The Samurai's Wife Part 36

Jokyoden looked surprised, then recovered her composure and nodded. "I trusted your discretion once, and you did not fail me, so I shall tell you. As you may know, the imperial family has financial problems. I sold my valuable kimonos and used the money to establish the Daikoku Bank. Through my agents, I issue loans and speculate on commodities. The profits supplement the court's income."

"Astonishing," Reiko murmured. Surely Jokyoden was history's first n.o.blewoman banker.

"I made the mistake of telling Left Minister Konoe," said Jokyoden. "He demanded a share of my profits in exchange for not revealing that I had crossed the boundaries of womanly behavior and trespa.s.sed on the purview of the merchant cla.s.s."

"I'm sure that if I tell my husband about your business, he'll agree to ignore it because you're doing no harm and you led us to the conspiracy," Reiko said.

"I would much appreciate his generosity," said Jokyoden.

Reiko suspected that Jokyoden had chosen to reveal her secret because she'd predicted this outcome. The world of women wasn't so different from the world of men, Reiko observed. Favors were the common currency, and she owed Jokyoden a greater debt than she'd repaid. Perhaps she could pa.s.s along the favor by helping other women in need, and use her power to do good.

They rose and made their final bows of farewell.

"It may be that we shall meet again someday," Jokyoden said.

In spite of the distance from Miyako to Edo, Reiko had hopes that they might. So many unimaginable things had already happened: the discovery of a man with the power of kiai; Sano's return from the dead; a war averted. Anything seemed possible.

"Perhaps we shall," she said.

As her palanquin carried her out of the Imperial Palace, her thoughts turned toward another impending event-one more commonplace than her recent experiences, yet just as miraculous, and now a certainty. Soon she must tell Sano.

At Nijo Castle, troops and servants prepared for the trip to Edo, packing clothes and supplies, readying the horses. Chamberlain Yanagisawa paced the veranda of the private chamber. He inhaled on his tobacco pipe, hoping the smoke would calm his nerves. Hearing footsteps behind him, he stopped, turned, and saw Yoriki Hoshina standing at the far end of the veranda.

"You sent for me." The hesitancy in Hoshina's voice made it almost a question. Yes...

Slowly they walked toward each other and stood at the railing, looking out at the stark, treeless garden. "So you're leaving tomorrow," Hoshina said.

Yanagisawa nodded. His spirit and body came alive with the exhilaration that Hoshina's presence inspired. After leading the victorious army back to Miyako and returning Emperor Tomohito to the palace, they'd spent much time celebrating their reunion with violent, physical pa.s.sion. Yet so much had happened that neither had dared mention the future.

"There's something I want to talk about," Yanagisawa said, at the same moment Hoshina said, "I suppose this is our last day together." An uncomfortable silence ensued. Then, with a sense of leaping off a cliff, Yanagisawa spoke in a voice barely above a whisper: "It doesn't have to be."

"What did you say?" Hope battled disbelief in Hoshina's face.

Now Yanagisawa's voice came out clear and strong: "I want you to come to Edo with me."

That Hoshina also wanted it was apparent in his shining eyes and trembling mouth, but he didn't speak.

"I'll make you my new chief retainer," Yanagisawa said.

"You would do that? After I betrayed you?" Incredulity strained Hoshina's voice.

"After you proved your loyalty, yes, I would." Yanagisawa spoke with full knowledge of the danger of fostering a potential rival.

"If you'd proposed this a few days ago, I would have jumped at the chance. But now..." Hoshina smiled wryly. "Instead of planning my brilliant future, I'm thinking about how having me around could hurt you. I served you well this time. But later... what if I turn out to be the same man who once meant to take advantage of your generosity? How can you trust me?"

"Perhaps I'm still the same man who condemned you to death for disappointing me," Yanagisawa said. "If you trust me, I'll trust you."

They exchanged a long, questioning gaze. Then, with somber smiles, they nodded.

"You'd better settle your business in Miyako and start packing," Yanagisawa said. "We leave at daybreak."

