Page 35 of The Cinders
Only one of the three attendants showed any sign of concern, but Lim watched as her worried frown fell away in the face of her companions’ amusement.Everyone laughed gaily.
Song Lim shoved the toe of the huapenxie shoe onto the lady’s foot with force.
‘Careful, you brute!’She slapped at the top of his head with thetuanshanshe held; the stiff bamboo of the fan’s handle enabling her to deliver a decent knock to his crown.
Song Lim kept his head lowered, so she’d not see any trace of his anger.‘My deepest apologies, my lady.’But his troublesome mouth refused to leave well alone.‘I fear the many banquets of late have left you bloated.I may need to begin over again with this pair.’
The attendant, Ruyun, gasped, covering her mouth with her pale, bejewelled hand.
Lady Tian pushed him away, snatching at the shoe by its formidable heel.‘Ridiculous man.Careful or I shall decide I prefer my shoemaker mute.’She abandoned elegance, shoving her toes into the shoe, a huff of effort coming as she fought to fit it over her heel.‘Assist me up, at once.’She dangled her hand in front of Lim’s face.‘The heel is so high I cannot get it on whilst I’m sitting down.That is all.’Lim took her hand as all three of her attendants hurried to assist their lady up from the pile of cushions she lounged on.
Her nails dug into Lim’s hand as she rose.The fall of her fitted, plum blossom pink cheongsam ended at her ankle; the dress’s shortened length perfect for showing off the huapenxie shoes; with their white-painted wooden heel and indigo velvet uppers, gold tassels dangling from the toe.She wobbled unsteadily, the high central heel needing time for a wearer to master.Her grip on Lim’s hand intensified as she wiggled her hips, working her foot into the shoe.She refused help, lashing out with her fan again, just missing the nose of an attendant who barely startled at all to be struck by her mistress.
‘It fit me before, it shall fit again,’ Lady Tian winced.‘Leave me be.Just a moment more.’
Lim’s stomach turned as he watched the fabric being wrenched back and forth, the tassel swinging wildly.He’d chosen that hue of purple for its likeness to Xian’s eyes, a choice he regretted now for seeing it so tortured.‘My lady, might I—’
‘There, it is done,’ she exclaimed, releasing her stranglehold on Lim’s hand, her nails leaving angry red divots in his skin.
The shoe did indeed fit, but far from adequately.Lim saw at once her skin was pinched around the rim, the flesh already going pink with being so badly restrained.He suspected if he pressed at the toe he’d find her squeezed in so tight she’d go numb before long.But though declaring the shoes a terrible fit would satisfy Lim’s own petulance, he’d not risk the lady’s mercurial temper.If he were banished from the manor, he’d no longer know how Prince Xian fared.
‘Do you take back what you said of my feet having swollen from indulgence, Master Song?’The lady was in her twenty-sixth year, but acted no better than a spoiled child.
‘Indeed.I was mistaken, clearly.’He worked very hard at sincerity, but noticed how the attendant who’d received the swat to the head smirked, biting at her bottom lip.A half-blind beggar could see the shoe was too tight.‘The shoe fits you perfectly.’
Lady Tian pressed her hand to the shoulder of an attendant, lifting to the height both shoes would give her.Now, instead of being shorter than Song Lim, she drew even, bringing them eye to eye.
‘They are very fine shoes, Master Song,’ she said, looking down her nose at him despite their equal height.‘But are they the finest you can prepare?’
‘I put my utmost into every pair of shoes I make, my lady.Are these not what you desired last week?’Lim should have bowed his head, but he did not.
‘They were.But I think you are lying to me, Master Song, about putting your utmost into every pair of shoes.’
Now, her scrutiny bothered him; something nefarious lurked in her question.‘I’m not sure what you are implying, my lady?’
The attendants shifted at his boldness.
Lady Tian cocked her head, the red ribbons on her hairpins swinging like thin rivers of blood.‘I have been told the night of the banquet you locked yourself in your workshop, working away at a pair of slippers so close in appearance to glass it appeared as though you worked on the air itself.I thought perhaps you’d present them to me..so I waited…but it has been a week now, and I see only what I’ve asked for.’
Lim cursed the spy who’d lurked in the shadows beyond his workshop windows.‘You have been terribly misinformed, my lady.I have no such shoes.’
‘Oh you do.But perhaps you gave them to the prince?’She watched him as a cat watches a mouse.‘Captain Duan thought you had your eyes on my brother.He said you made no apology for interrupting a discussion he was having with Xian.’
‘That was no discussion they were having,’ Lim spoke sharply.The lady’s eyes narrowed.‘What I mean is, it was not evident I had interrupted anything.I thought the captain merely escorting his highness to the feast.’He swallowed down the revulsion of that memory.‘I have no orders from the prince, for shoes.’
‘Are you hoping from some?’She shook her head.‘There are fools like you who believe they can seek favour from my poor, disfigured brother.They do not realise the emperor wishes nothing more but for his thirteenth son to leave the Middle Kingdom entirely, and take his ill-fortune with him.’An unpleasant, stale quiet had settled over the room.‘And there are greater fools who think to flatter Xian into their beds.Those who have a taste for the grotesque.Shall I tell you now, Master Lim, if that is your intent you waste your time and talents.For my brother harboured an atrocious desire for one creature alone.A fish, whose bones have now been ground into the swill that feeds the manor pigs.’She lifted her bare foot, gesturing to the other shoe.‘Fit it now.’
Lim stared at her, seething at all she’d said, but most intently at the casual dismissal of the golden carp Prince Xian had so valued.Daiyu had told Lim of the prince’s terrible grief; how he’d been inconsolable, but for the tincture her father supplied.And of the whispers that said Lady Tian tricked the carp from the water herself.
Lim sank to his knees, his own guilt stifling the violent urge to tell the lady what a monster she truly was.
‘As you wish, my lady.’
The night of the feast, when Mercy had been killed, he’d been on the far side of Kunming, drinking too much huangjiu, losing too many games of mahjong and spending too much time trying to drown his pitiful unhappiness at the prince’s upcoming departure.All the while, Xian had suffered.And by the time Lim woke from a day lost, with a bruised head, empty purse and churning stomach, the prince had departed with the envoy.
‘I did not seek the favour of Prince Xian,’ he muttered, curling his fingers around the lady’s heel.‘I made his acquaintance only briefly.’
‘Master Lim, your craftsmanship is beyond reproach, but do not think that makes you immune to punishment, if you lie to me.’