He walked across the room. She felt stupid for her disappointment. Obviously that Aneko woman was bound to walk in any second. Of course he wouldn’t want to pick up where he’d left off last night and really make love to her.
Emmi broke off from her thoughts when Kaemon came back to her with a blue-green kimono, a yellow obi and tabi socks and black wooden geta.
“Put these on. I want to take you out.”
“Okay.” She looked around. “Where is my underwear, my bra and panties?”
“You’ll get them back soon enough.” He flashed a wicked grin that made her want him even more than she already did.
Emmi stood. “What are you up to?”
“Nothing at all, Emiko-san. Nothing at all.”
“Liar.” Emmi kissed him lightly. “Is there someplace I can bathe first?”
Kaemon nuzzled her neck. “Would you like me to wash you?” he teased before nipping at her ear.
Emmi shivered and gave a light laugh. “I would, but then we might never go anywhere.”
Kae pulled away. “True, and we have important places to go.”
* * * *
“So you have news for me, Yamazaki-kun?” Hijikata Toshizou asked as his chief inspector slipped into the room.
“Some, Hijikata-san.” He knelt and presented his superior with a paper copy of his report.
Hijikata scanned the page, his hard gaze intense. “So, it would seem that our troublemaker may very well be telling the truth. A brother of the Maeda lord arrived in Kyoto yesterday to meet with Matsudaira-sama.”
“Yes. And I didn’t have time to write it in, but I just received word that the girl is expected to appear before Prince Asahiko tomorrow evening.”
Hijikata folded the report and tucked it into his sleeve. “There is something about her I don’t trust. What of this other relative she mentioned traveling with—Yamauchi? He must be of the mother’s family.”
“I haven’t been able to find any information yet. He could well be a close family friend, and she uses uncle as a term of endearment.”
“Perhaps. Still, she’s hiding something. I’m sure of it.”
* * * *
Nervous, Emmi stepped from Aneko’s bedroom, where she’d gotten dressed, into the adjoining reception room where Kaemon waited. She couldn’t do much with the obi other than the fairly simple square-shaped back knot that she’d learned as a child. And while she couldn’t get her hair into the typical style of a Japanese woman of the time, she got it as close as possible and put it up with the pretty pins Kaemon had given her. She just hoped for the best.
Emmi watched him a moment, staring so intently out the far right window.
“I’m ready,” she prompted.
He turned then froze. His soulful dark eyes widened as he scanned her from head to foot.
“I look awful, don’t I?” Emmi lowered her head. “I don’t know how to tie a fancy obi alone, and I know my hair is all wrong—”
She broke off when Kae tilted her chin with a featherlight touch. He grazed his thumb over her bottom lip and gave her a soft, gentle kiss.
“You look beautiful. Simple and elegant.”
Emmi breathed a dreamy sigh and smiled. “I do?”
“You do,” he said with a warm smile.
She believed him, but disappointment and doubt flowed through her when he failed to hold or kiss her again as she hoped.
“Let’s get going,” he said, heading to the door.
“I meant to ask,” Emmi said, catching up. “Where is your…friend, Aneko?”
Kae replied without turning as he led the way out of the brothel through the more private rear entrance. “I gave her money to go shopping.”
“Oh.”
Once outside, Emmi walked slightly behind Kae as her common sense began to lecture her worse than her mother ever had.
That Aneko is his official woman. He obviously supports her like a wife if he sends her out shopping and rents her those fancy rooms at that place
. The lecture paused for a moment before closing with a bang.
He rented you the bargain basement with the worn floor mats and crappy food.
* * * *
Kaemon glanced back a number of times as he led the way to Gion. Emiko was so oddly quiet that he was afraid he’d lost her in the crowd. As they continued on, he wondered what had her so preoccupied. Could she be wondering what punishment her family would hand down now that they had arrived in Kyoto?
Apparently they had forbidden her to come on the journey, so she had set out on her own. But why? From what he had gathered, Maeda Takehito was here for a meeting with the Matsudaira brothers. Saadaki was the new Shoshidai, and Katamori Kyoto Shugoshoku—the official Protector of Kyoto.
