The Ronin's Mistress: A Novel (Sano Ichiro Novels)

by Laura Joh Rowland

Her arms loosened their embrace; she drew back. “You remind me of my little brother who died.” She cupped his cheek in her soft hand and smiled mistily.

  Desire vanished. Her little brother! That was how Okaru thought of him. Not as a man she could like, or even a friend, but as a child.

  Masahiro didn’t have time to feel the worst of his mortification, because he heard his mother’s voice say sharply, “Masahiro! Okaru!”

  * * *

  ALARMED, REIKO STARED at her son and Okaru sprawled on the bed. The girl had her arm around Masahiro and her hand cradling his cheek. Masahiro’s hand was in Okaru’s hair. They turned at the sound of her voice.

  “What are you doing?” Reiko asked.

  They sprang apart and stood up. Reiko saw Masahiro’s face turn red, and fear in Okaru’s eyes. Suddenly she recalled her conversation with Chiyo. Now she understood: Chiyo had been trying to warn her about what could happen when a boy on the verge of manhood and a beautiful young girl lived under the same roof. Chiyo must have noticed an attraction between Masahiro and Okaru. Reiko belatedly realized what had happened. Okaru had a broken heart and needed comfort; Masahiro was experiencing the sexual desires that boys did. It was natural that they should come together.

  Reiko turned on Okaru. “Were you seducing my son?”

  “No,” Okaru said in a small, chagrined tone. “It’s not what you think.”

  Reiko was shocked, even though she knew that samurai boys began having sex at an early age and it was considered acceptable as long as they confined themselves to women from the lower classes and didn’t ruin girls from good families who were reserved for marriage. Reiko had caught Sano’s young retainers coupling with the maids and politely looked the other way. But Masahiro wasn’t grown up enough for sex!

  “Mother,” Masahiro said. The word was half protest, half plea. He looked miserable.

  The idea of him with Okaru filled Reiko with aversion, even though she’d prided herself on overlooking class distinctions. She’d taken the girl into her house, and Okaru had blithely helped herself to Reiko’s son! No matter that Okaru was innocent of the attack on Magistrate Ueda, she was dangerous. Inexperienced boys like Masahiro often fell in love with girls like Okaru. The affairs begat jealousies, quarrels, duels between men vying for the same girl, and often babies. Custom forbade such couples to marry, and too often they committed shinjū, double love suicide. Reiko saw a new, perilous world opening up for Masahiro. She’d tried so hard to protect him from his father’s political enemies, but she’d not thought to shield his heart.

  “Go to your room,” Reiko told him, angry at her own obliviousness, wanting to separate Masahiro from Okaru and shut the door on his new world even though it was too late.

  He started to protest, to defend Okaru. Lieutenant Tanuma rushed into the room.

  “Where have you been?” Reiko asked Tanuma. “Didn’t I tell you to watch Okaru?” Before he could answer, she said, “Take Masahiro to his room.”

  Tanuma and Masahiro slunk out like whipped puppies. Reiko turned to Okaru. The girl knelt on the bed, hands clasped behind her back, like a child caught stealing candy.

  “Now,” Reiko said in as level a tone as she could manage. “Explain what you were doing with my son.”

  “Nothing,” Okaru said. “I hugged him because he was kind to me. That’s all.”

  But Reiko had seen the look on Masahiro’s face while he and Okaru were touching. A hug could easily lead to other things—perhaps things that had already happened when she wasn’t there to see. For the first time she experienced the jealousy of a mother who realized that someday she would no longer be the woman her son loved best.

  “You’ll stay away from Masahiro from now on,” Reiko said. “Do you understand?”

  Okaru nodded, her complexion gray, lips pressed together as if she feared that if she spoke she would be sick. Her eyes were huge and solemn.

  “Good.” Reiko felt a pang of shame for treating the girl so harshly. She remembered why she’d come to see Okaru. “I have news. My husband and I have found out who’s responsible for the attack on my father. It’s not you. You’re exonerated.”

  Tears of relief spilled from Okaru’s eyes. She murmured, “Thank the gods. I prayed that I would be proved innocent.” She gazed up at Reiko in sudden apprehension. “Does that mean you’re letting me go?”

