The Scarlet Kimono (Choc Lit)

by Christina Courtenay

  ‘I want a trail found and I want it found now!’ Still seething inside, he stalked off towards Reiko’s quarters. His spies had informed him they were fairly sure she was behind the poison attack, although they couldn’t prove anything. He didn’t think Hannah had any other enemies, so it made sense. If anyone had arranged to have Hannah abducted it could only be Reiko. She must have planned it to coincide with her father’s visit, thinking Taro wouldn’t harm her while he had guests. Well, she was mistaken.

  Pulling open the flimsy door to her chamber without knocking, he strode in and yanked her out of bed. She flailed her arms and tried to fight him off, but he was much stronger and didn’t loosen his grip. He shook her until her teeth rattled.

  ‘I’ve had enough of your interference. Where is she?’

  ‘Who? What are you talking about?’

  ‘You know very well who I’m talking about. You have gone too far this time, Reiko. Either tell me where they have taken Hannah or you will die this instant.’ He pulled his sword out of his belt and raised it.

  She drew herself up, like the haughty noblewoman she was, and stared him in the eye defiantly. ‘Then kill me. I don’t know what you mean and I have done nothing wrong.’

  Taro narrowed his eyes at her. She was lying, he was sure of it, but he wouldn’t gain anything by killing her at present. If she was behind the abduction, then she was the only one who could tell him where Hannah had been taken. Making her talk, however, would take time, and he hadn’t a moment to lose. He growled in frustration.

  ‘You will regret this,’ he hissed at her. ‘Guards!’ he bellowed and a whole company of them came running in an instant, unused to hearing his voice raised like that. ‘See to it that the Lady Reiko doesn’t leave this room. On pain of death, do you hear me? And she’s not to talk to anyone either.’

  ‘Yes, my lord.’

  He glared one last time at her before leaving the room. Although she bowed to him, he still saw the brief look of triumph that passed across her features and it made him even more furious. He controlled the fury, however, and rushed towards the courtyard. He would deal with Reiko later and he promised himself she wouldn’t like it.

  ‘My lord, a word if you please.’ Kenji, one of the higher-ranking officers in his guard came running towards Taro with a young ashigaru in tow.

  ‘What is it? I’m in a hurry.’

  ‘Yes, my lord, but this man has information that might help you.’

  Taro stopped and turned to look at the man, who bowed as low as he possibly could. ‘Yes? Speak, then.’

  ‘I have just been to the back gate and I found the guards dead, their throats cut.’

  ‘I have posted new guards, my lord,’ Kenji interrupted.

  ‘Very well. Go on, please.’ Taro could see there was more to the story.

  ‘Well, I had a quick look around and there were no signs of struggle. It must have been a surprise attack. The guards were all still sitting in their correct positions, but the door was wide open. The drawbridge was still up, however, so the abductors must have used a boat. As I was running back along the path I found this, my lord, and I believe it belongs to the Lady Hannah.’ The young man was blushing now and held out his palm. On it glittered a small chain with a tiny golden cross. Taro took it and gritted his teeth. He recognised it as Hannah’s as well, but in any case no one else in the castle would wear such a thing since there were no Christians here.

  ‘You have done well, thank you. Kenji-san, see to it he is rewarded and question everyone else in the castle in case anyone has seen or heard anything. And please inform Lord Takaki that I won’t be able to ride out with him this morning. Convey my apologies. In the meantime I’ll try to pick up the trail by the back gate. It must be possible to follow them. As soon as you have any news for me, send your swiftest messenger after me. We’ll leave markers so he can find us easily.’

  ‘Yes, my lord. Right away.’

  Hannah was extremely uncomfortable since she hadn’t been on a horse for weeks, not since the trip to Edo when at least she’d been in control of the mount herself. Being continuously bumped up and down for hours on end without any stirrups was not an experience she would like to repeat. Her captors had removed her gag at least, which was a small mercy in itself, but her hands were still tied behind her. It made her sit in a very awkward position. Her shoulders ached and she longed to rub them. Towards midday the men stopped at last, however, and she had other thoughts to contend with. Such as, were they going to kill her and if so, how could she prevent them from going through with it?

