“Marion Keswick,” he said. “She is the daughter of Harry Parkes.”

  “The man from the dungeon?” I asked.

  “Yes,” he said. “He died here in Peking, but his daughter is still here. Well, sometimes. Her husband’s family has business in Hong Kong. If anything happens, Yaqian, if you are ever in any danger, contact her and she will help you.”

  “Oh, my love,” I said. “I am sure we will be fine. The empire will be fine. The empress is strong.”

  “Just in case,” he said as he reached for my hand again.

  I held his hand in mine for a long time.

  * * *

  My prince left this world three days later.

  27

  The Summer Palace, 1898

  China’s position advanced from bad to worse. Since Japan had been given so much land, other countries, even our few supposed allies, demanded the same. Germany, Russia, Britain, and France all demanded treaty ports and independent concessions and Japan took more land on the Chinese mainland. The empress could do nothing but watch her country be chipped away by foreigners bit by bit. There were skirmishes throughout the country between Chinese and the foreigners. The missionaries went wherever they wanted, claiming land, even sacred spaces, for their odious religious edifices. The opium trade exploded. The throne needed the cash from sales and exports of the drug, but it was eating away at our people. China was still large and we still had our Dragon Throne, but we were weak and crumbling, and everyone knew it.

  I also felt myself deteriorating. The death of my prince affected me greatly. Even though we often went years without seeing each other, the knowledge that my friend and lover was no longer in his home and could not protect me in dangerous times made my heart heavy. I think the empress felt the loss as well. We would often sit in silence for hours, not talking, not embroidering, not watching opera, just sitting, reminiscing about happier days when we dreamed of a prosperous empire and a peaceful retirement.

  My hands began to ache. I could not embroider for hours on end anymore, but only for short stints. Every couple of hours, I would have to soak my hands in warm water infused with herbs to release the stiffness and pain. My feet ached more often and I tottered slowly and carefully wherever I went. Seeing me in pain would bring tears to the empress’s eyes and she would beg me to unbind my feet.

  “Please,” she would implore me, “have some relief in your graying years. They can be of no benefit to you now.”

  But I could not forget how far my tiny feet had brought me. I wasn’t ready to let go of them just yet.

  Thankfully, my mind and my eyes were as keen as ever. I could easily recall my memories and reflect on brighter days. And my eyes were still clear enough to focus on the most delicate embroidery work. Because of my hands, my work slowed, but it was the best it had ever been. The empress still praised my work, I was able to help the young ladies-in-waiting who continued to join the empress’s retinue improve their embroidery, and Hulan was able to sell the few pieces I could bear to part with for a high price in her shop. I was so proud of Hulan. She was a competent businesswoman, the only businesswoman I ever knew other than Lady Tang.

  My grandson was ever a delight. He would write me often, telling me about all the fascinating things he was seeing and doing in America. He sent me drawings of strange animals and I was able to make embroidered versions of some of them. I once sent him an embroidery of a creature that looked like a fat, gray cat with a black mask. He wrote back and said all of his friends and teachers thought it was quite a good rendering, even though I had never seen one in person. He said he donated it to a museum in New York so that people from all over the world would be able to see it. I could hardly imagine it. He even sent me a photograph of himself once. He was so handsome. He looked just like his grandfather.

  At one point, I realized that I had not received any letters from Lady Tang in quite a while. She never mentioned being sick. I never received any letters from her students or employees informing me of her death. Hulan never mentioned if she knew what happened to her. On one hand, I was curious. If my mentor and teacher, the woman I thought of as a mother, had died, I should mourn her. I should wear white and cry and even attempt to journey back to Hunan to burn incense and paper gifts at her grave. But I did none of these things. I had always believed that Lady Tang was not like other people. She had the air of a fairy. I consoled myself with the belief that she simply tired of this world and retreated back to her fairyland where she would live forever in youth and beauty. Maybe someday, when another girl needed her as much as I did, she would return.

  * * *

  Strangely, the emperor began calling regularly on his Papa Dearest. After the devastating defeat by Japan and the continual loss of territory, he began to appreciate her counsel. She had been the only one of his grandees and counselors to reject the Japanese demands, and he began to see that he should have heeded her warnings. The empress also began to appreciate her adopted son. As a woman, she could never command the court the way he could. The grandees needed a man to follow. They could not follow the laws and edicts of a woman. They began to see the need to work together.

  “Can you believe it?” she asked me as we and some of her other ladies sat in her sitting room together one day. “The emperor actually asked me about reforms. He wants to make changes and make the empire strong again.”

  “That is wonderful, Your Majesty,” I replied. “What will you tell him?”

  “Well, we must start where I left off. The railroad must be completed. Russia has shown great interest in building a line that would connect our countries. The army needs new training methods. We could we could expand the prince’s college into a full university!”

  I couldn’t help but smile at how excited the empress was. Her face practically glowed as she began to list all the modernizing efforts she could put in place with the emperor’s support.

  “I know someone you should speak to,” Pearl broke in.

