plan had some merit. There were many small villages and settlements tucked away in the remote region. Wang would have to scatter his army to find them.
‘It’s been years since I’ve spoken to my brother,’ he went on. ‘I’ll need to go to him and convince him to go into hiding. It could well be that the general knows my identity by now, and I can’t risk their safety.’
‘I understand.’ Daiyu nodded sympathetically. ‘Family is everything.’
At that, the lady captain offered to take him as far as he needed—for three times the usual fare.
‘You’re a true friend,’ he said out of the corner of his mouth.
‘Times are hard,’ she replied with a shrug. ‘And you’re trouble. You said so yourself.’
‘Lady Daiyu!’
The girl Nan was looking over the bow as she waved her over. Yang remained by Daiyu’s side as she went to investigate, standing perhaps a bit too close to her out of old habit. Much of the crew had known the two of them had been lovers and likely assumed he would resume that role, which wasn’t an unpleasant prospect.
Except he was married now and standing on the bank was his wife.
‘Don’t let her aboard,’ Yang said beneath his breath.
Daiyu looked at him with surprise. ‘She looks like a poor lost kitten.’
Jin-mei looked nothing of the sort. She stood with a travel pack slung around her shoulder. Her cheeks were flushed and her hair fought against its pins. His heart did a little lurch as their gazes locked. The hard set of her jaw warned him that he was in trouble.
This was no coincidence. She’d followed him. Immediately, he scanned the surrounding area. What could Jin-mei possibly be doing out here alone?
Despite his warning, Lady Daiyu beckoned her aboard. ‘Come up, Little Sister! What brings you here?’
Jin-mei was out of breath by the time she ascended the gangplank, but she wiped her brow and straightened her shoulders.
‘Mistress, I wish to buy passage aboard your ship.’
She had assessed, quite correctly, that Lady Daiyu was the one in command and not the burly Kenji who had come to stand beside her.
‘Where do you wish to go, Young Miss?’
‘Wherever you’re destined.’ Jin-mei flashed a sideways glance at Yang before returning her attention to the lady captain. ‘I hope that this will be sufficient as fare.’
She produced a bolt of green silk from her travel pack and extended it to Daiyu, who looked it over without touching it.
‘This is very fine quality. Quite expensive. Are you certain that passage aboard this ship is worth so much?’
Daiyu barely held back her amusement as Jin-mei fidgeted. ‘I don’t want to waste more time negotiating.’
For all her boldness, the girl was staring nervously at the rough characters around her. Yang was tempted to go and put a protective arm around her, but she was still Tan Li Kuo’s daughter and no amount of wide-eyed innocence would make him forget that the magistrate was dangerous.
‘Miss,’ Yang began evenly, ‘this ship is not where you want to be.’
Her eyes narrowed on him. They were lovely, expressive eyes that spoke louder than words. They told him that she blamed him for all that had happened. That somehow, he had abandoned her.
‘This is exactly where I should be,’ she said coolly. Then to Lady Daiyu, ‘I wish to avoid the local authorities, and this ship has some experience doing so, I believe.’
‘And why do you need to flee?’ Daiyu asked gamely.
‘I was married to a man who wasn’t what he seemed,’ Jin-mei replied, shoving a strand of hair away from her eyes. She was certainly growing bolder as the conversation progressed. ‘I didn’t wish to be his wife any longer, so I had him killed.’
Yang nearly choked at that. Lady Daiyu and Kenji burst into laughter.
‘Welcome then, Little Sister.’ Daiyu tucked the bolt of silk beneath her arm and directed Nan to take her to a sleeping berth. Jin-mei shot him a pointed look before disappearing below deck.
Yang waited until he was alone with Daiyu once more before speaking. ‘She’s lying.’
‘Seducing girls from good homes now, Yang? Did she become so smitten with you that she killed her husband?’
He was about to protest that he was her husband, but that wouldn’t serve any purpose. Especially when he was trying to convince Daiyu to evict Jin-mei from her ship.
‘Her father is the head magistrate in Minzhou. He’ll be looking for her.’
‘Even more reason to keep her on board. It’s obvious she has been pursuing you. If I let her go, she’s likely to lead the magistrate to us.’
He gave her the evil eye. ‘I suspect you’re siding with her because she’s a woman.’
‘Think what you will. I’m allowing her to stay because she’s paid me quite handsomely.’ She patted the roll of green silk beneath her arm and gave the order to lift anchor. ‘And I could hide ten runaways on board and it wouldn’t be as dangerous as harbouring one Bao Yang.’
* * *
The girl who called herself Nan led Jin-mei down into the lower deck to the sleeping area. She continued along to the far end.
‘More privacy here,’ Nan explained.
The berth looked like a low shelf built into the wall of the ship. There was a small window cut high above the sleeping area to let light and air through. Other than that, the sleeping quarters were dim. At the other end of the deck, Jin-mei could see several men lounging. They looked ragged, unkempt, lawless and unruly.
When evening came, she would be sleeping inside a ship full of strange men. Jin-mei shuddered at the thought.
‘I can bring you a curtain, Miss. So you don’t have everyone staring at you.’
Nan watched her as Jin-mei eyed the crew suspiciously. The girl looked no more than fourteen years of age, though her eyes seemed older. If this tiny reed of a girl could survive on board, then surely this ship wasn’t such a frightening place. Jin-mei thanked her, and Nan promptly turned and wove her way back to the upper deck.
She had done it.
Jin-mei finally let out a breath. She had run away. She had reunited with Yang and was on a ship that would take her far from her father’s lies and schemes.
But she no longer had a home. A lump formed in her throat. She no longer had a father either.
Broken and exhausted, Jin-mei climbed on to the berth and tucked her belongings into the far corner. There wasn’t a lot in the pack she’d bundled up. Jin-mei didn’t have much of a plan beyond
