"We won't be able to light a fire," said the prince. "Everything is too wet."
"Your highness, your face has been grazed by a branch," said Meili. "Sit down and let me treat it."
The prince slid down and sat beside the stele.
Meili fetched some packed snow. She knelt down beside him and pulled a handkerchief from her decolletage. It was wet through so there was no need to dampen it, but its hiding place on her body was not lost on the prince, and he reddened as she gently wiped his face with it.
She wondered why he was embarrassed. Was it because she was so close to him? Well, it couldn't be helped. She must clean the wound and she needed to be able to see it.
She leant in closely and applied the handkerchief, now stuffed with ice, to the graze, cleaning and soothing it. He stared closely at her face, surrounded by a fur-lined hood, mere inches from his.
She was too bloody beautiful for her own good. No wonder her parents had locked her up in the inner courtyards.
He fully intended to do the same thing if he secured her. His protective instincts flared when he was around her.
He tried not to get too inflamed by her proximity, but she had to go and compound it by gently blowing on his cheek. Now he was fully ablaze, his imagination running wild.
He swallowed deeply. 'T...thank you Miss Mei," he choked out.
Tan Bowen laughed and shook his head in disgust.
"Don't laugh Tan Bowen," she scolded him.
The poor prince was simply embarrassed by his proximity to a woman. That showed him to be honourable, she thought. Not like that monkey who had fallen on her in the hot spring and then taken the opportunity to look salaciously at her chest!
"How can I not. Look at him, he's blushing like a schoolboy."
The prince stepped menacingly towards Tan Bowen, pushing his chest out.
Mei Meili put a gentle hand on his shoulder, turning him back to face her.
"All done," she said, admiring her handiwork. It wasn't a deep graze so it should heal nicely.
The last of the light disappeared and there was nothing left to do but try to catch some sleep.
Tan Bowen slid down beside the prince against the stele, huddling next to him for warmth.
Bai Li went to rest against the opposite pillar.
Meili took the pillar opposite Bai Li, keeping a modest distance from all three men.
She tried to sleep sitting up on the hard stone floor, but she was so cold it proved completely impossible. She lay down and curled herself into a tiny ball, pulling the cloak over herself and pulling the hood down as far as she could, but she still shivered uncontrollably.
She lay there for some minutes, thinking she would need to get up and walk about to keep warm, and should give up entirely on getting any sleep this night.
Suddenly, she felt herself being scooped up in somebody's arms. Her hood fell back, and she saw that it was the prince.
He carried her across to the stele and placed her carefully on the floor, sitting down beside her.
"You'll have to excuse me Miss Mei," he said politely as he wrapped his arm around her tiny shivering shoulders. "Desperate times call for desperate measures."
'Desperate times call for desperate measures', thought Tan Bowen sourly. There was a pick-up line if ever he'd heard one. And it wasn't even a good one!
Tan Bowen tucked himself closely on her other side, and now she found herself sandwiched between two men in a position she had never found herself in before.
They both smelled very male after battling a blizzard, but she found the position strangely comforting in its protection and gathering warmth.
Tan Bowen tried to put his arm across her shoulders also, but the prince pushed it roughly off.
She sat stiffly upright, certain she would sit like this all night with no chance of rest, but gradually, the warmth generated by the two men's bodies, and the soft pattering of the snow which glowed gently in the moonlight, set her head to nodding.
The prince gently pulled her head to rest against his shoulder, a small smile playing across his lips.
Tan Bowen, meanwhile, was trying to inch under his large fur-lined cloak that she wore.
It was huge on her, he reasoned, she certainly didn't need it all for herself. There was room for two and it would be warmer for both of them if he was under it with her.
He felt the prince's arm reach around behind her and push him out of the cloak's shelter. The prince resettled the cloak tightly around Meili, tucking it under her so Tan Bowen would not be able to share any of it.
"Why are you so mean?" Tan Bowen hissed.
"Shhh," hissed the prince. "Make your own warmth. You'll share a cloak with her over my dead body."
Bai Li smiled from behind his closed eyes.
As the long night drew on, and the prince rested his eyes, Tan Bowen tried again, lightly lifting the edge of the cloak to steal one arm underneath it.
The prince immediately pushed him again. He sighed, giving up on the idea.
Eventually, sleep overtook Tan Bowen, and he started to lightly snore, his head dropping to rest on Mei Meili's shoulder.
The prince gave him a shove, and his body slipped to the left to lie on the cold floor, where he continued to sleep heavily.
The prince nodded with satisfaction, pulling Meili closer now that her left side was exposed to the cold.
He watched her beautiful sleeping face in the light cast by the moon on the snow. My god woman, he thought. What have you done to me?
Across the passageway, through his lowered hood, Bai Li silently watched the prince.
It was incredibly uncomfortable for him to watch the man holding her so intimately while she slept, but he was his Lord, so he would not challenge him.
He watched the man intently all night, looking for any signs his hands were wandering where they shouldn't. He would certainly step in if that happened.
The prince appeared to be the perfect gentleman, until, just as dawn was breaking, Bai Li watched him lower his lips towards her forehead.
"HmmHmm!" Bai Li cleared his throat loudly and indignantly.
The prince flinched and looked up to find Bai Li glaring at him from under his hood, like a dark-faced demon.
He sat back up, staring nonchalantly at the man. What had he done? Nothing at all. Yet…
He was just keeping the little girl warm and alive so he could hand her back to her brothers undamaged.