The White Dove

Adjoining Looks

To someone who's peaked my interest in learning more about the Edo era in Japan.

Thanks for adding White Dove to your reading list! Enjoy!

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POUND. KNOCK. THUD.

"Come out this instant!", yelled the Oriental Masked King from the other side of the door.

"Your Majesty, the dawn has barely passed. She's surely sleeping at this hour," replied a eunuch as he reverently bowed his head.

"Wake her anyway. She missed the wedding dinner after all," hissed His Majesty. He had stayed up the entire night waiting!

"Well, she did take dinner rather early. Perhaps it would be best..."

The eunuch was interrupted by the Princess Consort's voice. "It is not yet time for breakfast, your Majesty. Why would your Majesty let yourself be troubled by a servant such as me when you surely are preoccupied with much greater affairs?"

He snorted, then made up his mind. "You know that I have been days without a proper meal while fighting, many soldiers also experience lack of food as I do. Perhaps it would be wise to leave her without food for a few days. See how she feels about promptness then."

With a humph, the King strode off, a trail of dust in his wake as the eunuch scampered off after the sovereign.

"Who does he think he is?", whispered Princess Consort, indignant at having food taken away from her.

Then, she pounded on her forehead repeatedly, and muttered, "Greater question would be who do I think I am? I'm in a foreign kingdom here to fix an alliance...and yet I ruin it on my first full day here? Am I crazy?"

Realizing that being deprived of food probably served as a light punishment compared to what the rules stated for insubordination as well as that she was of a lower rank than most of the nobles here, she resolved herself to repair her first impression to her future husband someday.

If she could make it a week, that is...the head lady servant seemed certain she would not.

Stepping out the door of her living quarters, she wandered through the palace, ending up in the gardens outside after getting lost. There was a palace lady that had been assigned to tend to her education, but sadly seemed preoccupied with chores for now. Alas, it would be a day until her etiquette tutor arrived to teach her the basics of palace life here so she figured strolling around the outside gardens would not hurt. After all, the King had not mentioned anything about being locked in her room during the punishment.

Peering at the flowers, she bent down, smelled one, and nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard a "Lovely, aren't they?" right next to her.

"Oh, sorry. Did not mean to frighten you," said a tall gorgeous man as he straightened his back, grinning at her with eyes that twinkled with delight.

"You are?", she asked, still marveling at the gorgeous man before her.

"The Fourth Prince. You must be the new concubine my brother brought in as I have never seen you before," he answered. "Want some fruit?", he asked, pointing to a basket lying on the ground.

"I can't. Undergoing discipline right now," she replied.

He tssked. "Aiya, my brother does not know how to treat the ladies. I apologize on his behalf," he responded back with a slight bow. Why couldn't she be wed to a man like that instead?