Soo Yeon gazed up at her handsome husband. “What shall we name him, Ban Ryu?”
“Hmm?” He was still gazing down at the beautiful, little boy in his arms. “Oh. Let your father decide.”
Soo Yeon blinked. “You don’t even want to give any input? Not a single suggestion?”
Ban Ryu glanced up to catch his wife’s eye. “The man adopted me. He allowed me to marry you. He took me in when I had nothing but the hwarang house left. Let him name our firstborn.”
Her eyes grew large as she stared at him. “All right.” She glanced at her mother. “Eomma? Can you find Appa? Tell him it’s time for him to meet his grandson.”
Lady Bit Na flew to do the girl’s bidding. A few minutes later, after her husband had finally been found and corralled, she led him back to Soo Yeon’s room.
His darling girl was beaming up at him as he breezed through the doorway. “I heard that I’ve finally got a grandson!” he exclaimed.
“Finally?” Soo Yeon giggled. “Appa, I couldn’t have had a baby any sooner.”
Lord Kim Seub’s eyes slid towards Ban Ryu. “You’re right. And lucky for your husband that you didn’t. Or else he might have more than one scar from a sword.”
Ban Ryu arched one dark eyebrow questioningly at his father-in-law. “He needs a name, my lord,” he informed the man. While simultaneously ignoring his goading.
Lord Kim’s eyes now widened alarmingly. “You want me to name him?”
“But, of course, my lord,” Ban Ryu murmured smoothly before bowing to his adopted appa.
The older man’s face was a study in awe. “Won Hee,” Lord Kim Seub announced immediately.
“After your appa?” Soo Yeon queried.
The noble lord bobbed his head definitively. “Exactly.”
“Won Hee he is then,” announced the baby’s father.
Right before he passed the child to his grandfather. Ban Ryu smiled down at the little tableau that grandpa and grandson instantly formed. Then he turned and walked out of the room. He felt oddly out of place now.
But Soo Yeon hadn’t missed the odd expression on her husband’s face as he’d turned away from their son and her father. She made a move to climb out of the bed. She was sore. And tired. But it was obvious to her that Ban Ryu had need of her.
“Soo Yeon? Where are you going?” her mother quizzed her as she glanced up when her daughter passed her on her way to the door.
“I’m going to go find Ban Ryu.”
“I’ll get him for you,” Lady Bit Na offered. “You rest.”
“No, Eomma. That’s all right. I want to stretch my legs.”
That last was a lie. She had absolutely no desire whatsoever to move her body. She did, in fact, wish to lie down in her bed and sleep for a year. But Ban Ryu was hurting, and she wanted to know why. So she stepped into the hallway and headed for his bedchamber. But she didn’t find him there.
So she interrogated several servants until one pointed her towards the garden in the back. She requested an extra robe. Once she’d donned it, she stepped out into the frigid weather. And wished her baby had been born in May instead of at the end of the year.
Ban Ryu heard the door open and turned around. Then he gasped as he saw his dear wife braving the arctic temperatures to visit him outside. He stepped towards her.
“Soo Yeon! Get back inside! You just had a baby. You should be resting.”
“But you left me,” she explained. “So I had to come find you. Ban Ryu?” she quizzed him as his arms suddenly embraced her and he pulled her close. After opening his robe to wrap as much of its front around her as he could. “What’s wrong?” she whispered.
“It’s nothing,” he breathed into her hair as he rested his cheek on the top of her head.
“It’s not nothing!” she exclaimed. “Something is bothering you.” She moved her head and pouted up at him. “And I want to know what it is.”
He lifted his head and glanced down at her. Then he laughed. “I don’t know which of you is the child, Soo Yeon. You or that baby in your father’s arms.”
She frowned at him. “Out with it! Your teasing won’t distract me from my mission. I want to know what’s hurting your heart.”
He heaved a deep sigh. “My father is missing.”
“What?”
“My son – my very first child – was just born. And I can’t even show him to my father.”
“Oh.” Her heart sank. For she had no ready response for him.
“Exactly,” he sighed. “Come on. Let’s get you inside. You won’t do our son any good if you catch a cold.”
She allowed him to tug her into the house. But as the door closed behind them, she realized that she needed to speak with her appa.
“Ban Ryu? Would you go to the kitchen and get me a cup of tea? I’m really cold now.”
He hurried off to do her bidding as she headed back to her room. Upon entering it, she closed the door and turned towards her father. He glanced up at her.
“Soo Yeon? Are you cold? Your cheeks are all red.”
“I’m fine, Appa. But, Appa, I have something to ask you.”
“Well, what is it?” he asked a little gruffly.
“Would you – would you let Ban Ryu meet with his father? So he can see Won Hee?”
“Absolutely not!” he thundered. “I’m not letting my grandson anywhere near that man!”
Her heart sank. But then her mother’s voice sounded.
“Darling, put yourself in the boy’s shoes for a moment. And in his father’s. Can you imagine if the tables were reversed? If you were forbidden from meeting this little boy?”
He frowned at his wife. Before glancing back down at the child in his arms. Won Hee’s eyes were closed, and his cherubic countenance was made even sweeter by its slumbering posture. His grandfather grunted. And pulled him closer.
Just then, the door opened, and Ban Ryu slipped into the room. A cup of hot tea in his hand.
He glanced up at his wife’s distressed face. “Soo Yeon?” he queried. “What’s wrong?”
She lifted her eyes to look up at him. “Ooh!” she changed the subject. “Is that my tea?”
She reached for the cup. “Thank you so much!”
She gratefully took a sip of the hot liquid. She hadn’t had to feign being frigid. She’d definitely been a little chilled by the time they’d entered the house.
As she continued to drink her tea, her father turned towards her husband. And cleared his throat.
“Ban Ryu.”
The young man glanced up at him. “Yes, my lord?”
“Would you like to…hold your son again?”
Both Soo Yeon and Lady Bit Na sighed.
But the young father was none the wiser. “Yes, my lord. Thank you.” Ban Ryu reached out to gather his son close again.
A few minutes later, Lady Bit Na confronted her husband. “What was that? I thought you were going to…”
“Bit Na! You cannot ask me to invite a traitor into our house!”
“You know how Minister Park manipulated everyone he could. I think that Ban Ryu’s father was one of those poor creatures.”
“The man plotted to kill our queen! And to dethrone our king!”
“That was Minister Park. You’re talking about Minister Park.”
“Bit Na, you and I both know that the young man who married our daughter is an upstanding boy. But his father manipulated him and pressured him to do Minister Park’s bidding.”
“Are you certain that he wasn’t being blackmailed by the minister?”
Lord Kim Seub heaved a deep sigh. “I don’t know, Bit Na.”
“You don’t have to trust the man, Seub. Just agree to meet him somewhere. And take Ban Ryu and our grandson with you.”
“But the weather isn’t even agreeable, Bit Na. It’s not like we can meet outside.”
“Then invite the man to join us in our sitting room for tea.”
As he was about to argue, she continued, “And tell the king what you’re about before you do it. And why. If you’re worried that he’ll misunderstand.”
Lord Kim Seub stared down in some consternation at his wife. He’d been married to the woman for far too many years. He knew when he’d lost an argument.
