THIRTY-TWO
So Mao had a midnight tryst? The sly fox. All that talk of never taking a bride and he'd arranged to meet some girl in the middle of the night. Laughing quietly to himself, Yi sat down on a bench to wait. If Mao wasn't back soon, he'd head off to bed. Prince or not, he still wanted to look well-rested when he asked Mao's father for one of his daughters' hands on the morrow.
When he started to feel the chill of the night air, he pulled on his court clothes again. When he picked up the gaudy gold robe, he was surprised to see Mao's shoes underneath. He'd been in such a hurry, he'd left without his shoes. Yi picked them up and set them on the bench beside him. For shoes, they were quite remarkable, catching whatever light there was and holding tight to it in the strangely angula
