Page 36 of The Cinders
Lim turned a steely gaze towards her.The lady was undeniably beautiful in appearance, but her nature was the ugliest he’d seen.
‘I barely knew him,’ Lim said tightly.‘That is what I am saying.’
‘But you wished to know Prince Xian, very well, I’m sure.’
Her ladies stirred from their statue-like states to titter at the sordid implication, whilst Lim battled with his propensity to speak truly, no matter the cost.
‘He seems an interesting man, but I would never presume to interest a child of the Son of Heaven.’There, he thought triumphantly, no lie had been told.Lim pushed hard at the shoe, slipping it over her heel, enjoying the subtle flinch of her leg at the discomfort.
‘He is a child our Imperial Emperor would rather forget,’ Lady Tian snipped, pulling her foot from his hold.She reeked of jealousy; curdled and vile.Unwanted child or not, Xian had what could never be hers; royal blood.‘If those slippers were not for my brother, then where are they now?Why do you not present them to me?’
At least she did not seem to know of Lim’s furtive dash to the shrine, the night he’d been spied finishing the slippers.She’d send a messenger straight to Manhao to tear the slippers from Xian’s grasp if she learned they were in his care.
Ifthey were in his care.The prince had been heavily sedated by the tincture; Daiyu and her father did not stop worrying about its heady effect on him, how rapidly it had worked upon him, and how careless he’d been in listening to instruction about its use.Xian would hardly have thought to pack a pair of slippers he’d owned for less than a day, gifted by a shoemaker he’d likely already forgotten.
‘They are a gift for the marchioness.’Lim’s sour thoughts brought the lie to his tongue.‘For the New Year celebrations.’
‘For my mother?’Lady Tian wrinkled her nose, brushing past Lim so quickly he almost ended up on his backside in his haste to move.‘She wears her gowns too long for them to be appreciated.Does she know of this gift you intend?’
‘No, not yet.’
‘Then tell her nothing, and give them to me.’
‘I do not think they shall fit you.’
‘Then you shall make them fit, or make another pair.’
She pranced about the room, high on her platform shoes and her own importance.Her attendants, sycophants by necessity, fawned over her footwear, as though her feet made them sublime, and not the craftsmanship of the man who made them.
‘My lady, that will not be possible.’But Lim’s words were missed by Lady Tian, who was bathing in the compliments of her attendants.Only the one named Ruyun, who stood closest to him, took notice.She shook her head gently, as though she did not wish her hair ornaments to give away the movement.But though she was utterly silent, Lady Tian’s gaze narrowed in on her attendant and Lim himself.She peered at them both, as she did most people; with a faint trace of disdain and notable impatience.
‘You are still here, Master Lim?’
‘There is another pair of shoes I readied, that you’ve yet to try,’ he said, devoid of enthusiasm for any more time in the room.
‘I shall try them later.Bring me the glass slippers.’
He sighed.‘They are not made of glass.’Though he wished they were, and that he still had them, and he could push her feet into them so harshly the glass cracked and cut her skin.
‘Whatever they are, I wish to see them with my own eyes.Lest I find I have been deceived, and they are not so beautiful nor unique as I’ve been told.’
Lim picked up the wooden boxes he’d used to transport the lady’s shoes to the manor, gripping them just as tightly as he’d done when he’d seen the captain with Xian.
‘Very well, my lady.But I cannot say when they will be ready for you.I seek perfection in my work.’
Lady Tian waved her hand, turning her back to him, admiring herself in the silvered glass mirror that hung on the wall of her chamber.‘And I expect nothing less.Away with you, but do not test my patience, Master Lim.A lady should not be kept waiting for things that she wants.’
Lim kept his bow shallow.Deciding there was no lady in the room at all.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
SONG LIMstomped through the manor gardens, a box under each arm, and his bitten tongue throbbing.All the curses he’d like to have thrown at the lady now spilled from beneath a muttered breath.He was so busy fuming he took a wrong turn; ending up deeper in the gardens rather than closer to the entrance to the hutong that would lead him back to his workshop.
A rockery appeared where he’d expected the path to lie, and finally he realised he’d gotten himself turned about.
‘Stupid egg,’ he admonished himself, searching for a familiar sight to guide him.
Up ahead there was a crossroads in the pebbled pathway, with whitebark pines in their rows up ahead, and Lim realised, with a sinking heart, exactly where he was in the gardens.Heng had spoken of the pines near the guardhouse tower when he’d asked about the pond where Xian had gotten his gown and shoes so muddy.These were the only rows of pines planted on the manor grounds.Which meant he was very near the pond.He had no desire to go to that empty place; with no prince, perhaps no fish, and only stark reminder that Xian was gone.