SI3 The Way of the Traitor (1997) Page 11

  The other women watched avidly. The nude one sat up, not bothering to cover her breasts.

  Minami slapped Peony's face; she cowered, whimpering. oStealing again! That's what got you here in the first place, or have you forgotten? Well, there's a merchant in the Arab settlement who likes to hurt women. None of the other houses will accept his business, but I'll let him have you. That will teach you to behave.

  Grabbing Peony's arm, he dragged her across the garden. Sano, though dismayed at this harsh treatment, didn't intervene. Brothel owners could do as they pleased with the women, who had no legal rights. Sano followed Minami and Peony to the veranda opposite, where Minami admitted them into an unoccupied guest room, sparsely furnished with a low table and a cabinet. Sunlight filtered through a latticed window overlooking a busy side street. The proprietor shoved Peony onto the floor, closed the door, and left. Sano exhaled in relief, glad to escape the other courtesans. Their beauty had evoked in him an intense sexual longing for Aoi. Since she'd gone, he hadn't taken another lover. Somehow the deprivation of celibacy kept her memory alive. But personal torments had no place in a murder investigation. Now he studied the witness "or suspect "who promised its possible success.

  Peony lay motionless, a hand clasped to the cheek where Minami had struck her. Her hair, which had tumbled down, gleamed richly. Her silent misery filled the room like an audible wail.

  oI won't hurt you, Peony, Sano said reassuringly. oSit up.

  She did, scooting backward to kneel in the corner, as far out of reach as possible. Sano glimpsed a spark of cunning in her eyes, a spirit not quite crushed.

  oNow tell me everything that happened the last night you spent with the barbarian, he said.

  oI already told Chief Ohira. I didn't see Spaen-san go. Don't know where he went. Face downcast, she spoke in terse mumbles, as if her puffy lips impaired her speech. oHe was alive when I last saw him. I didn't kill him. I couldn't have. Harsh sobs wracked her body; she buried her face in her hands. oBecause I "I loved him!

  Sano knelt beside her and placed a consoling hand on her shoulder. Suspicion cooled his sympathy when he felt hard muscles: She had the strength to maim a man's body.

  Peony must have sensed his doubt, because she shrank away, weeping harder. Sano pulled her hands away from her face. He shook her until the sobs turned to gasps and she stared at him in fearful woe. Tears streamed down her cheeks; mucus oozed from her nostrils. Sano took a cloth from beneath his sash and wiped her face, feeling both pity and disgust. He sympathized with her suffering, but also understood how her ugliness invited abuse.

  oDirector Spaen was cruel to you, Sano said. oHe insulted you. He beat you. How can you expect anyone to believe you loved him?

  His accusing tone restored Peony's composure. She held her head up and retorted, oIt was a game. He would act mean to me in front of other people. Later, when we were alone, I would tie him up. Hit him. He would scream and cry, but he liked it. I liked it, too.

  oYou mean it was Director Spaen the guards heard screaming, while you beat him?

  oYes! Peony's slitty eyes dared Sano to disbelieve.

  Sano knew that some people derived sexual pleasure from humiliation and pain. Peony's story explained the bruises on Spaen's body and the ropes in his room, as well as what the Deshima guards had observed. But was it a clever lie? Had she in reality suffered Spaen's abuse, then taken revenge?

  In answer to his unspoken questions, Peony untied her sash and dropped her kimono, revealing a strong torso with small, pointed breasts and a thick waist. Her sallow skin was unmarked. She turned to display her back, also unbruised and unscarred. oHe never struck me.

  Yet shame could hurt worse than blows. oCover yourself, Sano ordered, disappointed by the evidence that weakened his case against her. oI want to know everything you did from the time you got to Deshima until the time you left.

  Peony's defiance faded under his stern gaze. Pulling on her kimono, she huddled inside it, face hidden behind curtains of hair. oThe palanquin left me at the gatehouse. I went inside. The guards searched me and wrote my name in the book. They laughed and said I was lucky the barbarian wanted me, because no one else did.

  oDid you take anything onto the island?

  oNo. She sniffled, weeping again. oThe police took all my things when I was arrested. To pay back the people I stole from. Minami checks to make sure I don't take anything from the house when I leave. And now that Spaen-san is dead, I have nothing left. Nothing.

