Young Master Wang You Are Mine

Antonia brought out another box of favours and set it on the table. Small colourful games of either a barrel of monkeys or a jumping frog game were the next small item to be placed in every basket. She watched with a smile as Changying lifted the hem of her dress making a small basket and loaded it to overflowing with the trinkets before walking back to the first table and beginning to distribute them. The girl seemed genuinely happy to be helpful and kept busy here while the rest of her children were all out decorating the tree.

When she had gone to collect Changying from the Athenaeum, her husband had sent the young woman to explore the bays of the room and spoken to her quietly about his impressions of the girl and his approval. He had explained the terms of the contract he had given the girl and his involvement in her trial. Joseph didn't ask for her approval, but he preferred to know that she approved of any decision that would affect her and the family.

In all honesty, she had not been surprised. The girl was sweet natured, intelligent and despite having a vulnerable air that reeked of insecurity she had a backbone and could stand up to men like her husband and son when she needed to. She was also physically appealing in that curvier pin-up model way which she knew was very much reason for Joseph's decision to be involved in her trial. He had of course spoken of the histories and her work and the fact that an absolute outsider was a rarity that needed to be monitored closely, but Antonia has noticed that Changying also had perfectly rounded large b.r.e.a.s.ts that had not been ruined by age, pregnancy or children as yet. She had the firmness and pliability of youth that she could not blame her husband for being attracted to.

Her husband rarely bothered with the Kept anymore finding them wholly unattractive as of late but the look in his eyes as he followed Changying's movements around the room told Antonia that he was feeling his virility return. Over the last few years, she had seen him become older and tire more easily as the pressures of staying on top of such a large extended family became strained by several dreadful incidents the worst of which was Baozhai's descent into wickedness. If Changying could add a spring to his step again, she was happy with his decision.

Her only concern was Wang and the effect sharing the woman he loved with his father, even for such a short time, might have on their relationship. She consoled herself with the fact that Wang would have known that this would be part of her trial and that someone would be training her in the carnal arts. She worried though that it might cause a rift in their usually close relationship. She considered how this could be avoided and sighed heavily thinking of how the rift between Baozhai and Wang's betrothed could be smoothed over as well in time.

"Are you okay?" Changying asked walking toward Antonia for another load of the toys. "I can do this if you need a rest. It's fun making gift baskets like this. I bet the people receiving them will be surprised. Do you deliver them to a hospital or something?"

"Oh darling girl," Antonia smiled. "We did the baskets for the hospital last week. These are for the festival. We invite our friends and family who live close enough to come every Christmas Eve, and this is like a goodie bag for coming to our party."

"Wow," Changying looked around the room at all the baskets full of treats and trinkets. "You're expecting a lot of people."

"We have a big family!" Antonia laughed. "Plus we invite our neighbours and the people of the small town just a bit further north."

"There is a town? Dante made me think that there was nothing in the shape of a town near here," she gushed.

"It's more of an intersection than a town, there is a hotel, a post office and a school that services the general population," she explained. "You would have to look very hard to find it on any map, but it's a central place for the people in the area to gather in emergencies. You know droughts and flooding rains," she laughed again quoting Dorothea McKellar's famous poem about the outback.

Dante wandered through, on his way to the Athenaeum and stopped seeing the two women chatting as they worked. With the speed at which Wang had left he had assumed the worst and breathed a sigh of relief seeing Changying here.

"So you survived the meeting with the big bad wolf," Dante grinned walking into the room, "and Mama has put you to work already!"

"Oh stop that," Antonia scolded him with a look. "Changying offered to help me with this, unlike my selfish children."

"It's women's work," Dante lowered his voice to groan, "We men are out climbing trees," then he grinned, "and decorating them in the most divine way for your p.l.e.a.s.u.r.e, Mama Dearest." He put on an effeminate voice.

"Make sure you leave enough decorations for Romeo and Jules to do with their children," Antonia waggled her finger at him despite her laughter.

"Ben said something like that but in my opinion, you snooze you lose," he laughed. "They'll be here soon I expect. Lio has stayed behind to play Santa and set up the kids presents at their city homes, so I expect he is hounding them to move faster."

"He's such a nice boy, I just don't know what happened to you," she patted his cheek with a laugh.

"He stole all the good genes while you were evicting me. It's entirely your fault for pushing me out first. I was all warm and toasty then wham spanked as soon as I took a breath, no smiles or cuddles from my mama because Lio took all the attention," he said dramatically. "You set up my future bad attitude with that one foul move. He had it easy. I'd paved the way. He got the smiles and cuddles while I was left traumatised."

"Don't you believe a word he says Changying," Antonia continued to laugh. "They were an hour apart, and he got more love and attention than he deserved demanding to come into the world as early as he did. He was a dreadful boy to his Mama, even then."

"She doesn't mean it, she is just trying to hide the fact that I am the favourite child," he winked and scooted out of his mother's way as she went to smack him. Changying couldn't help but laugh. Seeing Wang's family interact with each other as she had over the last weeks had totally amazed her. They were all just like big kids themselves. She had been surprised there hadn't been a full on food fight at lunch when Ben flicked his olive across the table at Wang.