That was comforting. Lotus tested the pillows and found them soft. There were silken sheets folded on a table, and a basin and water pitcher. Zhao saw her glance, and explained. “The basin is for you; I will be bathed by the servants in the main bath. In fact you will attend me there, but you will not bathe there. This is protocol.”
“Of course,” Lotus agreed, relieved. The last thing she wanted to do was show her naked body in public, because it was as yet almost undeveloped. The Lady Zhao would naturally be proud to show her perfect body.
“Under the bed you will find a covered pot,” Zhao said. “This is for you also. We shall pretend that I have no natural functions, so when I use it you will take it out to the refuse dump as yours.”
“Yes, Lady,” Lotus agreed. “But don’t folk know that ladies also—?”
“Common women have urine and feces. Royal women are above that sort of thing—especially in the presence of royal men.” She winked. “A Son of Heaven’s concubine has only two orifices: her mouth to be kissed, and her vagina to be penetrated. All else is completely pristine.”
Lotus nodded. Appearance was all-important here. It was her job to maintain the Lady’s appearance in whatever way was required.
“I must show you around, but we shall pretend that you are merely attending me as I take my air.”
“But a servant could show me where things are,” Lotus protested. “You don’t need to take the trouble.”
Zhao smiled. “There are nuances of protocol. By showing myself with you, I identify you clearly as mine, discouraging any others from interfering with you. Also, sometimes the servants play jokes.”
“Jokes?”
Zhao smiled reminiscently. “When I first came here, largely innocent of the ways of the court, I let a servant show my helper-girl around. The servant showed her the empress’s private lavatory as the place to dump her pot.”
“Oh!” Lotus covered her face with a hand, feeling the embarrassment of such a miscue.
“Fortunately the empress was experienced and tolerant. She posed as an elder servant and explained to the girl that this was a confusion, and showed her the correct place. It wasn’t until a month later that the girl saw the empress at a public function and recognized her for what she was. Then she fainted.”
“So would I,” Lotus said sincerely.
“But the new empress is much younger, and her humor is slight. Such a miscue could cost a girl her head.”
“Oh!” Lotus repeated, horrified in another way.
“Have no fear. I will see that nothing untoward happens to you. I have the fortune of having been here before, and of learning the ways.”
“Oh, I’m glad!” Lotus breathed.
Zhao took a walk around the premises, remarking on the small changes which had occurred in the two years of her absence, and greeting several servants by name. She ignored the other concubines.
“But aren’t any of them friends of yours?” Lotus asked.
“None. All the concubines are new.”
“Then why are you—I mean—” Lotus faltered, realizing that she could be treading on forbidden territory.
“It is highly unusual. But the empress believes that an experienced woman is required to do the job she desires, one who knows the ways of things. And the Son of Heaven did like me. When the ordinary does not suffice, the extraordinary must be tried.”
By the time they returned to their room, Lotus knew the locations of the dining chamber, lavatory, bathing pool, kitchen, maintenance servants’ quarters, and storage rooms. She would have no trouble finding her way.
“Soon it will be time for the evening meal,” Zhao said. “I will eat at the main table, while you will eat at the servants’ table to the side. You will watch, and if you see me lift my hand to you, you will come to me immediately. Beware lest others try to distract you so that you miss my signal. I would be obliged to punish you, lest I seem unduly softhearted.”
“I will watch constantly!”
“No, Lotus. You must watch elsewhere, not seeming to orient on me. But frequently your errant gaze will pass my way, and I will time my signal so that you can catch it without seeming to. Then, after just enough of a pause so that it seems you have missed it, you will rise, turn, and come to me as if it is your own decision.”
“I—but why, Lady? I am your servant.”
“Have you ever seen a cavalryman on his horse?”
“Yes, sometimes, when they pass on the street.”
“Have you seen him stop or turn or change pace?”
“Yes.”
“Have you seen or heard any signal between the man and his horse?”
