The Harsh Cry of the Heron (39 page)

‘She is very
beautiful,’ Don Carlo said, with a kind of wonder, but he did not pray.

Kaede told Taro how
much the foreigner admired the statue, exaggerating his praise to make up for
his earlier rudeness.

‘It is nothing to do
with me,’ Taro replied. ‘My skills are mediocre. My hands listen to what is
inside the wood, and help it find its way out.’

Kaede tried to
translate this as best she could. Taro, with gestures and sketches, showed Don
Carlo the inner construction of the roof, how the struts gave each other mutual
support. Don Carlo then brought out his own notebook and drew what he saw,
asking the names of the different woods, and what each joint was called.

His eyes strayed
often back to the goddess, and then to Kaede’s face.

As they left he
murmured, ‘I did not think I would find a Madonna in the Orient.’

It was the first time
Kaede had heard either word, and she did not know their meaning, but she saw
something had increased Don Carlo’s interest in her; it disturbed her; she felt
the child kick suddenly and violently, and longed for Takeo to return.

The scars left by the
claw marks on his face had almost faded when Takeo returned to Hagi at the end
of the third month. The snows had barely melted: the winter had been long and
harsh. With all the passes closed between the cities of the Three Countries he
had not even been able to receive letters, and his anxiety for Kaede had been
extreme. He was glad Ishida had stayed with her during her pregnancy, yet
regretted the physician’s absence as the bitter weather set all his old wounds
aching, and the soothing draught was soon finished. He had spent the long hours
of his enforced stay mainly with Miyoshi Kahei, discussing the strategy for the
coming spring and the visit to the capital, and going through the records of
the administration of the Three Countries. Both lifted his spirits: he felt he
was well prepared for whatever might happen on the visit. He would go
peacefully, but he would not leave his country undefended. And the
administration records confirmed once again how strong the country was, right
down to village level, where the system of elders and headmen chosen by the
peasants themselves to represent them could be mobilized to defend themselves
and their land.

The spring weather,
the prospect of returning home, the joy of riding through the awakening
countryside all added to his sense of well-being. Tenba had wintered well,
hardly losing any weight or condition. His winter coat had been brushed away by
the horse boys, who treasured him as much as Takeo did, and his black body
gleamed like lacquer. His joy to be out on the road, heading in the direction
of his birthplace, made him prance and cavort, nostrils flared, mane and tail
streaming.

‘But what happened to
your face?’ Kaede asked when they were alone, tracing the faint marks with her
fingers.

Takeo had arrived that
morning. The air was still cool, the wind fresh; the roads had been muddy,
often flooded. He had gone straight to the old house, where Chiyo and Haruka
had greeted him with delight, had bathed and eaten with Kaede, Ishida and the
little boys. Now he and Kaede sat in the upstairs room, the shutters open, the
sound of the river in their ears, and everywhere the smells of spring.

How can I tell her?
He looked at her with concern. She was so close to her time, no more than three
or four weeks away. He recalled what Shigeko had said: You should tell Mother.
You should have no secrets from her. Tell her everything.

He said, ‘I rode into
a branch. It’s nothing.’

‘It looks like a
scratch from an animal. I know, you grew lonely in Yamagata and found a
passionate woman!’ She was teasing him in her pleasure at having him home.

‘No,’ he replied,
more seriously. ‘You know I have told you many times, I will never lie with
anyone but you.’

‘For the rest of your
life?’

‘For the rest of my
life.’

‘Even if I die before
you?’

He laid his hand
gently over her mouth. ‘Don’t say such things.’

He pulled her into
his arms and held her closely for a while without speaking.

‘Tell me everything,’
she said finally. ‘How was Shigeko? I rejoice to think of her as Lady Maruyama
now.’

‘Shigeko is fine. I
wish you could have seen her at the ceremony. She reminded me so much of Naomi.
But I realized, watching them together, that Hiroshi is in love with her.’

