The Scarlet Kimono (Choc Lit) (16 page)

She glanced over her shoulder to make sure Rydon was well and truly unconscious, then gritted her teeth and made a vow. ‘This will never happen again, so help me God.’

She’d had a very lucky escape, but she knew it would be only a question of time before he tried again, and somehow she had to stop him.

Chapter Twenty-One

Hannah woke Rydon very early the next morning by throwing a jug of water into his face. He sat up and let out an angry shriek, while blinking the water out of his eyes. As if he was under attack and preparing to do battle, he groped among the sheets, presumably for his sword and firearms, but they weren’t in their usual place. Hannah had taken the precaution of removing them all. He swung his legs off the
futon
onto the
tatami
floor and stopped short, his jaw dropping.

Hannah was kneeling in front of him a few yards away. She raised her chin with determination and pointed his own pistol at him. ‘Don’t move,’ she warned. ‘I won’t hesitate to use it.’

Rydon frowned at the weapon as if he was trying to remember whether it was loaded or not. It was. Hannah had checked as soon as daylight arrived. She was no expert, but with two brothers, she knew that much.

‘What the devil’s the meaning of this?’ he tried to bluster. ‘You have no right to –’

‘You whoreson,’ she hissed, interrupting him. ‘I don’t care what Jacob says. I am
not
your wife, even after that ridiculous ceremony, and you are never doing that to me ever again, do you hear?’ She waved the pistol in the direction of the bed, and Rydon frowned. He obviously didn’t remember much from the previous night, but she knew he’d understand what she meant. Just to make sure he didn’t miss her point, she pulled up a sleeve to show him the bruises he’d inflicted. His eyes opened wider when he realised they were his doing.

‘Hannah, I apologise, it wasn’t meant to be like that,’ he began. ‘That infernal
sake
does strange things to a man.’

‘It makes no difference to me how it was meant to be. It won’t be happening again, I tell you.’ Hannah pushed a sheet of paper towards him and a quill and ink. ‘Now you’re going to sign this letter which states that you swear on your honour our marriage was not consummated and that you will be seeking an annulment the moment we set foot in England again. Then I’m going back to my own room and if you so much as come anywhere near me, I’ll shoot you, understand?’

‘We didn’t …?’

‘No, we didn’t. You passed out.’

Rydon looked bewildered for a moment and put up his hands to hold onto his head, as if that could cure the headache he was no doubt suffering from. ‘What’s this lump?’ he muttered.

‘I think you bumped into the doorframe on your way in,’ Hannah lied. No need to tell him she’d hit him with the pistol.

He closed his eyes and frowned, but just when Hannah was about to snap and shout at him again, he opened them and glared at her. ‘Fine, fine. I’ll sign,’ he muttered. ‘It’s not as if I want to be married to you anyway. Jacob can’t say I didn’t try.’ He pulled the piece of paper towards him and scratched down a signature. ‘There, it’s done.’

‘Thank you. I will hold you to this, remember that.’

As she left the room, clutching the precious document, Hannah heard Rydon swearing to himself. ‘Damn her! Damn all women to hell!’

But she didn’t care what he thought. He was nothing to her.

Hannah knew Rydon and Jacob had been waiting for weeks to hear from the Englishman, Will Adams, and they’d become increasingly agitated as they were left to kick their heels while there was no sign of a messenger. Since the East India Company’s representatives had already received their grant of privileges from the Japanese ruler, Adams was their only hope.

‘At least he should be able to help us obtain a decent cargo, or so I’ve been told,’ Jacob had said. ‘That would mean the voyage wasn’t entirely in vain.’

‘Let’s hope you’re right,’ was Rydon’s reply, ‘though I wouldn’t bet on it.’

A few days after the marriage
debacle
, Rydon walked into Hannah’s room without knocking, waving a piece of paper. She groped for the pistol which she kept nearby at all times and debated whether she should make an issue out of it. Then she noticed his preoccupation and realised he hadn’t done it on purpose. His thoughts seemed wholly concentrated on the news he brought.

‘At last we have a reply. We’ve been given permission to travel to some place called Edo to see Will Adams and he’s willing to intercede for us with the ruler of Japan. He’s even sent a small escort.’

‘Isn’t that good?’ Rydon wasn’t looking very pleased and this puzzled Hannah.

‘Yes. Although I had hoped Mr Adams would come here. I’d rather not travel so far in a country full of barbarians. Besides …’ He frowned.

‘Besides what?’

‘Well, I don’t trust them. I’ve been speaking to some of the Dutch merchants, and they tell me foreigners are very seldom allowed outside this port. I sense trickery, perhaps even a trap.’

‘Have you asked Hoji-
san
? Maybe he can find out the truth of the matter.’

Rydon scoffed. ‘He says everything is in order and the travel passes are valid, but then he would say that, wouldn’t he? He is, after all, one of them.’

‘Yes, but he’s sworn to protect you. He owes you his life, remember?’

‘And you think I trust the word of a heathen? Honestly, I know you have a partiality for him,’ Rydon sneered, ‘but don’t let it blind you to his true nature. He is, and will always remain, a barbarian and they stick with their own kind. This time, however, he shall be hoist with his own petard if he tries anything. I’m taking him with me as a translator and I’ll keep a close eye on him, never fear.’

‘You’re taking him away?’ Hannah grew cold. She had become so used to Hoji’s protection that the thought of being without him now was almost painful. He was the only person she could trust at the moment. It was scant consolation that the one she most needed protection from, namely Rydon, was also leaving.

He nodded. ‘Of course. How else am I to communicate with anyone other than Adams? I don’t understand a word of their prattle.’

‘Perhaps I could help? I speak their language quite well now. If I could come with you too –’

‘That’s out of the question. You must stay in this house where you’ll be safe. Women know their place here, haven’t you noticed?’