  Reiko knew she was thinking of the cold night and her lack of a place to stay. “You don’t have to go now.” Reiko wasn’t heartless enough to put the girl out. “Tomorrow I’ll have my husband’s troops escort you and Goza home to Miyako.”

  “A thousand thanks. You’re so kind even though you think badly of me. I’m sorry I’ve displeased you.” Okaru smiled nervously. “But … I wish I could stay in Edo and see what happens to Oishi. I can’t help hoping…”

  “That he’ll be pardoned and he’ll take you back? I’m afraid I have more news,” Reiko said, unable to resist a little spite. “Oishi has reunited with his wife. If he lives, he’ll be going to her, not you.”

  The smile vanished from Okaru’s face, which turned white. Her eyes rolled up, and she fell onto the bed in a dead faint.

  * * *

  REIKO SUMMONED A doctor to care for Okaru, then went after Masahiro. He was in his room, kneeling at a table on which toy soldiers were set in battle formation. His hands fidgeted atop his knees. He wore an expression she’d never seen before—a mixture of anger, pride, and shame. As Reiko sat beside him, he glanced up at her, then down at the soldiers again. She felt uncomfortable and shy, as if he were a stranger, not her little boy.

  “I didn’t know you liked Okaru,” she ventured.

  Masahiro scowled. An almost visible barrier loomed between them. Although he’d never had secrets from her, he did now. Reiko was surprised at how much it hurt.

  “It’s understandable that you would like her,” Reiko said. “Boys do become interested in girls. And Okaru is very pretty.”

  Masahiro picked up a toy soldier and examined it with studied concentration.

  “There are some things I must talk to you about,” Reiko said. “When a boy and a girl … get close … well, the girl might have a baby.”

  A blush reddened Masahiro’s face. Reiko’s own face felt hot. She’d never talked to him about sex. She’d thought his father would do it later, but it couldn’t be put off. How much did Masahiro already know? He’d seen animals mating and the young born, but Reiko wasn’t sure he was aware that the same process happened with humans.

  “When a baby is born and the boy and girl aren’t married, there can be trouble. Especially if they come from different classes, which means they can’t marry. The girl’s family will probably disown her. She’ll have to raise the child herself.”

  Men weren’t usually held responsible for their illegitimate children, and their reputations didn’t suffer, but Reiko didn’t want Masahiro casually fathering babies as other samurai youths did. If he did, she would feel bad about the ruined women and abandoned children, even though other ladies of her class pretended not to notice the situation.

  “So it’s best not to … well…” Reiko couldn’t tell Masahiro not to have sex until he was married. That went against custom; men behaved as they pleased. “You shouldn’t be with too many girls or do it too often.”

  Masahiro set the toy soldier carefully on the table. The blush had crept down his neck. Reiko wished she’d never brought Okaru into their home.

  “There’s something else I have to tell you,” Reiko said. “Sometimes a girl will take advantage of a boy. She may pretend to like him, and—and do things with him, so he’ll give her money or presents.” That was how prostitutes hooked patrons, Reiko had heard. “But she doesn’t really care about him; she’s just using him. You must be careful, because your family is rich, and a girl might think she can get—”

  “Stop! Be quiet!” Masahiro turned on Reiko, his eyes hot with temper.

  “Masahiro!” She was shocked because he’d never spoken
to her so rudely.

  “It wasn’t like that!” he yelled.

  “Then what—?”

  He flung out his hand, swept the toy soldiers off the table, and jumped to his feet. “I don’t want to talk about it. Leave me alone!” He ran from the room.

  Reiko sat for a moment, incredulous and bewildered. Then, hearing men’s voices, she drew a deep breath, rose, and went to greet Sano in the corridor.

  “I just met a messenger from your father’s house,” Sano said. “He says your father is still unconscious; there’s no change in his condition.”

  Reiko’s fear for her father worsened. “What if he doesn’t recover?”

  “Don’t worry. He will.” Sano said, “Are the children all right?”

  “I’m afraid Masahiro is upset with me.” Reiko explained.

  Sano smiled ruefully. “I suppose we should have been prepared for this sort of thing. Shall I talk to him?”

  “Let’s give him some time to calm down,” Reiko said. “Have you arrested Kajikawa?”

