It was between the tenth and the eleventh course that the emperor stood up. The reaction at the virgins’ tables was immediate. Chopsticks clattered to the table, and hair was quickly patted into place. Ji Yue was not immune to the need to primp as her butterfly pin had once again dropped down behind her ear where no one would see it.

The emperor left the festival hall. All the virgins-Ji Yue included-returned to their food with a dispirited frown. Ji Yue’s stomach was full, but she didn’t know when she’d be able to eat again. She would take what she could now with no worry that the emperor would catch her with her mouth full. A door opened and closed behind her, but she paid no attention. Eunuchs went in and out that way all the time.

“Which is the virgin who dared hit you with a plate?”

Stunned gasps surrounded her at the man’s voice. Ji Yue gasped as well, but she was eating. The result was a very unempresslike gurgle and a very undemure choking sound.

“It was an accident, Yi Zhen.”

Ji Yue felt her blood run cold. She knew that voice. It was Master Sun Bo Tao, and he was speaking the childhood name of the emperor. Which meant both the master and the emperor were right behind her!

“On your temple?” the emperor responded. “Was she throwing plates around to hit you so high? Ha! Or were you on your knees before her?”

Ji Yue barely heard the question over the roaring in her ears. She needed to cough the food out of her windpipe, yet to do such a thing before the emperor would be ghastly. But she had to breathe! She began to cough.

“So, Bo Tao, which one is she?”

“The one so frightened by your presence that she cannot breathe.”

She heard footsteps behind her and hastily tried to regain some composure. At least her coughing had subsided and she could breathe. There was a touch on her shoulder, and she was forced to turn around. It was the emperor, of course, looking down at her from a vast height. She was aware that her spasms had dislodged her hair. She could feel it slipping away from the board and hiding her jade butterfly pin. She gazed up at the emperor with miserably hopeful eyes. Would he see past her disheveled appearance to the woman beneath? Of course not. For all that he was the emperor, he was also a man. He saw nothing but the superficial.

She had to do something exceptional very soon. Her mother’s words rang through her thoughts. You cannot be beautiful, so be smart. The other girls were bowing to the emperor, murmuring their names along with their greetings. When it was her turn, Ji Yue did the same, her voice husky and thick from her coughing.

“Humph,” the emperor said. “You do not look so bold now. Tell me, Chen Ji Yue, why did you hit my friend with a plate?”

Ji Yue glanced at Bo Tao, her mind filled with the memory of his hands on her breasts, of her heart beating so fast as he slid his fingers ever lower. She felt her face heat beneath her white paint and saw an answering panic in his eyes. Did she tell the truth? Did she say that the emperor’s best friend had done things to her that no virgin allowed? And that part of her still moistened at the thought of him doing them again?

She swallowed and ducked her head. “It was an accident, great emperor,” she said. “I…tripped and the plate flew from my hand. I was merely clumsy.”

“Humph. I suppose that could be true.” He flashed Bo Tao a look filled with humor. “But I doubt it.” Then he snorted as he scanned the sea of hopeful virgin faces. “A girl’s virtue is always in danger even in the Forbidden City. Your clumsiness does not offend me.”

Ji Yue exhaled a grateful breath in relief. She was not to be punished for hitting Bo Tao. Now she had to capitalize on her opportunity. She had to think of something clever to say, and she had to do it without looking at Bo Tao, without thinking of what they had done together and without wondering about what he was thinking and feeling right at that moment.

Fortunately, she had an easy topic at hand. “The news of the Taiping defeat is most excellent! I am breathless to see your plans for the northern lands such that no upstart can rise again.”

It worked! The emperor’s attention had been wandering to Li Fei, but at her words, he focused back on her. “Whatever do you mean?”

Ji Yue straightened, uncomfortable at his curt tone. “Only that when servants-or peasants-act badly, there is usually an underlying cause. Address that cause, and the meals once again appear hot and on time.”

The emperor frowned at her. His face darkened, and his eyes grew cold. “Do you hear that, Bo Tao? Comparing our glorious empire to servants and meals!” He raised his voice so that all would hear. “Bad servants will be whipped. Upstart peasants who dare challenge the Dragon Throne will be killed. And that is the end of it!”

Cheers and claps greeted his rousing statement. Then he turned back to her, his humor restored. “But I like your butterfly pin,” he added.

She could barely murmur a thank-you before he laughed again and strode back to his table at the front of the room. Sun Bo Tao lingered a moment longer, his gaze dark and uncertain on her. She met his look-she couldn’t help herself-but she couldn’t read his meaning. She merely felt that tension again, that low lute string that seemed to tighten between them whenever they saw each other. And then he was gone, his long strides easily catching up to the emperor.

“You have disgraced us!” someone hissed.

Ji Yue turned and was startled to see her fellow virgins glaring at her. “What?”

“He came to our table to talk with us, and you coughed all over him. It is no wonder that he rushed away. He must fear a plague from you!”

Ji Yue blinked. “What?”

“He will think we are like you! He will think we keep company with upstart women who challenge his authority!”

“I did no such thing!” she cried.

“You do it even now! Oh, we are ruined because of you!”

Ji Yue looked from face to face. She had just spent a delightful two hours at the banquet with these girls. They had laughed together and shared stories of their homes. And now each one spit into their napkins at her and turned their faces away. Even Li Fei would not look at her.

“My chances are my own,” she finally said. “They will not affect yours.”

“Ugly and stupid,” Fan Mei Lin said. “She will bring us all down with her.”

Ji Yue said nothing. Their minds could not be swayed, and worse, she feared they were right. Men’s minds did not always remember details. The emperor might very well attribute her actions to one of them, but she doubted it. Especially since each girl would take pains to remind the emperor that it was Ji Yue who had insulted him so.

No one would remember that she had tried to compliment his statecraft, not insult it. He would only know that she had created discord in his home, and that was a sin that could never be forgiven, especially in the Forbidden City. In short, she had not only failed to impress the emperor but had turned every virgin against her.