An imperial affair

CHAPTER ELEVEN

After what had happened in my courtyard, I was feeling anxious and uneasy. What if someone had seen us? What if someone told my husband? The thoughts plagued my mind as I was reading through the scrolls Linyu had brought for me. I was still trying to find out more about Princess Jia but nothing came up. 

However I learnt some interesting things about the empress. She was from the Wei kingdom and her parents had selected her and her sister Consort Duan to become dowry maids to the Wei kingdom's princess, before her journey to the Liang kingdom, but their princess died a few months after her arrival to the Liang kingdom. This was around the same time the empress had gotten pregnant with her first child.

Something about death of the Wei princess seemed strange, according to the scroll she died due to an ongoing illness that lasted for two months, but before she got sick she was perfectly healthy. I knew something didn't add up. Why would someone who was healthy suddenly become so sick to the point of losing her life? I was missing something but what? 

It seemed that the empress shared a similar fate to mine. She too was plucked from her country and forced to come to the Liang kingdom. Suddenly I wondered how the crown princess was doing. Did she get rid of the empress' spies? Did she apologise to the crown prince and his concubines? These questions roamed my mind before Linyu enterd my room.

''Greeting to Your Highness,'' she said before she bowed.

''Arise,'' I said. I looked at her facial expression and she seemed to have something on her mind. She looked as though she was contemplating something on her mind.

''What's wrong?'' I asked.

''Your Highness, Prince Yin he,'' she stopped. I was concerned. What had happened to the prince?

''Continue,'' I said.

''He returned home with bruises on his face, one of the servants said that Prince Shen had gotten angry with him yesturday and.''

''I understand,'' I said cutting her off. I didn't care what Prince Shen had done to the prince but did he hurt him because of me? If news of our fight and Prince Shen's actions got out, people could have suspected us of having an affair. That would be treason and I would lose my head for it.

''Have the other servants heard of it?'' I asked.

''A few of them, Your Highness,'' she said.

''Tell them that this matter is never to be spoken about again, if they continue to speak of it, they will be expelled out of the house.''

''Yes,'' she replied before she left.

I was worried about the rumours but I was more worried about the empress and Princess Jia. If the empress had gotten word of this from one of her spies, I would be finished. Women's fates were always like this, decided by the powerful. Our lives could be trampled on if we weren't careful. 

If Princess Jia had heard of the rumours, I was afraid of what she would do the same to me. The empress was one thing but Princess Jia was another. I could sense that she was a true wolf, in the disguise of a sheep. At least the empress showed her true colours but Princess Jia didn't and that's what made her more frigtening. 

However these were just rumours and none of it was true, but Prince Yin could have used this opportunity to get rid of me if he wanted. He could have told the emperor I had an affair, and my marriage would have been over, Prince Shen would still live as he was the emperor's son but I would die for my treachery. 

The Northern Xia would have been in peril and Princess Wenyi's position would have also been weakened. I couldn't allow this to happen. Immediately I marched my way into the imperial study, I knew Prince Shen usually spent his night there, buried in his work.