Shogun_ A Novel of Japan - James Clavell [591]
“Thank you. You’re looking well too.”
Kiku clapped her hands at the sally and they all laughed with her. “Listen,” he said, happy because of her, “I’ve made arrangements for you to stay here for a while. Now, Fujiko-san, please come with me.”
He took Fujiko aside and after giving her cha and refreshments and chatting about unimportant things he came to the point. “You agreed half a year and I agreed half a year. So sorry, but I must know today if you will change that agreement.”
The square little face became unattractive as the joy went out of it. The tip of her tongue touched her sharp teeth for a moment. “How can I change that agreement, Sire?”
“Very easy. It’s finished. I order it.”
“Please excuse me, Sire,” Fujiko said, her voice toneless, “I didn’t mean that. I made that agreement freely and solemnly before Buddha with the spirit of my dead husband and my dead son. It cannot be changed.”
“I order it changed.”
“So sorry, Sire, please excuse me, but then bushido releases me from obedience to you. Your contract was equally solemn and binding and any change must be agreed by both parties without duress.”
“Does the Anjin-san please you?”
“I am his consort. It is necessary for me to please him.”
“Could you continue to live with him if the other agreement did not exist?”
“Life with him is very, very difficult, Sire. All formalities, most politenesses, every kind of custom that makes life safe and worthy and rounded and bearable has to be thrown away, or maneuvered around, so his household is not safe, it has no wa—no harmony for me. It’s almost impossible to get servants to understand, or for me to understand … but, yes, I could continue to do my duty to him.”
“I ask you to finish with the agreement.”
“My first duty is to you. My second duty is to my husband.”
“My thought, Fujiko-san, was that the Anjin-san would marry you. Then you would not be a consort.”
“A samurai cannot serve two lords or a wife two husbands. My duty is to my dead husband. Please excuse me, I cannot change.”
“With patience everything changes. Soon the Anjin-san will know more of our ways and his household will also have wa. He’s learned incredibly since he’s been—”
“Oh, please, Sire, don’t misunderstand me, the Anjin-san’s the most extraordinary man I’ve ever known, certainly the kindest. He’s given me great honor and, oh yes, I know his house will be a real house soon, but … but please excuse me, I must do my duty. My duty is to my husband, my only husband….” She fought for control. “It must be, neh? It must be, Sire, or then all … all the shame and the suffering and dishonor are meaningless, neh? His death, my child’s, his swords broken and buried in the eta village…. Without duty to him, isn’t all our bushido an immortal joke?”
“You must answer one question now, Fujiko-san: Doesn’t your duty to a request from me, your liege lord, and to an astonishingly brave man who is becoming one of us and is your master, and,” he added, believing he recognized the bloom in her face, “your duty to his unborn child, doesn’t all that take precedence over a previous duty?”
“I’m … I’m not carrying his child, Sire.”
“Are you sure?”
“No, not sure.”
“Are you late?”
“Yes … but only a little and that could be …”
Toranaga watched and waited. Patiently. There was much yet to do before he could ride away and cast Tetsu-ko or Kogo aloft and he was avid for that pleasure, but that would be for himself alone and therefore unimportant. Fujiko was important and he had promised himself that at least for today he would pretend that he had won, that he had time and could be patient and arrange matters it was his duty to arrange. “Well?”
“So sorry, Sire, no.”
“Then it’s no, Fujiko-san. Please excuse me for asking you but it was necessary.” Toranaga was neither angry nor pleased. The girl was only doing what was honorable and he had known when he had agreed to the bargain with her that there would never be a change. That’s what makes us unique on earth, he thought with satisfaction. A bargain with death is a bargain that is sanctified.