  ‘What do you want with me?’ She tried to inject some bravado into her voice, since she knew they would respect her for it. ‘Lord Kumashiro will pay you handsomely for my return, if only you take me back, I promise you.’

  ‘Silence. We have already been paid generously and whatever you offer us will be doubled.’

  She was pulled off the horse’s back and her knees buckled, but the man who had been riding behind her pulled her upright. She sucked in a hissing breath as her shoulders protested against such treatment, then tried to reason with the man again. ‘Please, listen to me, he will pay you much more, if only –’

  ‘I said silence!’ The other man came up behind her and prodded her in the back with a short sword or knife. She felt the sharpness of it dig into her flesh and recoiled.

  ‘Walk.’ The man gave her a rough push which nearly sent her flying, but she managed to right herself and began to half walk, half run to escape his prodding.

  ‘Where? Where are we going?’

  ‘Nowhere.’

  It was obviously no use trying to talk to them, so Hannah gave it up and concentrated on not stumbling over the uneven ground. They seemed to be deep inside a forest. It was fairly high up since she could see glimpses of a steep valley below, and there was no discernible path that she could find.

  Taro will never find me here. Oh, dear God, help me, please, and I will try to atone for my sins, I promise. Only help me now, I beg of you!

  Her mind ran in circles, desperately trying to think of a way to escape, even though she knew it was impossible. Even if she should manage it, she had no idea where she was and no means of returning. She had never thought to ask exactly where the castle was situated. In any case, she wasn’t sure in which direction they had travelled. Fear almost choked her and she thought she might be sick any moment. Was this it? Was this what she had come halfway across the world for – to die alone in a forest, murdered by men she didn’t even know? It was a mind-numbing thought and she tried to push it aside.

  Without warning, Hannah’s feet encountered the side of a ravine. It hadn’t been visible because the edge was covered with clumps of grass and bushes. She gave a small cry and managed to recover her foothold, but before she had time to say a word, one of the men gave her an almighty shove between the shoulder blades.

  Hannah screamed and hurtled into space.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Taro stopped in the middle of the forest and dismounted.

  ‘Look for signs that anyone else had passed this spot recently,’ he ordered his men. They fanned out around him, studying the ground.

  ‘Over here, Kumashiro-sama,’ someone called out eventually and they set off once again in what Taro hoped would be the right direction. It was a slow process to try and track the abductors, despite the fact that they seemed to have been careless, and he had been searching for hours. Several times they’d lost the trail and had to turn back, but somehow they had managed to find the right track once more and keep going.

  He wiped the sweat from his brow and tried not to think of what might have happened to Hannah. A woman alone at the mercy of ninja or ronin. He’d never been this scared for someone else before. In the short time they had spent together, Hannah had somehow become supremely important to him. He finally had to admit to himself he no longer wanted her to leave. Not ever. He couldn’t imagine life without her.

  He must find her.

 
; They stopped again to search for clues – broken branches, hoof marks or horse droppings. Taro caught the sound of thundering hooves in the distance. Shortly afterwards Kenji burst through the trees behind them and rode up to his master, panting and heaving, his face suffused with colour.

  ‘My lord,’ he wheezed, ‘they’re heading for the mountains.’ Kenji gasped for breath and held up a hand as if he had more to say. Taro contained his impatience and didn’t growl at the man that he hadn’t told him anything he didn’t already know. They had been going in the direction of the mountains for the last hour or so.

  ‘The old man came,’ Kenji continued at last.

  ‘Yanagihara-san?’ Taro cursed silently. Of course he should have thought to ask the old seer if he’d had any visions, but in his hurry to leave it had never occurred to him.

  Kenji nodded. ‘Said … look for pine tree on the crest of a hill with large bird on top … ravine nearby. Keep heading north.’

