“Eleventh Young Lady!” Xu Lingyi was taken aback. Heedless of the mess on the floor, he sat on the edge of the bed and gently rubbed her back to soothe her.

“Madam!” Hupo was frightened out of her wits. Seeing that Xu Lingyi was already attending to Eleventh Young Lady, she hurried away to pour a cup of warm water.

Eleventh Young Lady brought up every last bit of what she had eaten that morning, and only then did her stomach begin to settle.

Xu Lingyi took the teacup from Hupo’s hands and held it to Eleventh Young Lady’s lips: “Here — rinse your mouth.”

A quick-witted little maidservant had already brought over a rinsing bowl.

Eleventh Young Lady’s face was scarlet with mortification.

How could this be happening? It was as though she could not hold back for even a moment.

She murmured her thanks, took the teacup, and rinsed her mouth. Then she saw Hupo leading the little maidservants in cleaning up after her, and called out in embarrassment: “Marquis,” — the smell rising from the soiled floor was sharp enough to turn her stomach inside out — she barely managed the words: “You should step away for a moment,” before her stomach lurched again, and she bent over the edge of the bed dry-heaving.

“Eleventh Young Lady!” Xu Lingyi was alarmed. He called sharply to Hupo: “Quickly — bring a cup of hot tea!”

His voice, stern and commanding, made Hupo’s heart seize. She answered hastily and rushed off to bring a cup of hot tea.

“Eleventh Young Lady,” Xu Lingyi called to her gently. He gathered her up from where she sagged weakly over the edge of the bed, cradled her against him, took a careful sip of the tea Hupo had brought to test the temperature, and then held it to Eleventh Young Lady’s lips. “Here — drink some hot tea. A sip of hot tea and you will feel better inside.”

Even the inviting fragrance of the Iron Goddess of Mercy tea seemed somehow diminished today, lacking its usual richness.

Eleventh Young Lady lay listlessly in Xu Lingyi’s arms. Unable to bear refusing his kindness, she took a small sip and turned her face away.

“Good girl,” Xu Lingyi coaxed her softly. “Just one more sip.”

She had no choice but to take two more small sips.

The queasy feeling from before seemed to be stirring back to life inside her.

She frowned and turned her face away again.

Xu Lingyi did not dare to press her further. He handed the teacup to Hupo, who stood beside them looking tense and strained, and then stroked Eleventh Young Lady’s forehead lightly. “Bear with it a little longer. The physician has already been sent for.”

Eleventh Young Lady gave a small nod, pressed her hand to her lips, and an expression of suppressed endurance passed across her face.

Xu Lingyi’s color changed.

Eleventh Young Lady was by nature one to suppress and endure, preferring always to minimize difficulty and minimize disturbance to others. She would not readily trouble anyone on her account. And yet she had come to this pass — she must be suffering to a degree she could no longer conceal.

At that thought, a faint, unbidden ache took shape in his heart.

“Eleventh Young Lady, Eleventh Young Lady,” he murmured, stroking her back gently, “where does it hurt?” And then he pressed his lips to her cheek.

Under his tender touch, his warm embrace, and the loving gentleness in his voice, the knit of her brows gradually eased — and yet the strange odor that lingered at the tip of her nose kept reminding Eleventh Young Lady that the soiled matter she had retched up was still at the bedside, and her brow furrowed again.

None of this escaped Xu Lingyi, who had been watching her expression with careful attention throughout.

He thought for a moment, then asked her quietly: “Is the smell in the room bothering you?”

Eleventh Young Lady pressed her lips together in a faint expression of sheepishness.

Xu Lingyi laughed, flicked her lightly on the nose, and said: “Spoiled like a twisted dough rope.” Then he bundled her in a quilt and carried her toward the east side room. “Let them clean up in here. We will sit in there for a little while.”

Eleventh Young Lady’s face burned red as the evening sky.

Hupo, watching them go, was seized with inspiration. She took a few maids and ran ahead to the east antechamber. By the time they arrived, the long window-side platform in the east antechamber had already been cleared of its central platform table; in its place, a platform cushion in peacock-blue with a pattern of five bats and roundels had been laid out, with large bolster pillows propped against it, and a brocade quilt of vermilion red with a phoenix-facing-the-sun motif spread across it. A tea set and tea bowls had been arranged on the small platform table to the east side.

Xu Lingyi did not set Eleventh Young Lady down on the platform — he carried her up onto it himself, still holding her.

Hupo’s eyes lit up. She quickly knelt down to help Xu Lingyi remove his shoes.