Sano rode through Miyako, down streets now bare of the stalls that had sold Obon supplies, past houses no longer decorated with lanterns or incense burners. The city teemed with gay, bright life, and along the Kamo River, only piles of ash remained from the Festival of the Dead, but as Sano reached Kodai Temple, his mind was uneasy. Reiko had willingly agreed that he should pay a last courtesy visit to Kozeri, and knowing what he now did about the nun, he thought he could resist her... but he wasn't quite certain.

Wind stirred the pines that rose above the temple walls; clouds obscured the sun. Walking along stone paths, through tranquil gardens, Sano hoped to conclude his business with Kozeri in a businesslike manner, as Reiko trusted him to do.

In the courtyard waited a palanquin and four bearers. Down the steps of the nunnery came a woman dressed in a blue cotton kimono; she carried a cloth bundle. With a white drape covering her shaved head, Sano almost didn't recognize Kozeri.

She spied him, and her steps faltered. Eyes downcast, she walked to the palanquin, where Sano joined her.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

Kozeri gave him a shy glance from beneath lowered lids. "I'm leaving the nunnery."

"Why?" Even as Sano spoke, he guessed the answer: He had diverted Kozeri from her spiritual calling. Preoccupied with his own troubles, he hadn't thought about how their encounters might have affected her. Guilt stabbed him. "I'm terribly sorry," he said.

A fleeting smile crossed Kozeri's averted face. "It's not your fault," she said. "Meeting you only forced me to admit what I've known all along: I'm not suited to be a nun. Now that the left minister is gone, there's no reason to stay here."

She raised her head and looked directly at Sano. Desire flared between them even though he'd braced himself against her. He realized that sometimes an attraction arises between a man and woman regardless of their wishes, even without magic spells. He also knew he had better leave before he succ.u.mbed.

He said hurriedly, "The reason I came is to apologize for any trouble my investigation has caused you."

"Oh, that's all right," Kozeri murmured. "I shouldn't have deceived you. Please forgive me."

Her meekness irritated Sano. He discovered that he didn't really like Kozeri. Cloaked in pa.s.sive martyrdom, she inspired not his admiration or respect, but his pity. She'd never breached the part of his spirit where his love lor Reiko dwelled. While castigating himself tor his weakness, he'd overlooked the fact that he had withstood temptation, and he could again. But what of Kozeri, at whose expense he'd learned his lesson?

"Where will you go?" Sano asked her.

"For now, I'll live in my family's summer villa. We agreed on that when I visited them a few days ago and told them I wanted to leave the nunnery. Perhaps someday a new marriage can be arranged for me."

In her eyes Sano read Kozeri's hope for a good husband to love, a child to replace the one she'd lost. Now she opened the door of the palanquin and stowed her bundle inside.

"Goodbye, sosakan-sama," Kozeri said. "I wish you well."

"And I the same to you," Sano said.

With mutual relief, they smiled and bowed. Then they departed Kodai Temple, she in the palanquin and he on horseback, traveling in opposite directions.

The sun rose crimson over the misty hills above Miyako. While the imperial capital still slumbered, a procession of foot soldiers, mounted samurai, servants, and a single palanquin filed out the city gates, heading east along the Tokaido highway between lush green fields. The rhythm of hoofbeats and marching feet mingled with the waking cries of birds. Humid heat steamed from the earth, yet a hint of coolness in the air presaged autumn.

Riding beside Sano, Detective Marume said, "That was some adventure, but I will be truly glad to get back to Edo."

Detective f.u.kida recited: "My native city- longing recalls The winding streets, the castle on the hill."

Chamberlain Yanagisawa dropped back from his place near the head of the procession to ride alongside Sano. "Shall we congratulate ourselves on a job well done, sosakan-sama?"

"You deserve much of the credit," Sano said.

"That's true," Yanagisawa said complacently.

"May I look forward to a continuation of our partnership when we reach home?" Sano asked.

The chamberlain favored him with a long, unreadable gaze that boded an uncertain future. Who could tell how long their truce might last?

Yoriki Hoshina joined Yanagisawa. Looking at them, Sano felt a qualm of unease. Where he'd previously had one enemy, would he now have two?

Yanagisawa's faint smile said he knew exactly what Sano was thinking. Then he and Hoshina rode ahead, leaving Sano to wonder.

The End