  It still wasn’t very much, but it was better than nothing. Taro clapped the man on the back. ‘Thank you, you’ve done well. You may return when you have rested.’ He turned back to the others. ‘Let’s go.’ They set off once more.

  Hannah didn’t know if she had fainted from fright or if it just felt as if she fell though the air for an eternity. In either case she came to earth quite literally with a bump.

  Her body bounced on a protrusion of some sort, hurting her shoulder and her already bruised ankle. Whatever it was felt springy and she was catapulted into a bush, ending up on her back among the tangle of branches. The bush cushioned her landing a little, but the air was still knocked out of her lungs. Hannah was on the verge of panicking before she managed to draw a shallow breath at last.

  ‘Ouch, ouch, ouch!’

  She tried to move, but it was some time before she was able to shuffle into a sitting position. Looking around, she realised she was on a ledge halfway down the ravine. It was impossible to judge how far from the top it was, but when she peered over the edge it was only to ascertain that the bottom was a very long way below her.

  ‘Oh, dear Lord. I know I asked you to save me, but I didn’t mean in this way. Please, help me out of this somehow.’

  Hannah’s hands were still bound behind her back and her first priority was to get rid of the ropes. There were some sharp stones on the ledge, so Hannah began to saw her bonds against the best of them. It was a long and tiresome task. Several times she could have wept with frustration, but her hard work finally paid off and she felt the bindings give way. She rubbed her wrists, trying to massage the blood back into its normal channels and hissed in deep breaths when her fingers stung painfully.

  ‘Scum! Did they have to tie it quite that tight?’ she muttered, gritting her teeth.

  After resting for a moment, she set about trying to find a way to climb back to the top of the ravine. There were plenty of bushes growing out of crevices and several other footholds nearby. As she began her ascent, however, Hannah soon came to the conclusion that unfortunately the bushes had very shallow roots and most of them weren’t able to bear her weight. She tried her best nonetheless, but when her fourth attempt ended with another spectacular fall onto her back, and she narrowly missed certain death by clinging on to the larger bush on the ledge, she had to admit defeat. It was impossible.

  While she had been working so hard, first to remove the ties and then to attempt the climb to the top, Hannah hadn’t felt the cold. As soon as she sat still for any length of time though, it became apparent that nightclothes weren’t nearly enough to keep a person warm on a cold autumn day. She hadn’t noticed while they were riding, as her captor had held onto her and thereby shared some of his body heat. Now she was alone, it was a different matter.

  There had been frost on the ground that morning and the air was still exceedingly fresh. Hannah was forced to stand up and try to keep moving her body, blowing on her hands and stamping her feet. She didn’t know how long she would be able to keep it up for, nor how strong the ledge was. She could only hope it wouldn’t give way and that someone would come to her rescue, slim though her chances may be.

  ‘Oh, Taro,’ she whispered into the wind, ‘where are you?’ But she knew that he had planned to go hawking that morning. It would be evening at the earliest before he even found out that she was missing. ‘Dear God,’ she prayed once more, ‘please, please help me …’

  ‘Look, my lord. Two horses stopped here for some time.’ One of the men pointed to the ground and Taro dismounted to look for himself. He nodded. A nearby branch showed signs of having been used to tether the animals and the earth was trampled.

  ‘It would seem so. All right, men, spread out to search this area. There might be some more clues hereabouts.’

  They had been heading north for hours and as yet there hadn’t been any signs of large birds perched on pine trees. There were plenty of trees, but none stood out in any way. Taro ran a hand over his brow, closing his eyes for a moment. He didn’t want to give up, but he was beginning to think the search was hopeless. Hannah could be anywhere in this wilderness.

  They were more than halfway through the afternoon and soon the light would start to fade. Even if Hannah was out here somewhere, he had no chance of finding her in the darkness. By morning the trail would probably be cold, as would she. Too cold. He wanted to shout with frustration, but instead he set off through the forest, scowling heavily, but determined to keep searching for as long as he possibly could.

  ‘There has to be some way,’ he muttered. ‘There must.’

