Jeannie Lin - A Dance with Danger

She had set out with her amah, but the old nursemaid only made it ten steps into the park before she sank down on to one of the benches in a viewing pavilion.

‘Don’t go too far!’ Amah warned, waving her on.

The woman had been considered elderly when Jin-mei was only a child. Now that Jin-mei was nineteen, Amah was ancient and could be forgiven for not wanting to exert herself. The dear old servant had also become less strict with age.

Jin-mei was wearing the lightest robe she owned, a finely woven silk in a peach-blossom pattern, but still the late summer heat was getting to her. She wiped at her face again, this time using the edge of her sleeve. When she lowered her arm, she could see a man crossing the bridge over to her side of the river. Given the man was a stranger and she was alone, Jin-mei slowed her step so they would have no reason to encounter one another.

Unfortunately, he’d seen her as well. He halted at the centre of the bridge before striding towards her with purpose. She should have ducked beneath the shadow of her parasol to avoid his gaze, but she found herself caught in it. Now that he was close enough, she understood why.

Her heart pounded. She knew him.

Most of her father’s visitors were grey-haired and uninteresting, but the young Bao Yang had seemed so dashing and full of mystery. He had a gleam in his eye and a half-smile that had always made her stomach flutter. That had been four years ago.

She’d only seen him from behind a screen while listening in on conversations she wasn’t supposed to be hearing. There was the one time when she’d attempted to stumble ‘accidentally’ into the hallway. She had fallen in hopes that Mister Bao might catch her and, well, become immediately smitten with her. Instead, her father had sternly told her to go to her room while the handsome young gentleman had watched her pick herself off the floor.

How odd to see him after all these years! She remembered that arch in the shape of his left eyebrow which gave him an inquisitive look. His nose was slightly off centre and she’d always wondered if it had been broken or was it naturally so. All of these little flaws, yet when put together, they created a face that was inexplicably intriguing. She had been convinced he was the handsomest man she’d ever seen.

Jin-mei wasn’t nearly as foolish now, but seeing Yang again brought back a little ache in her chest. That gleam in his eye was still there, even though they were supposed to be only strangers in passing.

‘What are you doing here?’ she asked when they were finally close enough to engage in conversation.

He gave her a startled look at being addressed so directly. Only then did she realise how impetuous she had sounded. ‘I apologise. It’s just that I—’

Yang laughed and the easy sound of it banished her moment of discomfort. ‘It is I who should apologise. I must have startled you. I am here to seek the magistrate.’

He didn’t recognise her. Some demon inside of her awoke at the opportunity. Here was a chance for her to make an impression on him. A more favourable one than she had at fifteen, picking herself off the floor in a tangle of silk.

‘I know where the magistrate can be found,’ she said.

‘Then I am fortunate fate has brought us together.’

‘Are you flirting with me?’ she asked incredulously. She realised only after the words had left her mouth that such directness would be considered rude. ‘Sir,’ she added after a pause.

His smile didn’t waver. ‘Miss,’ he began, a counterpoint to her delayed honorific, ‘are you always so outspoken?’

‘It’s just that I know you. Well, I don’t know you,’ she amended, ‘but I feel as if I do.’

‘I feel as if I know you as well,’ he replied smoothly. He glanced at something over his shoulder, before returning his attention to her. ‘Will you accompany me?’

He flashed her a crooked smile and then they were walking side by side along the river, shielded by the shade of her parasol.

Bao Yang was flirting. No man had ever treated her with such charm. Her mother had been slender and tall and long-limbed, as graceful as a willow in the breeze. Unfortunately, Jin-mei took after her father’s side. Father was short with rounded features, moon-faced and on the plump side.

She was no great beauty to take hold of men’s hearts upon a glance. Jin-mei hadn’t expected any man to ever flirt with her. In her dreams, she had always impressed potential suitors with intelligent conversation and astute sensibilities.

‘What is a proper young miss doing walking alone in this park?’ he asked. ‘There might be questionable men about with evil intentions.’

‘What men are these? I see no one but yourself.’ She attempted a coy look, glancing at him from the corner of her eye. An uncomfortable silence descended as Bao Yang regarded her thoughtfully. She was no good at this at all. Her original plan would have to suffice. ‘Minzhou is probably the safest city in the province. There are guards on every street, patrolling day and night.’

‘Every street,’ he echoed contemplatively.

They had almost reached the final bridge that marked the boundary of the park. Once they crossed over it, they would be in the main market area. Jin-mei tried to think of some way to prolong their time together.

‘How was your journey?’ she asked. ‘You seem to have come from far away.’

‘Not far at all.’ Yang glanced once more behind him and then to other side of the river. ‘I live in a small village, only two days from here.’

‘Small village?’ she asked with a raised eyebrow.

He nodded. ‘Héjin Crossing, near the foothills.’

She absolutely knew that for a lie. Bao Yang lived far to the north-west in Taining County, the same place her family had lived before Father was transferred to Minzhou prefecture. She started to question him about it, but his step had quickened. He continued along the water towards the base of the bridge rather than over it.

‘How curious,’ he remarked under his breath. ‘Is that a dragon carved into the stone?’

‘Where?’ She drew closer, but saw nothing of the sort in the foundation.

He turned to her and took her wrist gently. The gesture sent her pulse racing.

‘Let us get out of the sun where we can speak more privately,’ he suggested, setting his hand lightly against the small of her back.

As courtship went, his ploy wasn’t particularly clever, but Bao Yang’s touch was subtly insistent without being demanding. There was a quiet urgency in his voice that both puzzled and intrigued her. In her confusion, they were already to the bridge before she found her voice.

‘I am not that sort of woman.’

‘I don’t think you’re that sort of woman.’ He was serious now, no longer flirting. Bao Yang removed his hold on her to step into the shadows. ‘But there are city guards nearby. If you cry out now, I’m dead. You hold my life in your hands.’

How had he compelled her down there? It was nothing more than a few looks, some polite conversation, a series of light and gentle touches that just breached the boundaries of etiquette, but went no further.

Yang was standing apart from her now, well out of arm’s length. She could flee and he wouldn’t be able to catch her. For a moment, she did consider fleeing. This man before her was someone who was hiding secrets. Someone very different from the gentleman she thought she’d known all those years ago.

Yet he met her eyes with a look that pierced her, pleading with her silently, as if she were the one with all the power. Jin-mei didn’t know why, but she found herself stepping after him beneath the bridge.

‘Thank you,’ he said quietly.

Once again, his hands barely closed around her shoulders. Her heart pounded, and she held her breath, waiting. It was as if she were moving of her own will and his touch no more than a suggestion.