The east side room had originally been one of Eleventh Young Lady’s small studies. She came here from time to time to read or go over the accounts. Unlike the inner chamber and the rest room, there were never several attendants standing about inside, and the air was consequently a great deal fresher. Eleventh Young Lady breathed it in deeply and felt considerably better, her spirits lifting a little. A trace of embarrassment came over her.

“Marquis,” she made a small effort to free herself, “I can manage on my own.”

Xu Lingyi paid her no mind. “Close your eyes and rest. The physician will be here shortly.”

It would have been better if he had said nothing — his words, the moment they were spoken, summoned up a heavy tide of exhaustion from within her. Xu Lingyi’s arms, carrying with them that mellow, familiar scent, enfolded her in a feeling of peculiar peace and stillness. Eleventh Young Lady stifled a tiny yawn and thought with concern of the Grand Dowager Lady’s quarters: “I have not yet paid my morning respects to Mother.”

Xu Lingyi saw her forcing herself to stay upright and looked at her with fond exasperation, pressing a kiss to her cheek: “Go to sleep. I will go and explain to Mother.”

Hearing this, Eleventh Young Lady let her worry go. She leaned against him, and before long had fallen asleep.

Only now did Xu Lingyi grow still enough to examine his own thoughts. His heart was filled at once with startled joy — and yet he could only wait and hope that Imperial Physician Liu would come quickly. He also feared that the weather these past few days had been turning from cold to warm and back again, and that with the two of them sleeping back to back each night, she might have caught a chill — and at that, he was struck by a deep regret. She was more than ten years younger than he was. When they were in public, she carried herself with complete composure and assurance, yet in truth she was still a young girl, and no one knew better than he did just how delicate she was in private. And yet he had chosen to quarrel with her as though they were the same age, having lived ten years longer than she had only to waste them all — and moreover, he had been entirely in the wrong that particular night. Eleventh Young Lady was by nature modest and restrained; let alone making the first approach herself, even clinging to him tightly was enough to make her flush scarlet with embarrassment. And yet that night she had been worked into a state of wretched, tearful agitation by his baiting…

Thinking of it now, he pressed his cheek against hers.

This little one must have been in a torment of anxiety and shame.

Had he known it would come to this, he would have been gentler with her from the start.

The embarrassment born from that one careless utterance of “I am fond of you” was entirely forgotten. He thought only of how he ought to make it up to her — pressing soft, careful kisses to the hair at her temple, as though this alone might somehow compensate for his impetuousness that night. And quietly, somewhere in his heart, he found himself hoping above all else that this was not a chill — the joyful anticipation of a possible pregnancy had retreated, replaced by something more purely anxious and tender.

He then instructed Hupo: “Madam is unwell. She is not to receive any visitors. Have Nanny Song go and inform the Grand Dowager Lady as well.”

Hupo could not have been more willing. She curtseyed and answered “yes,” then went to make the arrangements. After reporting back to Xu Lingyi, another thought rose in her mind, and she hurried off to find Zhuxiang.

Eleventh Young Lady drifted in a half-drowse, unaware of when Imperial Physician Liu had come or when he had gone. When she woke, lamps had already been lit throughout the room. Xu Lingyi was sitting against the large bolster pillow on the platform table, reading beneath the light of an octagonal palace lantern.

Sensing the movement, he lowered his book and looked at her: “Awake.”

Perhaps it was the lamplight — Eleventh Young Lady thought the gaze Xu Lingyi turned on her was unusually soft.

“Mm.” She had not expected to sleep so long. She sat up slowly. “What hour is it now?”

Xu Lingyi reached for his pocket watch: “Just past the beginning of the dog hour.”

“I slept that long!” Eleventh Young Lady was quite astonished.

Xu Lingyi smiled and ruffled her hair, then asked in a gentle voice: “Are you hungry? Is there anything you would like to eat?”

Eleventh Young Lady had no particular appetite, but she knew that not eating would only make her body weaker still.

She considered for a moment: “I would like some millet porridge.”

Xu Lingyi called for a little maidservant.

Eleventh Young Lady felt languid and heavy-limbed, with no desire to get up from the platform. She leaned against the bolster pillow and spoke with Xu Lingyi: “What did the physician say?”

“He said you are likely tired from overexertion.” A flicker of something unreadable passed through Xu Lingyi’s eyes. “He said he would come again in a few days to take your pulse.”

“Did he prescribe anything?”

“He did!” Xu Lingyi, aware that she could read a prescription and had some understanding of herbal remedies, smiled. “I had the steward in the outer courtyard go and fill the prescription. You can look at it tomorrow.”

