The Samurai's Daughter Read Online Free PDF Page A

who’d persuaded the shogun’s men to hand over Edo Castle to the enemy without even a fight, the murderer who’d been responsible for the deaths of half Nobu’s family, the destruction of his domain and the dispersal of his whole clan. The very thought of Kitaoka made him shudder. He hated him from the very depths of his soul. Every Aizu knew his name. He had Aizu blood on his hands.
    Gonsuké grinned. ‘No need to look so worried. You’re wondering why such a great family would look twice at a scarecrow like you. I wonder that myself. All they had to do was give you some money, not offer you a job. You must have done something in one of your previous lives to have had such good luck.’
    A chill ran down Nobu’s spine. He’d been about to walk blithely right into the enemy’s grasp. He needed work, but not so badly that he’d grovel in front of the Satsuma butcher. He’d rather starve than that.
    Panting in horror, he shoved his pipe in his sash, leapt to his feet and barged through the mob of men in their medley of ill-fitting western clothes and Japanese garments, grinning and gabbling like monkeys. He’d reached the doorway and was breathing fresh air and was about to rush into the street when there was an explosion of shouts and laughter and swirling smoke behind him as the door to the dining room slid open. A girl appeared, the one who’d asked her mother to give him a job.
    She glanced around the room, frowning as if she was looking for someone. As she darted through the crowd who leapt aside to let her pass, he realized with a shock that it was him. She grabbed his sleeve and held it tight. ‘Don’t go,’ she pleaded. ‘Please don’t go. Come with us. It’s a good house, you’ll be happy there.’
    Nobu stopped in his tracks. He’d seen plenty of women in his young life – the samurai matriarchs of his childhood, the geishas, courtesans, musicians and foul-mouthed whores who populated the East End and the wives and concubines of the impoverished northerners he’d been in service with – but never anyone like her. Halfway between a child and a woman, she had the sweetest face he’d ever seen, with skin like porcelain and wide brown eyes with a fleck of gold and an air of innocence that was irresistibly appealing. He realized that he was staring but it was hard to turn his eyes away. He forgot his urge to flee. It was unimaginable that such a girl could be related to the monstrous General Kitaoka.
    She seemed blithely unaware of the fears and misgivings clamouring in his mind. Her face lit up. ‘So you’ll stay then. I’m so happy.’
    The rickshaw pullers and grooms leapt to their feet, bowing deferentially, as her mother, large and regal, swept into the antechamber, her skirts rustling, followed by the lady in the kimono and the older girl in the pale yellow dress.
    Nobu had been so determined never to work for them but now he saw them he thought it couldn’t be that bad. They seemed kind and the girl in the pink dress smiled at him so winningly, as if he was the one doing them a favour. He was intrigued by them. He knew if he went with them he’d have to watch his step. It was sheer folly going to live in the house of the enemy. But he had nothing left to lose, and at least it was a job.
    The Satsuma section of town was right at the edge of the city, in the no-man’s-land where the shoguns had had their execution grounds. It was at the Tokyo end of the Eastern Sea Road, along which the Satsuma delegations used to march when they came up from their home at the tip of the island of Kyushu way down in the south-west. The powerful Satsuma clan had been among the chief of the shogun’s enemies and it was there that they had been ordered to build their mansions, a good distance from Edo Castle, where they could cause the least trouble. It was also where the foreign legations had been located when the barbarians arrived, for the same reason.
    Nobu ran with the grooms in the cloud of dust