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[Continuing chapter 5]
This is not like spying, Hiroki thought, looking at the two women kneeling before him. When spying for Lord Tanuma he had mostly been interested in numbers: how many armed men an enemy could call on, how many days it would take to gather them, how many ri those men could travel in a day as opposed to the distance Lord Tanuma’s own men could walk or ride.
Now he was expected to learn something very specific, which could only be learned through the examination of individuals, many of whom he had been raised to consider not only unequal to him, but in many cases not even fully human. These women, for example: until he had realized what he was doing, all he had seen was two female servants, selected by Shiro from amongst who knew how many in the household. They were dressed as menials always dressed; they moved in the same deferential shuffle as all menials adopted; they kept their faces averted, so their superiors would not be required to make eye contact unless those superiors wished it.
But in fact, he had realized, he was looking at two dramatically different people. One was perhaps ten years older than Hiroki, with the angular, reddened hands of a woman who did a lot of — well, he wasn’t really certain yet what sort of work would lead to hands that red, but now he intended to find out. This woman’s face, in the brief glimpse he had first had of it, was a a misshapen oval, the forehead too large, the eyes too far apart, and the lines and wrinkles too numerous and too deep.
Her companion was nearly a child by comparison, with the smooth rounded face of a girl scarcely into her child-bearing years. Even the girl, though, had roughened hands, with short and ragged nails. Hiroki thought he might have seen her before, but he wasn’t sure. It was hard to be sure with other people’s servants. In fact, he took advantage of this in his spying; nobody noticed Jiro when he moved amongst them.
Perhaps aware of his staring, both women withdrew their hands into their sleeves, but Hiroki kept the image of those hands near the front of his mind; unless he could think of these women as people with their own thoughts and desires he would never be able to learn what it was they could tell him.
“I want to know about your mistress,” he told them, sitting down on the floor-mats and gesturing Shiro to join him. “We did not have a chance to know her much, and I believe we must learn as much as we can about her if we are to learn who killed her.”
“She was very kind,” the young girl said. “She never beat me. Others have, but she never did.”
“Was there anyone she did not like?” Shiro asked. “Or who did not like her?”
“No,” the young girl said. “She liked everybody. She was always kind to everyone.”
“She was always kind to you?” Hiroki asked. “How do you know she liked everyone else? What about the wakashū, Togashi? Did she ever have anything harsh to say about him?”
The older woman was unable to prevent a smile from flickering briefly to life. Turning to her, Hiroki said, “Look at me. Tell me her thoughts about Togashi.”
“She found him amusing. He was mean-spirited and often said cruel things to her, but she always told me she was not offended. She said that his attacks on her appearance and manners were a sign of weakness in him, not of strength. She said that though he dressed well he was in fact a very poor man. She thought his tongue was sour because of the bitterness of having to live off the generosity of others.”
“She used to laugh, while I was brushing her hair,” said the girl, “as she told me about Hosokawa-dono’s clever responses whenever Togashi-dono said rude things about the mistress.”
“She got along well with young Hosokawa?”
“They were very good friends,” the older woman said. That was all she said, which Hiroki found interesting.
“Did Hosokawa-dono ever visit the house to see the arms master and not Lady Tomiko?” Hiroki asked.
“I am unaware of this,” the older woman said. “I do not believe that Lord Hosokawa ever came to this house to discuss — ” she paused a moment “ — worldly matters.”
“Not even with Kanegawa?” Hiroki shifted his gaze rapidly from one woman to the other, hoping to see some sort of reaction to mention of the secretary’s name.
He was disappointed. The older woman dropped her head again and said, “I do not know anything about what Lord Hosokawa may have talked about when my lady was not present.” The girl simply shook her head.
“Tell me about Lady Tomiko and the arms master,” Hiroki began — and this definitely earned him a reaction. The girl blushed and was in the process of turning away when she stopped herself. The older woman’s shoulders hunched up, as if to protect herself from a blow.
Shiro pounced. “Things were not good between the lord and his sister? What was wrong? Tell us immediately.”
“Patience, Shiro,” Hiroki said. “Let them tell us in their own time.”
“I have a secret lover myself,” the girl blurted out, “so you can’t make me believe the lady was doing anything wrong.”
“Don’t say stupid things, Aki,” the older woman said, in a voice that snapped like cheap eating-sticks. Aki, Hiroki thought. I have heard that name.
“A secret lover?” Shiro leaned forward. “This is most interesting. Tell us more.”
The older woman looked to Hiroki for direction, so he nodded for her to continue. “The Lady Tomiko was widowed nearly three years ago,” she said, head bowed again, “and that is when the arms master brought us into his household. His own wife had died a year before that, and he wanted Lady Tomiko to serve as his hostess until his cousin and lord found him a new wife.
“But Lady Tomiko did not want to stay a widow in her brother’s house. When she met — a man, she decided she would marry him.” The woman looked up at Hiroki. “The lord would not hear of it, and ordered the relationship to end.”
“But we made sure that it did not end, my mistress and I,” the girl Aki said with obvious pride.
“What was so unsuitable about the man?” Hiroki asked. He had placed Aki; she was the girl who had waited on Lady Tomiko the other day when their visit had been interrupted by the wakashū and Lord Hosokawa.
“His family was an enemy of her family,” Aki said, “and so it could never be.” The girl did not seem distressed at the thought.
“You are being silly again,” the older woman said to Aki. “The man Noritoyo was a member of the Akamatsu clan, sir. They are allies of the great Hosokawa, but of a similar importance to that of the Miyoshi.”
“Not enemies, then,” Hiroki said, “so much as possible competitors.” I am going to have to interview Lord Hosokawa about this. About many things. The older woman shrugged as if not really understanding; about Aki’s incomprehension there could be no doubt. It did not matter; Akamatsu Noritoyo was now a suspect.
“A final question, and then you may go. What do you know of the woman from the palace? Why has she been here?”
“I do not know, sir,” the older woman said. “I was never with the lady.”
“I do not know anything either,” Aki said. “My mistress never told me who the old woman was.”
Hiroki dismissed them both. He was fairly certain that Aki, at least, had been lying when she claimed to know nothing of his mother. But there would be time enough later to confront her about this.
Next Characters Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5
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