized the fine quality of the silk just as she had.

His brow creased into a frown. “Did General Deng father a child with Mingyu?”

Surely Mingyu would have told her about something as significant as having a child of her own. That would have made the girl family. Yue-ying took back the doll and studied its features. Someone had sewn the doll with care, painting on the face with a delicate brush.

“Mingyu didn’t take a stash of silver from the smugglers,” she concluded. “She took this child. That’s why she’s been so secretive—to protect the girl.”

Because the girl was a slave. She was property and Mingyu had killed her owner and stolen her. Yue-ying felt a deep ache within her chest. She knew exactly why Mingyu had done such a thing.

“But where could she be going now?” Bai Huang asked. “It will be difficult to hide with a young child and an old woman at her side.”

Yue-ying smoothed back the doll’s hair with her thumb. It was black and silken, cut from a lock of real hair.

“I know where she’s going.” Yue-ying raised her voice so Zhou Dan could hear her from the driver’s seat. “Take us to the Pingkang li.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Y
UE
-
YING
STEPPED
DOWN
from the carriage the moment it came to a stop before the Lotus Palace. Bai Huang caught up with her as she reached the front doors, which had been propped open to welcome in the breeze.

“Yue-ying, you’ve returned!” Little Hong, the young courtesan-in-training, was the first to meet her in the entrance hall. Apparently she had taken on the new role of welcoming guests.

“Where’s Madame Sun?”

The inquiry wasn’t necessary. Madame appeared at once, resplendent in silk and jade and ready to greet the Emperor himself should he arrive.

“Dear girl, have you heard from Mingyu finally?” she asked.

A faint worry line appeared between her eyes. She was quite convincing. Until now, Yue-ying had overlooked that Madame Sun was a celebrated courtesan back in her day. She knew how to play to an audience.

“I haven’t heard from Mingyu,” Yue-ying replied calmly. “And you know why, Madame.”

The headmistress’s gaze narrowed on her before resuming a mildly pleasant expression. “I am not certain what you mean, but we’ve missed you. No need to stand here by the door—come inside for tea.”

Yue-ying shot a glance to Bai Huang before they followed Madame down the corridor. As with her last visit, all of the parlors appeared to be filled with patrons. Madame brought them to the back of the house into one of the smallest sitting rooms before closing the door.

“The Lotus appears quite popular in Mingyu’s absence,” Yue-ying remarked. “Perhaps scandal is good for business.”

“Oh, enough!” Madame snapped, her civility tossed aside. She looked Bai Huang over before turning back to Yue-ying. “Mingyu isn’t here. I don’t know where she’s gone to.”

“There’s no need to lie, Madame. When I saw that Mingyu hadn’t taken any of her money, I suspected she hadn’t gone far. What I didn’t realize until now was that Mingyu never left the Lotus Palace. She has been hiding here the entire time.”

Madame fell silent. She clutched her silk handkerchief and dabbed it beneath her eyes. “What nonsense is this?”

“Madame was the one who first reported Mingyu missing,” Yue-ying pointed out. “You ran out practically into the street, distraught, so everyone could see. This was immediately before Constable Wu came to arrest her.”

“Foolish girl, I have been searching everywhere for my darling Mingyu. She was my favorite.”

“And your highest earner,” Bai Huang interrupted. “But while you were wailing all over the quarter that she had run away, Magistrate Li had a warrant out for her arrest. This must have brought in many curious patrons. With five other courtesans to entertain in her absence, Mingyu’s disappearance was probably quite profitable.”

Bai Huang’s presence was undeniably useful. With him there, she didn’t appear to be challenging Madame Sun directly.

“You make it sound as if I staged her disappearance out of greed.” Madame Sun sniffed at him. “Evading the constable has only made matters worse for her. And why would I risk the magistrate’s wrath as well?”

“This started long before the arrest warrant. Earlier this month Mingyu claimed to have gone on an outing to the hot springs with General Deng.” Yue-ying directed her explanation to Bai Huang. “Mingyu’s time belongs to Madame Sun. For her to be away as long as she was, the general would have had to pay a substantial sum each day for her companionship. But there was no General Deng and no payment. Madame had to have known what Mingyu was doing and allowed it.”