Was she simply anxious to see the capital? She certainly was headstrong enough to set her mind to come, but surely she’d seen Edo a few times, so this large city couldn’t hold that much of an attraction.
However, what if there was another reason her uncle had come? What if he had come to arrange a marriage for her? A marriage she opposed. Yes, that would certainly make her sneak off to arrive before him then try to dissuade him.
Aren’t you forgetting something?
A part of Kae asked from deep within.
Aren’t you forgetting how she came to you? From within the depths of a smoldering mirror?
Of course he wasn’t forgetting it, because it had never happened. Yes, at first he’d thought it had happened that way, but obviously he had been drugged. He must have imagined the entire thing. Emiko had come to Aneko’s room, yes, but she must have been running from someone much as she had been that night when Matsuyama’s treachery had come to light. Apparently Matsuyama had planned an attack upon him at that earlier time, but Emiko’s unexpected appearance had prevented it.
But what of her own words about being from another place in time? Kae refused to speculate and silenced his inner questions once his first destination appeared in the distance.
* * * *
“I don’t want you to buy me anything,” Emmi said flatly when Kaemon indicated the sprawling kimono maker’s shop.
“I want to,” he said so sweetly that her resolve began to wane. “The garments you arrived in were finely made, but they aren’t quite proper to be received at the palace.”
“What?” Emmi asked, sidestepping two women who exited the shop.
“My father wants to meet you tomorrow evening after dinner.”
His father. The angry, snooty man from the secret passage. He was a scary little noble.
Kae glanced around before stroking the side of her cheek with his fingertip. “He wants to meet the woman who has me so thoroughly distracted these days.”
“He does this to all your women?” Emmi muttered.
Kae gave her a long look, and Emmi noticed the earlier warmth in his eyes fading as he spoke.
“Would you rather have your family provide your clothing? It seems that your uncle has arrived in Kyoto at last.”
“Here?” Jake was here? Could it be true? Could he have found a way to the past?
Kae pulled her off to the side as more people entered the shop. “Takehito, brother of the Maeda lord.”
“Takehito?” Emmi repeated slowly. “I don’t want to see him. I can’t. Not now.” Emmi grabbed Kae’s hand. “Please don’t force me to see him. Do I have to meet your father? I’m no one important. He doesn’t need to meet me.”
Kaemon’s expression became even colder. “No one refuses my father, Emiko. Not even me.”
Chapter Twenty-One
This is not good, not good at all
, Emmi thought as she followed Kae inside the fabric shop. She occupied herself by studying the bolts of silk and cotton displayed along the walls and on large tables as a man and woman scurried from the back of the shop to offer Kae assistance.
What was she going to do when she met his father? Why did he want to meet her anyway?
A deep red silk caught her eye and Emmi wandered over to it, reaching out to smooth her index finger along the edge of the bolt. It felt so thick and rich, so different from the filmy designer silk blouses her mother liked to wear.
“Emiko.”
Emmi breathed a dispirited sigh and went to Kae’s side. She smiled at the older couple and wished they wouldn’t lower their gazes or bow so deeply for her. She was no one special. Well, she did have famous ancestors, but still, she was just plain old Emmi from L.A., and her family was no more important in America than the majority of the population.
Kae placed his hand on the small of her back and gave her a nudge forward. “Emiko, Muroku-san will help you choose the proper fabrics for your kimono while her husband and I discuss the particulars in the back.”
Emmi offered the older woman a smile as Kae disappeared through a curtained doorway.
* * * *
Entering the rear room, Kae narrowed his eyes the instant he noticed the lingering odor of tobacco and saw a sake bottle with a half-empty cup beside it. To his knowledge—and he’d been here numerous times—Muroku-san did not smoke.
Muroku quickly swept the half-filled cup away and took two new cups from a small chest. “Forgive the mess, Fujiwara-sama. My wife and I were relaxing when you came in.”
“Really?” Kae asked, scanning the room as he removed his katana to sit. He kept it resting across his knees, however, and was quick to note that the action did not escape the older man, who was definitely hiding something today. “And when did your wife take up the pipe?”
The pause before Muroku’s nervous laugh was all the confirmation Kae needed. “The pipe is mine, of course,” he said as he poured the sake.
