The Lotus Villa

Chapter Five

A/N Thanks to Meoowwxx for the amazing art.

The apple trees in Lady June's garden were in bloom. A gentle breeze shook their branches, and white petals covered the ground like snow. Katara brushed them off her chair before sitting down. She opened her work bag and took out a piece of embroidered silk. Lady June was still asleep, so she might as well work on her embroidery while she waited for her mistress to wake up.
The fan Katara was making should bring her ten copper coins. Lady June might also slip her a silver coin or two for keeping quiet about last night's tryst with Fire Lord Iroh. Every little bit counted, especially when she only earned four silver coins a week as a maid of honor, and half of that went toward paying off her debt to the Ukano clan.
The bells of the nearby Temple of Agni rang six times- the hour of the snake. Lady June would miss the Fire Lord's tournament if she stayed in bed much longer. Katara sighed. That makes two of us. Oh well. It was her own fault she couldn't go to the tournament.
She should have quit while she was behind and not blown all her money and her only three hairpins on the gaming table last night.
Katara reached the end of her indigo embroidery floss, so she knotted and cut the strands and rethreaded her needle with a shade of apricot.
The gate creaked open and slammed shut. "Lady June..." The newcomer's voice echoed through the garden. Katara pricked her finger on her needle. A drop of blood landed on the silk, soiling it.
She rose and flew at him. "You raccoon-dog's ball sack," she said. "You've ruined it." Now, she had to throw out the silk and start over. The loud bastard owed her ten copper coins.
The newcomer, a handsome young man with a burn scar on his face, stood blinking at her. Katara's insides twisted into knots. It was him—the boy in the demon mask from the casino ship. Up close, his features were strikingly similar to Lady Ursa and Princess Azula. He could only be...
"Prince Zuko." Katara bowed her head and knelt at his feet. "Your Highness. Please forgive me for speaking out of turn." She'd just called a royal, the heir to the Phoenix Throne no less, a raccoon-dog's ball sack. He had every right to have her whipped.
But Prince Zuko just laughed. "Master Piando's called me worse." He looked Katara over. Katara couldn't meet his eyes. The white veils she'd worn as a disguise last had done little to hide her identity. "The girl from that casino..." He singled in on the red flower painted on Katara's forehead, marking her out as a girl from the Lotus Villa. "And you're..."
The guards and matrons locked up the girls from the Lotus Villa every night, but they were often lax with their favorite charges. Ty Lee had already charmed Lo and Li, the head matrons, into complacency, and the young guard, Kei-Lo, had a painfully obvious crush on Mai. Both of them could get away with murder. Katara wasn't the only one who snuck out last night, but with her luck, she'd be the only one who got in trouble.
"Yes," was all Katara could say for herself. Not only had she insulted a royal, she had just been caught breaking the rules. Prince Zuko would send her away from court in disgrace after he had her flogged.
But he simply put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry. Far be it from me to get someone in trouble for a little good clean fun."
Katara blushed. Good, clean fun wasn't exactly how she would have described it. Prince Zuko had seen it for himself. During a game of forfeits, Ty Lee dared Mai and Kei-Lo, who risked his job and possibly his life to accompany them, to kiss each other. Tongue and groping, or it didn't count. And if it weren't for that damned game of forfeits, Katara wouldn't be in the trouble she was in.
"Will I see you at the tournament later?" Prince Zuko asked her.
"No, your highness." She picked up her ruined embroidery. "Now I have to start over, so I can't go."
Not going was her punishment for being stupid enough to bet an entire week's wages and her silver and jade hairpins on a baccarat game. If she'd stopped there, she could have pawned her last hairpin, the gold one, worth at least a month's pay and more than recouped her losses. But no, she had to let Ty Lee goad her into forfeiting it after Prince Zuko removed his mask, revealing that he had a handsome face underneath, just like Ty Lee had bet.
Prince Zuko pulled a string of bronze coins from his sleeve and offered it to Katara. "Take this as a recompense for spoiling all your hard work." Katara flushed. He'd put it together that she did embroidery because she needed extra cash.
"I'm sorry, Your Highness," Katara said. "But it would be improper for me to accept." How would it look if she received money from a man she was married or betrothed to, or at least formally courting? And she wasn't desperate enough to take handouts like a beggar.
Prince Zuko bowed to her. "I'm the one who should apologize, Lady...?"
"Katara of the Southern Water Tribe."
"Prince Pouty." Lady Jane emerged from her room. Her hair was messy, and her sleeping robe had slid off one shoulder. Prince Zuko acknowledged his uncle's lover with a nod. Lady June clucked her tongue at Prince Zuko and Katara being alone together. Katara looked down at the hem of her robes and braced herself for her mistress' teasing. "You better not be getting fresh with my maid-of-honor. She's too pretty for you anyway."
Katara looked at Prince Zuko. His face was the color of a boiled lobster crab, and her face must have a similar shade. "I was just..." Prince Zuko said. "I was just apologizing for startling her when I came in."
Why was he so embarrassed? He'd behaved like a perfect gentleman. Katara was the one who should be ashamed of herself.
"And I was apologizing for shouting at him like a fish wife," Katara added.
Lady June laughed. "Zuko, why don't you leave poor Katara with what's left of her reputation and come have tea with me."
Katara started putting away her embroidery. Now that her mistress had woken up, she would have to make the bed.
"Then wouldn't your maiden virtue be in danger?" Prince Zuko said. He cocked an eyebrow.
"I'm a married woman and a mother of two." Lady June pulled her sleeping robe back onto her shoulder. "That day has passed." Lady June's soldier husband was conveniently stationed far away on Whale Tale Island and was perhaps the only person who didn't know about her affair with Fire Lord Iroh, the Fire Nation's worst-kept secret. "Katara?"
"Yes, Madam?" Katara said.
"When you make the bed, check under the pillow."
Katara smiled. Whenever Lady June told her to check under the pillow, it meant that she'd left a tip. "Thank you, Madam. You are too generous." After handling Lady June's rumpled and spoiled bed linens, she'll have more than earned a little extra.
"I hope this means I'll see you at the tournament after all," said Prince Zuko.