The headmistress sank onto the settee. “I would have told you where Mingyu was as soon as Constable Wu was no longer skulking about, but by then you were under his protection.” She tilted her head toward Bai Huang. “Mingyu said it was better that way, for everyone. So I said nothing.”

“Your plan worked well, for a time,” he acknowledged. “But everything is unraveling. We want to see Lady Mingyu immediately. Constable Wu is the least of her concerns. A gang of bandits may also be hunting for her. We believe they also killed Huilan.”

The headmistress paled. “So much death and misfortune. Mingyu has always been a good foster daughter to me. When she said she needed help, I trusted her.”

“Then tell us where she is,” he urged.

Madame shook her head. “I was speaking the truth. Mingyu was here, but she left yesterday and...and I don’t think she’s coming back.”

Her lip trembled as she pressed the handkerchief to her eyes. Yue-ying and Bai Huang were left looking down at the older woman as she huddled there, trying to compose herself. Whether or not it was an act, it was a pitiful sight.

Bai Huang lowered himself beside Madame Sun until they were eye to eye. “I want to help her,” he said in a steady tone meant to soothe and reassure. “Do you know where she could have taken the child?”

The sniffling stopped and Madame looked up from her handkerchief, startled. “Child? What child is this?”

“Mother!” Little Hong came flying into the room. “Come outside quickly.”

The four of them hurried through the front door. A small crowd had gathered along the street and Bai Huang pushed his way through as he pulled Yue-ying alongside him.

A lone figure stood in the lane, surrounded on either side by pleasure houses and wine shops. Mingyu was wearing red, made more startling by the pale appearance of her face and hands. Black hair fell loose from its combs and pins and the effect was one of careless elegance rather than dishevelment. Without cosmetics, her lips appeared colorless and her eyes endlessly black. Pedestrians stepped aside nervously as she passed by.

Some whispered she was a vengeful ghost and scurried from her path, but it was just an effect of the afternoon shadow cast off the Lotus.

“Mingyu!” Yue-ying started to go to her, but Constable Wu appeared at the end of the lane with his sword at his belt. Two assistants flanked him.

Mingyu had chosen that red dress and had planned this dramatic appearance at the heart of the Three Lanes. She didn’t want to be found crouching in some corner as a fugitive. She wanted to appear like an empress. Mingyu didn’t move as the constable approached. She stood with her head held high and let Wu come to her.

Mingyu was as tall and graceful as a willow, but the constable still towered over her. She didn’t tremble as she faced him though her face was bloodless.

“I hear you are looking for me, Constable Wu.” Her voice carried over the murmur of the crowd.

Wu stared at the defiant set of her chin. He didn’t waste any words in his answer.

“I am.”

Constable Wu didn’t put Mingyu in chains as he led her out of the Three Lanes. He walked beside her, a stark figure in black beside Mingyu’s slender silhouette in red. A wave of whispering traveled through the crowd.

Who is she? What is happening?

She is one of the famous Four Beauties of the Pingkang li. She killed a man.

Mingyu walked facing forward, never looking right or left or back at the sullen constable who escorted her. The crowd remained in a hush until she had disappeared from sight, presumably led to the magistrate.

“I have to talk to her,” Yue-ying said to Bai Huang.

With one arm settled protectively at the small of her back, he shoved his way through the crowd. Constable Wu and Mingyu disappeared into the judicial compound before they could reach them. Two armed guards immediately moved into position, spears crossed to block the entrance.

“Stand aside,” Bai Huang demanded. “We have an audience with Magistrate Li Yen.”

She marveled at how easily and insolently he gave commands to armed guardsmen, but they were unmoved.

“Get back.”

The warning was barked not only to them, but at the crowd forming behind them, curious to know more about the beautiful and tragic woman who had dramatically given herself up to the head constable. Yue-ying was jostled from behind, leading Bai Huang to close his arm around her again.

He pulled her aside, away from the crowd. The yamen wall loomed high beside them. “I need to speak to my father.”

“What can he possibly do?”

“His rank is higher than the magistrate’s. There must be some way he can help.” His expression was grim. “I have to try.”

“You would do that?”

