Musashi - Eiji Yoshikawa [184]
“Oh, if there was some way I could erase his face from my mind!” she thought.
The blue water of the Inland Sea looked suddenly tempting. Staring at it, she grew frightened. How easy it would be to run straight in and disappear.
Her mother had no idea Akemi entertained such desperate thoughts, let alone Seijūrō. All the people around her considered her a very happy creature, a little flippant perhaps, but nonetheless a bud still so far from blossoming that she couldn’t possibly accept the love of a man.
To Akemi, her mother and the men who came to the teahouse were something outside her own self. In their presence, she laughed and joked, tinkled her bell and pouted as the occasion seemed to demand, but when she was alone, her sighs were care-filled and sullen.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a servant from the inn. Spotting her by the stone inscription, he ran up and said, “Young lady, where’ve you been? The Young Master’s been calling for you, and he’s getting very worried.”
Back at the inn, Akemi found Seijūrō all alone, warming his hands under the red quilt covering the kotatsu. The room was silent. In the garden a breeze rustled through the withered pines.
“Have you been out in this cold?” he asked.
“What do you mean? I don’t think it’s cold. It’s very sunny on the beach.” “What have you been doing?”
“Looking for seashells.”
“You act like a child.”
“I am a child.”
“How old do you think you’ll be on your next birthday?”
“It doesn’t make any difference. I’m still a child. What’s wrong with that?” “There’s a great deal wrong with it. You ought to think about your mother’s plans for you.”
“My mother? She’s not thinking about me. She’s convinced she’s still young herself.”
“Sit down here.”
“I don’t want to. I’d get too hot. I’m still young, remember?”
“Akemi!” He seized her wrist and pulled her toward him. “There’s no one else here today. Your mother had the delicacy to return to Kyoto.”
Akemi looked at Seijūrō’s burning eyes; her body stiffened. She tried unconsciously to back away, but he held her wrist tightly.
“Why are you trying to run away?” he asked accusingly.
“I’m not trying to run away.”
“There’s no one here now. It’s a perfect opportunity, isn’t it, Akemi?” “For what?”
“Don’t be so obstinate! We’ve been seeing each other for nearly a year. You know how I feel about you. Okō gave her permission long ago. She says you won’t give in to me because I don’t go about it the right way. So today, let’s—”
“Stop! Let go of my arm! Let go, I tell you!” Akemi suddenly bent over and lowered her head in embarrassment.
“You won’t have me, whatever happens?”
“Stop! Let go!”
Though her arm had turned red under his grasp, he still refused to release her, and the girl was hardly strong enough to resist the military techniques of the Kyōhachi Style.
Seijūrō was different today from his usual self. He often sought comfort and consolation in sake, but today he had drunk nothing. “Why do you treat me this way, Akemi? Are you trying to humiliate me?”
“I don’t want to talk about it! If you don’t let me go, I’ll scream!”
“Scream away! Nobody’ll hear you. The main house is too far away, and anyway, I told them we were not to be disturbed.”
“I want to leave.”
“I won’t let you.”
“My body doesn’t belong to you!”
“Is that the way you feel? You’d better ask your mother about that! I’ve certainly paid her enough for it.”
“Well, my mother may have sold me, but I haven’t sold myself! Certainly not to a man I despise more than death itself!”
“What’s that?” shouted Seijūrō, throwing the red quilt over her head. Akemi screamed for all she was worth.
“Scream, you bitch! Scream