‘Hiroshi? It’s not
possible. He has always treated her like a little sister. Did he tell you so?’

‘Not in so many
words. But I have no doubt that is why he has avoided marriage.’

‘He hopes to marry
Shigeko?’

‘Would it be such a
bad thing? I believe Shigeko is very fond of him.’

‘She’s still only a
girl!’ Kaede said, sounding as if she were angered at the idea.

‘She is the age you
were when we met,’ Takeo reminded her.

They stared at each
other for a moment. Then Kaede said, ‘They should not be together in Maruyama.
It is expecting far too much of them!’

‘Hiroshi is much
older than I was! I am sure he has much more self-control. And they are not
expecting their lives to end hourly’ Our love was a blind passion, he was
thinking. We hardly knew each other. We were possessed by the intense madness
that the constant expectation of death induces. Shigeko and Hiroshi know each
other like brother and sister. It is not a bad foundation for marriage.

‘Kono hinted at a
political alliance through marriage with the Emperor’s general, Saga Hideki,’
he told Kaede.

‘It is an idea we
cannot dismiss lightly,’ she said, giving a deep sigh. ‘I am sure Hiroshi would
make a fine husband, but such a marriage would be throwing Shigeko away, and
bring us no advantages that we do not already have.’

‘Well, she will come
with me to Miyako; we will meet Saga and decide then.’ .

He went on to tell
her how matters stood with Zenko, and they decided Hana should be invited to
spend the summer in Hagi. She would be able to spend time with her sons and
keep Kaede company after the birth of the child.

‘And I expect you are
now fluent in the new language,’ Takeo said.

‘I have made
progress,’ Kaede said. ‘Both Don Carlo and your sister are good teachers.

‘Is my sister well?’

‘Yes, mainly. We have
all had colds, but nothing serious. I like her: she seems a good person, and
clever, despite having no education.’

‘She is like our
mother,’ Takeo said. ‘Do the foreigners correspond with Hofu or Kumamoto?’

‘Yes, they write
often. Dr Ishida sometimes helps them, and naturally we read everything.’

‘You understand it
all?’

‘It is very hard.
Even if I know every word, I still cannot grasp the meaning. I have to be very
careful not to alert Don Carlo: he takes an intense interest in everything I
say, and weighs every word. He writes a lot about me, my influence over you, my
unusual power as a woman.’ She fell silent briefly. ‘I think he hopes to
convert me to his religion, and reach you through me. Madaren must have told
him about your birth into the Hidden. Don Carlo almost thinks you are a fellow
believer and will allow him to preach and Don Joao to trade freely in the Three
Countries.’

‘Trade is one thing:
desirable as long as we control it and it is on our terms. But I will not allow
them to preach, or to travel.’

‘Did you know there
are already foreigners in Kumamoto?’ Kaede inquired. ‘Don Joao received a
letter from one of them. They were business acquaintances, it seems, back in
their homeland.’

‘I suspected it.’ He
told her about the mirror he had been shown in Maruyama.

‘I have one the same!’
Kaede called for Haruka, and the maid brought the mirror, wrapped in a heavy
silk cloth.

‘Don Carlo gave it to
me,’ Kaede said, unwrapping it.

Takeo took it and
looked in it with the same sense of unfamiliarity and shock.

‘It worries me,’ he
said. ‘What else is being traded through Kumamoto that we do not know of?’

‘Another good reason
to have Hana here,’ Kaede said. ‘She cannot resist showing off her new
acquisitions, and will boast of Kumamoto’s superiority. I am sure I can induce
her to tell me more.’

‘Is Shizuka not here?
I would like to talk to her about this matter, and about Zenko.’

‘She left as soon as
the snow melted, to go to Kagemura. I have been worried about Miki in this
bitter weather, and Shizuka had things to discuss with the Muto family.’

‘Will Miki return
with her?’ Takeo was seized by longing to see his youngest daughter.