“Yue-ying.” He sounded hurt that she would even doubt it. “Come with me. We don’t have much time.”

She shook her head. “I can’t leave Mingyu.” He hesitated, but she wouldn’t waver. “You go. I’ll stay and find a way inside.”

He gave her hand a reassuring squeeze before hurrying away from the yamen. Yue-ying made her way back to the gates. The crowd had dissipated as there was no spectacle to keep them, but the guards remained at the front.

“My sister is in there,” she told them. “Tell the magistrate I won’t leave until I’m allowed to see her.”

She sank to her knees dramatically before the gate, prepared to wait all day and night if she had to. One of the guards left to relay the message and she prayed. Magistrate Li had called on Mingyu in the past. He had held the banquet on the double fifth in her honor; he had to show some sign of mercy.

It was the surly Constable Wu, not the magistrate, who appeared at the gate an hour later. By then, Yue-ying’s knees were sore and her legs had started to go numb. He looked down his nose at her, his height even more intimidating when she was on the ground.

“Come.”

He turned away before she could struggle to her feet. Wu was already halfway across the courtyard and she rushed to catch up with his long stride. As soon as she was beside him, he spoke again.

“Lady Mingyu refuses to answer my questions.”

“She’ll talk to me,” Yue-ying assured him, though she couldn’t be certain of it.

“In Suzhou, I was known for being able to elicit a confession from the most hardened of criminals.” He looked down at her once more. His nose appeared long and sharp from that angle, like a bird of prey. “I do not wish to use such techniques here.”

His words chilled her blood. Wu took her down a long corridor to the back of the compound while her heart pounded harder and faster with each step.

His conduct toward Mingyu out in the street had appeared courteous, but his restrained manner had nothing to do with kindness or manners. The man was without emotion. He felt no joy or triumph in apprehending a criminal, just as he felt no pleasure in beating a confession out of Mingyu. But he would do it all the same.

The corridor led to a smaller courtyard surrounded by several smaller buildings. Armed guards were posted before each set of doors, which were locked with heavy chains. Despair took hold of Yue-ying when she realized this was the prison area. Mingyu was to be kept in one of these foreboding cells until her trial.

Wu unlocked the chain in front of one of the sets of double doors, then held the door open until Yue-ying came forward. The air inside was stagnant. There were no windows and the only light came from vents cut high toward the ceiling. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust.

Mingyu sat on a bench behind iron bars. Her hands were folded in her lap and her expression was blank. The cell was not even the size of her dressing room. There was straw laid out on the floor and a bucket in the corner.

As soon as Mingyu saw her she stood and came forward. “Yue-ying.”

Yue-ying clasped her sister’s hand through the bars and held on tight. The rough metal bit into her cheek as she tried to get as close as she could.

“Why did you leave me?” she whispered, angry and relieved at once. “I was so afraid.”

“I had to,” Mingyu said sadly. Gone was the cool, distant expression she’d worn out in the street. “I had to.”

“You have to tell them everything that happened. There had to be some reason you did what you did.”

Mingyu glanced behind Yue-ying. “There’s nothing to tell.”

Constable Wu remained at the door, making no sound. Yue-ying had almost forgotten about him. He was a black spider as Bai Huang had described, utterly still and ready to snatch up his prey in his jaws.

“Listen to me.” Mingyu brought Yue-ying’s attention back. “I don’t regret anything. I did what had to be done.”

“That banquet on the pleasure boat. You sent me away because you knew something would happen.”

“Huilan was upset,” Mingyu explained. “She had overheard two men talking during the banquet. The traders discussed a precious commodity being held in a boat nearby, but she knew they were not speaking of goods. She couldn’t stand by and do nothing.” She paused and glanced momentarily away. “I couldn’t either.”

“The stranger in the canal—”

“Deserved his fate.”

Yue-ying flinched at the venom in Mingyu’s response. “Magistrate Li will have you tried for murder. If the man attacked you or if he was an outlaw, then the magistrate might take that into consideration. You have to tell him everything.”

Mingyu shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. Huilan is dead and I must bear this burden alone. It’s better this way.”

Yue-ying wanted to reach through the bars and shake her. Why was she being so stubborn? What was she still hiding?