Laura Rowland - The Cloud Pavilion

"Why not?"

"Because I don't want to."

"You should be glad to cooperate," Sano said. "This is your chance to exonerate yourself."

Nanbu folded his arms and glared. "I already told you I didn't do it." Sano saw sweat droplets on his forehead. "I give you my word, on my honor. I'm not taking off my clothes."

"Your word's not good enough," Sano said, "and I didn't ask you to undress, I ordered you to do it."

"Want us to help him out of his clothes?" Marume asked.

He and Fukida dismounted and advanced on Nanbu. Nanbu pursed his thick lips and whistled. The twelve dogs grouped around him in a tight, snarling huddle.

"You'll have to get past them," Nanbu said, "and you wouldn't dare."

He was right, as much as Sano hated to admit it. The dogs were a living wall around Nanbu, an army more fierce and loyal than any samurai troops. If Sano and his men tried to penetrate it, they would surely kill dogs in the process; and the shogun wouldn't excuse even Sano, his dear friend and trusted chamberlain, for harming a dog, not when he believed that his chances of getting an heir depended on protecting dogs and earning fortune's grace.

"You win for now," Sano said. He might have risked taking on Nanbu's dogs, if not for his family. If he couldn't talk his way out of the punishment later, Reiko and the children and his other relatives-including the Kumazawa clan-would share it. "But you're in trouble even if you didn't rape those women."

"What are you going to do, cut my head off?" Nanbu laughed recklessly. "You can't touch me. Now get out."

He advanced on Sano. The dogs moved with him, panting for a fight, a taste of blood. Sano and his men had no choice except to mount their horses and let Nanbu and the dogs herd them out the gate.

"What do you think you're going to do?" Sano said, almost angry enough to do something he would regret. "Barricade yourself inside the kennel?"

"That's right," Nanbu said. "If you try to get at me, you'll be the one in trouble."

"You can't hide behind your dogs forever," Sano said.

Nanbu responded by closing the gate in the faces of Sano and his men. Sano, Marume, and Fukida shared looks that brimmed with ire and frustration. Marume said, "That didn't go quite as well as we hoped."

"At least we know one thing we didn't before we came here," Sano said. "Nanbu is hiding something."

"Sores, or a mole?" Fukida wondered.

"That I don't know, but I'm sure he raped at least one of the women. I'm going to find out which."

"Even if he did, how are we going to get the bastard?" Marume said.

Sano told three of his troops, "Stay here and keep watch on Nanbu. If he comes out, arrest him. He won't get away with what he's done."

Masahiro meant to be a good boy.

While he ate his breakfast and studied with his tutor, he was serious and obedient. He was careful not to pout while Father's soldiers stood around guarding him as if he were a prisoner in jail. He wanted to convince Father and Mother that he'd learned his lesson, and they would surely ask his tutor and his guards whether he'd behaved himself. But now, as his tutor pointed out mistakes in the arithmetic test he'd just finished, Masahiro itched with frustration.

How he hated being cooped up inside the house! He wished Toda hadn't caught him yesterday. He wished that when he'd spied on Yanagisawa and the ladies he'd learned something so important that Father and Mother would have forgiven him. If only he could help them instead of staying home and doing nothing!

The arithmetic lesson ended. His teacher departed. Masahiro fidgeted while he waited for his reading tutor. The soldier on guard duty this morning was a young samurai named Hayashi, who looked as bored and restless as Masahiro was.

"How about if we play outside for a little while?" Hayashi suggested. "I won't tell your parents."

"All right," Masahiro said.

The words escaped before he could stop them. He couldn't take them back, could he? Because he didn't want to disappoint Hayashi. That was what Masahiro told himself as he followed Hayashi out the door.

The sky was gray and the day warm and humid. Masahiro ran across the garden, enjoying the squishy wetness of the grass that soaked his socks through his sandals. He batted at the low foliage on the trees and laughed as water droplets showered onto him. A teenaged garden boy stood on a ladder propped against the wall. He'd removed his short blue kimono and his floppy straw hat, which lay on a rock near the ladder. Clad only in a loincloth, he pruned the pine trees. Hayashi threw a ball to Masahiro. As they played catch, two young, pretty maids came out of the house, batted their eyes at Hayashi, and giggled. Hayashi dropped the ball and went over to talk to them. Masahiro was left alone. He watched the garden boy climb down the ladder and go off on some errand, leaving the ladder and his discarded clothes. Masahiro's heartbeat quickened; he moved toward the ladder.

Wouldn't it be fun to climb up so high?

First Masahiro picked up the clothes and wadded them under his arm. He didn't stop to think why. He mounted the ladder. The pungent, sharp-needled boughs of the pine tree concealed him from anyone below. When he reached the top rung of the ladder, he couldn't see over the wall because he was too short. He set the garden boy's clothes on the wall. While he grabbed the top of the wall in both hands and scrambled his way up, he heard Hayashi chatting with the maids. His feet bumped the ladder, which fell away from him and hit the ground with a soft thud. Horror filled Masahiro as he crouched atop the narrow wall and wondered how he was going to get back down.

"Masahiro! Where are you?" Hayashi called.

Startled, Masahiro lost his balance. He tried to steady himself, but his scrabbling hands found the garden boy's clothes instead of the wall's solid stone. His fingers slipped. He toppled off the wall and landed on his back in a pile of sand on the other side. The hat and kimono plopped onto his face. Masahiro lay, the breath knocked out of him, stunned.

He cautiously wiggled his body. Although the fall had jarred every bone in him, the sand had cushioned his landing, and nothing seemed broken. He flung the clothes off his face, looked up at the wall and the overhanging pine boughs. He heard Hayashi on the other side, saying, "Where did he go? Chamberlain Sano will kill me!"

Dread flooded Masahiro. When Father hears about this, he'll kill me, too. Father would never believe that he hadn't meant to climb over the wall, that he'd fallen off by accident.

Masahiro scrambled to his feet. He was in a passage that divided the mansion's grounds from the rest of the estate. The path between two stone walls had been dug up. The passage was empty except for the sand pile, a stack of new paving stones, and a wheelbarrow. Luckily for Masahiro, the workers had taken a break, or they'd have caught him. But he would be punished no matter what he did next.

Father and Mother would never let him outside again until he was grown up.

Then Masahiro saw a bright spot amid his troubles. Now that he'd escaped, he had another chance to be a detective. What did he have to lose?

He snatched up the garden boy's clothes, which he hadn't meant to steal but would certainly come in handy. Then he ran down the passage before Hayashi could figure out what had happened and come after him. Masahiro would make the most of his freedom. This time he would discover something so good that Father and Mother would be glad he'd broken the rules and he wouldn't feel guilty about his disobedience.

Masahiro didn't let himself think that he must have meant to escape all along.

Accompanied by his two top retainers, Hirata glanced over his shoulder as they rode through Kuramae-the area dubbed "In Front of the Shogun's Store houses," near the Sumida River. He thought he felt the now-familiar presence, but he wasn't sure.