  The forest closed in on him and he could hear the rest of his men moving about nearby. Branches crunched underfoot and the scuffling sound of feet stirred up leaves. He tried to head north, although it was difficult to get one’s bearings inside the dense foliage. Soon he slowed down to peer at the ground and study the trees all around searching for signs. As he passed a dead bush, the sharp branches caught him unawares and made a scratch on his right cheek. He swore and put his hand up to protect himself from further damage, then stopped as something caught his eye. On one of the other branches something coppery glinted in the late afternoon light and Taro reached out a hand to pull it off. A strand of Hannah’s hair.

  ‘To me!’ He bellowed for his men, who came crashing through the undergrowth, ready to defend him against attack. They stopped short and blinked in surprise when he held up his hand with what looked like nothing at all between his forefinger and his thumb.

  There were murmurings of ‘Nan desu ka? What?’, but Taro cut them short.

  ‘Look, I have found some of Lady Hannah’s hair. See?’

  They stepped closer and nodded as they caught sight of the distinctive colour. ‘Ah, soh.’

  ‘She must have been here, so search this area thoroughly. Don’t leave a single stone unturned and keep an eye out for more of these. It’s very likely she would have caught her hair on a branch again.’

  ‘Hai, Kumashiro-sama.’ They bowed to acknowledge his orders.

  The search continued and Taro moved forward with the others, but veering slightly to the right. He kept his eyes open, walking slowly so as not to miss anything. Without warning, one foot suddenly encountered nothing but thin air and he bit back a curse as he managed to throw himself backwards, away from the edge. As he looked up and out across a valley he saw the top of the next hill.

  There was a pine tree with large bird on top of it.

  ‘HANNAH!’

  He shouted out her name at the top of his voice and heard it echo around the mountainsides. Despite the sign described by Yanagihara, he didn’t have much hope left of finding her alive. In despair, he clutched at a tussock of grass, yanking it out by the roots. If this was the way she had come, he was too late.

  Hannah opened her eyes reluctantly and blinked, trying to clear her vision. Her exhausted body had finally given up. Since she didn’t have any strength left to move, slowly she had accepted defeat and slumped into a sitting position. She wanted nothing more than to fal
l asleep now and she wished this was all over with. It was obvious God considered she had sinned too much and he was punishing her accordingly. It was no more than she deserved, she fully accepted that. She closed her eyes once more.

  Something disturbed her and she frowned in annoyance. Couldn’t she even be left to die in peace? With an effort, she squinted up at the heavens and thought she heard her name. Was this how it should be? Did Saint Peter call out your name before you were judged? She couldn’t remember.

  ‘Hello!’ she shouted. ‘Is-is anyone th-there?’

  The words echoed all around her and it took a moment for her to realise that when they came back she heard something else as well. Someone really was calling her.

  She struggled to her feet and yelled, ‘HELLO!’ once more, then waited for a reply.

  ‘Hannah-chan! Are you all right? Are you hurt? Where are you?’ The voice that came back was achingly familiar and Hannah felt tears of joy spill down her cheeks. It wasn’t Saint Peter, thank goodness, and she wasn’t dead yet.

  ‘Taro,’ she called back. ‘I’m d-down here, on a-a ledge. I’m not s-sure how far. I’m n-not hurt, not m-much anyway.’ Hannah’s teeth were chattering so much she had trouble forming the words. ‘I’m j-just so c-c-cold.’

  ‘Wait there. I will fetch a rope.’

  Hannah almost laughed at this silly command. What else could she do after all but wait? Her heart thumped wildly and she suddenly found the energy to jump up and down again, trying to warm up her freezing body.

  ‘Hold on Hannah, I’m coming down.’

  ‘B-be careful!’

  A small avalanche of stones and soil clattered past and Hannah ducked and waited. She heard the sounds of Taro’s progress, but didn’t dare look up in case he dislodged any more debris. After what felt like ages, she heard a thud as his feet touched the ground next to her. She turned and stumbled into his arms at last, drawing a sigh of relief. He held her so tightly she thought he would break her ribs.