by India Millar
Her words were so unexpected, I flinched. Hana obviously took that for agreement. She sighed.
“I thought as much. Who was it? Isamu?”
“No, of course not.” She was grinning openly, and I thought quickly. She had not mentioned Yo. If she knew of him, she would have let me know. He was my only chance to get out of here. And far more importantly, my only chance of saving the family honor. I spoke with obvious reluctance, allowing my body to express my revulsion. “It wasn’t Isamu. He was a visitor to our house. A friend of my brother’s. I didn’t like him at all, but he forced himself on me. I couldn’t tell anybody. Even if Isamu believed I was innocent, he would have been forced to believe his guest, not me.”
I spoke bitterly, and for the first time, I was grateful for the memory of the dreadful Choki. Hana appeared to believe me.
“You see? So much for the code of bushido. It is fatally flawed, child. Trust me. But you’re not going to trust me, are you? You’re samurai, and it would be far beneath your dignity to entrust yourself to such a woman as me. What a pity you’re never going to be able to get your revenge on the man who violated you. But it needn’t matter to me.” Suddenly, she was brisk again. “I can soon get a surgeon to put a stitch or two in the right place. The man who wins you and becomes your danna will never know the deception.”
I licked my lips and found them dry. “You expect me to service your patrons? To be a common whore?”
“Certainly not.” Hanna glared at me. “There is nothing common about the girls in the Hidden House. My flawed gems are sought after by the very best of society. All of the girls are as superbly talented as the very best geisha in the whole of Edo. No man is allowed to step over the threshold, no matter how rich or powerful he is, unless he is introduced by an existing patron. And even then, if I don’t think the would-be patron is correct, he has no place here. My geisha in the Hidden House delight a man’s every sense in every way possible. An evening with one of them costs a small fortune. They are not whores; they are as far from it as the sun is removed from the earth.”
She was genuinely angry about the way I had referred to the Hidden House. I tucked the knowledge away, in case it might be useful to me someday.
“I don’t even know how to delight a man in bed. What use am I to you?” I said.
“I told you. The patrons who come to this place are bored with ordinary life. They are seeking something different. Something that will arouse their jaded senses. And what better than you, an apparently untouched girl who is obviously from one of the best families? Although we will never truly share the secret of your identity with them, I will ensure that enough hints are dropped so that they understand they are buying not just any girl, but a true samurai. In any event, they will see from your bearing that you are from a good family. And I think that we will add a little spice by inventing an interesting past for you.”
She was smiling happily. I shrugged, pretending not to be worried.
“So? What difference will any of that make? All your patrons are here to pay for their pleasures. Why should they care what class their whore comes from?”
“Ah, only a samurai could think like that.” Hana covered her mouth with her hand, hiding laughter like a geisha. “You really have no idea how much your class is hated by those beneath you, do you? Many of my patrons are high ranking men. Some of them were born to high estate. Others are men who have clawed their way up through society by their own efforts. But for all that, they are not noble. Not one of your precious samurai would give them the scrapings from their rice bowl. When the lucky patron who finally wins you takes you to his bed, he will see himself spitting in the face of all those who have sneered at him and called him a riverbed beggar behind his back. That will be your unique enticement, the notion that they are despoiling a samurai with no fear of reprisal. Delicious!”
“And what will you gain from that, Hana? Why take the risk of keeping me here? You must know Isamu will take the Floating World apart piece by piece to find me, if only for the honor of the thing.”
My mind was cold. My thoughts were already beginning to work on my escape, which I hoped would be sooner rather than later. I would not allow this terrible woman to use me to destroy my family. Nor would I allow her to force me to prostitute myself. In the meantime, I wanted to know everything I could. I felt that anything—the smallest word—might be able to help me. Although I had spoken bravely, in my heart, I guessed that Isamu would think I had gotten bored with my life as a neglected younger sister and had simply run away. He would be deeply disappointed in me and too angry with me to spend much time looking for me. Yo would find me eventually, I was confident. Whether it would be in time was a different matter. In any event, I would not allow myself to depend on him. If it were somehow possible, I would escape from this place by my own efforts.
Hana grinned openly at me. “You will be worth a great deal of money, of course. But you’ll be worth far more than anything money can buy me. Even when you have been bought and paid for, I have no intention of letting you leave the Hidden House. You will remain here, in this room. No doubt at first your danna will want to keep you to himself. But after a while, he will want to show you off. I’m certain that he’ll allow his most favored friends to enjoy you, both to show off his secret treasure and to impress them with his generosity. I promise you will learn, very quickly, what pleases each one. Some will want you to bow to their will. Others will love it when you bite and kick. They will feel they have mastered you when they finally put their tree in whichever of your orifices appeals to them. You will learn to be all things to each of them. I have no doubt at all they will be entranced with you. And you will listen to the words they whisper to you, Keiko. Because they think you’re hidden away from the world, they’ll gloat over you. They’ll take pleasure in sharing with you the secrets of their souls, things they would never tell their concubines, and still less their wives. And you will tell me. You will tell me their fantasies. What they like to do to you. What they enjoy doing to children or dogs. Whether they like to inflict pain or receive it. Whether they have despoiled their own daughters or sons. Whether they fathered their own grandchildren. If their father took them when they were children. And even better, when they whisper to you of their ambitions, of their hopes for advancement, of the risks they are willing to take to get it, you will also tell me that. And each word you say to me will increase the power I have over them. And the real joy of it is that they will never know. Until the day comes when I choose to use that power, and then it will be far too late.”
