"Oh I borrowed it from Monsieur Seratard, my darling. I didn't want to ask you for money and I can't send them a chit. I hope you don't mind but I pledged some jewelry."
He had chided her, saying he would take care of the Seratard debt, that Jamie would have a revolving fund for her, the value of a hundred guineas which she could draw against as she wished, just give him note of what it's for, and that he would double the amount she wanted sent.
So easy when you use your intelligence. A warmth went through her remembering how she had thanked him for his kindness, and kissed him so fondly, and how he had responded. She would have liked to have gone further, much further.
Her fingers distracted her. Their smoothly knowing sensuality pleased her and she closed her eyes and cast herself back with Colette but that did not last long. As always he loomed in the front of her mind, vivid and almost alive, and with him the details of their last time, the time she had been deliberately wanton and had done everything she had dreamt possible--to save her life, not realizing she would enjoy everything as much as he had.
Dearest Blessed Mother, we both know it was only to save my life--isn't that true? But also true--ah, how lucky I am I can talk openly, direct to You, and not have to go through that awful Father Leo--but also true, between us women, that somehow we must rid ourselves of him, and the memory of the two nights and the ecstasy before it drives me insane.
Raiko was irritable. "Furansu-san, I will accept this partial payment but our agreement was very specific, so sorry."
"I know." Andr`e loathed being in debt--a phobia--to her more than any, not only because meeting the payment schedule was giving him nightmares, but also because she controlled his Hinodeh completely and if he failed to conform she would end their relationship without hesitation. And then he would kill himself. "Soon can give big payment. Earrings."
"Ah, is that so? Excellent." She smiled.
"Excellent. I presume Hinodeh is still to your liking, still pleasing you?"
His worry dropped from him for a blessed moment.
"She... everything I dream of. M."
She smiled strangely at him. "It is unwise to be so open, my friend."
A Gallic shrug. "You make me lifetime favor. Cannot say thank you enough."
The eyes crinkled in her round face, puffy from drink even though it was only dusk. Her makeup was good and her kimono expensive, the evening chilly but her rooms were warm and the whole Inn inviting. "I hear your gai-jin Princess is as healthy as ever."
"Yes." For a moment Andr`e thought about her, and her ever-present sexuality. "Think she make good Lady of Night."
Raiko cocked her head to one side, unable to resist taking the remark seriously. "That would be interesting to me. I could get her the best prices --the best--many in Yedo would pay a price to sample such a gross person. I know one rice dealer, very rich very old, no hard work for her to satisfy, who would pay huge money to be the first to examine such a Jade Gate, and it would be easy to show her how to become a virgin again, neh?"
He laughed. "I tell her, one day perhaps."
"Good. The best price, and secret. This rice dealer... Eeee, he would pay! She shows no other signs?"
"Signs? What sort of signs?"
Raiko said, "The medicine varies for different ladies. Sometimes it can make them much more... more passionate and more difficult to satisfy. Sometimes it increases her chance to become pregnant, sometime it destroys any chance. Strange, neh?"
The amusement left him. "You not tell me."
"Would it have made any difference?"
After a moment he shook his head.
She drank deeply. "Please excuse me for speaking about money, but a gold oban no longer buys what a gold oban should buy. Our officials have debased our currency and stink like eight-day-old fish mixed with fresh dog's droppings!"
"True," he said, missing words but understanding about officials and old fish and was equally disgusted. Seratard had refused to give him the advance on his salary he had expected, claiming poverty in Legation funds. "But Henri, I'm only asking for what you have to give me over the year. It's just a few pieces of gold, Henri. Aren't I your most valuable aide here?"' "Yes of course you are, my dear Andr`e, but you can't get wine out of an empty vat--only a migraine!"
He tried a different approach but did no better. So he had only two courses of action. Angelique, or this mama-san.
"Raiko-san, you very clever, think. Must be way we both increase normal money, neh? What can we sell?"
She glanced down at the table to hide.
"Sak`e?" she asked and poured. In his honor the sak`e was cold. Her eyes were slits and she wondered how far to trust him. As far as a cat will trust a cornered mouse. "Information has a price. Neh?"
It was said matter-of-factly. He pretended to be surprised, delighted she had taken the bait so easily. Too easily? Probably not. Being caught by the Bakufu, or by his own masters added up to same penalty: an agonizing death.
Sir William would pay handsomely for the right information--Henri not at all--God curse them both to hell! "Raiko-san, what happening in Yedo?"
"More to the point, what's happening here?" she said at once, beginning the negotiation. "War, eh?
Terrible! Every day more soldiers firing on the firing range, more cannons practicing, frightening my Ladies."
"So sorry, please speak slower, please."
"Ah so sorry." Raiko slowed, saying how frightened the Yoshiwara was, painting an interesting local picture but nothing that he did not already know. And he told her things about the fleet and Army that he was sure she knew also.
They drank in silence. Then she said softly, "I think certain officials would pay much to know what the gai-jin leader plans to do and when."
He nodded. "Yes. Also think our Leader pay plenty know what Nippon samurai forces where, who leads, about this tairo who send rude messages."
She beamed gloriously and raised her eggshell cup. "To a new partnership. Much money for a little talk."
He toasted her, saying carefully, "Little talk yes, but must be important little and real little for real money."
"Eeee," she said, feigning shock, "am I a third-class whore without brains? Without honor? Without understanding? Without connections, without ..." But she could not keep it up and chuckled.
"We understand one another completely. Tomorrow at midday come and see me. Now off you go and see your lovely Hinodeh. Enjoy her and life while we all have it."
"Thank you. But not now. Please say, I arrive later." He smiled at Raiko, liking her. "But you, Raiko?"
"I have no Hinodeh, to go to, to dream about, to write poems to, to fill me with ecstasy.
Once it was different, now I am more sensible, I enjoy sak`e and making money and making money and sak`e. Off you go," she said with a hard laugh, "but tomorrow return. At midday."
When he was gone she ordered her maids to bring more of the wine, but hot this time, and not to disturb her.
Seeing such friendliness on his face, mixed with the depth of his passion for Hinodeh, she had felt her sadness beginning and so had dismissed him.
She could not bear witnesses to her misery and the abject tears that poured from her, unable to contain them or the grief, at the same time despising the weakness within her that was a frantic longing for her youth, for the girl she had been, vanished such a short time ago, never to return.
It's not fair not fair not fair, she moaned, raising the cup. I'm not the old hag I see in my mirror, I am me, Raiko the Beautiful, Courtesan of the Second rank, I am I am I am.
"Ah, Otami-sama," the shoya said, "good evening, please sit down, tea, sak`e? So sorry to disturb you again but I have just received a message from my overlords. Tea?"