Yeon Joo smiled. "The vinegar, then?"
The narrowing of Lee Yeong's eyes told her that joke had not improved with repetition, while Lee Hyeom wisely decided that whatever existed between the pair was a mystery he did not need solved tonight.
Eunuch Jang, meanwhile, had used the long dinner to deal with a practical problem that Lee Yeong had been too distracted to consider. Returning all the way to the main palace would mean travelling much farther through the capital after dark, and Lee Yeong still intended to keep his identity concealed rather than move with an obvious royal escort. A smaller summer residence belonging to the royal household stood less than an hour away beyond the wooded hills, maintained throughout the year by a limited number of attendants even when no member of the royal family was staying there.
