Chapter 17
WHEN IT WAS DONE, she dozed in his arms. Happy, tired, satisfied. For a moment, she didn’t want to think about the implications of what she had just done, and of all the other difficulties facing her.
She could have lain there forever, but the sun was sinking alarmingly, and the others would wonder where she was and would even come looking for her.
So she eased herself from his arms. He smiled at her, and that smile made her heart weep. She pulled down her underdress. The overdress, that horrible stiff thing made by mistress Dina, still lay draped over the tree trunk. She pulled it over her head. Li Fai helped her do up the laces at the back while she tried to brush all the sticks off the skirt.
She jammed her swollen feet back into her shoes. Slowly, they made their way bac
