Shogun_ A Novel of Japan Part 49

"A man can't live without meat. That's real food. Makes you strong so you can jiggle like a stoat. Here-" He offered the chicken leg to Kana. "You want?"

Kana shook his head, equally nauseated. "Iye!"

The bosun shrugged and threw it carelessly back onto the table. "Iye it is. What've you done to your arm? You hurt in the fight?" it is. What've you done to your arm? You hurt in the fight?"

"Yes. But not badly." Mariko moved it a little to show him and swallowed the pain.

"Poor little thing! What d'you want here, Donna Senhorita, eh?"

"To see the An-to see the pilot. Lord Toranaga sent me. The pilot's drunk?"

"Yes, that and the food. Poor b.a.s.t.a.r.d ate too fast'n drank too fast. Took half the bottle in a gulp. Ingeles're all the same. Can't hold their grog and they've no cojones." cojones." His eyes went all over her. "I've never seen a flower as small as you before. And never talked to a j.a.ppo who could talk civilized before." His eyes went all over her. "I've never seen a flower as small as you before. And never talked to a j.a.ppo who could talk civilized before."

"Do you call all j.a.panese ladies and samurai j.a.ppos and monkeys?"

The seaman laughed shortly. "Hey, senhorita, that was a slip of the tongue. That's for usuals, you know, the pimps and wh.o.r.es in Nagasaki. No offense meant. I never did talk to a civilized senhorita before, never knowed there was any, by G.o.d."

"Neither have I, senhor. I've never talked to a civilized Portuguese before, other than a Holy Father. We're j.a.panese, not j.a.ppos, neh? neh? And monkeys are animals, aren't they?" And monkeys are animals, aren't they?"

"Sure." The bosun showed the broken teeth. "You speak like a Donna. Yes. No offense, Donna Senhorita."

Blackthorne began mumbling. She went to the bunk and shook him gently. "Anjin-san! Anjin-san!"

"Yes-yes?" Blackthorne opened his eyes. "Oh-h.e.l.lo-I'm sor-I ..." But the weight of his pain and the spinning of the room forced him to lie back.

"Please send for a servant, senhor. He should be washed."

"There's slaves-but not for that, Donna Senhorita. Leave the Ingeles-what's a little vomit to a heretic?"

"No servants?" she asked, flabbergasted.

"We have slaves-black b.a.s.t.a.r.ds, but they're lazy-wouldn't trust one to wash him myself," he added with a twisted grin.

Mariko knew she had no alternative. Lord Toranaga might have need of the Anjin-san at once and it was her duty. "Then I need some water," she said. "To wash him with."

"There's a barrel in the stairwell. In the deck below."

"Please fetch some for me, senhor."

"Send him." The bosun jerked a finger at Kana.

"No. You will please fetch it. Now."

The bosun looked back at Blackthorne. "You his doxie?"

"What?"

"The Ingeles's doxie?"

"What's a doxie, senhor?"

"His woman. His mate, you know, senhorita, this pilot's sweetheart, his jigajig. Doxie."

"No. No, senhor, I'm not his doxie."

"His, then? This mon-this samurai's? Or the king's maybe, him that's just come aboard? Tora-something? You one of his?"

"No."

"Nor any aboard's?"

She shook her head. "Please, would you get some water?"

The bosun nodded and went out.

"That's the ugliest, foulest-smelling man I've ever been near," the samurai said. "What was he saying?"

"He-the man asked if-if I was one of the pilot's consorts."

The samurai went for the door.

"Kana-san!"

"I demand the right on your husband's behalf to avenge that insult. At once! As though you'd cohabit with any barbarian!"

"Kana-san! Please close the door."

"You're Toda Mariko-san! How dare he insult you? The insult must be avenged!"

"It will be, Kana-san, and I thank you. Yes. I give you the right. But we are here at Lord Toranaga's order. Until he gives his approval it would not be correct for you to do this."

Kana closed the door reluctantly. "I agree. But I formally ask that you pet.i.tion Lord Toranaga before we leave."

"Yes. Thank you for your concern over my honor." What would Kana do if he knew all that had been said, she asked herself, appalled. What would Lord Toranaga do? Or Hiro-matsu? Or my husband? Monkeys? Oh, Madonna, give me thy help to hold myself still and keep my mind working. To ease Kana's wrath, she quickly changed the subject. "The Anjin-san looks so helpless. Just like a baby. It seems barbarians can't stomach wine. Just like some of our men."

"Yes. But it's not the wine. Can't be. It's what he's eaten."

Blackthorne moved uneasily, groping for consciousness.

"They've no servants on the ship, Kana-san so I'll have to subst.i.tute for one of the Anjin-san's ladies." She began to undress Blackthorne, awkwardly because of her arm.

"Here, let me help you." Kana was very deft. "I used to do this for my father when the sake took him."

"It's good for a man to get drunk once in a while. It releases all the evil spirits."

"Yes. But my father used to suffer badly the next day."

"My husband suffers very badly. For days."

After a moment, Kana said, "May Buddha grant that Lord Buntaro escapes."

