The Ronin's Mistress (25 page)

22

CHIYO ASKED TO
be excused from the trip to visit Oishi. Reiko didn’t press her to go. It was better to keep Chiyo and Okaru apart than increase Chiyo’s dislike of Okaru or let it spoil Okaru’s pleasure.

Reiko felt bad because Okaru had come between her and Chiyo. She had a dilemma on her hands: She owed her loyalty to her friend and relative, but she couldn’t abandon a person in need who was a guest in her house. She must fulfill her promise to help Okaru.

Goza took Chiyo’s place inside the palanquin. The servant was dour and silent, but Okaru could hardly contain her ebullience as they rode through the city.

“I can’t wait to see Oishi!” Okaru smoothed her hair, which she’d pinned up and studded with paper flowers. “Do I look all right?”

“You look lovely,” Reiko said.

“It’s been so long since Oishi and I were together. I feel as if we’ll be strangers when we meet. Oh, Lady Reiko, what will I do?”

Reiko hardly felt qualified to give advice. “Just act natural, I suppose.”

Their procession reached the Hosokawa clan estate, which looked cold and unwelcoming, set amid bare trees, the snow on its roof grayed by soot. Okaru gasped with awe and said, “This is where Oishi is in jail? It looks like a palace!”

A servant escorted Reiko, Okaru, and Goza into an elegant reception chamber in the mansion. “I’m so nervous,” Okaru said, fidgeting with her clothes. When they heard footsteps in the corridor, she cried, “It’s him!” She leaped to her feet as Oishi entered the chamber.

He wasn’t what Reiko had expected. Her imagination had built the leader of the forty-seven
r
ō
nin
into a giant with a face like an iron war mask. But Oishi in the flesh was smaller, older, and clearly not in good health. His strength showed only in his eyes. They had the hard, fiery light of steel heated in a swordsmith’s forge. He favored Okaru with a scowl that must have been the last thing Kira had seen before Oishi cut off his head.

Okaru didn’t notice. She flung herself at Oishi and threw her arms around him. She wept while murmuring endearments.

His arms shot out, breaking her grasp as if she were a flimsy vine that had twined around him. Okaru stumbled backward.

“My love?” she said, her smile faltering. “What’s wrong?”

“What are you doing here?” Oishi demanded.

The jubilance in Okaru’s eyes dimmed. “I—I wanted to see you.”

She took a step toward him, but Oishi raised his hand to fend her off and said, “You shouldn’t have come.”

Okaru gazed at him with hurt disbelief, like a child slapped for no reason. “Aren’t you glad to see me?”

Reiko couldn’t believe Oishi’s cruelty, either. She heard a low growl from Goza. The servant’s face had taken on the look of a watchdog whose owner is threatened.

“That should be obvious. I never want to see you again.” Oishi turned to leave.

With a wail, Okaru lunged after him. She tripped on her skirts, sprawled, and grabbed Oishi’s ankle. “My love, why are you treating me like this?”

Oishi kicked savagely at her. “Let go!”

Appalled, Reiko hurried to Okaru and touched her shoulder. “Come away before you get hurt.”

Goza stalked toward Oishi with her fists clenched. Okaru hung on, pleading, “Don’t you love me anymore?”

“I never loved you.” Contempt edged Oishi’s voice.

“But—but—” Okaru pulled herself, hand over hand, up his leg. “You promised we would marry someday.” Her eyes pleaded with him. “Don’t you remember?”

Oishi laughed, a chortle filled with disgust. “I never meant any of those things.”

Shock loosened Okaru’s grip on him. She sat back on her heels. “You lied?” she said in a tiny voice.

“That’s right.” Oishi seemed to relish the pain he was causing. Reiko’s admiration for him turned to revulsion. “I only told you what you wanted to hear.”

“But why?”

“I was using you,” Oishi said with brutal honesty. “You were part of my act.”

“Act?” Okaru shook her head in confusion. “What act?”

“To make myself seem like a no-good, drunken bum. To make Kira think I’d forgotten about avenging my master. And it worked. I fooled Kira. He’s dead. And I don’t need you anymore.” He averted his gaze from Okaru, as if she were dog excrement.