“I hear you,” I said. Hana was mad, quite clearly. But that was no help. My thoughts darted, but no matter which direction they turned in, I could find no escape. For the moment, at least. I bowed my head as if in defeat. “If it saves my family, then I will do it. As you have pointed out to me so clearly, I have no option if I wish to live with my conscience.” She smiled with real pleasure in her expression. “But first, tell me one thing.”
Hana tilted her head to one side, her expression considering.
“That depends on the question. Ask, and I will see.”
“Who hurt you so badly that you feel the need to take your revenge on my class?”
Twenty-Four
I speak to you and
You do not hear. Does that mean
My words are silent?
Although my room was large, I suddenly wished that it was much larger and that Hana was a great deal further away from me. I sat very still, instructing my body not to flinch away from her. Even on the day I had climbed the mountain with Isamu, I had not felt as much fear as this. Then, I might have died. I had feared death, but this was worse still. Hana had the power to make my life a living hell for as long as she wished.
Her expression did not waver, but I felt her body tense. I breathed slowly and easily, pretending an ease I did not feel at all.
“Perhaps you truly are perceptive, onna-bugeisha. Nobody else has ever looked for a reason behind my whim
s.”
Hana stared at me. I met her gaze firmly. It was very much like being confronted by a vicious dog, and just as when facing a dangerous animal, I knew it was essential to show no fear. She nodded finally.
“So, I shall tell you. There’s no harm in it. You’ll never be able to make anything of it. My father was a middle-ranking civil servant. He was ambitious. He knew he could never rise above his class, nor did he want to. But he was clever enough to see where the real power, and money, lay. His superiors in the civil service were the men who held the court and titled classes in their hands. Samurai and daimyo alike crawled to them with full purses when they wanted a favor. Without such men, nothing would really get done. That was what father dreamed of. He wanted to rise to become a top-class civil servant. A modest enough ambition, you might think. He was well on the way. His superiors were coming to rely on him. It was whispered amongst his peers that he was the coming man. Already, his word was being sought widely. I was his only child, and he saw beyond the fact that I was only a girl and recognized that I had inherited his sharp mind. He talked to me about his ambitions, and I was as excited as he was. Our future was clear and the gods were smiling on us.”
She stopped. I waited; my patience broke first this time.
“So, what happened?”
“A samurai happened.” Hana bared her teeth in a smile. It was like watching a wild animal peeling its lips back. “This man—Mon Anjin—saw me out shopping one day. He took a fancy to me and made an offer to my father. He wanted to take me as his concubine. Not even his number two wife. I would have been number three wife. Father refused him outright. That only served to whet Anjin’s appetite. He came back with a better offer. It would be perfectly legal, he assured father. There would be a ceremony of ‘marriage.’ As the daughter of a minor civil servant, I should be flattered, he insisted. As should my father. The insinuation was there, of course. He could help Father in his career. It would be an excellent match for me, and Father would get the promotion he craved. Father asked my opinion, and I refused outright. I would have turned the samurai down anyway as a matter of pride, but by that time, I had met Akira-san. You have heard of him?”
Akira. The yakuza Reo had mentioned. I nodded, wondering.
“Speak, child. Your thoughts are written on your face anyway,” Hana said sourly.
“You rejected a samurai for a yakuza?” I asked. “Even if you had begun as number three wife, if he liked you enough, he might have put aside his number two wife for you. And if his first wife died, you could have stepped into her place.” Even as I said the words, I guessed that Hana would never have let anybody stand in her way. I doubted that Mon Anjin’s wife would have survived for long after his “marriage” to Hana. “That didn’t entice you?”
“It did not. I had met Akira, and that was that. He bewitched me from the start. He was so different from anybody I had ever known. He spoke to me as if I was his equal, not a mere woman. He knew everybody that mattered. He was rich, and in his own way extremely powerful. And so very charming and handsome. My skin itched with lust every time I met with him. He was older than I was, but that didn’t matter at all. He told me at once that he had a wife, and that he was fond of her. He would not put her aside, not even for me. I respected him for that, and in my turn, I told him I would never become his concubine. We would be equals. I was so happy, I smiled all of each day.”
“And your father approved of him?” I asked doubtfully.
“Father didn’t know about him. I took great care that our relationship was secret. Nobody knew. Even Father—much as he loved me—would never have considered Akira to be a suitable match for me. In fact, he did his best to persuade me to accept the samurai. When I dug my toes in and refused the wretched man, even Father became angry with me. He locked me in the house until, as he put it, ‘I came to my senses.’ I was devastated. I couldn’t believe that Father had turned on me. Anyway, it didn’t take long for Akira to get tired of waiting for me. One day, when Father was away on business, he simply walked into the house with some of his fiercest henchmen and took me out of my prison. We made love that night for the first time, and I was his from then on. We stayed as equals, both in bed and in our business dealings.”
