Shogun_ A Novel of Japan - James Clavell [443]
“Yes.” He was watching Erasmus, far distant, down beside the wharf. Then the rains obscured his ship and he climbed a little way. “After we’ve talked with Lord Toranaga we’ll have to wait till this has passed. Perhaps there’d be somewhere here we could talk?”
“That might be difficult,” she said vaguely, and he found this odd. She was usually decisive and implemented his polite “suggestions” as the orders they would normally be considered. “Please excuse me, Anjin-san, but things are difficult for me at the moment, and there are many things I have to do.” She stopped momentarily and shifted her parasol to her other hand, holding the hem of her skirt. “How was your evening? How were your friends, your crew?”
“Fine. Everything was fine,” he said.
“But not ‘fine’?” she asked.
“Fine—but very strange.” He looked back at her. “You notice everything, don’t you?”
“No, Anjin-san. But you didn’t mention them and you’ve been thinking about them greatly this last week or so. I’m no magician. So sorry.”
After a pause, he said, “You’re sure you’re all right? There’s no problem with Buntaro-san, is there?”
He had never discussed Buntaro with her or mentioned his name since Yokosé. By agreement that specter was never conjured up by either of them since the first moment. “This is my only request, Anjin-san,” she had whispered the first night. “Whatever happens during our journey to Mishima or, Madonna willing, to Yedo, this has nothing to do with anyone but us, neh? Nothing is to be mentioned between us about what really is. Neh? Nothing. Please?”
“I agree. I swear it.”
“And I do likewise. Finally, our journey ends at Yedo’s First Bridge.”
“No.”
“There must be an ending, my darling. At First Bridge our journey ends. Please, or I will die with agony over fear for you and the danger I have put you in….”
Yesterday morning he had stood at the threshold of First Bridge, a sudden weight on his spirit, in spite of his elation over Erasmus.
“We should cross the bridge now, Anjin-san,” she had said.
“Yes. But it is only a bridge. One of many. Come along, Mariko-san. Walk beside me across this bridge. Beside me, please. Let us walk together,” then added in Latin, “and believe that thou art carried and that we go hand in hand into a new beginning.”
She stepped out of her palanquin and walked beside him until they reached the other side. There she got back into the curtained litter and they went up the slight rise. Buntaro was waiting at the castle gate.
Blackthorne remembered how he had prayed for a lightning bolt to come out of the sky.
“There’s no problem with him, is there?” he asked again as they came to the final landing.
She shook her head.
* * *
Toranaga said, “Ship very ready, Anjin-san? No mistake?”
“No mistake, Sire. Ship perfect.”
“How many extra men—how many more want for ship….” Toranaga glanced at Mariko. “Please ask him how many extra crew he’ll need to sail the ship properly. I want to be quite sure he understands what I want to know.”
“The Anjin-san says, to sail her a minimum of thirty seamen and twenty gunners. His original crew was one hundred and seven, including cooks and merchants. To sail and fight in these waters, the complement of two hundred samurai would be enough.”
“And he believes the other men he needs could be hired in Nagasaki?”
“Yes, Sire.”
Toranaga said distastefully, “I certainly wouldn’t trust mercenaries.”
“Please excuse me, do you wish me to translate that, Sire?”
“What? Oh no, never mind that.”
Toranaga got up, still pretending peevishness, and looked out of the windows at the rain. The whole city was obscured by the downpour. Let it rain for months, he thought. All gods, make the rain last until New Year. When will Buntaro see my brother? “Tell the Anjin-san I’ll give him his vassals tomorrow. Today’s terrible. This rain will go on all day. There’s no point in getting soaked.”
“Yes, Sire,” he heard her say and smiled ironically to himself. Never in his whole life had weather