  “Not yet.” Sano explained that the castle keeper had gone on the run. “I’ve got search parties looking for him. He won’t get far.”

  35

  THE SEARCH WENT on through the night. Sano stopped to visit the supreme court judges, who had temporary quarters in the palace. He relayed the new testimony from Oishi, Ukihashi, and Lady Asano. The judges were gratified to know the true story behind the vendetta but were more at a loss for a verdict than ever.

  “Why does the truth have to be so complicated?” Inspector General Nakae said.

  “We’ll probably still be deliberating in a month,” Superintendent Ogiwara said.

  They began to argue about the new evidence. Sano resumed the search for Kajikawa. As he and Detectives Marume and Fukida rode through Edo Castle, a hard, driving rain began to fall. The air grew so cold that the rain froze. Passages turned slick and treacherous. The horses’ hooves skidded. Patrol guards clung to the walls for support. Brass lanterns at checkpoints dripped icicles. Near midnight, in the courtyard just inside the main gate, Sano and his detectives met up with the party he’d sent to Kajikawa’s house.

  “He’s not there,” the leader said. “He left for work as usual this morning, and his wife and servants haven’t seen him since.”

  The Edo Castle guard captain came riding up through the rain that streamed down in liquid silver lines. “I’ve checked with all the sentries. Kajikawa hasn’t gone out through any of the gates. He’s still inside the castle.”

  “How can he have evaded the search parties for so long?” Marume asked.

  “There are many hiding places here,” the guard captain said, “and a keeper of the castle knows them all.”

  “Fetch the other keepers,” Sano ordered. “Have them show you their secret spots.”

  When dawn came, Kajikawa was still missing. The rain stopped. Sano, Marume, and Fukida climbed to the top of a guard tower and looked out at an unearthly sight. Every wall, pavement, roof, and tree inside the castle was glazed with a translucent coat of ice. Snow had frozen solid. The passages and grounds were deserted except for the search parties; everyone else stayed indoors rather than risk breaking their necks. Below the gray sky, the buildings in the city gleamed. Nothing moved there. The scene was spectrally, frighteningly beautiful.

  “I think this is the end of the world,” Marume said.

  Sano heard his name called. He looked up. Hirata was leaning out the window of a tower higher on the hill, waving. He called, “Kajikawa has been sighted!”

  * * *

  BREAKFAST AT SANO’S estate was a tense affair. Akiko chattered gaily to Chiyo, but Masahiro glowered as he shoveled noodles into his mouth. Reiko toyed with her food and listened to the frozen trees rattle outside. As soon as Masahiro finished eating, he rose, said, “I have to wait on the shogun,” and stomped out the door.

  Reiko sighed. Chiyo gave Reiko a questioning look.

  “He’s cross because of what happened yesterday,” Reiko said. “I caught him with Okaru. Now I understand what you were trying to tell me. I’m sorry I was so dense.”

  “I’m sorry I didn’t speak more plainly,” Chiyo said with sad regret. “Did they…?”

  “I was afraid to ask. And Masahiro won’t talk to me. I handled the situation badly.”

  “He won’t stay angry.” Chiyo soothed her. “Everything will be fine.”

  But Reiko’s concern for Masahiro persisted. The thought of Okaru, locked in the servants’ quarters, made her conscience uneasy. The trees rattling sounded like fingernails tapping on a door, someone trying to get out. Reiko worried about her father, whom she couldn’t visit today. The cold air sank into her spirit, along with a sense of foreboding.

  * * *

  “KAJIKAWA WAS SEEN near the palace and at the Momijiyama within the past hour,” Hirata said.

  “You take the Momijiyama,” Sano said.

  He and Marume and Fukida sped to the palace. Icicles hung from the eaves like jagged teeth. Pines wore heavy, grotesque swags of ice. Dismounting outside the main door, Sano called to the sentry, “Where is Kajikawa?”

  The sentry gestured. “In the back garden.”

  Sliding on the hard, smooth snow, Sano and his men hurried around the palace. The bridge over the frozen pond and the pavilion in the middle seemed sculpted from ice. Trees clattered in the wind. Ice shards tinkled on the ground. A guard pointed at the latticework that enclosed the space beneath the palace’s foundation and said, “We chased Kajikawa under there.” A panel of lattice had been removed and thrown aside. A dark hole gaped. From it came scuffling and yelling.