“A pretty tale with a happy ending,” I commented. “But I still don’t understand why you hate samurai so much.”
“Because the samurai who had wanted me took my rejection of him in favor of a mere yakuza as a personal insult. He broke my father to get his revenge. First, Father was demoted, and then he was discharged from his position on some trumped-up accusation. Mon Anjin made sure nobody else would employ him. Father turned to opium for consolation. He ended his life as a beggar on the street, spending the few coins he earned on opium pipes. He died of hunger and cold the winter after I left him.”
“Why didn’t you help him? You said your lover was rich. Couldn’t you have bought a house for him? Kept him in luxury for the rest of his life?”
Hana stared at me. I was very glad she wanted something from me; to judge by her expression, if I had been useless to her, my life would have been very short. Suddenly, I understood how truly ruthless this woman was.
“If I had known what had happened, he would have lacked for nothing. I would have forgiven him everything.” I thought there were tears in her eyes, but it could just as easily have been fury. “But Mon Anjin was cunning and cold in seeking his revenge. I wrote to my father often but never received a reply. I was heartbroken. I thought he had put me aside and no longer cared about me. It wasn’t so. I found out after Father died that the samurai had bribed our servants to intercept all my letters. Of course, once Father fell on hard times, that was no longer necessary. The house was sold and the servants dismissed. Nobody knew where I was. Even if they had known, they would have been too frightened to contact me. I had no idea what was happening, nor did I understand how much Mon Anjin hated me for the loss of face I had caused him. I found that out when Father died. The temple where we used to worship buried him out of their charity. And do you know what the damned samurai did?” It was a rhetorical question, but I shook my head anyway. “After Father was buried in a pauper’s grave, he made sure that word reached Akira what had happened. I only knew when it was far too late. You see? Mon Anjin couldn’t get to me. I was far too well protected. So, he killed my father instead. I suppose that is the so-called code of the samurai?”
“I’m sorry.” I meant it. Although I had never met Mon Anjin, I shared Hana’s fury at his wickedness. “But not all samurai are like that. Many of them are good men who try to live their lives in accordance with the code of bushido.”
“You really think so?” Hana sneered at me. “I have heard that it is only recently that your own father could be bothered to acknowledge that you exist. And now that he has owned to you, he is doing his best to arrange a marriage for you to an elderly widower. A man who has already outlived two wives. A man of good family, naturally. And that is the code of the bushido, is it?”
I was at a loss for a reply and asked a question instead. “We are all in the hands of the gods, and sometimes it’s difficult to understand their humor. What happened to Mon Anjin? Did you take your revenge on him? Or did he prosper in spite of everything?”
“As you say, we are truly the puppets of the gods.” Hana nodded serenely. “Oddly enough, I had no need to avenge my father. It happened that Mon Anjin’s daimyo had a dispute with a neighbor. He called upon Mon Anjin to raise troops to help him, but by some mischance, the message was never received, and as a result, the skirmish went against the daimyo. He was successful in the end, but he never forgave Mon Anjin for what he saw as his cowardice. Mon Anjin protested his innocence, naturally, but the daimyo was mortally offended. He stripped the samurai of his lands and cut off all contact with him, so he was reduced to being a ronin, a samurai without a lord. For some men, that would have been a challenge, but Mon Anjin had become soft and idle, and he was lost and bewildered. He actually forgot his pride
to the extent that he threw himself at his daimyo’s feet and begged for mercy.”
Hana broke off, smiling gently and happily, more as if she were telling a child a story than reciting a dreadful history.
“What happened? Did his lord forgive him?” I asked.
“Alas, no. He was so enraged by Mon Anjin’s weakness, he ordered him to commit seppuku to atone for his errors. Even then, Mon Anjin was too much of a coward to take the honorable path. I heard that the daimyo had to order some of his men to hold him down so another samurai could inflict the ritual cuts on him. He died in great agony like the coward he was. The daimyo bestowed everything that had been Mon Anjin’s on the samurai who had inflicted the seppuku cut, and Mon Anjin’s wife, his concubines, and his daughters were sold off as slaves. You see? Sometimes the gods are very just.”
“It would seem so,” I agreed. “But I can’t help but wonder if they didn’t have just a little help? It seems strange that such an important message from a daimyo to his samurai should go astray?”
“Even the gods need a little help sometimes.” She shrugged and looked at me pityingly. “You’re a blind and foolish slave to the code of bushido, Keiko. Whereas I am free to follow my own code, to live how I choose. In some ways, we are very much alike, you and I. The main difference between us is that you will always be a slave while I am free. That’s a shame. I rather like you, child. If you were less stubborn, and less a prisoner of your class, we might deal very well. As it is, you are now my prisoner. I almost feel sorry for you.”
“Don’t waste your pity on me, Hana. I don’t want it, and I don’t need it. And we’re not at all alike. I have honor. You live only to suck the life out of the men who come here. You have only bitterness, no matter how you like to dress it up.”
I had offended her. Her expression didn’t change, but I felt her fury vibrating in the air between us.