“What is it?” Sano said.
“Her pillow book,” said Chidori.
A pillow book was a journal in which a woman recorded her private thoughts and the events of her life, in the tradition of Imperial court ladies. “What was in the book?” Sano said, intrigued to learn that Wisteria had followed the centuries-old custom.
“I don’t know. I can’t read.”
More questioning revealed that the pillow book was a pack of white rice paper, bound between lavender silk covers tied with green ribbon. Wisteria wrote in it whenever she had a spare moment, and if she heard someone coming, she would quickly put it away, as though fearful that they might read it. She took the book with her whenever she left the brothel, and Chidori had seen her tuck it under her sash yesterday evening, but although Sano searched the entire room, the pillow book was indeed gone.
“Wisteria could have removed it when she left,” Hoshina suggested.
Or someone had stolen the pillow book, Sano thought, resisting Hoshina’s attempt to draw him into a discussion and elicit ideas from him. He considered possible scenarios for the crime. Perhaps the killer had entered the room while Wisteria and Mitsuyoshi slept, stabbed Mitsuyoshi, kidnapped Wisteria, and stolen the pillow book. But perhaps Wisteria herself had killed Mitsuyoshi, then fled, taking her book with her. Each scenario was as plausible as the other, and Sano realized how little he knew about his former lover. What had happened to her since they’d parted ways? Was she capable of such a grisly murder? The idea alarmed Sano, as did the suspicion that this case would bring him and Wisteria together again, with unpredictable consequences.
Hiding his uneasiness, Sano turned to the proprietor and said, “I’ll see the yarite now.”
BLACK LOTUS
Copyright © 2001 by Laura Joh Rowland
Excerpt from The Pillow Book of Lady Wisteria copyright © 2002 by Laura Joh Rowland
Cover photograph © Peter Watson/Panoramic Images.
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eISBN 9781429908450
First eBook Edition : July 2011
St. Martin’s Press hardcover edition / April 2001
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Black Lotus Page 40