Laura Rowland - The Iris Fan

Reiko pointed to the door. “Go tell Yanagisawa that Masahiro isn’t going to marry Kikuko. Offer him anything else but that!”

“That’s what he wants.” More wretched than ever, Sano said, “It’s settled.”

Masahiro shouted, “I’m not marrying anyone but Taeko!”

“Why are you giving in so easily?” Reiko demanded.

“What did Yanagisawa say he’ll do unless I marry Kikuko?” Masahiro asked.

They were too perceptive and too strong-willed. Sano couldn’t put anything over on them or make them accept his decision without argument. “He knows about Dr. Ito.”

Reiko and Masahiro stared at him with appalled enlightenment. Sano didn’t need to say more. They were among the few people who knew about his illegal business at Edo Morgue. They also knew what would happen to them should Yanagisawa make the secret public.

Reiko snatched up her baggage. “Masahiro, we’re leaving.”

“Where are we going?”

“Someplace else.” Reiko glared at Sano. “You let Yanagisawa find out about Dr. Ito, and I’m not letting our son pay the price!”

Sano knew she was angry at him for more than this fiasco, which was only the latest in the series of troubles he’d brought upon his family. “You can’t go. We’re surrounded by the army. If you leave the estate, they’ll arrest you and deliver you straight to Lord Ienobu.”

Reiko groaned in agony and frustration. “This is all because of your bullheaded honor! You’ve sold our son to it!” She flung her bundles at Sano. He didn’t try to dodge. They hit his chest; he welcomed the punishment he deserved.

“You betrayed us! I’ll never forgive you!” Reiko screamed. “If we get out of this alive, I’m leaving you. I don’t want to be your wife anymore!”

She knelt and moaned into her hands. Masahiro’s face was a tragic mask. Nobody needed to tell him it was his duty to honor his father’s agreement, marry Kikuko, and protect his family. Masahiro knew that Bushido demanded filial piety. Sano had often struggled with Bushido’s harsh dictates, and now he’d used them to bind his son.

“All right,” Masahiro said in a hard voice fissured with pain. “I’ll marry her. When is the wedding?”

“Tomorrow.” Sano stood in the ruins of his marriage and his relationship with his son. Knowing he’d destroyed all chance of reconciliation was a desolate, lonely feeling.

He heard a sob and looked toward the open door. There stood Taeko, biting the back of her hand, her eyes filled with tears. She’d overheard the conversation. She turned and fled.

* * *

Taeko ran down the corridor, crying so hard she couldn’t see where she was going. Her worst fear had come true: Masahiro was going to marry someone else.

He called her name. She ran faster, blindly, outside to a cold garden of boulders, snow, and twisted, leafless shrubs. She fell to her knees by a boulder, leaned against it, and wept. Masahiro knelt beside her and awkwardly patted her shoulder.

“Go away!” Taeko could barely speak through the sobs that erupted deep within her and tore at her stomach, lungs, and throat on their way up. It seemed that her body, in its agony, was trying to expel her broken heart through her mouth.

“I’m sorry you had to find out this way.” Masahiro’s voice shook. “I wish I could have told you myself.”

As if that were the only thing wrong! She turned to him and cried, “You broke your promise!”

“Let me explain.” Masahiro’s face was blurred by her tears, filled with his own sorrow.

“There’s nothing to explain! You’re dumping me to marry Yanagisawa’s daughter!”

“I’m not. I love you. I want to marry you, but I have to marry Kikuko or my family will die. So will yours.”

Taeko understood that. She knew he was trapped and he was unhappy about it, but she said, “I don’t care! You said we would marry, and now we aren’t going to.” And the baby was due in a few months. She sobbed harder. “What am I supposed to do?”

Masahiro grabbed her hand. “Listen.” Taeko tried to pull away, but he held tight. “After I’m married, you can be my concubine.”

Married men often had concubines; it was the custom. If she were Masahiro’s concubine, she could live with him and the baby would be recognized as his and supported by him, and his wife would have no right to object. But the very idea revolted Taeko.

“No!” she cried.

“It will be all right,” Masahiro tried to soothe her. “Our parents will be upset, but they can’t stop us.”

“I don’t care about them,” Taeko said, angry because he’d misunderstood her objection. “I won’t share you with your wife!” His wife would have all the privileges of marriage. Her children would be legitimate, his official heirs. Taeko and her child would be second-class members of his household. And her heart sickened at the thought of Masahiro making love to another girl.

“Yanagisawa’s daughter will be my wife in name only,” Masahiro said. “I won’t touch her. I won’t even look at her.”

Taeko’s resistance started to crumble. She wanted so much to be with Masahiro, and this awful compromise was better than nothing. “Do you promise?”

“I promise.” Masahiro’s eyes overflowed with sincerity. “It’s you I love. My being married to somebody else won’t change anything between us.” He clasped her hands to his chest. “I’ll never love anyone but you as long as I live.”

She had to trust him. She had no choice. She nodded and whispered, “All right.”

Masahiro dropped her hands. “Here comes your mother. I’d better get lost.”

He ran off. Confused and forlorn, Taeko leaned against the boulder, shivering in the cold. Footsteps crunched the snow. Warm, soft fabric draped her. Her mother was wrapping her in a padded cloak.

Midori put her arms around Taeko and said, “I’m so sorry.” Her voice was gentler than Taeko had heard in a long time. “I know you thought I was being mean when I separated you from Masahiro, but I was just trying to protect you from something like this.” She’d apparently heard about his engagement to Yanagisawa’s daughter. “I didn’t want you to be hurt.”

Her unexpected sympathy made Taeko cry again. Midori rocked her like a baby. “I know what it’s like being in love with the wrong man,” Midori said. “It happened to me when I was about your age.”

Taeko was surprised. Her mother never talked about her youth.

“My father didn’t want me to marry your father,” Midori went on. “My father is a daimyo . Yours was only a police patrol officer. But your father and I fell in love, and I was desperate for us to marry.” She sighed. “I was pregnant, with you.”

Shocked, Taeko pulled back and stared up at her mother.

“Yes.” Midori smiled sadly, shamefaced. “We were so much in love that we couldn’t help ourselves.”

Not only was it hard for Taeko to imagine her parents having sex, but they’d been so at odds for so many years that Taeko couldn’t believe they’d ever loved each other.

“I don’t want the same thing to happen to you,” Midori said.

Now would be the time to confess that it already had. Taeko longed to unburden herself, but her mother’s moods changed so fast. She kept quiet rather than set off a fit of temper.

“Things worked out,” Midori said, “or so I thought at the time. Now I’m not so sure.”

Taeko felt a pang of hurt. “Are you sorry you had me?”

“No, no.” Midori tightened her arms around Taeko. “You and your brother and sister are the best things that ever happened to me.” She sighed again. “But your father has been so much trouble.” Her manner turned hard and brisk. “Masahiro is trouble for you. Try to forget him. Be glad that after the wedding tomorrow he’ll be his wife’s problem.”