The Emperor's Woman (27 page)

Monks passed among the strolling visitors, mostly well-dressed ladies and noblemen. Sounds of religious services floated in the air: soft tinkling of bells, sonorous chants, the murmurs of sutra readings. It was pleasant and very, very proper.

“I feel devout all of a sudden,” remarked Akiko, looking about. “It’s all so beautiful, so peaceful.”

Akitada said nothing. In his mind, the thought of Lady Masako’s death warred against such contentment.

A young monk approached. When Akitada asked for Lady Hiroko, the monk consulted a list he carried and directed them to the “hall of tranquility.”

They reached this building after a short walk through tree-shaded grounds. The sounds of worshipful humanity receded; there was only birdsong and the rustling of leaves in the breeze. It was cool, and the air was filled with the smell of moist earth and growing things.

The “hall of tranquility” was a very small building of plain dark wood with a roof of cypress. All around the woods enclosed it. A small veranda with a few steps led to the open doors, and in the doorway stood the slender gray figure of a young woman. She was looking up at the sky, but at the sound of their steps, she turned her head.

Akitada bowed, as Akiko called out, “Lady Hiroko? My brother and I have come to pay our respects.”

Lady Hiroko inclined her head and murmured something. She was a very plain young woman with a narrow face that lacked even a trace of make-up. Her hair was cut so short it barely reached her shoulders. The court lady had taken the first steps to becoming a nun.

Akitada felt saddened. True, she was not pretty, and true her chances of finding a husband in the palace were minimal, but it seemed to him a waste when a woman as young as this one forsook the world. He wondered if Akiko had known.

They paused at the steps.

“I am honored, Lord Sugawara and Lady Akiko,” said the novice in a soft, shy voice. She stepped aside and gestured to the inside of the hall. “Please come in. We will be very private here.”

They walked into the single room, dim even on this bright spring day. A few plain cushions lay about and two tapers flickered at their approach. Beneath their feet, above their heads, and on all walls, dark wood enclosed them. Since the doors were the only opening, the room was shadowy and reminiscent of transience and death.

Akitada thought the religious atmosphere along with the young woman’s decision to forsake the world would make the coming conversation awkward.

This apparently had not occurred to his sister, who began in a bright voice, “My brother and I wish to make our condolences on your loss of a beloved friend. For a young woman in your position at court it must have been extremely painful to watch Lady Masako lose her heart to a man who wasn’t His Majesty.”

Lady Hiroko did not answer. She arranged cushions for them and then knelt decorously, raising her eyes only briefly to Akiko’s. They took their seats.

“Come,” said Akiko briskly, “you must take solace. We’ve come to help. As I wrote, my brother and I hope to find the man who killed your friend. I trust when we do her soul may rest at last. It’s been four months already. Think how terrible she must feel.”

Lady Hiroko burst into tears.

Akitada glanced at his sister. “Akiko, please. Clearly, Lady Hiroko feels the death of her friend very strongly. Allow her to say what is in her heart. Then perhaps we may ask some questions.”

Akiko sniffed, gave him a look from narrowed eyes, and fell silent.

Lady Hiroko dabbed at her eyes with a sleeve. “Forgive me. This is very difficult. I would not be here, only there was the dream. She came to me in a dream after Lady Akiko wrote to me. It’s the dream that decided me. You’re quite right, Lady Akiko. I must speak for her and to do so, I must mention things that are forbidden.”

Akitada and his sister held their breaths.

Lady Hiroko’s head sank a little lower. “Oh, this is so painful. In the dream, Masako spoke to me. She begged my help to find peace. She kept saying, ‘Make him confess what he’s done.’” She raised her face and looked at them. “She was white as snow and shivered with cold. It was terrible.”

Akitada cleared his throat. “I understand your difficulties, but you may trust us. We, too, revere His Majesty. What happened must not reflect on Him.”

She nodded and looked at him gratefully. “That is indeed what troubles me. We are forbidden to speak of life in the inner apartments. But in this case … well, Masako was so very unhappy. I was assigned as her companion when she first came. It was thought then that His Majesty would make her a favorite. She was very beautiful, you see, and her family is influential. But it did not come to pass, though both Masako and her father did everything they could to promote her interests. His Majesty’s heart had been given elsewhere. These things happen.”