  Since the relationship between the empress and the emperor had been improving, the empress had been making strides to improve her relationship with Pearl as well. She often invited Pearl to sit with her, she bought her presents, and she even restored some of her imperial titles to her.

  “Who is this?” the empress asked.

  “His name is Kang Youwei, and he is only a minor official now, but he has a brilliant mind that is not being used to its full potential.”

  “How are you so well-informed about this man?” the empress asked.

  Pearl reached into one of her large sleeves and handed the empress a pamphlet. “He has been writing about his grand ideas for years. One of my friends sent me this pamphlet. It is quite enlightening!”

  The empress quickly scanned the pamphlet and then handed it to me. “What do you think?”

  “I know nothing of this Kang. If you think his ideas for reform align with yours, then invite him to present some of his ideas to you. There is nothing to lose. At worst we will get an afternoon of entertainment out of it.”

  The empress took the pamphlet back and began to read it in more detail. After several minutes she addressed Pearl, “What other writing by him do you have?” The girl happily ran off to her rooms to find more of his papers.

  A few days later, we all traveled to the Forbidden City so the emperor and the empress could hold court to meet Kang Youwei. I was fortunate enough to be included among the ladies the empress took to the court.

  Even though it was often difficult to see court petitioners from my position in the back of the room, Kang was easy to see and hear. Even on his knees, he sat up straight and tall. His voice was loud and clear, though not booming. There was a serenity in his voice that could lull you to sleep. He mentioned at one point that he practiced Buddhist meditation, which greatly appealed to the empress, herself a devout Buddhist who many people called Old Buddha, Lǎo Fóyé. Kang spoke with a great flourish of his hands. Indeed, I think that he would not have been able to speak if his hands were tied behind his back.

  Kang broke with tradition by heaping great praise on the emperor. While the emperor was known as the Great Dragon who held the Mandate of Heaven and knew the best way to rule, unbridled flattery was discouraged. A good emperor does not need to hear such things and any man who praised the emperor so must want something in return. A good emperor embraces criticism so as to always improve. Kang cared nothing for such rules and precedents. He said Emperor Guangxu was the wisest in history and his abilities were sublime and unparalleled. The emperor sat on the edge of his throne, enthralled with Kang’s words.

  The empress displayed little emotion during the audience.

  Afterward, in the privacy of her rooms, the empress was torn.

  “Such arrogance!” she exclaimed. “Have you ever seen such a thing?” she asked.

  “I certainly have not,” I said.

  “That man cannot be allowed to rise too high. He clearly is too ambitious.”

  “Clearly,” I agreed.

  “And yet, he does have some good ideas,” she said. “Did you hear what he said about the advisory board? The emperor is so weak, and running the empire is too much for one person’s shoulders to bear. An advisory board would be good for the emperor and for China.”

  “It certainly would, Your Majesty,” I said. I wanted to say that ruling the empire had not been too much for Her Majesty’s shoulders to bear, but I held my tongue.

  “I’ll have to give him a special appointment, but keep him out of the Forbidden City. Use him, learn from him, but not allow him to climb too high.”

  Empress Cixi offered to make Kang the head of a newspaper in Shanghai. A very good position for someone who started so low in life. But he refused. He would not leave Peking. He was determined to be close to the emperor. Somehow, Kang’s writings were getting past the empress and directly into the emperor’s hands. The emperor was drinking in his every word like a draught and began acting impulsively. He issued an edict dismissing all of the officials in the Forbidden City and appointing all new ones, all chosen based on the suggestions of Kang. Everyone, especially the empress, was horrified.

  The empress refused to endorse the edict. “Hundreds of men suddenly out of work? And he plans to do this throughout the empire! Thousands of men and their families suddenly with no income? The whole country will revolt against us. We are Manchu. We already are despised by most of the country. We only rule because they allow us to. The people will not stand for this.”

  The emperor, furious that she refused to endorse the edict, began dismissing individual officials at will and making new appointments in their place, all without the approval of the empress. Men began flocking to her, begging for an audience so they could plead for their jobs, but there was little she could do.

  “Who is this man that he thinks he can advise an emperor? He is a nothing from nowhere. He should be glad that he even saw the emperor. I should order his eyes cut out of his head!” Cixi raged.

  “You said he had good ideas, Your Majesty,” I said.

  “Many people have good ideas,” she said. “Does that mean they should all rule in tandem with the Son of Heaven? We were already working on reforms together anyway. Me and Guangxu. I was starting to love the boy, really I was. But this Kang, this…wily…Wild Fox is trying to change everything overnight. It will not happen. It cannot happen.”

  While the emperor had the right to dismiss officials and appoint new ones, the new appointments could not be confirmed without Empress Cixi’s approval. She refused to endorse any of the new appointments if she thought they had any connection to the Wild Fox, as he came to be known among those who did not trust him. The emperor was forced to reappoint some of the men he had dismissed since the empire could not function without the officials.

