Turning The Tables with My Baby

General Eric Reid accuses Sylvie Hayes's father, the minister, of embezzling army provisions. He is jailed and sentenced to be beheaded after the autumn. Sylvie hides who she is and takes a position as a palace maid so she can reach Emperor Thaddeus Hawthorne and clear her father. Thaddeus will not have his in-laws near government business, and he has not gone to the harem in ten years. He and Sylvie spend a night together by chance. He takes her for a woman working her way toward power and nearly has her executed on the spot. Six months later Sylvie is pregnant. Consort Gao, who wants the empress's position, finds out and moves to have her put to death. Around the same time Thaddeus learns that Sylvie is the daughter of his old benefactor and came into the palace for her father's sake. The scheming among the consorts goes on after that.