"I do not know, Sire. I imagine at least one would."

"If you were to come with me you would have to ride too, with just one maid, and travel light, a palanquin would delay me. I can easily arrange for you to travel leisurely with your household if you prefer."

"Thank you but since you would prefer me to be with you your preference is mine, of course. If I become a burden, then it is easy for you to decide. I am honored you asked me."

"But is there a maid, an acceptable maid who can also ride? If not then you must follow as soon as possible," he said, again giving her the opportunity to decline gracefully without offense.

"There is one, Sire," she said on a sudden impulse, "a new maiko, not quite a maid, but an apprentice and a little more. Her name is Sumomo Fujahito, daughter of a Satsuma goshi, ward of an old friend, a client who was good to me years ago."

He listened as she told him about Sumomo, and was too well versed in the customs of the Floating World to ask about the other client. Intrigued, he sent for the girl. "S. Sumomo, your father disapproves of your future marriage?"

"Yes Lord."

"It is unforgivable not to obey your parents."

"Yes Lord."

"You will obey them."

"Yes, Lord." She looked at him fearlessly. "I have already told them, humbly, that I will obey but that I will die before I marry any other man."

"Your father should have ordered you into a nunnery for such impertinence."

After a pause she muttered, "Yes, Lord."

"Why are you here in Kyoto and not at home?"

"I, I was sent here to be retrained by my guardian."

"He has done a very poor job, has he not?"

"So sorry, Lord." She bowed her head to the tatami, politely and with grace, but he was certain not with any penitence. Why do I waste my time, he thought. Perhaps because I am accustomed to absolute obedience from everyone, except Koiko who must be maneuvered like an unstable boat in a high wind, perhaps because it might be diverting to curb this young person, to train her to the fist like the fledgling peregrine she seems to be, to use her beak and claws for my purposes, not for her lord of creation Oda.

"What will you do when this Oda, this Satsuma goshi, eventually decides to obey his parents as is his duty, and take another woman to wife?"

"If he will accept me as a consort, even without intimacy I will be content. As an occasional woman, I will be content. The moment he tires of me or dismisses me, so sorry, that is the day I will die."

"You are a stupid young woman."

"Yes, Lord. Please excuse me, that is my karma." She dropped her eyes and remained motionless.

Amused, he glanced momentarily at Koiko who waited for him to decide. "Say your liege lord, Sanjiro, orders you to marry another man and orders you not to commit seppuku."

"I am samurai, I will obey without question," she said proudly, "as I will obey my guardian and Oda-sama. But on my way to the wedding feast there may be a regrettable accident."

He grunted. "Do you have sisters?"

She was startled. "Yes, Lord. Three."

"Are they as stupid and difficult as you are?"

"They... no, Sire."

"Can you ride?"

"Yes, Sire."

"Well enough to journey to Yedo?"

"Yes, Sire."

"Koiko, are you sure she can please you if I agree?"

"I believe so, Sire. I am only afraid I may fail you with my lack of skill."

"You can never fail me, Koiko-chan. So, Sumomo, you are sure you will be able to please the Lady Koiko?"

"Yes, Sire and I will protect her with my life."

"Will you also improve your manners, become less arrogant, more womanly and less like Domu-Gozen?" This was a famous woman samurai, mistress to a Shogun, a vicious killer, who, centuries ago, rode into battle with her equally violent Shogun lover.

He saw her eyes widen and she became even younger. "Oh, I'm not like her, Lord, not at all --I would give anything to be even a tiny little bit like the Lady Koiko. Anything."

He hid his laugh as Sumomo gorged on this first morsel he had tossed to her. "You may go.

I'll decide later."

When they were alone again he chuckled. "A wager, Koiko? A new kimono that Sumomo will be trained by the time we reach Yedo--if I decide to bring you both with me."

"Trained in what way, Sire?"

"That she will contentedly agree to return to her parents and obey them and marry without seppuku."

Koiko shook her head smiling. "So sorry, whatever the wager I am afraid you would lose, Sire."

That she could consider him making an error of judgment lost some of his good humor. "A kimono against a favor," Yoshi said sharply not meaning to be so sharp.

"I accept," she said at once with a laugh, "but only on the understanding that with the gift of the kimono, you accept the favor back from me that you would have asked."

His eyes crinkled with admiration with the way she had twisted his mistake into a pleasantry. It was a mistake to attempt a wager, any wager.

And a mistake to be confident over the wiles of a woman--a certain path to disaster.

SAKONOSHITA VILLAGE Saturday, 6th December

SAKONOSHITA VILLAGE Saturday, 6th December: On the Tokaido Road, some forty miles eastwards from Kyoto, in the mountains, was the Sixth way station, the village of Sakonoshita, and as dusk began to fall, the last of the travellers and porters, bent against a raw wind, were hurrying to pass the barrier before it closed. All were weary and anxious for hot food, hot sak`e and warmth, even the half-dozen barrier guards who stamped their straw-sandaled feet against the cold, checking identity papers at random. "It'll snow tonight," one grumbled, "I hate winter, hate the cold, hate this posting."

"You hate everything."

"Not everything. I like eating and fornicating. In the next life I want to be born son to an Osaka moneylending rice merchant.

Then I can eat and drink and fornicate only the best, and be warm while my father buys me hirazamurai status, or at least goshi--not just a stinking pissed-on ashigaru."

"Dreamer! You'll be reborn a landless peasant, or a bending toy boy in a tenth-rank brothel. Close the barrier."

"It's not dark yet."

"Let any stragglers freeze or pay the usual."

"If the captain hears you, you will find yourself in the North Island where they say your cock freezes when you try to piss." The guard looked down the road that curled away to Kyoto, now empty, with a darkening, ominous sky above. A squall tugged at their straw overmantles.

"Hurry up, oaf," he called out impatiently at the last man, a half-naked porter staggering past with his heavy load. He lowered the first bar, his face chapped by the wind, and then the second bar, making the barrier firm, and turned away for shelter and hot soup.

"Hey, look there!" A phalanx of riders had trotted into view around the far corner. "Open the bars!"

"Let them wait. They're late." The guard used the back of his hand to clean away a persistent nose dribble, squinting against the squall. With the other guards he scanned the riders, thirty or forty he estimated, too tired to count. No banners, so unimportant. Travel-stained, their ponies lathered. They rode in a cluster around two women. The women rode astride, and wore heavy clothes and large hats with veils tied under their chins. He laughed to himself. They'll never get rooms tonight, nor sleep snug, not with the village full. Piss on them.

As they arrived, Captain Abeh in the lead called out, "Hey there, open up!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming," the guard growled, taking his time, and wished he hadn't. Abeh was out of his saddle in an instant. The blow smashed him senseless.

"Get this barrier open!" Abeh said, voice grating. Two riders had dismounted beside him, one of them Yoshi, a scarf around his face, the other Wataki, whom Yoshi had rewarded for helping to save his life. An officer stormed out of the guard house, gaping at his prone, unconscious man. "What's going on? You're under arrest."