Threads of Silk by Amanda Roberts

Author:Amanda Roberts [Roberts, Amanda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Red Empress Publishing
Published: 2018-01-17T05:00:00+00:00

* * *

I awoke to a banging sound. I didn’t remember falling asleep. I could still smell the prince and feel the soft silk of his robe under my fingers. The banging got louder.

“Mistress Yang! Mistress Yang!” a maid called. “Are you all right? The door is locked. You are late!”

I finally forced myself to open my eyes. The prince was gone. As the blur cleared from my eyes, a yellow blanket appeared before me. I sat up. It wasn’t a yellow blanket, but Prince Gong’s dragon robe!

“Mistress Yang! Is everything okay?”

Wide awake, I gripped the robe and jumped out of bed. I would never be able to explain why the robe was in my room. Why had the idiot left it? What was he wearing when he left? I tried to find somewhere to hide it, but my trunk was full. Besides, anywhere I put it, the maid who cleaned my room would find it eventually. Then I heard another voice calling for me.

“Yaqian!” called Wensong. “Are you in there? Are you sick? The empress is calling for you.”

I would have to open the door. I was late. But what would I do with the robe? I panicked. In my fear and stupidity, I shoved the robe in the fireplace, which had a small fire still burning in it. The robe immediately caught on fire. It began to shrink and smelled like burning hair. I didn’t have time to change my mind because in only a moment, the beautiful golden robe turned to black ash. All that was left were the little pearls I had used as embellishments. I reached in and made sure they were all buried in the ash. My fingers were black from the ruin of my most magnificent creation.

“Yaqian!” Wensong yelled. “Open this door or I’ll bring someone to break it down.”

A primal, guttural wail began to fill my ears. It took me a second to realize this intense sound of pain was coming from me. What had I done? The magnum opus of my life was gone in an instant. The cost of one night with the prince had been the most magnificent creation of my career. The empress would find out! The prince was supposed to wear the robe on official occasions. She would notice if he wasn’t wearing it. She would demand to know where it was. I cried louder. I would die two deaths. One for sleeping with the prince, the other for destroying the great gift her majesty had bestowed upon the prince.

The banging on my door resumed, but much louder and more intense. An Dehai suddenly burst through the door, with the maid and Wensong right behind him. They found me kneeling on the ground in front of the fireplace, my hands black with soot and crying as if I had just been stabbed.

Wensong ran to me and took me in her arms. I mumbled something about being stupid and heartbroken because I dropped something into the fire. An

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