Akitada and his sister nodded. Akiko said, “It must have been a terrible disappointment.”

“For Masako yes. She passed all of last year in grief and misery. She attended events in her most beautiful gowns and with her face and hair perfect, but we were always placed as far away from His Majesty as possible. There was unpleasant gossip among the ladies about it. It seems someone overheard His Majesty saying that he disliked her. Masako wept when she heard. My own family is understanding and no one expected me to make much of an impression on anyone, but it was different for her.”

Akiko said, “I think you must have looked quite elegant, Lady Hiroko. You have a certain grace.”

Hiroko blinked, then shook her head. “You are kind, but I’m not beautiful. Masako was magnificent, even if she was taller than the other ladies. She comes … came from a family of tall people. Both her father and her brother are giants.”

A shadow passed over her face as she said this and Akitada asked, “Did you meet Lord Masaie and his son?”

“Yes. They visited quite often, especially late last year.” She shuddered. “Their visits were painful for Masako. You see, they were angry with her that she had not been noticed by His Majesty. As if she could have helped it, poor dear.”

“I suspected as much,” said Akitada. “Lord Masaie had his heart set on seeing her become empress.”

Hiroko nodded again and twisted her hands. “It grieved her so much that her father was angry. They were very close.”

Akiko asked, “Were you aware of her affair with Prince Atsuhira?”

Hiroko blushed and lowered her eyes. “Yes,” she said almost inaudibly. “I tried to warn her, but she … she said he loved her and she wanted to be loved by someone.”

Silence fell. Akitada thought that Masako had acted out of loneliness and desperation. The young emperor had cruelly rejected her, her father and her brother blamed and threatened her, and the ladies of the court mocked her. What did she have to look forward to? When that inveterate womanizer Prince Atsuhira had seen the beautiful young woman and courted her, she must have been overcome with gratitude. “How old was Lady Masako?” he asked.

“Eighteen. Older than His Majesty but not as old as His consort.” Lady Hiroko blushed and covered her lips. “Oh, I should not have mentioned the consort.”

“Never mind,” Akiko said warmly. “You must have liked Lady Masako very much. I’m sure her treatment by everyone was very unfair.”

Lady Hiroko gave her a grateful look. “I did love her. She was kind to me and I thought her very brave. In my heart, I wanted her to find happiness.”

Akiko nodded. “It’s surely a most romantic tale: the handsome prince who might have been emperor but for his karma, and the rejected beauty. Who can blame them for falling in love with each other? I take it they met in the palace?”

Akitada shot his sister a warning glance, and Lady Hiroko blushed rosy red again. “It was very proper. I was there, and so were others. It was only later that Masako left the palace to meet him.” She twisted her hands again and looked down.

Akiko smiled. “You helped her, I take it?”

Akitada said quickly, “It doesn’t matter now. What matters is to find out who knew about their assignations. You said the other ladies were less than kind to Lady Masako. Did she have enemies among them?”

Lady Hiroko looked shocked. “Oh, nothing like that. Not murder.” She paused. “Could it have been a madman?”

It was an interesting thought. The killer had been furiously angry, but he had also been coldly calculating.

Akiko gave Akitada a questioning look, and he shook his head slightly. “The possibility of an accidental meeting with a dangerous stranger is remote,” he said. “Given her story, someone must have considered her an obstacle to his plans or desires. It must have been a person who knew of these secret meetings. Can you think of anyone like that? It need merely be a matter of gossip being passed around.”

The novice looked at Akitada directly for the first time. “Late last year there was some gossip. I don’t know how it started and who may have heard. By then, Masako had already planned to leave the palace for good. You see, there was no chance of hiding the relationship any longer.”

Akiko said bluntly, “Because Lady Masako was with child.”

The young woman nodded.

“Could she have been desperate enough to consider killing herself?” Akitada asked, thinking of the letter the prince had mentioned to Kobe.

“Oh, no. She was very happy when she found out. It was her future, she said. Their future together, for the prince also wanted it. For her, the child was her whole life. Her life was only just beginning.”

Akitada was moved by this. “I see.” He did not add that she had fallen in love with a man who had not deserved such a sacrifice.