Hannah ignored the jibe and refrained from pointing out it was his own and Jacob’s treatment of her that had caused her disobedience. Arguing with him was pointless and would only make him angrier, she was sure. Instead she folded her hands in her lap and looked down, as she had seen the Japanese women do. ‘How long will you be away?’ she asked.

He shrugged. ‘Weeks, months, how should I know? This god-forsaken country probably hasn’t got a decent road anywhere.’

Hannah decided to ask Hoji instead, since he was bound to know more than the blinkered Rydon ever would.

‘Impossible to tell,’ was Hoji’s disappointing answer. ‘The roads are good, but it will all depend on how long any business transactions take. Also whether they need the
Shogun
’s permission. That could take weeks, maybe longer.’ He shrugged. ‘I’m sorry, but please don’t worry. I will engage trustworthy servants and guards to look after you. You had better not roam too far from here though. I can’t guarantee your safety other than in this house.’

Hannah sighed. It would seem she had no choice but to remain. ‘Very well then. I wish you a good journey and will pray for your safe return.’

The day before their departure, Jacob came to the house and asked to speak to Hannah. She was sitting on the verandah in full view of the path to the house. When she caught sight of Jacob and heard his request she looked away out over the gardens.

‘Tell my brother I have nothing to say to him, Hoji-
san
,’ she instructed, knowing full well that Jacob could hear every word.

When the message was relayed to him, Jacob persisted. ‘Kindly tell my sister she is acting like a child and I would prefer to have peace between us before I go travelling in this foreign place. If anything should happen to me … Well, it would be better if we could have a truce.’

Hoji duly reported this answer to Hannah. ‘I’m sorry, but my brother should have thought of that before he forced me into a hateful marriage. Besides, I don’t think it’s very likely anything will happen to him. He’ll be perfectly safe with you.’

She could almost hear Jacob gritting his teeth, but still she refused to look at him. He didn’t deserve her forgiveness, having tried to tie her for life to a man like Rydon against her wishes. Perhaps in time she would be able to put the entire episode behind her, but until then she wanted nothing to do with her brother.

‘Pray tell my sister I only had her best interests in mind and any other woman would be delighted with such a match. Captain Rydon will be a very rich man when this voyage is over. And any man is better than none when you have no reputation left,’ Jacob snapped at Hoji, who went back to repeat these words to Hannah.

Hannah said loudly, ‘If he’d had my best interests in mind, he would have listened to my opinion in this matter. My brother is a man and doesn’t have to bed the captain against his will. Tell him to ask his friend Rydon about his not very successful wedding night.’ Her voice had risen on this last sentence. As she threw a quick glance over her shoulder at her brother, she saw him turn puce at the indelicacy of her words.

Jacob glared at her and turned on his heel without so much as a goodbye. Hannah clenched her fists in her lap and blinked back the annoying tears which threatened. Perhaps she had been wrong not to take the olive branch Jacob offered, but at the moment the wound was still too raw.

‘My, but how you’ve grown!’

Taro caught Ichiro as the little boy came toddling towards him, his face breaking into a huge smile. ‘You remember me then?’ He lifted him high into the air, making Ichiro squeal with joy.

He had been worried his son would forget him when he stayed away for so long and was relieved to find he had nothing to worry about on that score. Several months must have seemed like an age to a small child, but there had been business matters to attend to and Taro hadn’t been able to cut his visit to Hirado short.

After the cloying humidity of the south, it was wonderful to be back north where the weather was fresher. ‘Let’s go to the gardens,’ he suggested, and hoisted Ichiro onto his broad shoulders. ‘I’m taking my son for a walk,’ he informed the nursemaids, who flapped around and made as if to follow them. ‘Alone,’ he added.

Naturally, his own guards followed, but he didn’t count them. They were merely shadows that followed him almost everywhere, so to all intents and purposes it was just him and his little boy.

Ichiro exclaimed over various sights – a bird settling on a branch, a dragonfly hovering over the pond, a frog sunbathing – but his chatter was as yet unintelligible, even though his meaning was clear. Taro just laughed and enjoyed the feeling of pride that swelled inside him every time he looked at his son. He was immensely grateful to the gods for giving him this gift.

When they returned to Ichiro’s quarters, however, some of the joy leeched out of him at the sight of Lady Reiko waiting for them. She was kneeling on a cushion in the middle of the floor, looking for all the world as if she was a queen. He noticed the nursemaids and other servants were eyeing her with something akin to fear. She reminded Taro of a spider sitting at the centre of a web and that made him frown. He gave her a curt nod.

‘Lady Reiko.’

She bowed low. ‘Welcome back, my lord. I heard you had returned.’ These words were said with a look that was somehow accusing and Taro surmised she thought he ought to have gone to greet her first, before coming to see a mere child. But Ichiro was his son and the only one he’d missed during his absence. He realised he hadn’t given Reiko a single thought the entire time.

‘I trust you had a pleasant stay in the south?’ Reiko continued.

‘Yes, thank you.’ He didn’t elaborate. It wasn’t any of her business what he’d done there and besides, he couldn’t tell her about going to see the foreign woman. She’d think him mad. He had to admit he’d thought so himself, but Yanagihara had been proved right – the
gai-jin
lady really had arrived.

His thoughts turned back to her –
Akai
– wilful, disobedient and naive, but oh so intriguing. He hoped she had heeded his words and not gone wandering in the night again. How could she have been so stupid? But she seemed to be a creature ruled entirely by her emotions and she’d clearly been upset, her eyes stormy and full of resentment. He suppressed a smile. He didn’t envy her brother the task of taming her. The foreigners obviously didn’t bring their women up properly if she didn’t know her place and at her age, it would be doubly hard to bring her to heel.