Eleventh Young Lady nodded, then asked whether the guest list for the Third-of-the-Third Month banquet had been sent to Steward Zhao; whether anything had been said when she had not come to pay her morning respects to the Grand Dowager Lady, and what had been the response; and how all the children were faring.

Xu Lingyi chatted with her about household matters until a little maidservant brought in the millet porridge. He then rose and moved the platform table around in front of her.

Being waited on by Xu Lingyi in this way made Eleventh Young Lady thoroughly ill at ease — particularly since she had asked for millet porridge but had only managed two spoonfuls before she no longer wished to eat.

“Don’t eat if you don’t want to.” Xu Lingyi was entirely at ease about it, and had the little maidservant take it away. “You have slept all day, so of course you have little appetite. Eat again when you feel like it.”

Eleventh Young Lady felt hungry again. Recalling how, in her previous life, she had often eaten only fruit in the evenings to keep her figure trim, she asked a maidservant to peel her an apple — but even then she ate only half of it.

Hupo came in carrying water to help her wash and freshen up.

“There is no need.” Eleventh Young Lady smiled and made to climb down from the platform herself. “I will go to the bathing room.”

Hupo looked toward Xu Lingyi in a mute appeal for help.

Xu Lingyi immediately said: “Just let them help you wash up here. You have not been out all day — there is no need to make such a fuss.”

Eleventh Young Lady still felt it was a little awkward, but Xu Lingyi had already lifted the curtain and stepped out, and Hupo had already draped a white cloth around her shoulders. She bowed her head and was ready to wash her face.

It was as though she had fallen gravely ill.

Eleventh Young Lady watched it all and grumbled inwardly. Then a certain thought struck her, and her expression went stiff, and her heart began to pound.

Could it be that she was afflicted with some incurable illness?

Was that why Xu Lingyi would not let her see the prescription? Was that why Hupo and the others were attending to her with such elaborate and painstaking caution?

She managed at last to suppress the turmoil within and began to observe carefully.

Hupo seemed to be afraid that any movement she made might be too sharp or abrupt. She watched Eleventh Young Lady’s expression at every turn, and the moment Eleventh Young Lady gave even the slightest indication of wanting something, Hupo had already seen to it. The moment Eleventh Young Lady sat quietly without moving, a visible easing would pass over the faces of her attendants.

Eleventh Young Lady had no wish to put them through difficulty. She sat still and allowed them to tend to her as they saw fit.

Once the washing was done, a little maidservant came in to report: “Madam, the eldest young miss heard that you were not feeling well. Together with Fourth Young Master and Fifth Young Master, she made two orchid sachet pouches and has sent them to you. She also says that once you are feeling better, they will come to pay you their respects.”

“Bring them in.” Eleventh Young Lady smiled and settled back languidly against the bolster pillow.

Hupo deftly drew a blanket over her. Lvyun had already taken the sachet pouches from the little maidservant’s hands and held them out.

Eleventh Young Lady brought them toward her nose and inhaled — and then her stomach turned over violently. She bent forward and retched up the half-apple she had just eaten.

Yet Hupo seemed to have produced from nowhere a basin in peacock blue, with cloisonné enamel worked in a pattern of a hundred birds among flowers. Eleventh Young Lady had retched directly into it. When she was done, the little maidservants brought warm water for her to rinse her mouth, and Lvyun held out a piece of honeyed preserved plum for her to hold on her tongue. Everything proceeded in perfect, unhurried order.

Eleventh Young Lady looked around at the roomful of smiling faces — and in a flash of blinding clarity, thought of her monthly cycle, which had still not come… Her hand, without her willing it, came to rest on her abdomen.

“Hupo!” she said, looking to Hupo with a trace of helpless uncertainty, words rising and stopping before they could be spoken.

“So we will have to wait until the third month to know for certain?” Nanny Du helped the Grand Dowager Lady remove her hairpins and ornaments.

“There was nothing else the physician could identify.” The corners of the Grand Dowager Lady’s eyes and brows were alive with delight. “I had Nanny Song come and tell me what she knew. It is eight or nine chances in ten that she is with child.”

“Congratulations to the Grand Dowager Lady!” Nanny Du smiled and curtseyed to the Grand Dowager Lady in greeting.

The Grand Dowager Lady laughed and took her by the hand. “Keep it quiet for now. The Fourth Master doesn’t even know yet.”

Nanny Du was somewhat surprised.

The Grand Dowager Lady smiled. “That is his nature. He will not say a word about anything until he is certain of it.” She thought for a moment, then added with great pleasure: “With matters of this kind, I daresay we know far better than any physician!”

Nanny Du burst out laughing.

—