The Ronin’s Mistress si-15

by Laura Joh Rowland

  “That would exonerate Yanagisawa,” Hirata pointed out.

  “That and the fact that he wouldn’t have wanted Nakae killed. Nakae is his crony.”

  “There’s still the question of how anyone besides Yanagisawa and the judges and you could have known Nakae’s position on the vendetta,” Hirata said. “But maybe Nakae let his opinion be known before he was appointed to the court. Or maybe it was a personal enemy of his who wanted him dead, and the attack had nothing to do with the case.”

  The inspector general had plenty of enemies, but Sano still believed that the attack and the case were connected. Sano followed Hirata’s gaze to a group of men huddled around a bonfire. Hirata was looking for his stalkers, Sano thought.

  “Well, there are still other suspects besides the forty-seven ronin and the Hosokawa clan,” Sano said. “Before we try to pick up the palanquin man’s trail, let’s hear what my wife has to say about Ukihashi, Lady Asano, and Okaru. She was supposed to talk to them today.”

  * * *

  When Sano and Hirata arrived at home, Reiko hurried to meet them while they were hanging their swords in the entryway. “I’m so glad you’re back!” She sparkled with excitement. “I must tell you what I’ve learned!”

  While she helped Sano remove his coat, while she served him and Hirata hot tea in the private quarters, Reiko related the story she’d heard from Ukihashi and Lady Asano. She was breathless by the time she finished. Sano and Hirata were thunderstruck.

  “So that’s why Lord Asano attacked Kira,” Sano said. The story revealed what Kira’s subordinates must have known about Kira but had kept hidden, the whale Sano had sensed beneath the water.

  “I knew it had to be more than just because Kira harassed him,” Hirata said, “but I never imagined this.”

  Sano shook his head in disgust as he envisioned the scene that Reiko had described-the forced sex between Lord Asano and Ukihashi, with Kira watching in ugly, perverted pleasure and Lady Asano in agony. “Kira made victims of them all.”

  “Do you think this will save the forty-seven ronin?” Reiko asked, her voice colored by doubt as to whether they should be saved.

  “I think Lord Asano had a valid reason for attacking Kira,” Sano said. “I also think Kira should have been punished for his role in their feud and that since the government didn’t punish him, it’s good that someone else did. But it’s not up to me. The supreme court will decide whether Kira’s behavior justified forty-seven ronin breaking the law and murdering Kira.”

  Reiko’s sparkle dimmed. “Then even though we know the truth behind the incident in the Corridor of Pines, it might not change anything.”

  “It might. It’s an extenuating circumstance,” Sano pointed out. “And there may be others we haven’t discovered yet.”

  “Such as the real reason why the forty-seven ronin took so long to take revenge on Kira,” Hirata said, “and why they ‘waited for orders’ afterward.”

  “But we’ve made progress on one front,” Sano said. “Hirata-san caught the man who attacked your father.”

  Reiko exclaimed, “Who is it? Why did he do it? I want to see him!”

  If he let her at Genzo, they wouldn’t need an executioner, Sano thought. “Maybe later.” He told Reiko about his and Hirata’s interview with Genzo.

  “But who was the man in the palanquin?” Reiko asked, so agitated she couldn’t sit still. “Why did he want to kill Inspector General Nakae?”

  “I have a hunch that once we have the answers to those questions, they’ll help us bring your father’s attacker to justice,” Sano said, “and they’ll put the vendetta in a different light.”

  “But how do we find them?” Reiko asked.

  “You’ve discovered a new lead,” Sano said. “Let’s follow it and see where it goes.”

  33

  Reiko and Ukihashi rode in a palanquin up the highway toward the Hosokawa estate, escorted by Sano, Hirata, and troops. Ukihashi wore a rich burgundy padded silk coat over a moss-green silk kimono with pine boughs embroidered around the hem, and high-soled black lacquer sandals. Her hair was brushed into a sleek roll anchored with lacquer combs. Finished off with white powder and red rouge, she was the beautiful samurai lady she’d once been.

  The new clothes and accessories were gifts from Reiko, brought when she’d returned to Ukihashi and told her they were going on this trip. Ukihashi had balked at first, even though she was overjoyed by the thought of seeing her son.

  “How can I face my husband?” she’d cried. “After what I did?”

