I Parker - The Masuda Affair

When he reached his home, he remembered her and turned. ‘We are here.’ She was behind him, her face perfectly white and her breathing labored. ‘What’s the matter?’ he asked. ‘Are you sick?’

‘Your legs are longer than mine.’ She gasped and dropped her basket. The white cat emerged from it, mewing her protest. Her mistress pressed a hand to her belly and tottered to the wall, leaning against it, her eyes closed.

Akitada pounded on the gate and shouted, ‘Genba! Genba!’ A dog started barking. He turned back to Hanae. ‘I’m sorry. My mind was on other things. It was very thoughtless of me. You should have told me to slow down.’

She gave him an exasperated look, then bent for the cat.

‘Let me.’ He snatched up the basket and put the cat back in it, then pounded on the gate again. The dog went into a frenzy of snarling. ‘What is a dog doing here?’ Akitada muttered.

‘It’s Trouble,’ she said in a tired voice.

‘Trouble?’ he asked, confused.

She chuckled weakly. ‘That’s what Tora calls him.’

The dog’s growls turned to excited snuffling and whining. When the gate finally opened, he shot out, a large, shaggy gray ball of energy. He jumped up on Akitada first, leaving muddy stains on his robe, then abandoned him to greet Hanae. He licked her face and then bounced around her, yipping with joy. The cat hissed from its basket.

Genba appeared and took the basket from Akitada, then caught the dog by the remnant of rope around his neck.

Akitada looked at the three unexpected additions to his household. Then he looked down at his wet, and now muddy, robe and said bitterly, ‘I take it Trouble has come to stay.’

No one corrected him. They walked into the courtyard before Akitada remembered introductions. ‘Hanae,’ he said, ‘this is Genba. Genba, Hanae is Tora’s… wife. She’ll stay here until he gets out of jail tomorrow.’

Genba’s face broke into a broad smile. ‘Hanae! Tora’s been beside himself. He’ll be so happy you’re safe.’ He turned to Akitada. ‘Did you say “jail”, sir? Is he all right? Nothing serious, I hope.’

‘Not now,’ Akitada said sourly. ‘Let’s not discuss this now. It’s been a long, miserable day.’

He took Hanae to Tamako, a meeting which proved once again that he knew nothing about women. He hoped to leave matters to his wife and escape to get out of his wet clothes. ‘This is Hanae,’ he said.

Hanae waited, and when he said nothing else, she explained, ‘I’m Tora’s wife.’

‘Tora’s wife?’ Tamako looked startled. ‘Oh, dear. I’m afraid he did not tell us about you.’

Hanae shuffled her feet. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘I shouldn’t have come. Please forgive the intrusion.’

Tamako said quickly, ‘Of course you didn’t intrude. Sit down, Hanae. You look exhausted.

Hanae blushed. ‘I’m quite well, but it’s been an exciting day and I’m a little tired.’ She paused, glanced at Akitada, and murmured, ‘And I’m expecting a child.’

Tamako went to put her arms around her. ‘Men,’ she muttered, with an accusing look at Akitada. ‘Such nonsense, to hide you away like this. I have wished all along that Tora and Genba would bring home wives and raise their families here. You are most welcome in this house, my dear Hanae. I want to hear all about your marriage.’ The two women clung to each other, and Akitada turned coward and slipped out of the room.

Seimei was waiting for him, his face all smiles. ‘You found both of them, sir. Wonderful! Such a relief, even if Tora is in jail again. How did that happen?’

Akitada gave him a sketchy account while he shed his wet and dirty clothes. Seimei helped him into his house robe and poured hot tea. ‘You must be very proud,’ he said, ‘to have solved the matter so quickly and easily.’

Exhaustion finally caught up with Akitada, who had not slept much the previous night in Warden Takechi’s cell in Otsu and had walked too many miles today. He looked at Seimei blearily. ‘Not at all easily, old friend. I think I shall sleep for days.’

Seimei immediately busied himself spreading his master’s bedding and left.

Akitada was too tired for a bath. But he had barely extinguished his candle and placed his head on his pillow when his door opened. Tamako came in, already dressed for bed in a thin white underrobe with a pale rose-colored gown thrown over it. In the light of her candle, she looked like some delectable celestial being. The pink gown reminded Akitada of Little Wave and of making love to the sound of the river. Tamako floated nearer on bare feet, her body faintly visible under the thin silk where the light fell on it. He felt a jolt of desire for his wife and flung aside his covers to invite her into his bed.

But Tamako’s eyes flashed for reasons other than love. She was very angry. ‘How could you?’ she demanded, stopping before him.

‘How could I what?’ he asked, blinking against the light.

‘That poor young woman! She’s been through a hellish time, and escaped with incredible courage. You must have seen her bloody wrists and ankles. She tore the skin off when she fought against her bonds until she broke them. She finally used her teeth. And you made her, frail as a child and pregnant, walk all the way here. Why didn’t you get a sedan chair for her?’

‘A sedan chair?’ Akitada wanted to point out that he was no Sadanori and doubted that she would have felt comfortable taking another chair if she had indeed been abducted, but he did not get the chance. Tamako was not done with him.

‘Yes, a sedan chair. And then, instead of making her welcome here, you told her she could only stay the night. And she the wife of a Sugawara retainer! Tora’s wife! The mother of his unborn child! What were you thinking of?’

Akitada looked at his wife in dazed wonder. She was extremely attractive in her anger. There was a rosy color in her face, and her breasts strained against the thin silk with every angry breath. He sat up. She had been his companion for the past six years, a woman who should be as familiar to him as the old robe he was wearing, though not perhaps as comfortable. Certainly not in her present mood. But she was very desirable indeed. He smiled at her and let his eyes explore the half-obscured secrets of her body underneath the silk. ‘The devil with Hanae. Come here.’

‘Oh!’ she cried, pulling the pink robe around her and flushing even more rosily before running from the room.

Wishing Hanae to the devil again, Akitada lay back and tried to subdue his mutinous body. Whatever Tamako’s outrage, the dancer was safe, and tomorrow Tora would be back.

He smiled. Suddenly, he felt more optimistic about bringing home the boy he had grown fond of. He wondered what he would call him and fell asleep considering the possibilities.

He woke at dawn to the barking of Tora’s dog. As soon as he had identified the unaccustomed sound, he put aside his irritation and stretched. The barking stopped. Perhaps, he thought, a guard dog would not be a bad idea. If Tora looked after the beast, it might be possible to become used to him. As for the cat, there were enough mice scurrying about in the walls and nesting in the thatch of the roof to keep the animal occupied for years.

But there was still Hanae. And, in time, Hanae’s child. Akitada frowned. No, it would be much better if they all moved back to their own house and left him to his quiet life. On this thought, he closed his eyes and dozed off again.

The next disturbance was the sound of hammering and sawing. It was quite close to Akitada’s room, and more sleep was out of the question. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. Sunlight filtered through the shutters and made striped patterns on the wooden floor.