[Suggested song for this chapter – Somewhere Only We Know by Lily Allen]
"How did you get the Emperor to agree to let me out for a day, Bai Li?" said Meili with pure joy to be out of the palace and free, in his company.
Meili rode Tufei alongside Bai Li's warhorse, Rishi, down a quiet dirt road outside the capital.
She looked across at him shyly. The last time she had seen him had been in his command tent, when she had cried while she was confiding to him about the Second Prince's request that she become his concubine.
"It's amazing what people will agree to when you're on the eve of leaving for war," he said wryly.
He was instantly sorry to have let that slip, as Meili's smile disappeared, with the reminder that he and her two eldest brothers would soon be leaving.
"But let's not let that ruin our time together today. You have to leave me with plenty of happy memories to draw on while I'm away in the north," he requested.
