A Not So Respectable Gentleman? (24 page)

He tensed. Only the twitch of a muscle along his jaw revealed
any emotion. ‘She was young with…romantic notions. Not thinking of reason or
duty.' He met her eyes, his gaze scrutinising. ‘You seem much more
practical.'

‘I am very practical,' she agreed. The teahouse had always been
about survival and keeping a roof over her head.

They stopped before the town's civil office. Without a word,
the nobleman handed her the reins and strode through the front gate, completely
assured in her compliance. The horse paced a few restless steps while she
clutched at the reins with a life-and-death grip.

‘Stop,' she commanded in a fierce whisper. ‘Hear me? Stay
still,
you
.'

She prayed the horse wouldn't run off. If it decided to, she'd
be dragged along with it. She didn't know how to tame a horse. In truth, she
didn't know how to do much more than serve customers in a teahouse. So she stood
with the reins wrapped twice around her hand and considered her situation.

To be a princess, even a false one, would be like being reborn
into the next life. Perhaps the stars of her birth weren't as dim as she'd
always thought. She wanted very much to believe Fei Long, but there were plenty
of stories about tricksters travelling the countryside, collecting young women
in order to sell them off to brothels. Fei Long could very well be one of those
scoundrels, though he struck her as honest. Maybe too much so. If anything, he
seemed lost in this fancy scheme of his.

At times, he intimidated her with his proper manners and
knowledge. At other times, she considered smacking him across that thick skull
of his—which had been the start of all her troubles.

Fei Long emerged from the gates and came towards her, holding a
pouch in his hand.

She gave up the reins with relief. ‘What is that?'

‘I have to settle with the teahouse. An honourable man repays
all his debts.'

From the heft and size of the pouch, it must have held more
coins than a month's take at the teahouse. She chuckled.

‘What do you find so funny?'

‘They just gave that to you?'

‘Yes,' Fei Long said, puzzled.

She laughed outright. She couldn't help herself. For some
reason, this was the funniest thing she'd ever seen. She recalled the jade seal
that he had shown at the teahouse, which practically had her master
kow-towing.

‘They just give you money…' she caught her breath between gasps
‘…for nothing!'

She shook her head and grabbed at her sides. They ached from
laughing so hard. When she looked up, Chang Fei Long was glaring at her.

‘Our family name is good as a guarantee of payment,' he said
stiffly.

She sucked in a breath and tried to compose herself. Of course
it wasn't funny to him that someone like her would never touch money of her own,
no matter how hard she laboured. Lord Chang simply had to walk into a municipal
office. Yet she was the beggar, he the nobleman.

Money from air. All things were possible—even a peasant posing
as a princess in a foreign land.

‘Yes,' she said, in a long-delayed answer to his proposal.
‘Yes, I'll go with you, my lord.'

They headed back towards the teahouse then. Her former master
would see that she was leaving town with the same gentleman they'd thrown her
out over. The thought had her doubling over in laughter once more.

ISBN: 9781459235083

Copyright © 2012 by Diane Perkins

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