The Samurai's Daughter (20 page)

Deep in the woods, they reached a tiny grove, with branches arching overhead and a fallen tree to sit on. Lights twinkled from the great house below them.

‘Our secret place,’ Nobu said softly.

They threw themselves down on the dry leaves, catching their breath, leaning their backs against the crumbling tree trunk. Taka smiled as she rested her shoulder against his. They had often sat like that when they were children. He drew a little away from her and took a breath.

‘I didn’t mean to bother you,’ he said, his voice hoarse. ‘I should have kept away, but I couldn’t stop myself. I was passing your house and saw the rickshaws at the gate and could tell there was a party going on. I guessed everyone would be busy so I climbed in. I thought I might catch a glimpse of you in the room where we used to sit. And there you were, on the veranda.’ There was a rustle as he stirred a pile of leaves with his foot. ‘I wanted to warn you. There may be trouble.’

Taka felt a jolt of fear.

‘Eijiro,’ she said, almost to herself. ‘He and those friends of his. The war was supposed to be over, but they can’t stop fighting, even though it was us that won …’

Her voice tailed off and she stopped in mid-sentence, realizing what she’d said. Nobu pulled back as if she’d slapped him. There was a long silence.

‘
N’da
. You got it.’ His voice was raw. His Edo accent had fallen away and she heard the fierce northern vowels loud and clear, as if he’d cast off his skin like a snake and revealed something different and chilling underneath. ‘You won. My people lost.’ She sat hardly daring to breathe. Around them branches rustled and somewhere not far away an animal, a monkey, perhaps, screamed. He gave a long sigh.

‘We’re not ones for fighting,’ he said quietly. ‘We’ve got no heart for fighting any more. We expect nothing, we’re grateful for whatever comes our way. But your people – your brother, his friends – they think they deserve the world. They won and now they want their dues.’

His breathing was ragged. She felt for his hand, expecting him to snatch it away. It lay unmoving under hers.

‘Not you,’ he said softly. ‘You’re young, you’re different.’ Insects murmured. The woods were alive around them.

‘I don’t understand what’s happening either,’ he went on. ‘But I’ll try and explain as much as I know. From what I hear, this great government of ours, these fine statesmen who lord it over us, they want to make us all the same – no more samurai or artisans or farmers or merchants, not even outcastes. They want to do away with the caste system, they say. But that means the highest caste has to lose its privileges – and that’s the samurai. It makes no difference to us. We northern samurai have nothing to lose, we’ve lost everything already. No, the winning side, the Tosa clan, the Hizen people, the Choshu men and your lot, the Satsuma, the very same clans who are running the country. That’s the strange thing about it. They won, for sure, but now the government wants to take away the spoils of victory, so they feel cheated. That’s why they’re angry, your brother and his friends.’

Taka was listening hard, trying to make sense of what he was saying. There was something so honest and straightforward about him, she instinctively believed and trusted him.

‘You know what we call you Satsuma?’ She waited, hardly daring to imagine. ‘Potato samurai.’ The words made her laugh
aloud
and she was relieved to hear him chuckle. ‘You know what we say about them? Rough tempers and rude tongues.’

‘Is that what you think of me?’ Taka said uncertainly, stung by the rebuff.

‘You’re only half Satsuma. The other half is pure Kyoto, like your mother.’ There was a long silence. When Nobu spoke again, he sounded hesitant. ‘You know your father may be involved?’

Taka frowned. She’d suspected this was coming. ‘My father was in the government,’ she said, doing her best to keep her voice level and calm.

‘He was chief counsellor and commander-in-chief of the army and commander of the Imperial Guard.’

‘But he left and we hardly ever hear from him any more. I thought it was because he’s with his wife and real family and doesn’t think about us.’ Her eyes filled with tears and she blinked them away.

A bullfrog honked in the lake below them. Others joined in in a great chorus until it sounded as if all the bells in the city’s temples were pealing.

‘He’ll be back one day,’ he said softly. ‘You’ll marry and have a good life and this talk of trouble will be forgotten. It was selfish and wrong of me to come. Your mother knows what’s best for you. You shouldn’t waste your time with me.’

He pulled his hand away from hers. Trembling, she grabbed his arm. ‘Don’t go,’ she said, forcing back tears. She tried to steady her voice but her words tailed off into a sob.