  “Some of the troops went in after Kajikawa,” the guard said. “Some ran around the building to try to catch him when he comes out.”

  “He could come out inside the palace,” Sano said. Its floor was riddled with openings. “Is anybody watching for him there?”

  The guard’s chagrined expression said nobody had thought of that. Sano and his men stampeded through the door. They ran off in separate directions along the corridors. Sano flung open doors, surprising a few officials who’d shown up for work. None had seen the fugitive. Sano heard thumps as the searchers groped their way through the palace’s underbelly. He sped along a covered corridor that joined two wings of the building. At the end was a door, decorated with gold Tokugawa crests, that led to the shogun’s chambers.

  Premonition made Sano’s heart drop.

  He tried the door, which was locked from the inside. He kicked the wooden panels until the door caved in. Stale, overheated air that smelled of smoke and medicines wafted out. As Sano raced down passages lined with movable wall panels, he heard shouts and whimpering. He halted at the threshold of the shogun’s private sitting room.

  Inside, amid clouds of smoke, servants exclaimed and coughed as they beat brooms at flames that spread across the tatami. An overturned brazier had spewed hot charcoal around a large, square hole in the floor. People shrank against the walls. Sano pushed past the servants, treading over cinders and ash. He stopped near a low platform backed by a mural of white cranes and a red sun. Four men occupied the platform, like actors onstage who were so intent on their drama that they didn’t notice that the theater was on fire.

  The shogun held a cushion in front of his chest like a shield. His cylindrical black cap was askew. He cringed away from Kajikawa, who knelt at the left edge of the platform.

  “A thousand apologies, Your Excellency.” Gasping, Kajikawa staggered on his knees toward the shogun. “Please excuse me for intruding on you like this.”

  The other two men on the platform were Yanagisawa and Yoritomo. Yoritomo put his arm around the shogun. “Don’t come any closer!” he yelled at Kajikawa.

  Standing behind his son and the shogun, Yanagisawa ordered, “Get out this instant!”

  His face, and Yoritomo’s, showed shock as well as anger. Sano pictured the scene he’d just missed—the brazier erupting out of the floor, the burning coals flying, and K
ajikawa surfacing like a demon from the underworld.

  Kajikawa ignored Yanagisawa and Yoritomo. “I can explain everything, Your Excellency. I beg you to listen!”

  The shogun whimpered in fright. Yanagisawa called to the men hovering by the walls. “Don’t just stand there. Take him away!”

  Three palace guards stumbled forward. The other men were the shogun’s boy concubines and Yanagisawa’s two cronies from the Council of Elders.

  “In all my years, I’ve never seen such a thing!” Kato said.

  “It’s an outrage!” Ihara said.

  Dismayed by the way his search for the fugitive had ended, Sano shouted, “Kajikawa!”

  The servants put out the fire. The guards paused. Everyone turned toward Sano.

  “Ahh, Sano-san. Good.” The shogun smiled weakly; he’d forgotten he was displeased with Sano. He looked hopeful that Sano could restore order.

  Yanagisawa’s and Yoritomo’s expressions hardened into hostility. Surprise marked Kato’s mask-like features and Ihara’s simian face. Kajikawa turned to Sano. The little man’s clothes were streaked with grime, drenched from the rain. His topknot had unraveled; soot smeared his delicate features. His eyes were wild, his mouth a downturned grimace.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt your father-in-law.” Kajikawa seemed horrified by his predicament, by the forces he’d unleashed that had spun out of his control. “I didn’t mean for anyone to be hurt except for Kira.”

  “I know. You wanted to punish Kira, and you weren’t able to do it yourself.” Although Sano pitied Kajikawa, his tone was hard. “So you set Oishi on Kira. It was revenge by proxy.”

  Kajikawa’s grimace gaped with surprise. “How did you know?”

  Yanagisawa recovered his voice. “If you want a little chat, have it someplace else.” He obviously realized that revelations about the vendetta were forthcoming.

  “Oishi told me,” Sano said to Kajikawa.

  “He promised not to tell, but I knew it would come out,” Kajikawa lamented.