Lotus paused, surprised. “No, Lady. It was as man and horse were one.”
“Yet it was the man making the decisions, and the horse obeying them.”
“Yes. I wonder how that happens?”
“The knees. The shift of weight. The horse feels the signals.” Zhao met Lotus’s gaze. “Even so must be the signals between us. Others will know that you obey my signals, but will seldom see the communication between us. That is a mark of sophistication. Similarly, if there should be something you need to do or to tell me, you will signal me, thus.” The woman made a tiny gesture with one hand, by her hip. “By that token I will know, and will respond.”
“But it is not for me to—”
“If the man signals the horse to gallop forward, but the horse sees a deep pit in the road that would cause him to stumble and perhaps fall, hurting his master, what does the horse do?”
Lotus had to think about that. “Balk, perhaps. He has no way to tell his master.”
“But you are not a horse. You can understand things, and communicate them. It may be that you will know something that I should be warned about. But it is not your place to speak out of turn. Then you must signal me, so that I can cause you to speak in turn.”
“Yes, Lady,” Lotus agreed uncertainly.
“Let us rehearse it. Assume that you know that the Son of Heaven is walking behind me. I am talking with another person and do not see him.” Zhao faced the wall and gestured as if addressing another Lady.
Lotus looked at the shrouded entrance panel as if seeing someone, then formed her hand into the key signal. But Zhao didn’t see her. Lotus started to reach out to touch the woman’s hand, but realized that that wouldn’t do. So she managed to nudge around until she stood before Zhao, and repeated her signal. Zhao glanced at her, made another gesture as if addressing the other person, then turned as if coincidentally. And immediately went into a full, graceful obeisance. She had spied the Son of Heaven.
“But I never got to tell you!” Lotus protested.
“Your signal was enough. I knew you would not work so hard to get my attention if it wasn’t important.”
“Yes,” Lotus agreed, relieved, though it had all been make-believe.
“Now you will use the pot and empty it,” Zhao said.
“Oh, I don’t need to—” Then she caught on. She scrambled to fetch the pot from under the bed and set it up for the Lady to use. In due course she took it to the dumping site and emptied it, and rinsed it with water so it wouldn’t smell. She returned, and Zhao smiled approvingly.
Then they went to the meal. Lotus accompanied Zhao to her place at the main table and saw that she was appropriately seated, then went to the servants’ table. There was a big tub of boiled rice, and some vegetables. Lotus took a bowl and put rice in it, then found a place to sit. She brought out her chopsticks.
“You must be new,” a girl about her own age said.
“Yes,” Lotus confessed shyly.
“New servants sit over there.” The girl pointed.
Lotus looked in that direction. There was another table, with no one sitting at it. “Oh—I didn’t know.” She picked up her bowl and walked to the other table.
Then she remembered to look around. It was well she did so, for just then Zhao signaled. True to her instructions, she took no obvious note, instead cont
inuing to the table, where she set down her bowl. Then she turned and walked to the main table.
“I am not sure the seasoning is right,” Zhao said, holding up her own bowl of much fancier rice. “Taste it for me, Lotus.”
Lotus dutifully dug a small bit out with her chopsticks and brought it to her mouth. It was the best rice she had ever tasted. But as she was about to say so, she saw Zhao’s tiny motion of the head: No.
“I—I think not,” Lotus said, hoping this was the proper response. What was the Lady up to?
“Are you sure? Try a larger portion.”
Lotus took a larger portion. She savored it. But again there was that trace shake of Zhao’s head: No. “This is not right for you, Lady,” Lotus lied obediently. “It is too strong.”
“I suspected as much. You take it. I will take a better one.”
“But, Lady, I already took a bowl for—” But that trace No stopped her. “I mean, may I fetch you a new bowl, Lady?”
“No, I will have one brought directly from the kitchen,” Zhao said. “You return to sit with the others, not by yourself. Leave the other bowl.”
