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He felt his eyebrows rise in surprise. She obviously understood China's problems. "Does your father share your views?"

She snorted. "My father is a scholar. He buries himself in texts that are hundreds of years old. It has not prepared him for a country threatened by rebellions and foreign powers."

"There have always been threats to China's sovereignty."

She nodded. "Did those threats have guns such as the white people carry?"

He shook his head, and his eyes grew pensive. "I saw a drawing once of an English gunboat. I do not know if the picture was real, but if it was…" He sighed. "I fear what will happen to China if the English become greedy."

She reached out and touched his hand, hope shining in her eyes. "You do understand. You agree with me!"

He nodded. "And China cannot weaken itself by fighting more rebels from within." The feel of her small hand on his warmed his spirit and stiffened his rod. But his mind was filled with other thoughts that miraculously directed him beyond taking her to bed. "I must go question the other girls. Since you have passed the family history exam, you must have a meal with the dowager consort." He slanted her a hard glance. "She will pick at you, but say nothing that is not…that is not…" How to phrase what he wanted?

"Empty headed?"

"Exactly! Pretend you will follow her direction blindly."

"She is not that stupid. She will not be fooled."

"Probably not, but she cannot be sure. After the meal, pretend you're ill. Claim you need to sit in my aunt's garden to rest." He used his finger to trace the route she would take from the garden lunch to the bower. If she could not remember it from his quick movements, then she was of no use to him.

"I understand," she murmured. "What then?"

"I will have someone there waiting. He will take you where I want you to go."

She nodded, but her eyes grew wary. "Do you swear on your honor that I will not be harmed by this?"

He winced. She was right to question him. Even now, his cock was large and hungry. "I swear by my honor that this will not hurt your chances to become empress." The words were sour in his mouth, but he said them anyway. If she would only give up her quest to become empress, then he could court her without fear from the emperor. He paused, momentarily shocked by his own thoughts. Did he plan to court her? To marry her? The idea was…not unappealing.

"And my father's reputation?" Ji Yue pressed.

"Was never in any danger from me." He smiled. "Though I would very much like to meet your mother. She sounds like a most interesting woman. Are your brothers as clever?"

"The youngest is. The older…" She hesitated.

"Takes after your father?"

"He spends much time in his dreams."

Bo Tao laughed and pushed to his feet. He had a moment's insanity when he dreamed he would pull her into his arms. Her breasts were within reach, and her sweet cream flowed so easily. But the interrogator would return any moment now, and after last night's warning from Yi Zhen, he had to be doubly careful. "Go now," he said as he pushed her away. "Go quickly."

She hesitated just a moment, and her eyes lingered on his mouth. He knew she was thinking as he was, that she remembered every detail of their intimacy, and the lust that surged through him nearly overpowered his reason.

"Go!" he rasped.

She nodded and fled.

Chapter 9

JI YUE WAITED IN THE GARDEN, fidgeting with her clothing. Lunch with the dowager consort had gone exactly as predicted. Fortunately Ji Yue had kept her head. No matter how the woman picked, Ji Yue had responded with her most insipid thought. It went against the grain, especially since every answer made the dowager consort even more angry. It rarely helped to make the head female upset, but Ji Yue put her faith in Bo Tao's advice and remained as stupid as a bowl of rice.

But the longer Ji Yue waited in the garden, the more she doubted her sanity. Why would she put her faith in a man who clearly disregarded every rule of proper conduct? He had climbed into her palanquin, he had taken her last night to a place that no decent woman should ever see, and the things he had done to her!

Her face heated, but not with shame. The things they had done had been incredible, and she desperately longed to do them again. Then she shivered in true fear. He was teaching her the delights of physical congress. What if she did not become the empress? What if the emperor was not a frequent visitor to her bedroom or, worse, not even remotely as skilled as Bo Tao? Would she end up like those women in the dead emperor's harem? Would she stretch herself out for all to see while she ordered someone to pleasure her?

The thought was horrifying, but it was also a real possibility. Having tasted ecstasy with Bo Tao, she wanted more. She wanted a lot more. Thankfully, she was saved from further thoughts as a young eunuch approached, bowing deeply before her.

"Chen Ji Yue? Are you ill?"

She nodded and pressed a silk handkerchief to her lips.

"Sun Bo Tao worries for your health and asks that you follow me. He has found some medicine to strengthen your health for the festival ahead."

She nodded and smiled. "I would be most grateful."

She started to move, but he pressed a cloak into her hands. "The sun might damage your skin and make you feel worse, Chen Ji Yue. Perhaps this would help."

She frowned and wrinkled her nose at the perfume stench that rose from the cheap garment. It was the kind of thing that merchant wives wore or…She swallowed. Or prostitutes. He was dressing her as a prostitute.

At her hesitation, the eunuch nodded again. "Many women come and go in these garments, and no one sees."

No one was trained to see the whores who visited, he meant. Clearly the emperor and his friends had a regular habit of entertaining such ladies. And just as clearly, she would be safer moving about the Forbidden City in one of these cloaks than as Virgin Chen Ji Yue.

With a reluctant grimace, she drew the cloak around her and covered her head. Then she followed the eunuch through what seemed to be little-used pathways behind and around buildings. She saw workers—eunuchs and servants of all kinds—but no dignitaries and none of the other virgins. And though she peered from under her hood at the washer women and eunuchs, all cast their eyes discreetly away from her.

Until one woman did notice her. An older woman—a concubine by the looks of her gown—spat and cursed the whore that polluted the emperor. Her words were loud and vicious, and an ugly reminder of what would happen to Ji Yue if she lost her virgin status.

As a disgraced virgin, she could not go home. Even if her parents wanted her, it would damage her father's honor so much that he would not get further work. Certainly nothing from the imperial court. Without that income, the entire family would starve.

So if she could not go home, she would be forced onto the street with only one way to survive. From pampered aristocrat to street whore in one fatal step. She could not do such a thing. She wouldn't! She would strip off this hateful cloak and return to the virgins' palace and pray that no one noticed her absence. She would—

"Inside here, please," said the eunuch indicating a doorway.

Ji Yue frowned. "What is to happen—"

"Please," the eunuch whispered, his eyes darting around. There were men talking somewhere down the hall, and from their deep voices, Ji Yue knew they were not eunuchs.

She slipped into the darkness. The door shut behind her, and she shivered at the now total lack of light. A flint sparked. Sharp and bright, it lit a single candle wick. The light grew steadily, expanding its glow until she saw Sun Bo Tao, his angled features looking like stroked gold.