“What happened, did you see her, did you give it to her, what did she say?” I pounced as soon as eunuch Van entered the palace. “And what took you so long?”

“Yes I saw her, yes I gave it to her, and she said nothing. I didn’t dare stick around after giving her the note less someone saw us. It wouldn’t take much guesswork to figure out that I was there on your behalf and we wouldn’t want that now would we?”

He mumbled something unintelligible under his breath ...