The Poison Taster Who Outlived the Princess's Dinners novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: The Envoy's Cup

The Marquis tested Ruoxi with an unmarked cup before the court, the princess cut him down, and that night she said she had forty days left unmarried.

The envoy wore a dark blue robe with a crane on the chest, and he bowed to the princess exactly as low as the rules said.

Marquis Shao Wenhai was thirty-eight, smooth as a polished table, and smiling.

"Princess Mingzhu," he said, "the Prince of Beihai asks for your hand, and the Prime Minister asks for your answer by the Autumn Moon Festival."

Ruoxi stood behind the princess's right shoulder with her spoon on its cord.

The Hall of Everlasting Peace was full of ministers, ladies, and the Empress Dowager's silent screen.

"Forty days," the Marquis said pleasantly. "It is a short time. But the Prince is a patient man."

"How kind of him," said Mingzhu.

"And may I say," the Marquis went on, turning his eyes, "that it is a rare thing to see a princess protected by a taster still. In my district, the post was ended years ago."

"We keep it."

"For six years, I understand. And in six years, nothing found?"

"Nothing has ever happened in my kitchen," Mingzhu said.

"How remarkable. May I see the taster work?"

A servant came forward with a tray and an unmarked porcelain cup of pale tea.

The Marquis poured it himself.

"A small courtesy," he said. "Let her taste it, here, in front of everyone. A taster who is real should have no objection."

Ruoxi felt every eye in the hall turn to her.

She stepped forward and lifted the cup.

Tea, she thought, first.

Then something under it, round and green.

She held it, counted five, and swallowed.

"Jasmine tea, a young leaf, spring water from a well with iron in it," she said. "Dried mint. And a little crushed melon seed, which isn't tea and shouldn't be in it."

The Marquis's smile slipped a very little.

"Melon seed isn't poison," he said.

"No. It's the cook's trick to make tea taste sweeter. But if I were a bad taster you would have left it out, and I'd have said only tea. Now I know what you wanted me to say."

A cough rippled along the ministers.

"Marquis Shao," said Mingzhu, in a voice so soft that the room leaned in. "You are my guest. Please do not make my taster a joke in my mother's hall."

"I meant no insult."

"I am sure you meant a great deal." She rose. "Du Ruoxi. Come."

She walked out of the Hall with her back straight and Ruoxi two steps behind her.

Only when the doors closed did she let her shoulders drop.

In the evening Ruoxi was called to the bedchamber.

The princess sat at her dressing table with her hair half undone and the gold phoenix comb lying beside her hand.

"I have a headache," Mingzhu said. "Lanyin is gone for tea. Will you?"

"Will I what?"

"Rub my temples. You have strong hands. I've watched them cut peaches."

Ruoxi stood behind her, looking at herself in the bronze mirror, with the princess below her chin.

She raised her hands.

Mingzhu's hair smelled of plum blossom and warm oil.

Ruoxi set her fingertips at the sides of her head and pressed in small circles.

Mingzhu let her eyes close.

"Lower," she murmured. "At the back of the neck."

Ruoxi's thumbs found the soft knot there and eased it open.

Mingzhu made a low, grateful sound.

It went through Ruoxi's arms and straight down into her stomach.

"Your Highness," she said, very quietly. "The Marquis is not wrong. In six years I haven't found real poison."

"Because you are very good."

"Or because there isn't any. Is there?"

Mingzhu's eyes opened in the mirror.

She did not answer.

"You are very good," she said again, and turned her cheek into Ruoxi's palm.

It was a small movement, a leaning, as a cat leans into a hand.

Ruoxi held still.

"My mother wants me married," Mingzhu said, to the mirror. "She has told the Prime Minister I will answer by the Autumn Moon."

"Will you say yes?"

"Do I look like a woman who has said yes to anything?"

"No."

"Forty days," said Mingzhu. "That is how long I have, Ruoxi. And I would very much like to spend them with you."

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