Shogun_ A Novel of Japan - James Clavell [399]
“You’re too kind,” Gyoko said with honey on her tongue. “But it’s our honor. We’re still to go to Yedo?”
“Yes. Of course. Why?”
“Nothing, Lady Toda. But, in that case, perhaps we could stop in Mishima for a day or two? Kiku-san would like to gather up some clothes—she doesn’t feel adequately gowned for Lord Toranaga, and I hear the Yedo summer’s very sultry and mosquitoed. We should collect her wardrobe, bad as it is.”
“Yes. Of course. You’ll both have more than enough time.”
Gyoko did not look at Blackthorne, though both were very conscious of him. “It’s—it’s tragic about our Master, neh?”
“Karma,” Mariko replied evenly. Then she added with a woman’s sweet viciousness, “But nothing’s changed, Gyoko-san. You’ll be paid the day you arrive, in silver, as the contract says.”
“Oh, so sorry,” the older woman told her, pretending to be shocked. “So sorry, Lady Toda, but money? That was farthest from my mind. Never! I was only concerned with our Master’s future.”
“He’s master of his own future,” Mariko said easily, believing it no more. “But your future’s good, isn’t it—whatever happens. You’re rich now. All your worldly troubles are over. Soon you’ll be a power in Yedo with your new guild of courtesans, whoever rules the Kwanto. Soon you’ll be the greatest of all Mama-sans, and whatever happens, well, Kiku-san’s still your protégée and her youth’s not touched, neither is her karma. Neh?”
“My only concern is for Lord Toranaga,” Gyoko answered with practiced gravity, her anus twitching at the thought of two thousand five hundred koku so nearly in her strong room. “If there is any way I could help him I would—”
“How generous of you, Gyoko-san! I’ll tell him of your offer. Yes, a thousand koku off the price would help very much. I accept on his behalf.”
Gyoko fluttered her fan, put a gracious smile on her face, and just managed not to wail aloud at her imbecility for jumping into a trap like a saké-besotted novice. “Oh no, Lady Toda, how could money help so generous a patron? No, clearly money’s no help to him,” she babbled, trying to recover. “No, money’s no help. Better information or a service or—”
“Please excuse me, what information?”
“None, none at the moment. I was just using that as a figure of speech, so sorry. But money—”
“Ah, so sorry, yes. Well, I’ll tell him of your offer. And of your generosity. On his behalf, thank you.”
Gyoko bowed at the dismissal and scuttled back into the inn.
Mariko’s little laugh trickled out.
“What are you laughing at, Mariko-san?”
She told him what had been said. “Mama-sans must be the same the world over. She’s just worried about her money.”
“Will Lord Toranaga pay even though …” Blackthorne stopped. Mariko waited guilelessly. Then, under her gaze, he continued, “Father Alvito said when Lord Toranaga goes to Osaka, he’s finished.”
“Oh, yes. Yes, Anjin-san, that’s most very true,” Mariko said with a brightness she did not feel. Then she put Toranaga and Osaka into their compartments and was tranquil again. “But Osaka’s many leagues away and countless sticks of time in the future, and until that time when what is to be is, Ishido doesn’t know, the good Father doesn’t truly know, we don’t know, no one knows what will truly happen. Neh? Except the Lord God. But He won’t tell us, will He? Until perhaps it has already come to pass. Neh?”
“Hai!” He laughed with her. “Ah, you’re so wise.”
“Thank you. I have a suggestion, Anjin-san. During the journey time, let us forget all outside problems. All of them.”
“Thou,” he said in Latin. “It is good to see thee.”
“And thee. Extraordinary care in front of both women during our journey is very necessary, neh?”
“Depend on it, Lady.”
“I do. In truth I do very much.”
“Now we are almost alone, neh? Thou and I.”
“Yes. But what was is not and never happened.”
“True. Yes. Thou art correct again. And beautiful.