“No. I don’t believe it,” Okaru said, even as her eyes widened into dark pools of pain. “You weren’t acting, I would have known. You were in love with me. You still are.”

“Stop!” Oishi raised his voice over hers. “Face the facts. I wasn’t in love with you. I’m not now. My wife is the only woman I love.”

His last statement silenced Okaru like a hand closed around her throat. Her mouth opened and closed, emitting strangled gasps before she managed to say, “Your wife? But you divorced her. You said you didn’t care about her. You said I was the one…”

“I only divorced her to protect her, you silly little fool,” Oishi said. “So she couldn’t be punished for anything I did. If not for that, we would still be married.”

He spoke with conviction, but his words struck a dissonant chord in Reiko. She tilted her head and frowned.

“It’s not true,” Okaru said, breathless with desperation. “You don’t know what you’re saying, you’re not yourself. You must be ill. Darling, you need me.” She stood, lifted her hand, and stroked Oishi’s cheek. “Let me make you all better.”

Oishi swatted at Okaru. He might have intended only to repel her touch, but his hand struck her face hard enough that she shrieked and fell.

Reiko caught Okaru. Goza assailed Oishi, seized his neck, and began to throttle him. As he tried to pry her hands off him, his eyes bulged. He choked. His complexion turned purple before he drove his knee into Goza’s stomach and broke her hold.

She retreated but stood ready to charge again, her face murderous, her fingers curled, and her knees flexed like a wrestler’s. Oishi wheezed as he said to Okaru, “Never come near me again.”

Okaru collapsed, wailing, in Reiko’s arms. As Oishi started to walk out of the room, Reiko realized why his words hadn’t sounded right. She called to him, “You say your love for Okaru was just an act, and you only divorced your wife in order to protect her. But that’s not what my husband says you told him. Why have you changed your story?”

Oishi left without answering her question.

*   *   *

“
I THOUGHT HE
loved me!” Okaru wailed as the palanquin carried her and Reiko and Goza through the city. “How could he be so cruel? How could I be so stupid?”

Reiko tried to comfort her, but by the time they arrived at Sano’s estate, she was in hysterics. “I can’t breathe!” Okaru wheezed and clutched her throat.

“Just calm down,” Reiko urged. “You’ll be fine.”

Okaru fell out of the palanquin, sobbing. Goza picked her up and carried her toward the house. Chiyo and Masahiro appeared at the door and gazed with concern at Okaru flailing and gasping in Goza’s arms.

“What’s wrong with her?” Masahiro asked.

Reiko explained, then said, “Fetch the doctor. Be quick.”

Masahiro ran off. Reiko and Chiyo put Okaru to bed. Okaru writhed under the quilt, mussing her hairdo. Her tears had melted her makeup into a red and gray mess.

“I’m so miserable, I want to die!” A fit of coughing and choking ensued.

Reiko pleaded with her to lie still and try to breathe normally. At last Masahiro arrived with an Edo Castle physician, who made Okaru drink a potion made from dates, sprouted wheat, and licorice to relieve her grief, and a tincture of opium to sedate her. After a while her breathing evened, her struggles ceased, and she drowsed. Reiko, Goza, and Chiyo knelt around her bed. Masahiro hovered anxiously in the doorway.

“Will she be all right?” he asked.

“Yes,” Reiko said, although she wondered if it was possible to die of a broken heart.

“We should let her rest.” Chiyo spoke to Reiko, but her gaze was on Masahiro.

Reiko saw an uneasy expression appear on his face as he slipped away. She remembered Chiyo’s mysterious hints about Okaru. Again she didn’t have time to ask what they meant, because when she and Chiyo left the room they met Sano in the corridor. Chiyo greeted him, then excused herself, leaving Reiko and Sano alone.

“I saw the doctor coming out of the house,” Sano said. “Is somebody sick?”

“It’s Okaru.” Reiko described what had happened between Okaru and Oishi.

Sano immediately grasped the significance of Oishi’s words. “He changed his story.”

“Yes,” Reiko said. “I asked him why, but he didn’t answer.”

Sano massaged his head as if it ached from the barrage of conflicting evidence. “Oishi’s new story corroborates his son Chikara’s statement that his relationship with Okaru was just a ploy to protect his wife and trick Kira.”

