With the sincerity Koiko saw the unhappiness and envy that could not be hidden. "You are beautiful too, Sumomo," she said, long aware she had this effect on many women. "Teko-chan, you may go now but prepare everything for later... and make sure we are not disturbed, Sumomo and I."
"Yes, Mistress." Teko was eleven. As with Koiko, her contract had been concluded with the mama-san of the House of Wisteria by her farmer parents when she was seven. Her earning life would begin when she was fourteen or fifteen. Till then, and as long as the mama-san wanted, the contract made the mama-san responsible for keeping her, clothing her, and training her for a life in the Floating World, and, if she developed the aptitude, in its various arts: as musician or dancer or poet or conversationalist, or all of them. If the maiko proved untrainable or difficult, the mama-san could resell the contract at her whim, but if her choice had been wise, as with Koiko, the mama-san's considerable financial outlay and gamble would be repaid abundantly in money and reputation. Not all mama-sans were considerate, or kind, or patient.
"Run along now and practice your scales," Koiko said.
"Yes Mistress." Teko knew she had been blessed to be apprenticed to Koiko whom she adored and worked very hard to please. She bowed perfectly and, adorned by an irrepressible charm, went away.
"S." Koiko looked at Sumomo, uneasily fascinated by her, her direct look and manner and strength. Since she had agreed to allow her to stay five days ago, there had been almost no opportunity to talk alone. Now it was time. She opened a mental compartment: Katsumata.
Oh my friend, what have you done to me?
He had waylaid her during her visit to the Kyoto mama-san who had, at the instigation of Meikin, her own mama-san in Yedo, arranged maids, hairdresser, masseuses while she was here. Only Teko and a maid had travelled with her from Yedo.
"I ask a lifetime favor,"
Katsumata had said.
"No, you must not!" she had said, shocked to see him, shocked that he would endanger her with such a clandestine meeting and shocked that he would ask such a favor of her that surely must have dire consequences. Once granted, no other favor could ever be asked of the same person, the ensuing debt enormous. "We agreed when Lord Toranaga Yoshi honored me, all personal contacts between us should cease, except in an emergency. We agreed."
"Yes, hence the lifetime favor I ask."
Seven years ago, in Yedo, when she was fifteen, Katsumata had been her first client.
Quickly he had become a lot more: friend, guru and consummate teacher. He had opened her eyes to the world, to the importance of the real world, as well as the Floating World. Over the years he had taught her the tea ceremony, the art of debating, calligraphy, about poetry and inner meanings of literature, politics, and regaled her with his ideas and plans for the future, how his small band of acolyte samurai would dominate the land, would force through sonno-joi, and, in time, showed her how there was a vital place for her in the jigsaw called sonno-joi. "As a courtesan of supreme rank you will be a confidante of the powerful, as wife of one of them, you'll marry one, never fear, and have samurai sons and be indispensable to the new future and a major part of its power, never forget it!"
Meikin, her mama-san, was an adherent so of course she had agreed, her imagination devoured by his bravery and daring and his band of shishi, the rise of their fortunes.
"Our fortunes have ebbed," he had said and told her about the ambush last night and his escape with two others. "We were betrayed--I do not know by whom but we have to scatter--for the time being."
"Forty shishi spiked?"' she whispered, appalled.
"Forty. Most of them leaders. Only three of us escaped, another shishi and a girl--a ward of mine. Listen, Koiko-chan, there's not much time. The lifetime favor I ask is for you to guard this girl while you stay in Kyoto, take her into your household, even back to Yedo with you an--"' "Oh but as much as I would like to, so sorry that would be very difficult, the General Akeda is very particular about people. He would personally interview her--he did with all my other helpers," she said as nicely as she could, inwardly horrified that he dared to make such a dangerous suggestion to her that she harbor a shishi escapee, however innocent, "it would be very diff--"' "Of course it would be difficult. But you will be able to arrange this without having him see her."
"I do not think that possible and then there is Lord Yoshi." She had left that hanging, frantically hoping he would withdraw the favor but he had continued softly, watching her with his intense, compelling eyes, saying that Sumomo would be safe with her, that she was samurai, the affianced of a very important shishi, a woman to be trusted: "So sorry but I ask you do this for sonno-joi, she is to be trusted. Any problem, send her away. Any task she will do ... sorry, Koiko-chan I must go. A lifetime favor, as an old friend."
"Wait. If... I will have to consult with General Akeda, but even if he can be avoided, certainly I must ask my household, I will have to consult them of course, but what am I to say about her? To the General or to them, I do not know these Kyoto people, or anything about them."
"Their mama-san guarantees they are to be trusted," he had said with utter conviction. "I asked her and she approves of this, Koiko, or I would not suggest it. Tell them the truth, that Sumomo is simply a headstrong girl and her guardian--an old, old client-- wants her curbed and trained in useful, feminine arts. I cannot take her with me and want her protected. I have an obligation to her fianc`e.
She will obey you in everything."
Koiko trembled at the danger she had put herself into, as well as those she was responsible for, Teko and her attendants: four maids, a hairdresser, and a masseuse. Fortunately they had agreed to have this stranger in their midst and to help her to change her ways--and Akida's scrutiny had failed to detect any flaw.
Ah, Katsumata, you knew I could refuse you nothing, she thought. Curious how quickly you went beyond needing my body, a few months, wanting instead to possess and expand my mind. I'm still bound by hoops of iron, deep in your debt.
Without you and the knowledge you gave me I would not be at the pinnacle I am now--and able to beguile the greatest man in the land.
"Sit down, Sumomo," she said. "We have a little time now before I have to go. We can not be overheard here."
"Thank you."
"My attendants are concerned about you."
"Please excuse me if I have not been correct."
Koiko smiled. "The maids wonder if you have a tongue in your head, all agree your gentility needs improving, and all can understand a guardian wanting you improved."
"I need improving," Sumomo said, smiling.
Koiko's eyes crinkled. The young woman opposite her was not unattractive, her body lithe and strong, the face without makeup, the bloom of youth and health making up for that deficiency.
Her hair is in good condition but needs styling, she thought critically. The Kyoto style would suit her, lots of good oils on her hands and arms, some shading on her fine cheekbones, a touch of color on her lips. The girl has promise. We must bathe together and then I would know more though I doubt she could adapt to our life even if she wanted to adapt. "You are a virgin, yes?"
She saw the girl flush and laughed outright.
"Ah so sorry, of course you are, for a moment I forgot that you are not of our world. Please excuse me, but it is rare for us to meet outsiders, let alone a samurai lady, and to have one in your household however briefly, that is almost unknown."