Tigers Sniff the Rose Episode 4

Bedtime stories, emotional damage and an eviction from the carriage.

🐯 This still feels quite slow-paced, but whenever I think almost nothing happened, I realise their relationship has shifted again. They’re getting closer, he’s starting to connect the dots about her past, and being understood clearly isn’t something she’s comfortable with yet.🐯 My favourite scene was him telling her a bedtime story about a seemingly frail woman cornered by a tiger. Everyone thought she was finished, but she found the courage to face it and became its master. Given what we’ve seen of her past, that felt like more than a random story. A lovely moment, and one that stayed with me.🐯 Then they get caught in a storm, her terror comes through, and suddenly he’s seen more than she wants him to. Her slapping him was my OMG moment. We’ve gone from bedtime stories to him being dumped out of the carriage on the way to the capital. That was quite the change in atmosphere.🐯 I can understand why having someone recognise her fear would leave her feeling exposed, especially after what she’s been through. It doesn’t make the slap fair, though. He takes it without retaliating, bless him, and I’m left feeling for both of them for very different reasons.🐯 I’m torn between the leads again this episode. He cares and is beginning to understand her, while she’s trying desperately to keep control over what he gets to see. Those moments when her defences slip are making her more interesting to me.🐯 Now she’s arrived at the capital, and the scheming is already making itself known. I’m suspicious of the eunuch who seems to be keeping her family in check, and it looks as though he may have had a hand in the marriage arrangements. That’s my reading so far, but there’s clearly more to this situation.🐯 Another 8/10. The pace is still leisurely, but the bedtime story and the painful shift afterwards gave this episode something to work with. They were making progress, and now he’s outside the carriage while I’m sitting here trying to work out who can actually be trusted at the capital.

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