Reiko’s anger at Oishi resurged. “He may be a hero for avenging Lord Asano, but he was cruel to Okaru, who didn’t deserve it. He’s lost much of my sympathy.”

“A samurai’s duty to his master takes priority over obligations to everyone else.” Sano clearly didn’t like her criticism. “You know that.”

Reiko felt the familiar, uncomfortable tension that arose when she and Sano had different opinions about a subject in a case. She started to say that she hoped this case wouldn’t come between them, when a manservant appeared and said, “Honorable Master, you have a visitor. It’s Ohgami Kaoru, from the Council of Elders.”

“I’d better not keep him waiting,” Sano said as he headed toward the reception room.

The manservant said to Reiko, “This message came for you today,” and offered her a scroll in a lacquer container.

Reiko took the scroll and followed Sano. She stood outside the reception room door, which was open wide enough for her to see Sano kneeling opposite a white-haired samurai with an oddly youthful face. She eavesdropped on their conversation.

*   *   *

ELDER OHGAMI REFUSED
Sano’s offer of refreshments. “I can’t stay long.”

That was a bad sign. Sano braced himself for news he didn’t want to hear.

“The Council of Elders is concerned that the supreme court is taking too long to announce a verdict,” Ohgami said.

“The judges only convened for the first time yesterday,” Sano pointed out.

“The Council is aware of that,” Ohgami said. “But certain members feel that because the case is so politically sensitive, expediency is of utmost importance.”

Sano deduced that “certain members” meant Kato and Ihara, his and Ohgami’s opponents. “The judges want to be sure they make the right decision.”

“The judges aren’t the problem.” Ohgami fixed a pointed look on Sano. “Some of us think it’s your investigation that’s holding things up.”

“I’m working as fast as I can.” Sano thought,
Here we go again.
His superiors never ceased expecting him to produce instant miracles.

“I have complete confidence that you are. But your detractors wonder if you’re being deliberately slow about providing evidence to the court, because you want to delay the verdict and spare the lives of the forty-seven
r
ō
nin
for as long as possible and you’re afraid of how the reaction will affect you.”

Offense leaped in Sano. “I admit that I’m partial toward letting the forty-seven
r
ō
nin
go free.” Even though Reiko’s news about Oishi changing his story had reminded Sano that he needed to maintain his objectivity. “And I can’t deny that I have a stake in the verdict. But I would never compromise an investigation on account of my personal feelings.”

“I know. But others don’t have as much faith in you as I do. They think you’re using your investigation to control the court.”

“I’m not,” Sano said flatly.

“Thank you for the assurance,” Ohgami said. “I will relay it to my colleagues. But some of them strongly believe that the forty-seven
r
ō
nin
should be condemned to death.”

“Ihara and Kato made that clear while we were discussing the case with the shogun.”

Ohgami winced because Sano had bluntly named names. “And I made it clear that I share your belief that the forty-seven
r
ō
nin
should be pardoned. But our position is becoming dangerous. Your political opponents are gaining support, and they have much influence with the shogun.”

Sano could imagine Yoritomo whispering in the shogun’s ear, pouring in poison about Sano. “There are many influential people on my side, too.”

“If the forty-seven
r
ō
nin
are pardoned, you won’t have enough allies to protect you. The other side will be out for blood.” Ohgami clearly feared for himself as much as for Sano.

This prediction didn’t exactly raise Sano’s spirits after a difficult day. “Yanagisawa and Yoritomo were kind enough to explain to me what will happen if the verdict goes against the forty-seven
r
ō
nin.
I’ll lose the allies who want them pardoned. I’ll also become the target of a popular uprising by commoners protesting the death of their heroes.”

“That could come to pass, yes.”

“Which means that no matter the verdict, I’m damned,” Sano said, as much vexed by the rampant political opportunism around him as troubled by his dilemma. “I’ll be run out of the regime as well as lose my family for causing an uproar that displeases the shogun.”

Ohgami shrugged and spread his hands.

*   *   *

AFTER OHGAMI LEFT
, Sano discovered Reiko standing in the corridor outside the reception chamber. She clutched a scroll container tightly enough to crack it. Her face wore a look of dismay and guilt.