CHAPTER FIFTEEN
LOVERS
“Tell me, Shiro,” Hiroki said after swallowing some pickled eggplant, “what do you and the maid Aki talk about after you’ve fucked?”
Shiro choked on his tea.
Tetsuo grunted a sort of displeased satisfaction. “I told you you’d never be able to keep it hidden from him,” he said to Shiro. He turned to Hiroki. “How did you find out, Hiroki?”
“I didn’t find out myself. Lady Tomiko’s ghost told me, last night, when she invaded my dreams.”
“A yūrei,” Tetsuo said, softly.
“Not just a ghost,” Hiroki said. “Worse than that: An onryō. Lady Tomiko is a very unhappy ghost. And she seems to be as unhappy with poor Aki as she is with her brother.” And with me, he did not add.
“So when did you take up with her, Shiro, and what have you been talking about when you’re not bedding her?”
“I really didn’t think you’d mind,” Shiro said, pushing away the remnants of his morning rice. “You never have before. She’s small and pretty and she seemed so miserable after her mistress’s death. She complained about how her secret lover no longer visited her in the night — well, she did until after our first time. Then she got a lot happier. It was right after you’d sent me back to talk to the maids about those wisteria trousers.”
“And naturally you couldn’t resist talking about what you were doing on behalf of her lord and his family.”
“I thought she had a right to know,” Shiro said. “After all it was her mistress who got murdered. Anyway, it’s not as if there was all that much to tell. We haven’t had a lot of luck with this assignment, Hiroki. I’d be happier going back to finding out military secrets for Lord Tanuma.”
“There was enough to tell to satisfy someone’s curiosity,” Hiroki said. “Someone other than Aki. Did it not occur to you, Shiro, that her ‘secret lover’ might be a real person and not some child’s fantasy? You may not have noticed, but I have been seeing Aki throughout the capital these past few days. It wasn’t until Lady Tomiko’s ghost visited me that I understood why. She has been following us, and reporting on our movements.”
“I thought she was following me,” Shiro said, head bowed.
“You’re good-looking,” Tetsuo told him, “and I’ll grant that you have more charm than I have, or ever will. But you’re not irresistible. You should remember that, Shiro, for next time.”
“Sorry, Hiroki,” Shiro muttered. “I was bored, that’s all. And maybe jealous. You had Katsumi to play with, after all. I didn’t think it was fair that you be the only one.”
Hiroki sighed and shook his head. “Please remember, Shiro, what my attentions have cost Katsumi. And her landlord. My ‘play’ with her has not been without consequence. For both of us.”
“But she’s not a samurai,” Shiro said. “Or a noble. Townspeople ought to know the risks they run when we take notice of them.”
“I used to think as you do,” Hiroki said. “I don’t, not any longer and not for some time now. I see a connection between us all that I probably ought to have been aware of some time ago. Yes,” he said, raising a hand to forestall Shiro’s protest, “I am aware that I often don’t think about them as people, and that I can be as unfeeling as any of my peers. But I do not try to convince myself that this is the way things were meant to be, Shiro. I cannot afford such a delusion and still perform my duty to Lord Tanuma. Please think about this, and try to remember it the next time you are presented with such an opportunity.”
“I will never do it again,” Shiro said.
“Pouting is not a look that flatters you,” Hiroki said, laughing in as friendly a fashion as he could manage. “I just want you to think things through more often, not to become a monk. Your instincts are often quite sound, my good Shiro, but that doesn’t mean you should never question them.”
Shiro tried out a laugh himself, and though it didn’t precisely have the ring of spontaneity at least his smile was genuine. “Thank you, Hiroki. I would make a terrible monk, you know.”
“It’s not as if many of them are as celibate as they’re supposed to be anyway,” Tetsuo said.
“No,” Shiro agreed, “but my hair is too pretty for me to sacrifice it to a razor.”
“You will never grow up,” Tetsuo told him. To Hiroki he said, “And now what happens?”
Hiroki’s smile faded. Aki is with the Yama Kings. “I am afraid,” he said as he got to his feet, “that we are going to have to speak with the arms master about her. The lord will want to interrogate her.”
Shiro went pale. He trembled a little as he stood up. “She is a servant. That means torture.”
“Which she is unlikely to survive,” Hiroki said. “I know, Shiro. But we have no choice now, do we?”
Shiro’s face set in a determined frown. “We haven’t.”
Next Characters Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6
Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14
No comments:
Post a Comment