Reaching up in the darkness, she found his cheek. She touched her fingers to the hint of bristle on his jaw, then ran them slowly, lightly, over his face, searching out the bump of his nose, the hollows of his eyes, his damp brow, his ears, his Adam’s apple and the funny mole on his neck. She felt like a blind person trying to memorize every contour, to fix them in her mind for ever. Her fingers roamed across his mouth, feeling the warmth of his breath and the soft moisture of his lips. She put her arms around him and leaned her head on his shoulder.

She sat for a while, conscious that she was doing something forbidden. But all she could think of was his closeness, his warmth next to hers. Their bodies nested together perfectly, as if they were made for each other. Then she felt his touch, soft and hesitant and shy. He brushed the top of her head, then fumbled with her hair until he managed to loosen it. It swung around her face and spilt in a heavy coil on to her lap. He took up handfuls and ran his fingers through it, slowly and wonderingly.

‘Like silk,’ he said. ‘I always wanted to touch it but I never dared.’

He took a breath and then very tentatively, as if he expected her to tell him to stop, he touched the back of her neck. A shiver ran through her, as if something inside her that she didn’t know existed was coming alive.

‘You’re so beautiful, so perfect,’ he said. ‘I know it’s wrong, but this is my only chance. There’ll never be another.’

She sat up sharply. ‘Why not? Why not?’

‘You’re young still, you don’t understand. I have to go back to the Military Academy, you have to get married, our families are enemies.’

‘We’ll run away like the lovers in kabuki plays. We’ll commit love suicide.’

‘Those are stories, this is real life.’

He lifted her chin as if he was trying to see her face in the darkness and she felt his mouth finding her nose and cheek. Then his lips met hers. She shut her eyes and abandoned herself to the moist darkness, letting her body dissolve into his until they were so closely entwined it felt as if nothing could ever come between them.

They heard the creak of rickshaw wheels in the distance and the yells of the runners and realized the party was over. Fujino was shouting, ‘Taka, Taka! Where are you?’

Nobu drew back but Taka pressed closer. ‘Let her worry,’ she said, nuzzling her face into his shoulder. ‘She’ll think I’ve gone off somewhere. I often do. The grounds are so huge I could be anywhere.’

He sighed. ‘I know what I am and where I belong and who my people are. We have so little left, it binds us together. Yet I can’t think of you and your family as the enemy. My brothers would call me a traitor if they heard me say that. But it’s true. To me you’re more important than anything.’

She knelt on the dry leaves, feeling the stony ground press into her shins, and took his hands.

‘If I was a courtesan I’d cut off my little finger and prove my love to you with my blood,’ she said solemnly. ‘But instead I give you my word. This is my vow. If there’s some way we can be together we’ll find it. I’ll never be with anyone else.’

‘There never has been anyone but you,’ he said. ‘There never will be.’

14

CRASHING THROUGH THE
bushes, soaked in sweat, Nobu wondered if he’d gone completely mad. Here he was, in the bowels of the enemy, streaking across the labyrinthine grounds of the Kitaoka estate like a fox with a bear on its tail; yet all he could think of was Taka. The scent of her perfume clung to his clothes, he could almost feel the touch of her lips and warm body. His head swam. He hardly knew where he was or where he was going.

Stopping to catch his breath, he groaned aloud. He had duties and responsibilities and to want a woman, let alone one so far out of his reach, was sheer folly. They could never be together, he knew that perfectly well. Yet every time he had to wrench himself away, he left a part of himself behind.

Stumbling blindly through the trees, he’d reached the edge of the estate. The wall towered in front of him. Hearing a sound behind him, he snapped to his senses, glad of a distraction to block the clamour of thoughts. There were voices and flickering lights – a patrol, he guessed, guarding the estate. If they spotted him, he’d be dead. They wouldn’t stop to ask questions.

The moon was rising, casting a watery light. It made it easier to see but also made him more visible. He cupped his hands to his mouth and gave a long, low hoot, like an owl.

Jubei, Yasu’s former servant, had given Nobu a leg up on his way in and had said he’d keep a lookout, though Nobu suspected that after such a long time he’d probably have given up or
fallen
asleep. So he was relieved to hear an answering call.

He stood at the bottom of the wall, looking up. It was as high as a house, of packed earth and stone with a steep tiled roof. He started to clamber up, fumbling for footholds and grabbing at the overhanging eaves, then a tile snapped off in his hands and he tumbled back down with a clatter of pebbles, cursing.

