As Chang was lifting the fabric up and over her head, Liang Jian Amal rushed forward and pulled it back down over her body."What was that for?" She looked up at him innocently blinking her deep dark blue eyes at him.
"I dont want you to catch a cold." He lied fluidly avoiding her gaze. "Put on your pants and boots and your hijab, I"ll get the horses ready." Without waiting for her to reply he quickly grabbed his boots and went to where the horses grazed on the rise.
Chang was by his flurried actions, as she adjusted the red dress on herself properly, she grumbled to herself.
"Its so warm today, I"m hardly likely to catch a cold when its 80°out! If I was wouldn"t it be more likely with wearing more wet clothes!" As she lifted the red she noticed the state of her white slip, clinging to her belly, revealing the tender skin underneath.
"Oh my G.o.d, how embarra.s.sing!" Her face became almost the exact same color as she thought about how she had practically stripped naked in front of Jian. "Just dont think about it, just dont think about it," she repeated the mantra in her mind, trying to resettle herself as she put on her pants and boots and grabbed what Jian had called a hijab. After she was all dressed again she headed up to the rise when Jian awaited holding the horses by their reins. She tried to act naturally as if that hadn"t happened even though she knew she had a telltale blush on her cheeks giving her away.
Liang Jian Amal conspicuously avoided looking at her face as helped her up into her saddle. Chang herself did the same, feeling lingering embarra.s.sment from her earlier actions. They rode in silence all the way back to the capitol, accompanied by the sound of bird song, the clomping of the horse"s hooves against the flattened dirt trail; that led from the farms into towns, and the jingle of the horse"s tack.
As they made their way through town the smells of all the different foods wafted into Chang"s nostrils causing her belly to very audibly gurgle. Jian must have heard at least a little bit of that as his head turned sharply to her as she turned hers away. She pressed one of her fists to her belly trying to silence it as it continued to protest very loudly to her dismay.
As she turned her head she caught a direct whiff from a food that was being fried right next to her. The delicious smell caused her to almost drool at the mouthwatering scent like french fries drifted all around her.
Liang Jian Amal noticed Chang slowing in front of all the food stalls, trying to contain her hunger. He immediately dismounted and went to the latke seller in which she had drifted in front and purchased a couple of the potato cakes from the man. The vendor tried to just give them to him, recognizing who he was, but Jian ignored the man"s refusals and left the money on the counter top. Blowing lightly on the steaming hot food he pa.s.sed it up to Chang wrapped in a little cloth the vendor had given him. Her eyes sparkled as she took the food and ate like a little chipmunk, stuffing her cheeks as if she might never see food again.
He chuckled to himself watching her actions from the corner of his eye. Today was the most lighthearted he had felt in a very long time. As they came up to the ma.s.sive entryway that led into the palace grounds he saw a figure standing alone. Once they got closer he recognizes the figure as Hao Jin Ying.
He could see that she was attempting to put on a calm front, but her fiddling fingers gave away her nervousness. The light feeling he felt in his chest was immediately smothered by a heavy feeling seeing Hao Jin Ying in that state and knew it had something to do with Li Hua. He immediately waved for a stable hand to come help Chang with their horses as he dismounted and came to stand beside Chang"s mount. He looked up at her as she looked down, the sun shining behind her head making the golden hajib throw a glow around her.
"Work stuff, darling, we"ll be just a moment." He tilted his face up and apologetically smiled at her.
Chang leaned down and gave him a swift peck. She then sat back as if realizing what she had done and nudged her mare to bring her to the paddock under his loving concerned gaze.