"No, Sire. Please excuse me. It began as always, like most quarrels, Sire, between husband and wife. Really over nothing. Then suddenly, as always, all the past gets spewed up and it infects the man and the woman if the mood's on them."
"And the mood was on you?"
"Yes. Please excuse me. I provoked my husband unmercifully. It was my fault entirely. I regret, Sire, in those times, so sorry, people say wild things."
"Come on, hurry up, what wild things?" She was like a doe at bay. Her face was chalky. She knew that spies must have already whispered to him what was shouted in the quiet of their house.
She told him everything that had been said as best she could remember it. Then she added, "I believe my husband's words were spoken in wild rage which I provoked. He's loyal - I know he's loyal. If anyone is to be punished it's me, Sire. I did provoke the madness."
Toranaga sat again on the cushion, his back ramrod, his face granite. "What did the Lady Genjiko say?"
"I haven't spoken to her, Sire."
"But you intend to, or intended to, neh?"
"No, Sire. With your permission I intend to leave at once for Osaka. "
"You will leave when I say and not before and treason is a foul beast wherever it's to be found!"
She bowed under the whiplash of his tongue. "Yes, Sire. Please forgive me. The fault is mine."
He rang a small hand bell. The door opened. Naga stood there. "Yes, Sire?"
"Order the Lord Sudara here with the Lady Genjiko at once."
"Yes, Sire." Naga turned to go.
"Wait! Then summon my Council, Yabu and all - and all senior generals. They're to be here at midnight. And clear this floor. All guards! You come back with Sudara!"
"Yes, Sire." Whitefaced, Naga closed the door after him.
Toranaga heard men clattering down the stairs. He went to the door and opened it. The landing was clear. He slammed the door and bolted it. He picked up another bell and rang it. An inner door at the far end of the room opened. This door was hardly noticeable, so cleverly had it been melded with the woodwork. A middle-aged heavy-set woman stood there. She wore a cowled Buddhist nun's habit. "Yes, Great Lord?"
"Cha please, Chano-chan," he said. The door closed. Toranaga's eyes went back to Mariko. "So you think he's loyal?"
"I know it, Sire. Please forgive me, it was my fault, not his," she said, desperate to please. "I provoked him."
"Yes, you did that. Disgusting. Terrible. Unforgivable!" Toranaga took out a paper kerchief and wiped his brow. "But fortunate," he said.
"Sire?"
"If you hadn't provoked him, perhaps I might never have learned of any treason. And if he'd said all that without provocation, there'd be only one course of action. As it is," he continued, "you give me an alternative."
"Sire?"
He did not answer. He was thinking, I wish Hiro-matsu were here, then there'd be at least one man I could trust completely. "What about you? What about your loyalty?"
"Please, Sire, you must know you have that."
He did not reply. His eyes were unrelenting.
The inner door opened and Chano, the nun, came confidently into the room without knocking, a tray in her hands. "Here you are, Great Lord, it was ready for you." She knelt as a peasant, her hands were rough like a peasant's, but her self-assurance was enormous and her inner contentment obvious. "May Buddha bless you with his peace." Then she turned to Mariko, bowed as a peasant would bow, and settled back comfortably. "Perhaps you'd honor me by pouring, Lady. You'll do it prettily without spilling it, neh?" Her eyes gleamed with private amusement.
"With pleasure, Oku-san," Mariko said, giving her the religious Mother title, hiding her surprise. She had never seen Naga's mother before. She knew most of Toranaga's other official ladies, having seen them at official ceremonies, but she was on good terms only with Kiritsubo and Lady Sazuko.
Toranaga said, "Chano-chan, this is the Lady Toda Mariko-noh-Buntaro. "
"Ah, so desu, so sorry, I thought you were one of my Great Lord's honored ladies. Please excuse me, Lady Toda, may the blessings of Buddha be upon thee."
"Thank you," Mariko said. She offered the cup to Toranaga. He accepted it and sipped.
"Pour for Chano-san and yourself," he said.
"So sorry, not for me, Great Lord, with your permission, but my back teeth're floating from so much cha and the bucket's a long way away for these old bones."
"The exercise would do you good," Toranaga said, glad that he had sent for her when he returned to Yedo.
"Yes, Great Lord. You're right - as you always were." Chano turned her genial attention again to Mariko. "So you're Lord Akechi Jinsai's daughter."
Mariko's cup hesitated in the air. "Yes. Please excuse me..."
"Oh, that's nothing to wish to be excused about, child." Chano laughed kindly, and her stomach heaved up and down. "I didn't place you without your name, please excuse me, but the last time I saw you was at your wedding."
"Oh?"
"Oh, yes, I saw you at your wedding, but you didn't see me. I spied you from behind a screen. Yes, you and all the great ones, the Dictator, and Nakamura, the Taiko-to-be, and all the nobles. Oh, I was much too shy to mix in that company. But that was such a good time for me. The best of my life. That was the second year my Great Lord favored me and I was heavy with child - though still the peasant I've always been." Her eyes crinkled and she added, "You're very little different from those days, still one of Buddha's chosen."
"Ah, I wish that were true, Oku-san."
"It's true. Did you know you were one of Buddha's chosen?"
"I'm not, Oku-san, much as I would like to be."
Toranaga said, "She's Christian."
"Ah, Christian - what does that matter to a woman, Christian or Buddha; Great Lord? Not a lot sometimes, though some god's necessary to a woman." Chano chuckled gleefully. "We women need a god, Great Lord, to help us deal with men, neh?"
"And we men need patience, godlike patience, to deal with women, neh?"
The woman laughed, and it warmed the room and, for an instant, lessened some of Mariko's foreboding. "Yes, Great Lord," Chano continued, "and all because of a Heavenly Pavilion that has no future, little warmth, and a sufficiency of hell."
Toranaga grunted. "What do you say to that, Mariko-san?"
"The Lady Chano is wise beyond her youth," Mariko said.
"Ah, Lady, you say pretty things to an old fool," the nun told her. "I remember you so well. Your kimono was blue with the loveliest pattern of cranes on it I've ever seen. In silver." Her eyes went back to Toranaga. "Well, Great Lord, I just wanted to sit for a moment. Please excuse me now."