Lotus went back to her first table with her new bowl of rice. She realized that Zhao had done her the favor of giving her a much nicer meal than she would otherwise have had. But why had the Lady made her return to the wrong table?
“Hey, you aren’t supposed to be here,” the other girl said as Lotus sat down.
“I answer only to my mistress,” Lotus said with a firmness she hardly felt. She began eating the fabulous rice.
The other girl shrugged, making no further protest.
Before Lotus finished the bowl, keeping an eye out for any further signals from Zhao, she saw several other women enter the dining hall. They were concubines, by their elaborate dress. They sat at the table where Lotus had been sent. Suddenly she understood: it had been a joke! She had been sent to one of the tables reserved for the ladies. Her bowl still sat there, a reminder of her possible breach of etiquette. Zhao, alert for her welfare, had saved her from that hideous embarrassment.
One of the concubines, seeing the bowl, evidently took it for a sample. She tried a mouthful of its rice—and in a moment was coughing and running to another table for water.
Lotus, momentarily baffled, suddenly realized what had happened: the other girl must have dumped some hot sauce into the rice. So that not only would Lotus sit at the wrong table, she would call immediate attention to herself by choking on the first mouthful. What spiteful mischief!
But she gave no indication that she knew. She merely made careful note of the other girl’s appearance, so as to recognize her henceforth. Perhaps there would come a time for a return of the favor.
Later, back in their chamber, Lotus ventured an unsolicited comment. “Thank you, Lady,-for saving me from humiliation.”
“Ah, you realized.” Zhao smiled. “Sometime you may save me from similar.”
“I hope so, Lady.”
“Go to the kitchen and fetch me a tasty pastry.”
“But you’ve just eaten!” Then Lotus caught herself. “Yes, Lady.” She went out along the halls to the kitchen. “My Lady Wu Zhao wishes a sweet pastry,” she told the matron who intercepted her there.
“Ah, she’s up to her old tricks,” the matron said, fetching a pastry and wrapping it.
“Tricks?”
“That woman may be the smartest concubine ever to inhabit this palace. She knows every little device. Such as eating only sparingly in public, so as to appear to need little or no sustenance. As if she is some ethereal creature. So she must take the rest of her food in private.”
“Oh.” Lotus had never thought of that.
“After this, don’t announce it. Just come here, and I will recognize you and give you what you need.”
“Thank you.” Lotus took the package and left. She was learning things at a great rate.
Zhao smiled when Lotus told her of the encounter. “Yes, I know her of old. You can trust her. But be wary of others.”
“I learned that today,” Lotus said, thinking of the episode at the dining hall.
“Yes. But you responded well. Every day will be easier, as you master the nuances of distrust.”
They settled down to sleep. Lotus’s mind was awhirl with the new experiences, but she concluded that on the whole she liked her new situation. Certainly she liked her mistress, Wu Zhao.
Next day Zhao began introducing herself to other concubines, in seemingly casual fashion. Many of them were accompanied by their servant girls, who remained always close but behind and quiet. The Lady always wore the wig in public, but was quite free about admitting that her hair was not her own and that she had come from a nunnery.
One concubine was especially pretty, and very polite. Her name was Hsiao Liang-ti, informally known as Liang. But Lotus was startled when she saw the woman’s servant. It was the girl who had tried to embarrass Lotus at the dining hall!
Her hand twitched, making the signal. Then she realized that this was hardly relevant to Zhao’s interests, and straightened her fingers. Fortunately Zhao hadn’t seen it.
But moments later, when they were alone, Zhao inquired. “What was it?”
“I—think nothing. I didn’t mean to signal.”
“Let me judge.”
“Well, that woman—her servant is the one who sent me to the wrong table and put hot sauce in my rice.”
“The Lady Liang’s girl?”
“Yes. But that shouldn’t concern you, Lady.”