  Sano doubted whether anyone could have smuggled a gun and knife past the Deshima guards. But although Peony's grief seemed genuine, he couldn't imagine a Japanese woman loving a barbarian. Could the same person who'd helped dispose of the body also have furnished the weapons?

  oWhat happened next? Sano asked.

  oThe guards took me to Spaen-san ~s room. I went inside. He was there. We... Sobbing, she gasped out, oWe drank. Then we... pleasured each other. Afterward, I fell asleep. The next thing I knew, the guards were shaking me awake. Asking where Spaen-san was.

  The last part of her speech sounded rushed, as though she'd glossed over important details. oSo you slept all night, Sano said, owithout hearing or seeing anything that happened in the room, or outside?

  oYes.

  The reply, muffled behind her heavy hair, was barely a whisper. Sano, sensing a new wariness about her, pressed the point. oDidn't the storm wake you? Peony. Look at me. Grasping her chin, he forced her head up. oTell me what happened to Director Spaen.

  Her features were blurred with weeping, her nose red and swollen, her cheeks blotchy. But her eyes darted slyly between their puffy lids.

  oI had five cups of sake, she mumbled. oI slept very soundly. I didn't even hear the storm. But I wish it had wakened me. Because then I might have saved Spaen-san.

  Her face twisted, and she tried to turn away. Sano grabbed her shoulders. oDirector Spaen treated you like filth. You didn't love him "you hated him. That night, you decided to take your revenge. You shot Spaen and mutilated his body to make it look like he'd been stabbed to death. But you couldn't have done it alone. Someone gave you the weapons after you were on the island. Someone opened the water gates for you. Much as he feared this, he couldn't ignore the obvious possibilities. oWho was it, Peony? A guard? Chief Ohira? Talk!

  oYou're hurting me, Peony blubbered, writhing in Sano's grip. oI didn't kill him. I wouldn't. I loved him. I didn't see anything. I don't know anything. Pulling free, she crawled away and sat with knees hunched, head cradled in her arms. A high, keening moan rose from her as she rocked back and forth.

  Sano sat back on his heels, frustrated and torn. If she was innocent, then he was needlessly brutalizing her. A Deshima guard might have conspired with deGraeff "or Dr. Huygens "to kill Spaen. However, if Peony knew something about the murder, he couldn't stop now.

  oWho put the crucifix around Spaen's neck? Sano demanded, standing over her. oYou or your accomplice? And why? Because you're Christians?

  Abruptly Peony's moans stopped; she went still. oI'm not a Christian, she muttered. oIt's against the law.

  Either she hadn't known about the crucifix, or its mention had struck a nerve. oThe Christian doctrine forbids killing, Sano said, oand requires people to love one another. Did you atone for your sin by putting the crucifix on Director Spaen and praying for his soul after you killed him? Do you love him now, because he can't hurt you any more? Did your hatred die with him?

  oI never hated Spaen-san. Peony raised her head, tossing back her hair. Her teary eyes glistened with new defiance and cunning. oBut I can tell you who did. Urabe, the foreign-goods merchant. Because Spaen-san cheated him. And he was on Deshima that night, too.

  oBut yours was the only name listed in the visitors' ledger, Sano said.

  She laughed scornfully. oThen the ledger is wrong. I saw Urabe with my own eyes. Not everything that happens on Deshima is recorded, you know. Then she looked stricken, as if she'd said more than she had intended. Ducking her head, she whimpe
red, oI'm tired. I have work to do, and Minami will starve me if I don't finish. Please, leave me alone. I've told you everything I know.

  When questioned about the staffs and the other barbarians' relations with Director Spaen, she pleaded ignorance. oThe guards don't let me see everything they do. And I can't understand what the barbarians say.