"Yes." Mariko looked around the cabin. "I don't understand how they can live in such squalor. It's worse than the poorest of our people. I was almost fainting in the other cabin from the stench."

"It's revolting. I've never been aboard a barbarian ship before."

"I've never been on the sea before."

The door opened and the bosun set down the pail. He was shocked at Blackthorne's nudity and jerked out a blanket from under the bunk and covered him. "He'll catch his death. Apart from that-shameful to do that to a man, even him."

"What?"

"Nothing. What's your name, Donna Senhorita?" His eyes glittered.

She did not answer. She pushed the blanket aside and washed Blackthorne clean, glad for something to do, hating the cabin and the foul presence of the bosun, wondering what they were talking about in the other cabin. Is our Master safe?

When she had finished she bundled the kimono and soiled loincloth. "Can this be laundered, senhor?"

"Eh?"

"These should be cleaned at once. Could you send for a slave, please?"

"They're a lazy bunch of black b.a.s.t.a.r.ds, I told you. That'd take a week or more. Throw 'em away, Donna Senhorita, they're not worth breath. Our Pilot-Captain Rodrigues said to give him proper clothes. Here." He opened a sea locker. "He said to give him any from here."

"I don't know how to dress a man in those."

"He needs a shirt'n trousers'n codpiece'n socks and boots'n sea jacket." The bosun took them out and showed her. Then, together, she and the samurai began to dress Blackthorne, still in his half-conscious stupor.

"How does he wear this?" She held up the triangular, baglike codpiece with its attached strings.

"Madonna, he wears it in front, like this," the bosun said, embarra.s.sed, fingering his own. "You tie it in place over his trousers, like I told. Over his cod."

She looked at the bosun's, studying it. He felt her look and stirred.

She put the codpiece on Blackthorne and settled him carefully in place, and together she and the samurai put the back strings between his legs and tied the strings around his waist. To the samurai she said quietly, "This is the most ridiculous way of dressing I've ever seen."

"It must be very uncomfortable," Kana replied. "Do priests wear them, Mariko-san? Under their robes?"

"I don't know."

She brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes. "Senhor. Is the Anjin-san dressed correctly now?"

"Aye. Except for his boots. They're there. They can wait." The bosun came over to her and her nostrils clogged. He dropped his voice, keeping his back to the samurai. "You want a quickie?"

"What?"

"I fancy you, senhorita, eh? What'd you say? There's a bunk in the next cabin. Send your friend aloft. The Ingeles's out for an hour yet. I'll pay the usual."

"What?"

"You'll earn a piece of copper-even three if you're like a stoat, and you'll straddle the best c.o.c.k between here and Lisbon, eh? What d'you say?"

The samurai saw her horror. "What is it, Mariko-san?"

Mariko pushed past the bosun, away from the bunk. Her words stumbled. "He ... he said ..."

Kana drew out his sword instantly but found himself staring into the barrels of two c.o.c.ked pistols. Nevertheless he began to lunge.

"Stop, Kana-san!" Mariko gasped. "Lord Toranaga forbade any attack until he ordered it!"

"Go on, monkey, come at me, you stink-p.i.s.sed s.h.i.thead! You! Tell this monkey to put up his sword or he'll be a headless sonofab.i.t.c.h before he can fart!"

Mariko was standing within a foot of the bosun. Her right hand was still in her obi, the haft of the stiletto knife still in her palm. But she remembered her duty and took her hand away. "Kana-san, replace your sword. Please. We must obey Lord Toranaga. We must obey him."

With a supreme effort, Kana did as he was told.

"I've a mind to send you to h.e.l.l, j.a.ppo!"

"Please excuse him, senhor, and me," Mariko said, trying to sound polite. "There was a mistake, a mis-"

"That monkey-faced b.a.s.t.a.r.d pulled a sword. That wasn't a mistake, by Jesus!"

"Please excuse it, senhor, so sorry."

The bosun wet his lips. "I'll forget it if you're friendly, Little Flower. Into the next cabin with you, and tell this monk-tell him to stay here and I'll forget about it."

"What-what's your name, senhor?"

"Pesaro. Manuel Pesaro, why?"

"Nothing. Please excuse the misunderstanding, Senhor Pesaro."

"Get in the next cabin. Now."

"What's going on? What's ..." Blackthorne did not know if he was awake or still in a nightmare, but he felt the danger. "What's going on, by G.o.d!"

"This stinking j.a.ppo drew on me!"

"It was a-a mistake, Anjin-san," Mariko said. "I-I've apologized to the Senhor Pesaro."

"Mariko? Is that you-Mariko-san?"

"Hai, Anjin-san. Honto. Honto." Honto. Honto."

She came nearer. The bosun's pistols never wavered off Kana. She had to brush past him and it took an even greater effort not to take out her knife and gut him. At that moment the door opened. The youthful helmsman came into the cabin with a pail of water. He gawked at the pistols and fled.

"Where's Rodrigues?" Blackthorne said, attempting to get his mind working.

"Aloft, where a good pilot should be," the bosun said, his voice grating. "This j.a.ppo drew on me, by G.o.d!"