“Oh, I think it should, Lotus. Liang is the Son of Heaven’s current favorite.”
“Oh! The one you are supposed to displace?”
“The same. So I think it was not coincidence that her girl was there to tease you. Your embarrassment would have been my embarrassment, for having a seemingly stupid or clumsy girl. Liang knows I am a threat to her.”
“I never thought of that. I thought it was just because I’m new.”
“This is not as innocent a realm as it may seem. I will of course continue to be polite to Liang, as she is to me. You must be similarly polite to her girl. But never trust either of them.”
“I never will!” Lotus agreed with such fervor that the Lady smiled. Some lessons had more impact than others.
Two days later a eunuch came with the news that Zhao had been summoned to the Son of Heaven’s bed for the night. Zhao masked her joy at this assignment and assumed a cool demeanor. Lotus accompanied her to the Imperial palace, perhaps the most splendid structure in the city. Zhao was dressed in a fine silk gown with gold stitching and a decolletage that showed so much of her breasts that it would have been dangerous for her to breathe, let alone lean forward. Only her hair was not fancy, being the same wig.
An armed guard waited at the edge of the concubine complex. Without a word he set forth, leading the way. Others in the vicinity feigned indifference; the Son of Heaven’s business was not their business.
They entered the grand palace, passing many guards and servants within it. It was apparent that the Son of Heaven was well protected, and that the various personnel knew exactly what was going on. Should an unauthorized person attempt to intrude, he would not get far at all.
Lotus had thought there would be some formal meeting place, where she would be quickly sent back to the room in the concubine quarter. Instead they were brought directly to the Imperial bedroom. There stood a handsome young man in an informal robe.
The moment he saw Zhao he strode toward her, opening his arms. She swept into his embrace. It was as if they had been lovers for years. So ardently did he kiss her that her wig was dislodged, falling askew on her bald head. When he saw that he laughed. “The nunnery!” he exclaimed. “I almost forgot! Oh, Zhao, it is good to have you back.”
“You know I always loved you, but could not speak,” Zhao replied.
“How well I know! But now you are mine.”
“I am yours,” she agreed. “But if I may—I must have my girl take my wig, befor
e it gets in the way.”
“Your girl?”
“Lotus. She is the daughter of Crystal, a scribe who has done occasional commissions for the court. They do some very nice printing. Lotus has been a fine companion and help to me. She got me this fine wig.”
“Oh. Of course.”
Zhao removed her tilted wig and gave it to Lotus. “Go to the outer chamber and wait there,” she said. “A servant will attend you.”
Lotus nodded, awed by the presence of the Son of Heaven, and backed out of the bedroom. As the curtain fell closed she saw the two embracing again, most passionately. The Son of Heaven certainly did like Zhao!
The servant was an older man. “Sit down, girl,” he said. “Have you eaten?”
“Yes.” Lotus looked around nervously. “She told me to—to wait here.”
“That’s right. She will be with him the night. You may lie on those cushions and sleep, if you wish.”
“I—yes. But not yet.” She did not want to say that it bothered her to be alone with a strange man.
“Be at ease, girl,” he said as if reading her mind. “I am not a man. I’m a eunuch. I will not molest you.”
She stared at him, astonished. She did not know what to say. But she had to say something. “I don’t know exactly what to do.”
“Then sit at the table here and play me a game of go.”
“Go?”
“Don’t you know the royal game of enclosing?”
“I—I have heard of it, but never played it.”
“Then it is time to learn. Do not be afraid of me, girl. I serve the Son of Heaven. I would cut off your head if he told me to, but that is not his business tonight. I am here to see that no one intrudes, and at midnight I will be relieved by another with the same mission. I am bored, and go is the game to distract one’s mind. Let us make our introductions: I am Old Coal.”
“I am young Lotus,” she said, smiling.
“Here is the game,” he said. “Here is a place for you.”
Isle of Woman (Geodyssey) Page 38