  “You must,” Reiko said. Sano had decided that bringing Ukihashi and Oishi together was crucial to the investigation.

  Given no choice, Ukihashi had let Reiko help her fix herself up. She wanted to look good for the husband she still loved in spite of her anger at him for dragging their son into an illegal vendetta. Now Ukihashi grew nervous as she and Reiko drew closer to their destination.

  “Don’t bite your lips,” Reiko said gently. “You’re chewing off the rouge.”

  Ukihashi gnawed her fingernails instead. “What if Oishi won’t see me?”

  Reiko recalled the disastrous trip with Okaru, but she said, “He will.” Sano wouldn’t give Oishi the option of refusing. “He loves you. He said so.”

  “What will I say to him?”

  “Just tell him what you told me about Kira.”

  “Will it help Oishi and Chikara?”

  “My husband thinks it’s the only thing that can,” Reiko said, although when Sano had broached his plan, he’d said he couldn’t predict the results.

  The procession arrived at the Hosokawa estate. Reiko’s own anxiety mounted as she and Ukihashi climbed out of the palanquin. Sano escorted them through the gate. Hirata went ahead to fetch Oishi and Chikara. Reiko walked beside Ukihashi. The woman ignored the Hosokawa troops staring at her while she moved up the steps to the mansion. She looked straight ahead, as if her world had narrowed to the path that led to her husband and son. Emotions worked her face, pulling it into a joyous smile one moment, a mask of fear the next.

  Sano brought Reiko and Ukihashi to a reception chamber. Ukihashi stood rigid, her clasped hands twisting inside her sleeves, all her attention focused on the door. Hirata brought in Oishi and Chikara, who was a younger, softer version of Oishi. When father and son caught sight of Ukihashi, their faces went blank with surprise.

  Ukihashi uttered a sob wrenched from her depths. “Chikara!”

  “Mother?” the young man said.

  He rushed to her as she rushed to him, as if an invisible cord that had joined them since his birth had snapped them together. Ukihashi clung fiercely to Chikara. Tears streamed down her face while she murmured, “How tall you are! You’re a man now.”

  Chikara sobbed against her shoulder like a child. Reiko felt her own eyes sting. She looked at Oishi. His ferocity had dropped away like armor discarded after a battle. While he watched his wife, his face was a naked display of anguish and yearning. The thunder deity had become human.

  Chikara stepped out of Ukihashi’s embrace. Ukihashi trailed her fingers down his arms, reluctant to let him go. Turning to Oishi, she looked blinded, dazzled, like a woman who has been living in a dark cave and sees the sun for the first time. The emotion on Oishi’s face deepened. Chikara backed away from his parents. Reiko envisioned their past as a river running between them, full of turbulent rapids, shoals, and whirlpools.

  Ukihashi fell to her knees. “Husband, I’ve done a terrible thing. I dishonored our marriage. I was unfaithful to you.” She was sobbing so hard she could barely gasp out the words. “It was with Lord Asano.”

  “Mother,” Chikara said, horror-stricken.

  Reiko remembered how Oishi had violently spurned his mistress. Would he spurn Ukihashi now, because of her confession?

  Oishi gazed tenderly down at his wife. He knelt before her and spoke in a gruff, abashed voice. “I know.”

  Reiko and Sano looked at each other, amazed. They’d thought the s
tory about Ukihashi and Lord Asano would be news to Oishi, but it wasn’t.

  “You do?” Ukihashi raised streaming, bewildered eyes to her husband. “But how?”

  Oishi exhaled; he spoke with resignation. “You’ve made a clean breast. I owe it to you to do the same.”

  1701 April

  During another etiquette lesson, Kira mocked Lord Asano so cruelly that Lord Asano broke down. Oishi took Lord Asano home, put him to bed, then returned to Edo Castle and accosted Kira. “Start behaving respectfully toward my master, or I will destroy you!”

  “Before you take action against me, listen to a bit of advice: Don’t waste your loyalty on Lord Asano.” Kira smiled maliciously. “He’s having an affair with your wife.”

  Oishi was furious. “You’re lying, you evil old crow.”

  Kira shrugged daintily. “They’re meeting tomorrow afternoon, at the River Inn in Nihonbashi. Rent the room on the western end. There’s a crack in the wall. See for yourself.”

