Chapter 2

Three days later.

I was taking inventory of the storeroom, and when I opened the rosewood chest at the very back, my heart lurched.

Inside it I kept three ounces of premium aged agarwood, old stock my grandfather had left behind. Even when I blended top-grade Soothing Incense, I only dared shave off a little powder at a time.

Now a full half of it was gone, and even the silk lining underneath had been rummaged into a mess.

This grade of agarwood was worth its weight in gold, and only two people had a key to the storeroom: me and Penelope. She was my mother's disciple, and she usually handled the odd jobs in the storeroom for me, so she came and went freely.

When I carried the half-empty box over to find her, she was sitting in the front room polishing incense tools, humming to herself.

"Penny, the agarwood in the storeroom. Did you touch it?"

I set the box on the table, my voice level.

The polishing cloth slipped from her hand to the floor, and her face went white in an instant.

"Mentor, these past few days I saw how Barnaby couldn't sleep. He came home every night rubbing his temples, and it was so hard to watch. I thought agarwood works best for helping people rest, so I took some on my own to blend him some stick incense—"

By the end of it she'd burst into tears, sobbing, "Mentor, I'm sorry. I know that was precious old stock. I was thoughtless, I overstepped."

"Scold me, then. Punish me however you want. I just couldn't stand seeing Barnaby so worn out—"

At that moment Barnaby came in and gently comforted her. "What are you crying for? It's nothing."

Then he turned to me, guilt in his voice. "Lucille, honestly, this isn't Penny's fault. I mentioned to her a few days ago that I hadn't been sleeping well, and that's the only reason she thought to blend some incense for me."

"It's my fault for not stopping her. I didn't think it through."

He pulled a bank card from his wallet and set it in front of me. "There's two hundred thousand on here. Consider it payment for the materials."

"If it's not enough, just tell me. I'll cover whatever it costs."

"I'm the one who was wrong. I should have talked to you first. I upset you."

Watching him look so full of self-reproach, I started to feel my earlier questioning had been unkind.

It was only a bit of raw material. He was my fiance; using it wasn't out of line. Was there really any need to make such a big thing of it?

"Forget it. What's used is used. There's nothing to pay back."

I pushed the card back to him and said, half-reproachful, "Why didn't you just tell me you couldn't sleep?"

"I could have blended you some Soothing Incense. Wouldn't that work better than plain agarwood? You went and wasted good material for nothing."

Barnaby gave a helpless smile. "I just didn't want you to worry!"

"Besides, you already wear yourself out every day running the atelier and teaching your students. How could I bring myself to trouble you to blend incense for me on top of all that?"

And with that the matter was smoothed over. But the little doubt in me hadn't fully cleared.

Two more days passed. He was showering at my place, his phone left on the coffee table in the living room, and the screen suddenly lit up.

I glanced at it without meaning to. It was a text confirming a hotel booking, and the recipient's name was Penelope.

The hotel was the most luxurious one downtown, the Four Seasons, and the room booked was a couples suite.

I gripped the phone, fury rising straight to the top of my head.

He came out of the bathroom, saw me holding his phone, and asked with an unnatural smile, "What's wrong? Who texted you, that you look so grim?"

"See for yourself," I said coldly.

Barnaby lowered his head and skimmed the screen, then pulled me into his arms and said, a little helpless, "Silly girl, what are you imagining?"

"That FDA review expert coming next week is the key person for our new drug approval. I asked Penny to help host him, and the booking's under her name so she can coordinate the arrangements whenever she needs to."

"Look, here's the coordination letter."

He opened a file on his phone as he spoke. It really was an official letter about the review, and Penelope's name was there on the list of contacts.

"You, hm. Getting cold feet now that we're about to register the marriage?"

"Once this busy stretch is over, we'll go shoot the wedding photos. That seaside location you love, I've already booked it all."

Leaning against his chest, the emotions that had just churned up slowly settled.

He was so good to me. Young, accomplished, gentle, attentive. Why would he ever lie to me?

It had to be that I'd been too busy lately, too on edge, reading too much into things.

That night I lay in bed, turning over and over, and didn't fall asleep until well past midnight.

My dreams were full of Penelope's red-eyed, wronged little face and Barnaby's gentle smile, the two of them layered over each other, tangled into something that left me uneasy.