"Thank you. I can hardly wait to soak the sweat and dust away." She took off her robe and sat on my seat. A servant began to lather her, Suwo waiting patiently near the massage table.
"It is rather like a school holiday," the said, as happily.
The first time Blackthorne had seen her naked on the day that they swam he had been greatly affected. Now her nakedness, of itself, did not touch him physically. Living closely in Japanese style in a Japanese house where the walls were paper and the rooms multipurpose, he had seen her unclothed and partially clothed many times. He had even seen her relieving herself.
"What's more normal, Anjin-san? Bodies are normal, and differences between men and women are normal, neh?"
"Yes, but it's, er, just that we're trained differently."
"But now you're here and our customs are your customs and normal is normal. Neh?"
Normal was urinating or defecating in the open if there were no latrines or buckets, just lifting your kimono or parting it and squatting or standing, everyone else politely waiting and not watching, rarely screens for privacy. Why should one require privacy? And soon one of the peasants would gather the feces and mix it with water to fertilize crops. Human manure and urine were the only substantial source of fertilizer in the Empire. There were few horses and bullocks, and no other animal sources at all. So every human particle was harbored and sold to the farmers throughout the land.
And after you've seen the highborn and the lowborn parting or lifting and standing or squatting, there's not much left to be embarrassed about.
"Is there, Anjin-san?"
"No."
"Good," she had said, very satisfied. "Soon you will like raw fish and fresh seaweed and then you'll really be hatamoto."
The maid poured water over her. Then, cleansed, Mariko stepped into the bath and lay down opposite him with a longdrawn sigh of ecstasy, the little crucifix dangling between her breasts.
"How do you do that?" he said.
"What?"
"Get in so quickly. It's so hot."
"I don't know, Anjin-san, but I asked them to put more firewood on and to heat up the water. For you, Fujiko always makes sure it'swe would call it tepid."
"If this is tepid, then I'm a Dutchman's uncle!"
"What?"
"Nothing."
The water's heat made them drowsy and they lolled a while, not saying a word.
Later she said, "What would you like to do this evening, Anjin-san?"
"If we were up in London we'd-" Blackthorne stopped. I won't think about them, he told himself. Or London. That's gone. That doesn't exist. Only here exists "If?" She was watching him, aware of the change.
"We'd go to a theater and see a play," he said, dominating himself. "Do you have plays here?"
"Oh, yes, Anjin-san. Plays are very popular with us. The Taiko liked to perform in them for the entertainment of his guests, even Lord Toranaga likes to. And of course there are many touring companies for the common people. But our plays are not quite like yours, so I believe. Here our actors and actresses wear masks. We call the plays 'Noh.' They're part music, partially danced and mostly very sad, very tragic, historical plays. Some are comedies. Would we see a comedy, or perhaps a religious play?"
"No, we'd go to the Globe Theater and see something by a playwright called Shakespeare. I like him better than Ben Jonson or Marlowe. Perhaps we'd see The Taming of the Shrew or A Midsummer Night's Dream or Romeo and Juliet. I took my wife to Romeo and Juliet and she liked it very much." He explained the plots to her.
Mostly Mariko found them incomprehensible. "It would be unthinkable here for a girl to disobey her father like that. But so sad, neh? Sad for a young girl and sad for the boy. She was only thirteen? Do all your ladies marry so young?"
"No. Fifteen or sixteen's usual. My wife was seventeen when we were married. How old were you?"
"Just fifteen, Anjin-san." A shadow crossed her brow which he did not notice. "And after the play, what would we do?"
"I would take you to eat. We'd go to Stone's Chop House in Fetter Lane, or the Cheshire Cheese in Fleet Street. They are inns where the food's special."
"What would you eat?"
"I'd rather not remember," he said with a lazy smile, turning his mind back to the present. "I can't remember. Here is where we are and here is where we'll eat, and I enjoy raw fish and karma is karma." He sank deeper into the tub. "A great word 'karma.' And a great idea. Your help's been enormous to me, Mariko-san."
"It's my pleasure to be of a little service to you." Mariko relaxed into the warmth. "Fujiko has some special food for you tonight."
"Oh?"
"She bought a - I think you call it a pheasant. It's a large bird. One of the falconers caught it for her."
"A pheasant? You really mean it? Honto?"
"Homo," she replied. "Fujiko asked them to hunt for you. She asked me to tell you."
"How is it being cooked?"
