Restless

1.

He'd been just a stripling when he'd arrived at Jinlin Tai, her brother-in-law. How had he grown so tall without her noticing? His eyes were liquid, his mouth so like her husband's she could almost pretend this wasn't forbidden.

She didn't want to pretend; she wanted to enjoy all of this sweet rebellion. He took her on the cold table in the secret chamber, the room she was barred from that was supposed to be hers as well. She had him in her marital bed while her husband greeted guests from Gusu. Tired of being neglected, now she was unstoppable.

2.

They hadn't been careless, she knew, and yet something had shifted in the atmosphere of the Fragrant Palace.

"Was my brother here today?" her husband asked, eyes still locked on his reading.

Her needle snagged in the silk. "Briefly. He was looking for you."

"Hmm." He made the moue she knew meant danger. Sweat danced along her hairline.

After her brother-in-law was sent home, she filled the newly empty hours trying to tease apart the reason her husband had given for it. What could it mean, that he'd claimed the boy's misguided affections for himself? What was he telling her?

3.

Only months into his exile, he was back.

He walked up to Jinlin Tai with a new tilt to his head, a glitter in the eyes that had been so doelike for her. He came with the party from Gusu, and he acted as if he didn't know enough to be afraid.

Twice scorned, she refused to chase him. She drank ginger tea at the banquet and pushed down her own fear.

At least he looked enough like her husband that no outsider would guess the truth.

When she slipped away to bed, someone pressed a letter into her hand.