Chapter 10: Bath Terrace

"The decree?" said Ruoxi. "What decree?"

She looked from Lanyin to Mingzhu.

"The one that created the post," Lanyin said carefully. "Every office in the palace has one."

"It will be in the archive," said Mingzhu, "under a hundred other papers. It will take them a day to find it."

She said it very lightly.

Her hand had closed so tightly on the edge of the bench that her knuckles were white.

"Then there's nothing to worry about," Ruoxi said.

"No," Mingzhu said. "Nothing."

Ruoxi noticed that Lanyin did not look at either of them.

She noticed, and set it aside, because the afternoon was warm and the princess was holding her hand.

She took Ruoxi's hand and held it in both of hers.

"Come and bathe with me," she said. "I want an afternoon of something simple."

The bath terrace stood over the lotus pond on carved cedar pillars, with a screen of bamboo on three sides.

The water was brought in cedar buckets, hot, scented with orange peel.

The wooden tub was deep enough for a person to sit in with the water at her shoulders.

Ruoxi stood by it, awkward, in her inner shirt.

"I'm a taster," she said. "I've never been bathed by anyone."

"Then I'll bathe you."

"I'm supposed to wash your hair."

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