‘It is not yet
decided.’ Kaede patted the small lion dog that lay curled beside her. ‘Kin will
be glad when she comes back - he misses the girls. Did you see Maya?’

‘I did.’ Takeo was
not sure how to go on.

‘You are concerned
for her too? Is she all right?’

‘She is all right.
Taku is teaching her. She seems to be learning self-control and discipline. But
Taku has become enmeshed in some kind of infatuation with the girl.’

‘With Sada? Have all
these young men gone mad? Sada! That is the last person I would have expected
Taku to lose his head over. I did not think she cared for men -she looks like a
man herself.’

‘I should not have
told you,’ Takeo said. ‘Do not let it distress you. You must think of your
health.’

Kaede laughed. ‘I am
more astonished than distressed. As long as they are not distracted from their
work, let them love each other. What harm does it do? That sort of passion
cannot be halted - it will burn itself out eventually.’

‘Ours did not,’ Takeo
said.

Kaede took his hand
and placed it on her belly.

‘Our son is kicking,’
she said, and he felt the child move strongly within her.

‘I don’t really want
to speak of it,’ he said. ‘But we must come to a decision about the hostages
that we still hold in Inuyama, the Kikuta who attacked you at the shrine. Their
father was himself killed by the family last year, and I do not believe the
Kikuta will ever negotiate with me. Justice demands that they be put to death
for their crime. I think it is time to write to Sonoda. It must be seen to be
according to the law, not as an act of revenge. Maybe I should be there to
witness it -I am considering asking it to be done when I go through Inuyama on
my way to the capital.’

Kaede shivered. ‘It
is a bad omen for a journey. Tell Sonoda to do it himself: he and Ai are our
representatives in Inuyama. They can witness it on our behalf. And do it
immediately. There must be no more delay.’

‘Minoru will write
this afternoon.’ He was grateful to her for her decisiveness.

‘Sonoda has written
recently, by the way. Your retinue of messengers has returned to Inuyama. They
were received by the Emperor himself, and shown considerable honour. They were
accommodated by Lord Kono all winter, and he speaks nothing but praise of you
and the Three Countries.’

‘His attitude did
seem changed towards me,’ Takeo said. ‘He knows how to be charming, how to
flatter. I do not trust him, but I must still go to Miyako as if I did.’

‘The alternative is
too terrible to consider,’ Kaede murmured.

‘You understand very
well what that alternative is.’

‘Indeed: to attack
and defeat Zenko quickly in the West and prepare for war against the Emperor in
the East. Think of the cost. Even if we can win two such difficult campaigns,
we bring war on two-thirds of our country -and on a personal level destroy our
own relatives and deprive Sunaomi and Chikara of their parents. Their mother is
my sister, and I love her and her sons dearly.’

He drew her close to
him again, and touched his lips to the nape of her neck, still scarred after
all those years, still beautiful to him.

‘I will never let
that happen, I promise you.’

‘But there are forces
at work that even you, my dear husband, cannot control.’ She nestled against
him. Their breath rose and fell in unison.

‘I wish we could stay
here like this for ever,’ she said in a low voice. ‘I feel completely happy
now, at this moment; but I am afraid of what the future holds.’

Now everyone was
waiting for the child to be born, but before Kaede went into seclusion Takeo
wanted to have at least one meeting with the foreigners to clarify matters
between them, reach some mutually satisfactory agreement on trade and remind
them who was the ruler of the Three Countries. He was concerned that during his
absence, when Kaede was preoccupied with the infant, the foreigners would look
to Kumamoto to grant them access to other districts, and other resources.

The days grew warmer;
ginkgo and maple leaves unfurled, brilliant and fresh. Suddenly cherry blossoms
were everywhere, splashes of pure white on the mountainside, deep pink in the
gardens. Birds returned to the flooded rice fields, and the noise of frogs
filled the air. Aconite and violets flowered in the woods and gardens, followed
by dandelions, windflowers, daisies, vetch. The first cicadas were heard, and
the fluting call of the bush warbler.