“Does he have an effect on you, too?”
“Not like Ienobu’s. Yoshisato gives the impression of honor and integrity.”
“‘Honor and integrity’? I think he conspired to murder Tsuruhime,” Reiko said, frustrated by Sano’s bias.
“I don’t think he did,” Sano said, frustrated by her lack of understanding. “Yanagisawa could have had Tsuruhime killed without Yoshisato’s knowledge. And I don’t think that either Yanagisawa or Yoshisato knew Tsuruhime was pregnant.”
“I’m afraid I have evidence against Yoshisato.” Reiko was reluctant to fuel her conflict with Sano, but she had to tell him what had happened. “Lady Someko came to see me today.”
Sano almost choked on a mouthful of grilled prawn. Coughing, he said, “I’d thought you had a better chance of getting a visit from the Buddha.”
“So did I.” Reiko summarized her conversation with Lady Someko. “Yoshisato’s own mother suspects him of murder. You shouldn’t keep making excuses for him.”
“You’re right,” Sano said, vexed by her insistence yet chastened. “I shouldn’t accept his proposition, either.”
But he didn’t say he wasn’t going to, Reiko noticed. And she was glad of that, in spite of herself. Yoshisato represented another port in the storm.
“If you turn down Yoshisato and Ienobu, where does that leave us?” Masahiro asked.
“Out in the cold and wide open to attack,” Sano said with brutal frankness.
Reiko crossed her arms over the baby. “What are we going to do?”
“Continue with the investigation. Keep trying to prove Yanagisawa is guilty. Let whatever happens, happen.” Sano added, in a brighter tone, “There’s good news. Ienobu told the shogun about the investigation. The shogun made it official. I won’t have to sneak around or fit it in between my duties as Chief Rebuilding Magistrate.”
“Thank the gods for that, at least,” Reiko said. “What’s the next step?”
“Tomorrow I’ll pay another visit to Lord Tsunanori. I’ll take troops from the army. He can’t refuse to talk or let me interrogate his people this time.” Sano’s mood darkened. “I’ll find out whether he knew his wife was pregnant by another man. I hope he didn’t and I can clear his name. Because if he killed his wife and Yanagisawa had nothing to do with her murder…”
Despair encroached on Reiko’s own hopes. “Then we’ve lost our chance to defeat Yanagisawa.”
24
In the heir’s residence, Yoshisato prepared for bed. For most of his life he’d liked daytime best, preferring sunlight to darkness, but since he’d come to court, late night was his favorite time. Nobody made demands on him. He didn’t have to play up to the shogun or worry about people thinking he was a fraud. Best of all, he didn’t have to deal with Yanagisawa.
Now it was near midnight. Fresh from a hot bath, dressed in a cotton robe, Yoshisato sat on the floor of his chamber and did stretching exercises. When his muscles released their tension, he could sleep before facing another day as the future dictator of Japan. Yoshisato pretended he was back in his old home, with nothing more difficult to look forward to in the morning than martial arts lessons. He yearned for the peace he would probably never have again.
A light tapping rattled the door. It slid open. Yoshisato frowned at Lady Someko, who stood at the threshold. “Mother. What are you doing here?”
Lady Someko glided into the room. Her face wore the expression that it usually did when she looked at him-fond, worried. “I wanted to see if you were all right.”
“I’m fine,” Yoshisato said curtly as he stretched his arms over his head and leaned sideways. “I’m just about to go to bed.”
Instead of taking the hint, she knelt near him. “It’s been a long time since we had a chance to talk, just the two of us.”
Yoshisato loved her dearly, but he hated having his only private time interrupted. “What do you want?”
She gathered the folds of her brown cloak around her red-orange kimono. She looked anxious and unhappy. Yoshisato recalled the day when he’d been eight years old and he’d begged her to ask his father to come to his first sword-fighting tournament. She’d had to tell him that Yanagisawa wouldn’t come. Her manner was the same now.
“I want you to stop pretending to be the shogun’s son,” she said.
Yoshisato was astonished, and not just because she was asking the impossible. “I thought you thought it was a good idea.”
“I did when Yanagisawa proposed it. He said it was the only way to save your life.”
Five months ago, Ienobu had devised a scheme to have Yoshisato put to death. Yanagisawa had countered by passing Yoshisato off as the shogun’s son. Yoshisato said, “It worked, didn’t it?”
Lady Someko shook her head. The ornaments in her hair jangled. “He convinced me that it would give you a chance to become as important as you deserve to be.” Her eyes shone with her hope and love for Yoshisato. “You would rule Japan someday! Of course I went along with him.”
“Of course. You always do.” Yoshisato tasted bitter rancor. “You hate him, but you make love to him. How can you let him touch you?”
They’d never discussed her relationship with Yanagisawa. Shame clouded Lady Someko’s face as she realized that Yoshisato had heard her with Yanagisawa, during the time they’d all lived together in the palace guesthouse. Yoshisato had been glad to escape the sound of their passionate, violent sex.
“That’s none of your business,” she snapped, pulling the cloak tighter around herself. “Don’t change the subject.”
“All right.” Yoshisato didn’t really want to talk about her and his father. He hated the fact that she and Yanagisawa had come together again, after seventeen years, because of him. He told himself that if she let Yanagisawa degrade her, it was her own fault. But he couldn’t help thinking that if he’d never been born, she wouldn’t be a slave to Yanagisawa. “Why have you changed your mind about me pretending to be the shogun’s son?”
“Because it’s dangerous.”
“You knew that at the start. Yanagisawa warned us that there were people who wouldn’t believe the shogun was my father.”
“I didn’t know anybody was going to die!”
“Do you mean Tsuruhime? She died of smallpox. She would have, even if Yanagisawa had never thought up his idea, even if I’d never come to court.”
Lady Someko regarded him with disbelief. After a moment’s pause she said, “You never told me you went to visit Tsuruhime.”
A trickle of fear chilled Yoshisato’s heart. Sano wasn’t the only person who suspected him of murdering the shogun’s daughter. His own mother apparently did, too. “Why should I have? I don’t tell you everything.”
“But you used to.” She smiled, sorrowfully nostalgic for their small, private world.
“I’m grown up now.” Yoshisato hid his fear behind impatience. “Things are different.”
Leaning closer, Lady Someko said, “What do you and Yanagisawa talk about, during all those hours you spend alone together? What has he been teaching you?”
“He hasn’t been teaching me to murder people. Nor convincing me that I should get rid of anyone who might interfere with my becoming the next shogun.” Yoshisato spoke sarcastically, concealing the fact that Yanagisawa’s tutelage had covered those very topics.
Her stricken expression said that Lady Someko saw through his lies. “I knew he would be a bad influence. Damn him! I wish he’d never come back!”
“Oh, Mother,” Yoshisato said, irritated because she thought he was so malleable. “Just because he has a spell on you, doesn’t mean he has one on me.”
Lady Someko averted her gaze. “Why did you go to visit Tsuruhime?”
“To pay my respects to my half sister. How do you know I went?”
“Lady Reiko told me.”
Yoshisato started. “You talked to her? Why?”
“I heard that her husband is investigating Tsuruhime’s death. I had to find out what he’s discovered. Nobody I know can tell me anything except rumors.”
“Yanagisawa won’t like it.” Yoshisato was glad she’d defied him in at least this one matter, yet dismayed. “He doesn’t want you speaking to anyone, let alone Sano’s wife.”