  Finally Sano rose to go, more confused than ever. The scope of the investigation kept growing. How many secrets must he expose before discovering the truth about Spaen's murder? How did the Christian element fit into it? Sano didn't trust Peony's veracity any more than the guards'. She was hiding something; he could tell. But he must at least check out her story about Urabe, his latest Japanese suspect.

  Chapter 10

  PEONY REMAINED IN the room, listening to the sound of the ssakan's receding footsteps. She heard him speak and Minami reply. Then their voices faded as they left the garden. Hurrying to the door, Peony looked outside. The courtesans had gone from the veranda. Maybe no one would miss her for the moment. As much as the forced sex with strangers, she hated the constant demands made upon her by the brothel's residents. But now a path to liberty had opened. Soon she would no longer be a prostitute by night, a servant by day, despised and scorned.

  Wiping the tears from her face, Peony slid open the door leading to the corridor, looked both ways, and saw no one. She tiptoed down the corridor. Through the paper-paned walls, she heard courtesans chattering while they bathed and dressed for the night's festivities. She cringed, anticipating shrill voices calling her name. Miraculously, no summons came. She was free to plot her escape.

  She lumbered down a narrow passage and up three steps to the privy, a small shed attached to the house, and slipped inside. The light from a barred window illuminated the cramped room with a hole in the floor. The stench of urine and feces enveloped Peony, but she was blessedly alone. She reached up, removed a loose board from the ceiling, and inserted her hand into the open space under the roof.

  After she'd been convicted of theft and sentenced to the pleasure quarter three years ago, she'd continued stealing "money from clients, trinkets from the other women, food from the kitchen. At first she'd hidden the loot in her room, but Minami had found it and beaten her badly.

  oYou'll learn your lesson, he'd said when she pleaded for mercy.

  Instead, Peony found a better hiding place in the privy, where no one would stay long enough to inspect the ceiling. Now she pulled out a black lacquer box, one handspan square. Lovingly she caressed the floral design inlaid in mother-of-pearl on the cover. This, stolen from a traveling merchant, was the most beautiful thing she'd acquired since arriving at the Half Moon. Yet the box had less value than what was inside: her passage to liberty.

  As she anticipated a life far away from the pleasure quarter, Peony's excitement invoked the same sensations she always got from stealing. Her heart thudded; her breathing quickened. A thrilling sense of power flooded her. She had known and craved this feeling since childhood, when she'd stolen for the first time "a beautiful doll, taken from a peddler of toys. The pleasure derived from the ill-gotten items was secondary to the joy of stealing. She felt invincible. So had it happened with the prize concealed inside the lacquer box.

  One sultry summer night last month, the revelry in the Half Moon had reached its bawdy zenith. Drunken clients sang and clapped to the music of samisen, flute, and drum.

  oThe river is rising, rising "

  oLift up your skirts so they don't get wet!

  Forced to dance for the clients, Peony raised her skirt above her ankles. The other courtesans tittered; the men hooted and yelled. Tears of shame trickled down Peony's cheeks as she reluctantly hopped, spun, and exposed first her bowed calves, then her heavy thighs.

  oHigher! Higher!

  Minami laughed with the crowd, but his eyes were hard when they met Peony's, his message clear: If she disobeyed the customers, she would suffer. Almost fainting with embarrassment, she hiked her skirts, revealing her huge, bare buttocks and shaved pubis.

  The clients jeered, gagged, and held their noses. Peony fled, sobbing, down the dark corridor. The door to one of the guest chambers stood open. From it issued giggles and moans. Moonlight streamed through the window, illuminating two nude figures entwined on the futon, and an item that lay amid scattered clothing. Quicker than a breath and more quiet, Peony was inside the room, then out again with the thing hidden beneath her kimono, and triumph spreading a balm over her wounded pride.

  Now, secluded in the privy, she smiled. She'd soon learned the significance of her treasure, and what crimes its owner had committed. The ssakan's mention of the crucifix supported her other suspicions. In her excitement, she'd almost revealed Deshima's secrets to him, then caught herself just in time. The owner of the treasure wouldn't want such damning evidence to reach the Edo authorities. How much would he pay to get it back? Surely enough to buy her freedom from the pleasure quarter!

