Chapter 437 — Dowry

Song Han was ashamed through and through, his face burning red.

Song Cen said to Third Madam Song, "Tian'en's marriage cannot outstrip Song Yan's. Song Yan is, after all, the Heir of the Duke of Ying's house." He brooded a long while, then said, "But neither will I do Tian'en a wrong. Following the precedent of Song Yan's wedding, we shall set the betrothal gift at twenty thousand taels."

So he had agreed after all!

Third Madam Song secretly gave thanks that she had not held her ground, and breathed again.

Song Han knelt before Song Cen, choked with gratitude. "Thank you, Father! I shall obey you in all things hereafter and keep my wife well in hand. She shall not bring shame upon the Duke of Ying's house."

Only then did Song Cen feel somewhat better.

He gave a grunt of assent, nodded, and took up his tea.

* * * * *

Dou Yan merely smiled a little at the news.

Since Song Yan had said that once the Miao girl married in he would have Song Han set up his own household, then set up his own household Song Han would. She and the Miao girl would not be eating from the same pot; what sort of woman she was, and what the Miaos were plotting, had little to do with her. These days she worried only over Yuanheng. He was barely six weeks old, and already, when he opened his eyes, he would not lie abed—nothing would do but that someone hold him upright with a hand beneath his head.

Dou Huaiying and Song Ke never stopped praising Yuanheng for his cleverness; Dou Yan, for her part, thought it a sign of mischief in the making.

In the twinkling of an eye the month had turned to its latter half, and the Song and Miao families fixed the day of Song Han's wedding for the second of the ninth month, the bridal chamber to be made ready in the Green Bamboo Lodge beside Osmanthus Court.

That was well enough.

Apart from going to pay their respects to Song Cen, the two sisters-in-law would scarcely have had a chance even to meet. That spared them a great deal of trouble besides.

Dou Yan decided to return to the mansion.

Song Sui said, "The family is having the walls whitewashed for Song Han's rooms. Mind the fumes, they are not good for the child. It will be time enough if you go back a few days before the wedding."

Since childhood he had envied the bustle of the Jiang household. Yunqi Temple Lane might not be as merry as the Zhenguo mansion, yet Dou Huaiying's earnest care made a person feel warm at heart. He liked such an atmosphere and wished to stay a few days longer.

Dou Yan burst out laughing, having some inkling of what was in his mind, and of course did not insist. She fell in with Song Sui's arrangement.

Once Song Yan had gone to the yamen, she asked Ganlu, "Still no word from Aunt Cui?"

She had been afraid her grandmother would worry. She had written only that she was with child, saying nothing of how many months along she was; and not until the child was safely and soundly born did she send Chen Lanxu to carry the good news to her grandmother, promising that once the child had turned two and grown sturdy, she would bring him to visit the old lady.

Her grandmother was overjoyed, and besides sending back a longevity lock by Chen Lanxu, she sent quantities of children's clothes, shoes and socks. From the creases in those garments it was plain that the old lady had prepared them long beforehand.

Being in confinement, she could not ply a needle, so she had the sewing room make several autumn garments for her grandmother and gave them to Chen Lanxu to carry back to Zhending.

By her reckoning, Chen Lanxu should have returned by the middle of this month, yet there was still no sign of him, nor any letter sent over from her grandmother.

Ganlu smiled and sought to comfort her. "Or perhaps Aunt Cui has been making some of your favorite dishes again, and a thing or two has not yet come to the boil, so Guard Chen stayed on a few days longer at home. That may well be."

That was possible.

Dou Yan nodded.

In the first days of her marriage to Song Yan, she had written a letter of safe tidings and sent it to Aunt Cui by Chen Lanxu. Aunt Cui had pickled a great quantity of the vegetables she loved and given them to Chen Lanxu to bring back; and because the pickles had to wait for the jars to be sealed, Chen Lanxu lingered half a month longer in Zhending.

On second thought, Dou Yan set the matter aside.

Then word came from the Ying family's Zhenguo mansion.

It was said that when the Song family came to press the bride to her toilette, the inlaid lacquer bed the Miaos had promised at the sending of the betrothal gifts had been swapped for a canopy bed, the yellow rosewood furniture for pine, the sacrificial-red porcelain cups and dishes for blue-and-white... The Song servants who had come to carry the dowry fell into a furious quarrel with the Miao household, and the onlookers pressed in three deep on every side.

The Miao family were past all shame, like a dead dog that fears no scalding water: they would sooner go to law before the Emperor himself than spend one coin more upon the dowry.

Song Han, who had gone along with them, was mortified beyond bearing. He covered half his face with one hand, dragged Third Madam Song out of the house, and had the dowry carried back to the Ying family's Zhenguo mansion.