The Cold Minister and the Substitute Bride novel · Chapter 9 of 24
Chapter 9: What the Kitchen Knows
Zhiruo stopped outside the kitchen door with one hand on the latch.
"Two days," said Steward Qin's dry voice inside. "Perhaps three. My nephew drives the carter's route to the Western villages. He will find her before the Censor's men do."
"If he doesn't?" That was Granny Mo.
"Then we move her. To my cousin's. The old woman is deaf and will not mind the journey."
"And if the Censor asks her about the baby?"
"She delivered forty babies that spring. She will say she remembers one."
Zhiruo's heart slowed to a hard, steady beat.
She pushed the door open.
The kitchen was warm and low, with red coals in the stove and a single lamp on the table.
Qin sat on a stool with a teacup in his hands.
Granny Mo stood at the chopping block, in her nightshirt and apron, cutting ginger with her ladle tucked under one arm.
They both looked up.
Neither of them looked surprised.
"Young madam," said Qin, and rose.
"You're looking for the midwife," Zhiruo said.
"We are."
"Does the Minister know?"
"No," said Granny Mo. "And she's not going to."
She wiped her hands on her apron and pulled out a third stool with her foot.
"Sit, child. You're about to ask us a great many things, and I'd like you to be sitting."
Zhiruo sat.
The ginger smelled sharp and clean.
"How long have you known?" she said.
Qin and Granny Mo exchanged a glance.
It was the glance of two people who had been dreading this conversation for thirteen years and were relieved to have it.
"Since the funeral," Granny Mo said. "The old master's, I mean, the magistrate's. I was a kitchen girl at the Xue country house. Qin was the master's valet. Bichen, the elder boy, had just been put in the ground."
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