  Quickly Peony stuffed the box back in its hiding place. She grabbed the coins also secreted there, replaced the board, and left the privy. Luck favored her; she met no one as she hurried out the back door and into the street. She scanned the crowds, yearning for the limited independence she'd once had.

  At age fourteen, Peony had gone to work as a maid in a rich man's house. She'd cleaned and sewn, fetched and carried from dawn until late at night. Fearing her employer's wrath, she'd controlled her thieving impulses until the eldest daughter's wedding day, when she'd stolen a set of hair ornaments, gifts to the bride. If she'd hidden the loot right away, she might have escaped her sad fate. But vanity proved her downfall. She was inserting an ornament in her hair when her mistress walked into the room, saw the ornament in Peony's hands, and cried, oThief! Thief!

  Soon the doshin arrived and took Peony to jail. At her trial, the police testified that they'd found other stolen goods in her room.

  Citizens came forward to report past thefts associated with places Peony had frequented. And her employer had considerable influence with the bakufu.

  oYou, Peony, said the magistrate, owill work as a courtesan in the Nagasaki pleasure quarter until you have repented of your crimes, made reparation to your victims, and repaid the cost of your keep while serving your sentence.

  With her looks, she could never earn enough money to pay for all that. Peony wished the magistrate had sentenced her to death. Day after day she slaved at the Half Moon, Night after night she spent in the foreign settlements, bedding the only men who would have her: stinking Chinese, Arab, and Korean sailors and merchants. The high prices they paid were not enough to cover the costs Minami charged against Peony's earnings. Her continued thefts made life bearable, but extended her punishment. And the worst day of all had come two years ago, when Minami ordered her to service the Dutchmen whose ship had just arrived.

  Crossing the bridge to Deshima, Peony had tried to jump into the sea, to drown herself and thus avoid the disgrace of bedding a barbarian. But the guards restrained her. They led her to the house where the Dutch trade director waited. Peony struggled and sobbed. The guards threw her into the barbarian's room and locked the door.

  The barbarian rose from his seat. Peony shrank back against the door, fearing his strange blue eyes, light hair, and immense size. His odor sickened her. Helplessly she waited for him to assault her the way other foreigners did after long journeys without women. He would savage her with those huge hands and strong teeth. His huge organ would tear her insides apart. Peony suppressed a scream, fearing that resistance might provoke cruelty.

  But the barbarian merely pointed to himself and said, oJan Spaen. Then he pointed to her, a question in his strange eyes.

  oPeony, she whispered, surprised. Clients never asked her name; she was just a convenience to them.

  Jan Spaen went to the table and poured two cups from a flask. oEen brandewijn? he said, offering one to her.

  And clients never offered her a drink, as they did the prettier women. She accepted the cup, careful not to t
ouch his hand. Maybe the liquor would give her courage. When Jan Spaen sat on his raised bed and motioned for her to join him, she perched as far from him as possible. He raised his cup to her, then drank. Hesitantly she followed suit. The potent foreign liquor burned her throat. Heat flushed her body. Suddenly light-headed, she giggled despite her fear. Jan Spaen proffered the flask.

  oYes, please, Peony said eagerly.

  They drank again, and she relaxed. The barbarian wasn't so bad after all. He didn't seem to notice her ugliness. His smell no longer seemed so awful, either. Though she knew he didn't understand Japanese, she began to flirt with him.

  oMaster is so kind, she cooed. oAnd so strong and virile.

  The barbarian answered in his own tongue. Their attempts at conversation struck them both as hilarious; they laughed together. Peony, the usual butt of all jokes, marveled at the unexpected pleasure of shared humor.

  Then Spaen set the cups aside. His expression turned serious. Peony saw the hunger in his eyes, and her fear returned. She fumbled at the knot in her sash. Maybe once they got the sex over with, they could drink and laugh again.