  Oishi didn’t believe Kira. Lord Asano had never taken a woman who belonged to a friend. But Kira had planted a seed of suspicion in Oishi’s mind. The next day Oishi went to the inn, rented the room, and waited, peering out the window.

  Ukihashi and Lord Asano arrived separately. Each sneaked into the room next door. Oishi’s heart dropped. Kira was right: His master and his wife were deceiving him. He spied on them through the crack while they made love. Consumed by jealousy, rage, and hurt, he didn’t think to wonder how Kira knew about the tryst and the crack in the wall. And the next day, Lord Asano attacked Kira in the Corridor of Pines.

  * * *

  “That’s why I treated you so badly,” Oishi said to Ukihashi as they sat in the reception room of the Hosokawa estate. Intent on each other, they’d forgotten that Sano, Reiko, and Hirata were present. They seemed unaware of their son, who stared at them in dismay. “I thought the two people I loved the most had betrayed me. That’s why I got drunk and quarreled with you, for all those months before I decided I could never forgive you and I had to leave you. That’s why I divorced you and took a mistress. That’s why I didn’t bother avenging Lord Asano at first. I hated him. I was glad he died.”

  “Father, please don’t say any more!” Chikara exclaimed.

  Oishi regarded him with sorrowful affection. “There have been too many secrets. They’ve caused too much suffering. I mustn’t keep them any longer.”

  “But I tried to protect you!” Chikara was aghast. “That story I told Sano-san, it was to make you look good.”

  “You lied for me,” Oishi said. “So did our comrades, when they took it upon themselves to tell contradicting stories and confuse Sano-san. They guessed that I had something to hide, and they helped me hide it even though they didn’t know what it was. I appreciate their loyalty, and yours, my son. But the time for lying is past.”

  Sano was amazed that his scheme had worked, the question of what was true and false in the stories had been answered, and the mystery of why the revenge had taken so long was solved. But what had finally triggered the vendetta?

  “I was mean to you because I felt so guilty about Lord Asano. I’m sorry.” Ukihashi wept. “Can you forgive me?”

  Oishi held her hands. “I already have.”

  Sano glanced at Reiko. She dabbed her eyes, moved by the tender scene. Sano himself was relieved that Oishi didn’t hold the adultery against Ukihashi anymore. He pitied Oishi, who was about to learn that he never should have blamed or punished his wife.

  “I didn’t want to do it,” Ukihashi said. “Kira forced me. He set up the meeting between me and Lord Asano. He made us go through with it. He threatened us.”

  “I know,” Oishi said. “It wasn’t your fault. Kira was to blame.”

  Another surprise stunned Sano. Ukihashi wept with relief. Oishi said, “I’m the one who should apologize. I’m sorry I misjudged you. I’m sorry about taking a mistress. She was nothing to me except revenge on you.”

  Reiko looked queasy. Sano could see that she was glad for Ukihashi’s sake but unhappy for Okaru’s, and she still didn’t think well of Oishi.

  “Can you forgive me?” Oishi said.

  “With all my heart!” Ukihashi wept and pressed her face to Oishi’s hands.

  “You are my wife,” Oishi whispered. “You always will be.”

  Sano interrupted: “How did you find out that Kira had set up your wife and your master? Who told you?”

  Oishi turned toward Sano. His expression was dazed, as if he were awakening from a dream. He looked surprised to see Sano and everyone else. “It was Kajikawa Yosobei.”

  “Who is he?” Ukihashi said, puzzled.

  “A keeper of the castle,” Sano said. “He witnessed Lord Asano’s attack on Kira.”

  Kajikawa had seemed to have a minor role in the forty-seven ronin case. Sano was startled to learn that his assumption about Kajikawa was wrong.

  “When did Kajikawa tell you about Kira?” Sano asked.

  “After I moved to Miyako,” Oishi answered. “As I said, I had no intention of avenging Lord Asano. Then one day I ran into Kajikawa. He said he was in town on business. He invited me to a teahouse. I didn’t know him well, but he was the only person from my former class who’d bothered to notice me since I’d become a ronin, and I couldn’t pass up a free handout. So I accepted. After a few drinks, he told me about Kira, Lord Asano, and my wife.”