The voices and dancing lights were getting closer. Gritting his teeth, he heaved himself up and poked his head over the roof ridge, keeping low. Jubei was lurking in the shadows a little way away.

Nobu knew he had to get a move on but still he hesitated. There was another owl cry. Jubei was getting impatient. Grimly he turned. Despite everything, he needed to have one last look – at the grounds engulfed in darkness, the shadowy trees and bobbing lanterns and the distant lights of the mansion. He felt the heat that rose in waves from the soil, breathed the scents of the pine trees and the sweet
yugao
flowers, heard the cry of a reed warbler, the trickle of a waterfall and the cool ‘tock’ of a bamboo pipe striking a stone. It was Amida Buddha’s western paradise, a forbidden land where he could never again set foot. That was where Taka belonged, and he was condemned for ever to be outside it.

He frowned. This was no time for foolish thoughts. He turned back and Jubei gave him a hand as he jumped down.

‘
Usss
,’ Jubei grunted. In the darkness Nobu could see his gap-toothed grin. His sturdy legs were bare and his broad forehead under his knotted handkerchief glistened with sweat. In his blue cotton jacket with a crest on the back he looked like a workman or a porter or the rough gambler he was.

It hadn’t taken much to persuade him to come along. Jubei was always up for action, no matter how hare-brained. Nobu had told him that he wanted to look around the Kitaoka estate. Everyone said Kitaoka was behind the trouble brewing on the southern island of Kyushu and he might get wind of a plot if there was one. He’d worked at the Kitaoka mansion, he knew his way around.

They’d strolled past the gates several times already. Then that night when they’d seen rickshaws milling outside Nobu had whispered that this was his chance to sneak in unnoticed. They’d gone round to a side wall of the estate and he’d climbed in, Jubei grinning hugely all the while. If he’d known his real purpose, Nobu thought, he would never have believed it.

When news came that the enemy armies had breached the city walls and the first contingents of warriors were summoned to the defence of the castle, Nobu had been a child. He remembered sitting on his knees in the great hall at home in Aizu, with the kettle bubbling on the brazier and the smoke-blackened beams crisscrossing high above.

There were no classes any more; the school had been requisitioned as a hospital. His sisters’ voices rang out in the morning air, yelling war cries as they sparred with their wooden practice sticks in the garden, preparing for battle with deadly seriousness.

Frowning sternly, Yasu had informed Jubei that he released him from his service forthwith. There was no need for him to give up his life on their family’s behalf. Jubei was to go home immediately, Yasu had told him, handing him a purse full of money.

Jubei’s broad face had visibly swelled with indignation. ‘How can you have such a low opinion of me, sir?’ he’d demanded, staring stubbornly at the floor. ‘I know I’m a good-for-nothing fellow but my family has served yours for generations. If your city is under attack I’ll stay and fight in your defence. I know I’m supposed to obey orders, sir, but I absolutely refuse to leave.’

In the end Yasutaro had relented and thereafter they had fought side by side. Yasu and Kenjiro often laughed about Jubei’s recklessness. Whenever he heard enemy troops, he’d head for the door, rifle in hand, and they’d had to grab his sleeve and pull him back. In battle he always made sure he was in the front line. Now, eight years later, he had taken a wife and opened a tofu shop, but he often complained that he could do with a bit of action and he still got into fights.

‘Looks like the coast’s clear, for the moment at least,’ Jubei said, glancing around. ‘We’d better get out of here. I tell you, you wouldn’t get me scrambling up that wall if you paid me.’

‘They were having a meeting,’ said Nobu. ‘Didn’t hear much, but at least we know we can break in if we want to. Could be useful to keep an eye on them.’

He cocked an ear, listening for shouts on the other side of the wall, but there was silence. He seemed to have escaped unnoticed. Then he heard noises coming towards them from the darkness at the end of the road.

‘Damn! Rickshaws. Better make ourselves scarce.’

He looked around sharply. They were in a singularly lonely part of town. The road was bordered on both sides with high earthen walls, without a single tree or bush for cover. The only possible hiding place was the moat which ran alongside the wall on the Kitaoka estate side. With no time to think, they dropped to their hands and knees and scrambled into it, praying to the gods that it was dry, and lay on the bottom as still as corpses, the long grass tickling their noses and insects buzzing around their eyes and faces.