“Then where is it?”
Muroku’s eyes darted to the left at the same instant Kaemon heard the slow sliding of a shoji door.
“Die, you shogunate pig!” a samurai shouted as he burst into the room, sword drawn and aimed at Kae’s head.
The ronin was an equal match to Kae in terms of strength and quickness. He blocked Kae’s moves as Kae did his. They locked swords, tried to throw the other off balance, and knocked each other into the walls and furniture.
At last Kae had the advantage and slashed at the other man’s waist but, unfortunately, caused little damage as the cut in his clothing revealed chainmail beneath.
When his foot caught a fallen sake bottle Kaemon slipped, giving the ronin the opportunity to land a glancing blow, aggravating his previous injury. Kae gritted his teeth at the pain in his leg but forced himself to stand. He laid into the ronin, slicing the man’s arm and breaking his sword.
The ronin dropped the useless weapon and pulled a revolver from inside his yukata.
Kae froze, and the ronin grinned like a fool. What’s more, he was a fool, for Kae pulled his iron fan from his belt and threw it at the man’s groin. It connected squarely and the ronin’s shot went wide, going through the thin wall.
Women’s screams echoed throughout the building, and one rose above all the others.
Emiko.
Charging at the doubled-over ronin, Kae swung his katana with both hands, decapitating the man in one blow. Heedless of his wound, he ran past the cowering Muroku and plowed into the main room of the silk shop.
Emmi was still holding one of the bolts of silk that Muroku’s wife had been showing her.
“Kae!” Emmi shrieked, but her eyes remained fixed on the gaping bullet hole in the other woman’s head and the growing puddle of blood that was about to reach her own feet.
Blood. So much blood.
Emmi screamed again when Kae grabbed her. “Stop touching me! What are you doing? Trying to kill me, too?”
“Are you injured? Tell me! Are you injured?” he shouted, trying to feel around the blood spatters on her face and clothing.
Muroku stumbled from the back room, fell upon his wife’s body and began to wail. The customers and the worker who’d fled now crowded the shop entrance.
Kae threw his arm over Emmi’s shoulders and hurried her out of the shop. Three of the Shinsengumi patrolling the area pushed their way through the crowd as well, blocking Kae’s way.
“Saitou-san. A ronin in Muroku’s shop attacked me.” Kae paused and winced. “He had a gun. Muroku may be hiding more or concealing weapons for them.”
Saitou ordered a few of his men into the shop and another to secure transportation for Kae and Emmi. He pulled a white cloth from beneath his haori for Kae to use as a bandage.
Saitou said, “Our compound is closer than your home. The doctor is in today. He can tend it.”
Kae nodded as he bound the wound. “There’s another merchant I have my suspicions about.”
“Hijikata-san will be appreciative of the information.”
Though her heart pounded like mad and her stomach was twisted upon itself, the shock Emmi felt was easing, but the name Hijikata was the last thing she wanted to hear. She brushed aside thoughts of the obnoxious vice-commander.
Once inside the palanquin, Emmi saw that the makeshift bandage wasn’t doing much for Kae’s injury.
“The blood has soaked through already,” she muttered.
She had to do something but what? She was no nurse. Closing her eyes to focus, she thanked her grade school friend for talking her into joining the Girl Scouts.
“Give me your dagger,” Emmi said, reaching out.
“What?”
He looked pale, as though he was about to pass out. How far was the Shinsengumi compound anyway?
Emmi took the tanto and cut through the hem of her kimono. She cut it almost to her knees and folded it upon itself to make a thicker binding.
Emmi loosened his hakama ties to free his injured thigh. Thanks to so many years of seeing her dad and Jake covered in realistic wounds and gore Emmi was no longer squeamish, but she wasn’t about to lift the piece of cloth already on the wound. Emmi slid the silk under his leg, wound the ends in opposite directions a couple times, then tied it in a knot. This didn’t seem like it would be that much better, but at least it made her feel less helpless.
“Such a fine nurse,” Kae said softly.
“If only,” Emmi answered, watching as this cloth too began showing spots of blood. “How far is it to the doctor?”
“Not far enough,” Kae said, reaching out with surprising strength to pull her against him.