The barbarian samurai and the Lady samurai, patrician daughter of the assassin Akechi Jinsai, wife of Lord Buntaro! Eeeee! Poor man, poor woman. So sad. Surely this must end in tragedy.
Kiku felt near to tears as she thought of the sadness of life, the unfairness. Oh, how I wish I were born samurai and not a peasant so that I could become even a consort to Omi-sama, not just a temporary toy. I would gladly give my hope of rebirth in return for that.
Put away sadness. Give pleasure, that is your duty.
Her fingers strummed a second chord, a chord filled with melancholy. Then she noticed that though Mariko was beguiled by her music the Anjin-san was not.
Why? Kiku knew that it was not her playing, for she was sure that it was almost perfect. Such mastery as hers was given to few.
A third, more beautiful chord, experimentally. There's no doubt, she told herself hastily, it doesn't please him. She allowed the chord to die away and began to sing unaccompanied, her voice soaring with the sudden changes of tempo that took years to perfect. Again Mariko was entranced, he was not, so at once Kiku stopped. "Tonight is not for music or singing," she announced. "Tonight is for happiness. Mariko-san, how do I say, 'please excuse me' in his language?"
"Per favor."
"Per favor, Anjin-san, tonight we must laugh only, neh?"
"Domo, Kiku-san. Hai."
"It's difficult to entertain without words, but not impossible, neh? Ah, I know!" She jumped up and began to do comic pantomimes - daimyo, kaga-man, fisherman, hawker, pompous samurai, even an old farmer collecting a full pail - and she did them all so well and so humorously that soon Mariko and Blackthorne were laughing and clapping. Then she held up her hand. Mischievously she began to mimic a man peeing, holding himself or missing, grabbing, searching for the insignificant or weighed down by the incredible, through all the stages of his life, beginning first as a child just wetting the bed and howling, to a young man in a hurry, to another having to hold back, another with size, another with smallness to the point of "where has it gone," and at length to a very old man groaning in ecstasy at being able to pee at all.
Kiku bowed to their applause and sipped cha, patting the sheen from her forehead. She noticed that he was easing his shoulders and back. "Oh, per favor, senhor!" and she knelt behind him and began to massage his neck.
Her knowing fingers instantly found the pleasure points. "Oh God, that's . . . hai . . . just there!"
She did as he asked. "Your neck will be better soon. Too much sitting, Anjin-san!"
"That very good, Kiku-san. Make Suwo almost bad!"
"Ah, thank you. Mariko-san, the Anjin-san's shoulders are so vast, would you help me? Just do his left shoulder while I do his right? So sorry, but hands are not strong enough."
Mariko allowed herself to be persuaded and did as she was asked. Kiku hid her smile as she felt him tighten under Mariko's fingers and she was very pleased with her improvisations. Now the client was being pleasured through her artistry and knowledge, and being maneuvered as he should be maneuvered.
"Is that better, Anjin-san?"
"Good, very good, thank you."
"Oh, you're very welcome. It's my pleasure. But the Lady Toda is so much more deft than I." Kiku could feel the attraction between them though they tried to conceal it. "Now a little food perhaps?" It came at once.
"For you, Anjin-san," she said proudly. The dish contained a small pheasant, cut into tiny pieces, barbecued over charcoal with a sweet soya sauce. She helped him.
"It delicious, delicious," he said. And it was.
"Mariko-san?"
"Thank you." Mariko took a token piece but did not eat it.
Kiku took a fragment in her chopsticks and chewed it with relish. "It's good, neh?"
"No, Kiku-san, it very good! Very good."
"Please, Anjin-san, have some more." She took a second morsel. "There's plenty."
"Thank you. Please. How did - how this?" He pointed to the thick brown sauce.
Mariko interpreted for her. "Kiku says it's sugar and soya with a little ginger. She asks do you have sugar and soya in your country?"
"Sugar in beet, yes, soya no, Kiku-san."
"Oh! How can one live without soya?" Kiku became solemn. "Please tell the Anjin-san that we have had sugar here since one thousand years. The Buddhist monk Ganjin brought it to us from China. All our best things have come from China, Anjin-san. Cha came to us about five hundred years ago. The Buddhist monk Eisai brought some seeds and planted them in Chikuzen Province, where I was born. He also brought us Zen Buddhism."
Mariko translated with equal formality, then Kiku let out a peal of laughter. "Oh so sorry, Mariko-sama, but you both looked so grave. I was just pretending to be solemn about cha - as if it mattered! It was only to amuse you."
They watched Blackthorne finish the pheasant. "Good," he said. "Very good. Please thank Gyoko-san."