“You will find out who did this?” Hiroko asked anxiously.

“Yes.”

“Oh, yes,” echoed Akiko.

Hiroko nodded and reached into her sleeve to pull out a slender booklet. “I brought this. I wasn’t sure if I had the right to let anyone see it. Now I think perhaps you should read what she wrote. You may find something that tells you who did this. It’s Masako’s journal.”

Akiko gasped. “Her journal? Oh, that is excellent, isn’t it Akitada?”

Akitada looked at the thin volume of fine paper in its brocade cover. He was also flabbergasted by the good luck. “It may indeed hold some answer,” he said. “Thank you for your trust, Lady Hiroko. You will not regret it.”

“You will return it? It is all I have left of her.”

Akiko cried, “Of course.”

The homeward journey was filled with Akiko’s loud chatter and frequent demands to stop and have a peek at the journal. When a rather silent Akitada refused, she spent the time on various theories about what it might contain. They were almost home before Akitada had the heart to spoil her pleasure.

“It may not contain anything useful. If it did, Lady Hiroko would have told us. I doubt Lady Masako knew her danger. She would not have made the lonely journey to the villa, knowing that someone wished her dead.”

Akiko was silent for a moment. Then she raised her chin. “Well, in that case we must read between the lines. I have a knack for that sort of thing. I always knew ahead of time what the characters in Lady Murasaki’s novel were going to do next.”

Spies

T
ora waited for Saburo in front of Mrs. Komiya’s little house. He passed the time charming Saburo’s landlady, who had noticed him and come out.

“I knew right away he was good man,” she said to Tora after he had introduced himself. “I got a feeling for that sort of thing. And I have a big heart. The poor man looks terrible, and people are unkind or fearful. They believe they see goblins and
oni
everywhere. Me, I’ve never seen one of those, so I’m not afraid.”

Tora regarded her with surprise. He had never really seen any apparitions either, but he believed in their existence with every fiber of his being. He said cautiously, “Well, Saburo’s had some bad luck. And you’re right. He’s a good man. I can testify to that.”

She smiled and nodded. “And you’re his friend. I must say you two couldn’t be more unlike.” She chuckled. “Hell and paradise, you might say.”

Tora shook his head. “You should look past the outside of things. That’s what Master Kung-fu-tse said.”

“I know, I know. But it’s what people think when they see you two together.”

Tora humphed and wished her gone. Fortunately, Saburo appeared around the corner at that moment, his scarred face breaking into one of his twisted smiles.

“Tora. Mrs. Komiya. You’ve met, I see.”

“Your friend’s a very handsome fellow.” Mrs. Komiya ogled Tora.

“Unlike me,” remarked Saburo, “but he’s a good sort for all that.”

This made her laugh, and she left them to their business.

“I only have a small room,” said Saburo. “Maybe we’d better talk while we’re strolling down to the river.”

“Suits me. The sun’s still high and a walk along the Katsura should be pretty this time of year.”

“Yes. The cherry trees are blooming. But you have news?”

Tora related recent events, making his own role in the rescue a fairly hair-raising feat.”

Saburo was suitably impressed. “I’m glad your master wasn’t badly injured.”

“Your master, too,” reminded Tora. “He sent me to tell you he wants you back.”

Saburo frowned. “I’m no use to him. I’m not even a good secretary. All I do all day long is to keep the accounts. It only takes an hour here or there.”

Tora stopped. “Don’t forget you have other useful skills.”

“Those are the ones he doesn’t approve of.”

Tora said, “He’ll come round. He always does.”

“I know he’s kind, but his position makes it impossible for him to allow the sort of things I do.”

“As long as you don’t kill anyone or cause a scandal, he doesn’t need to know precisely how you get information. He wants you to help me clear Genba.”

Saburo said nothing.

They took up their walk again. Long stretches of greenery hinted at the open countryside. Dotted about were occasional vegetable gardens with fruit trees in bloom and a shrine or two.

They reached the river and stopped under one of the flowering trees. Ducks paddled near the shore. The Katsura River would join the Kamo River south of the capital, and together they would become the Yodo and end up in the Inland Sea. They had both been there, working together and almost dying. It was then that Saburo had joined the Sugawara household.