Laura Rowland - The Ronin’s Mistress

“He promised not to tell, but I knew it would come out,” Kajikawa lamented.

The shogun flung aside his cushion. “What is he talking about?”

“Nothing,” Yoritomo said, eager to prevent Sano from getting credit for discovering the truth about the vendetta.

“You should have thought before you told Oishi about his wife and Lord Asano and Kira,” Sano said.

“I couldn’t have known what would happen!” Kajikawa cried. “I made a mistake!”

“You should have thought before you started a manhunt for Kajikawa and chased him into the palace,” Yoritomo shrilled at Sano. “You’re the one who made a mistake.”

Sano belatedly noticed Masahiro among the shogun’s boys. He was astonished because he hadn’t known Masahiro was serving the shogun today. Masahiro looked just as astonished to see his father. Sano decided he’d better break up this scene before something worse happened.

“I apologize for the inconvenience, Your Excellency,” Sano said, then beckoned to Kajikawa. “Come with me. You’re under arrest.”

“No!” Kajikawa raised palms that were burned red from pushing up the hot brazier. He began to weep. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. Forgive me for hurting Magistrate Ueda! That fool I hired went after the wrong man!”

Yanagisawa said to the guards, “Remove him! Now!”

The guards advanced. Sano cut ahead of them. Kajikawa scrambled to the back of the platform and cried, “Don’t-don’t touch me!” He fumbled the sword at his waist out of its scabbard. His shaking hand held the gleaming steel blade aloft.

Everyone was stunned speechless. Sano and the guards stopped. Yanagisawa and Yoritomo froze, mouths dropped, angry words stuck in their throats, while the elders, the servants, and the boys stared. The shogun had never looked stupider.

Drawing a weapon inside Edo Castle was a bad enough crime. Doing it in the shogun’s presence was unthinkable. Sano thought of Lord Asano’s attack on Kira while Kajikawa watched. This time it was Kajikawa, the witness, who’d snapped.

Sano started to climb the three steps to the platform to seize Kajikawa before he could do any harm. Kajikawa shrieked, “Leave me alone, or-or-”

He swung the sword down at the shogun. The room gasped. Sano’s breath caught; his steps faltered. The shogun squealed, dodged sideways, and fell on his back. He lay with his knees bent, his toes in their white socks curled on the floor, his arms outstretched and fingers stiff. Fright wrenched his face into a pop-eyed, slack-jawed expression while Kajikawa stood over him, the blade against his throat.

* * *

“I want to go outside,” Akiko said.

She and Reiko had been playing together in the parlor all morning. Dolls littered the floor around them. Although Reiko was worried about her father, and impatient for news about Kajikawa, she enjoyed spending time with her daughter. But Akiko had grown restless.

“No, it’s too cold and icy.” Reiko heard the wind keening and ice shards shattering on the roof. “We have to stay inside.”

Akiko marched to the exterior door and pushed it open. Reiko sighed. Her daughter was so much like herself-determined to do what she wanted.

The crystalline trees and the jagged icicles that hung from the eaves, the veranda railings, and the pavilion in the center of the frozen pond gave the garden a dreamlike quality. Hirata’s children, dressed in bright, puffy coats, ran across the frozen snow and slid.

“Me, too.” Akiko ran into the garden.

“Wait,” Reiko called, following her daughter. “Not without your coat and shoes!”

She minced over the slippery snow. Akiko joined Taeko and Tatsuo. She ran and slid, laughing gleefully. Reiko chased and caught Akiko and carried her toward the house.

“Naughty girl,” she scolded. “Can’t you ever listen to me?”

Akiko was brave about physical danger and pain, but she couldn’t bear censure from her mother. She began to cry.

Chiyo met them at the door, her face worried. “I’ve just heard that there’s trouble in the palace. Something terrible has happened. No one seems to know what. Your husband is there. So is Masahiro.”

* * *

The atmosphere in the chamber reminded Sano of the moment after an earthquake has toppled buildings across the city. As Kajikawa held the sword to the shogun’s throat, there was a hush except for the shogun’s whimpers and Kajikawa’s panting breaths. Sano halted with one foot on the platform and one on the step below, hands flung up. Everybody else was perfectly still, as if afraid that the slightest movement would trigger an aftershock.

Kajikawa’s face was deathly white beneath the soot. He gazed at the sword in his hand, as though he couldn’t believe that his actions had brought him to this. Neither could anyone else, Sano thought.

“Don’t come any closer, or I’ll-” Kajikawa gagged, his next words stuck in his craw. His mind wasn’t so completely unhinged that he could openly threaten the shogun.

“We won’t,” Sano hastened to say.

He didn’t dare try to wrest the sword from Kajikawa. In a tussle, the blade could go anywhere, including through the shogun. Sano backed down the steps with slow, exaggerated care, his pulse and mind racing.

“Help!” the shogun cried in a voice squeezed thin and high by terror.

Yoritomo turned to Yanagisawa. “Father, do something!”

Yanagisawa ordered, “Put that sword down!” His voice was sharp with indignation.

They were scared of what would happen to them if anything happened to the shogun, Sano knew. They weren’t the only ones.

Kajikawa looked at Yanagisawa and Yoritomo as if they’d spoken a language he didn’t understand. He panted and moaned. He didn’t move.

Ihara spoke up. “Are you a complete idiot, man? Haven’t you learned anything from Lord Asano’s example?” His croaky voice was filled with contempt.

“That was an order,” Yanagisawa rapped out. “Put it down!”

“My father is the chamberlain. You have to obey him,” Yoritomo said.

Sano saw offense flare in Kajikawa’s eyes. He had to pacify the man, fast. “Let’s all just calm down,” Sano said in as soothing a tone as he could muster.

“In case you’ve forgotten, the penalty for drawing a sword inside Edo Castle is death,” Kato informed Kajikawa. “For threatening the shogun, it’s death, too.”

“We’ll have to execute you twice.” Ihara uttered nervous laughter that sounded like a monkey hooting.

“Don’t you mock me!” Kajikawa said through gritted teeth. “I’ll kill him, and then we’ll see who laughs!”

The shogun wailed.

“Never mind them, Kajikawa- san, ” Sano said, appalled that the elders were making the situation worse, their judgment impaired by panic. “You wanted to explain. Let His Excellency go, and you’ll have your chance.”

“Shut up!” Yanagisawa told Sano. “You’ve already caused enough trouble. I’ll handle this.” Turning to Kajikawa, he spoke with kindly concern. “It’s true that you’ve committed two capital offenses. But I can bend the rules. If you drop the sword and step away from His Excellency, I’ll grant you an official pardon. I’ll also pardon you for your role in the forty-seven ronin ’s vendetta and the attack on Magistrate Ueda. You’ll walk away from this as if nothing had happened. I promise.” He smiled, focusing all his charm on Kajikawa. “Have we a deal?”

It was the best performance Sano had ever seen from Yanagisawa. But Kajikawa reacted with a disdainful snort. “You’ll never pardon me. You’re just saying what you think I want to hear, so I’ll do what you want.”

“My word is good.” Yanagisawa’s voice fairly dripped with sincerity. “I swear.”