  The emperor was angry, but his hands were tied. He had given the empress the authority to block his appointments after the incident with Pearl. He couldn’t dismiss the officials and leave their position vacant. The empress tried to placate him and encourage him to continue with the reforms they had set in motion before the Wild Fox appeared, but he no longer wanted to work with her. The two were at a standstill.

  * * *

  Cixi refused to sit idle. She continued with the reforms she had put in motion before Guangxu took the throne. She focused first on the military, appointing a man named Ronglu as the commander of the army and Yuan Shikai as his general. Even though China was at peace, she knew it was the time to plan for war. Relations with the Westerners were worsening. Strangely, though, the emperor had begun, under the Wild Fox’s advisement, courting friendship with Japan! Kang thought that China and Japan should band together against the West. While an Asian federation was not a bad idea, Empress Cixi refused to believe that the Japanese would help and support China. As always, Japan would only be looking for a way to advance their own nation.

  When the empress found out that the emperor had agreed to meet with the Japanese Prime Minister, Cixi refused to stand aside and let the emperor hear what the man said and be endorsed by Kang without her there to critically examine the situation. She decided that she would also be present for the audience.

  The day before the audience, as I was walking through one of the lovely gardens, a heard a whisper calling my name. I turned and saw General Yuan hiding behind a pillar. I approached him and asked what he was doing.

  “I have heard that you used to sneak Prince Gong into the palace at night,” he said.

  “How dare you!” I nearly yelled, shocked.

  “Please, quiet mistress!” he said as he tried to shush me. “Please, the empress’s life is in danger.”

  “What are you talking about?” I asked.

  “I believe the empress’s life is in danger. I must see her. Tonight. No one can know. Can you get me into the palace after dark?”

  “What do you mean her life is in danger? Why are you telling me this? How can I trust you?”

  “I have it on good authority that tonight someone is going to try and kill the empress dowager before the audience with the Japanese tomorrow.”

  “How do you know this?” I asked.

  “Because I am the assassin,” he said.

  “What?” this time I nearly screamed and tried to step away, but he grabbed my arm and put his hand over my mouth.

  “Please, mistress!” He dragged me further into the garden where no one would be able to see us. “Please, I need you to listen!”

  I tried to fight him off, but I was an old, frail woman and he was a young military general. I could not get away. In fact, if he wanted to kill me, he could have done so easily.

  “I’ll remove my hand from your mouth and let you go if you promise to listen to me,” he whispered harshly in my ear. I nodded and he did as he promised. He then bent his knee and kneeled before me. “I swear, mistress, I am loyal to the empress. That is why I need your help. I agreed to help Kang only to learn of his plan so I could stop it. He has assembled an army of seven thousand men just outside the city. They are to invade once she is dead so they can get rid of anyone who was loyal to her. I need to see the empress. I need to tell her what is happening. I must protect her. There could be other assassins waiting in case I fail or am caught.”

  “How do I know this isn’t part of your plan?” I asked. “Get me to let you in the palace at night so you can finish your job?”

  “I will give you proof that will implicate not just Kang, but the emperor himself. You can show it to the empress tonight. It will prove that what I say is true. And the fact that I am handing over the evidence will show that I am on her side.” With that, he handed me a piece of parchment that was stamped with the imperial seal.

  The paper was an imperial edict prepared by the emperor. Something like this could not be faked. “Did the emperor himself hand you this?” I asked.

  “No,” he said. “I have not talked to the emperor about this. Only Kang and his lackeys.”

  “So it is possible that the emperor is not involved.”

  “It is possible, but doubtful,” he said. “Whoever prepared this edict has access to the imperial seals and can perfectly imitate the emperor’s signature. But I believe it was the emperor. Kang still has almost direct contact with him.”

  “Almost?” I asked. “Who is between Kang and the emperor?”

  “Imperial Concubine Pearl,” he said.

  I sighed. I could not believe that Pearl would make the same mistake again. “What a stupid girl. So either the emperor signed this death warrant for the empress, or Pearl did it in his name.”

  “Either option is not good,” he said. “If Pearl has that kind of access, that kind of sway, the emperor will lose the respect of the magistrates. If he did issue the edict himself, he will lose the respect of all the people of China. He cannot kill his own mother! It is unthinkable!”

  “I will give this to the empress,” I said. “If she agrees that you are an ally, I will let you in the palace. Meet me at the West Gate at the hour of the rat.”

  “Thank you, mistress,” he said. He then bowed and took his leave of me. I hid the edict in my sleeve and continued my walk.

  That night, I waited until after the empress had dinner and had dismissed most of her servants to approach her. I hardly knew what to say. The relationship between my empress and Emperor Guangxu had always been difficult, but that he would try to kill her would be devastating. I knew that deep down she still hoped he would be the emperor China needed. I approached her slowly and with my head down.

  “What is it, Yaqian?” she asked.

  “I have to show you something, Your Majesty,” I said, “in private.”

  She nodded and waved the rest of her attendants away. “Well,” she said. “What is it?”

  I reached into my sleeve and handed her the edict.