The Apothecary Diaries

Chapter 29: Honey (Part Three)

"A letter from Consort Gyokuyou?"

"Yes. I was told to deliver it personally."

"I'm afraid Lady Ah-Duo is attending tea right now..." Fengming, Ah-Duo's pudgy chief lady-in-waiting, regarded Maomao apologetically.

Maomao opened the small wooden box she was carrying. Normally it might have contained a slip of paper, but this one held a small jar with a single red trumpet of a flower within. A familiar, sweet aroma drifted from it. Maomao saw Fengming wince; she must have recognized the blossom.

So I was right? Maomao slid the jar aside, revealing a scrap of paper on which was written a list of specific words she suspected Fengming knew perfectly well.

"I would like to speak with you if I may, Lady Fengming," Maomao said.

"Very well," Fengming replied.

I like the sharp ones, Maomao thought. Makes things so much quicker. Fengming, her face taut, ushered Maomao into the Garnet Pavilion.

Fengming's personal chambers were laid out on much the same plan as Hongniang's, but everything she owned was crammed into one corner. It seemed she was all packed.

Yep. That tallies. Maomao and Fengming sat facing each other across a round table. Fengming served warming ginger tea, and a caddy on the table contained hard buns of bread. Fruit honeys were slathered all over them.

"Now, whatever is the matter?" Fengming asked. "We're quite finished cleaning, if that's what you're here for." Her voice was gentle, but it had a searching quality. She knew why Maomao had come, but she wasn't going to be the one to start the conversation.

"When will you be moving, if I may ask?" Maomao said, indicating the belongings in the corner.

"You're very perceptive." Fengming's voice immediately turned cold.

The "spring cleaning" had been only a pretext. In order that a new consort might be in place by the time people made their formal new year's greetings, Ah-Duo was going to have to leave the Garnet Pavilion. Consorts who would not or could not bear children had no place in the rear palace.

Not even if they had been the Emperor's companion for many years. All the more so if they lacked any powerful backer at court to secure their status, as Ah-Duo did.

To this point, the fact that Ah-Duo was the monarch's milk-sibling, a bond closer than that with one's own biological parents, had protected her.

Perhaps if at least the prince she'd borne had lived, she might have been able to hold her head up.

I have a guess about her. Consort Ah-Duo had the handsome beauty of a young man; there was hardly a hint of womanliness about her. If a woman could become a eunuch, she might look something like Ah-Duo. Maomao hated to say anything based on an assumption—but when it was an obvious fact, sometimes that was all you could do.

"Consort Ah-Duo is no longer able to bear children, is she?"

Fengming said nothing, but her silence was as good as confirmation. Her face grew harder and harder.

"Something happened during the delivery, didn't it?" Maomao prodded.

"That has nothing to do with you." The middle-aged lady-in-waiting narrowed her eyes. They held no hint of the tender, considerate woman Maomao had met before, but burned with a deep hostility.

"In fact, it does. For the attending physician at the birth was my adoptive father." Maomao delivered this fact dispassionately. Fengming got to her feet.