Chapter 4: The Narrow Bed

Jinyu stepped back and let Qiao into her room.

She shut the door and lit nothing.

The window showed a square of grey lane light.

By it she could see the tall shape standing in the middle of the floor, unsure what to do with her hands.

"You can have the bed," Jinyu said. "I'll sit up."

"I didn't come for the bed."

Qiao said it so quietly that Jinyu thought she had misheard.

"Then what did you come for?"

Qiao crossed the floor in two steps.

She stopped close enough that her breath touched Jinyu's cheek, and Jinyu smelled the borrowed soap on her.

"In the storeroom," Qiao said. "Your hand was over my mouth. I haven't stopped feeling it since."

Jinyu's own breath caught.

"I'm your elder," she said. It was meant as a joke and it came out as a plea.

"I know." Qiao's voice shook and was glad. "Aunt Jinyu."

Jinyu laughed, short and helpless, and put her palm against Qiao's cheek.

Qiao turned her face into it and pressed her mouth to the heel of the hand.

That was all it took.

Jinyu kissed her.

It was careless at first, clumsy with nerves, noses bumping and Qiao's bandaged hand fumbling at her sleeve.

Then Qiao made a low sound against her lips, and Jinyu's careful hands stopped being careful.

She walked her back until the bed caught the backs of Qiao's knees.

They went down together, Qiao first, Jinyu following, both of them laughing under the kiss because the frame groaned.

"Hush," Jinyu whispered. "Auntie Hu hears everything."

"She's in the annex."

"She hears through walls."

"Then let her hear," Qiao said, and drew her down by the collar.

Jinyu worked the borrowed gown open at the throat with slow fingers.

She found the line of a collarbone, and the pulse beating hard under it, and set her mouth there until Qiao arched off the quilt.

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