  “How did Kajikawa know what Kira had done to them?” Sano asked.

  “Kajikawa said that keepers of the castle are part of the scenery; nobody notices them. He sees and hears a lot.”

  Here was another big piece that had been missing from Oishi’s story the first time, Sano thought. Kajikawa had kept it secret, too.

  “I wanted to rush out and confront Kira and kill him right then,” Oishi said. “But Kajikawa said he was heavily guarded. If I went after him, I would only get myself killed. Kajikawa told me to wait. It was his idea that I should act like a drunken bum and let word get back to Kira so that he would think he was safe from me.”

  Kajikawa, the invisible man, had had a hand in the vendetta from the start.

  “Why did Kajikawa go to any trouble for you?” Sano asked, his mind reeling from so many surprises. “What he did was conspire to commit an illegal vendetta. Why put himself in danger, when the two of you hardly knew each other?”

  “I asked him. He said he felt sorry for me. I wondered if it was more than that, but I really didn’t care.” Oishi explained, “He promised that if I killed Kira, he would get me pardoned. He said he would use his influence with the shogun.”

  “I didn’t know he had any,” Hirata said.

  “The shogun probably doesn’t even know that Kajikawa is alive,” Sano said.

  “I’m not very familiar with who has influence at court and who doesn’t,” Oishi said. “I wanted to believe him, so I did. After you arrested us, I realized my mistake.” He smiled wryly. “I expected us to be set free. It didn’t happen.”

  Enlightenment washed over Sano like a sunrise. “Those were the orders you were awaiting? To be told that the shogun had pardoned you and you could go on your way?”

  “Yes,” Oishi admitted.

  “You must have been furious at Kajikawa for misleading you,” Sano said.

  “I was,” Oishi said. “When he came to see me-it was on the night of the day after we were arrested-I wanted to kill him.”

  Another mystery was solved. “So that’s what your comrades and the Hosokawa clan were keeping quiet about,” Sano said. “The fact that you had a visitor and it was Kajikawa.”

  “If I’d told you, the whole story would have come out. I didn’t want that. Now I wish I had told.” Guilt tinged Oishi’s manner. “But I didn’t know what was going to happen.”

  “He let part of it slip out,” Reiko murmured to Sano. “When I brought Okaru to see him. When he said his wife was the only woman he loved.”

  Oishi resumed his story. “I raged at Kajikawa for breaking his
promise to save us. But he was furious at me, too. He said that if he’d known I would bring forty-six other men in on the vendetta, he never would have made that promise. He said that because we’d caused such an uproar, there was nothing he could do. Our fate depended on the supreme court, and he had no influence with it. He also said there were too many judges in favor of condemning us. Our chances didn’t look good.”

  “How did Kajikawa know that?” Sano asked.

  “There’s a secret chamber built into a wall of the room where the supreme court meets. Kajikawa has been hiding in there, eavesdropping.”

  So that was how the proceedings had leaked. The keeper had put his special knowledge of the castle to use.

  “Kajikawa broke down,” Oishi said. “He cried and begged me to forgive him. He promised he would make things right.”

  Premonition seeped into Sano like cold needles infusing his blood. He saw astonishment dawn on Reiko’s face. “How was Kajikawa going to make things right?”

  “I didn’t bother to ask him,” Oishi said. “I didn’t believe him; I’d lost all faith in him. Then I heard that one of the judges had been attacked. And I realized that Kajikawa had tried to keep his promise.”

  Reiko exclaimed, “Kajikawa hired that criminal who beat my father!”

  “The man in the palanquin,” Hirata said. “It was Kajikawa.”

  Sano was elated to learn the culprit’s identity. Contempt mixed with his anger at the little keeper of the castle. “It sounds just like him. Too cowardly and weak to do the job himself. Timid, hiding his face. Foolish and desperate enough to hire a stranger off the street.”

  “A stranger that attacked the wrong judge,” Hirata added.

  “My father, who wants to pardon the forty-seven ronin.” Reiko was shaking with rage.

  Sano thought, We can handle our enemies, but the gods save us from incompetence! He said to Oishi, “The last time I spoke with you and your son, you were upset about something. Now I know what.”

  Oishi nodded somberly. “Three innocent men were attacked on our behalf. Two of them are dead and the other is severely injured because of us.”