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evening Rie again took a sake flask to the dining room where her father sat with Jihei. She paused beyond the shoji
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    to listen to their conversation, hoping to glean something that would help her learn more about the business, as well as about Jihei.
    “You know both Kato and Yamaguchi have increased their Edo shipments in the past two months,” Kinzaemon said. “It might be a good time to raise our shipments twenty percent.”
    Good work, Kin. Rie smiled, peered cautiously into the room, and glanced at Jihei.
    He pulled at his collar uncomfortably. “But twenty percent? Isn’t that quite risky? Shouldn’t we start more gradually, say five percent?”
    Kinzaemon paused. “Well, as Kin says, we have to watch Kato and especially Yamaguchi. Perhaps Kin is right. The market in Edo looks very good. You know the samurai there love their sake as much as anyone. And they have more leisure time than we do.”
    Jihei shifted on his zabuton. He snorted. “ Leisure! We don’t know the meaning of the word.” He reached for his cup. “And we don’t want to do anything to jeopardize our local sales, do we? They’re secure.” He pulled at his eyebrows.
    Fool! Rie thought, trying to contain her anger.
    “Kin assures me they will remain secure.” Her father folded his arms and leaned back, his eyes closed.
    Rie kicked at the wall. So Jihei would resist any forward move by White Tiger. How could he be a worthy successor to the house with so little business acumen? What would become of her father’s dream? The dream she’d vowed to uphold. She closed her eyes and forced herself to think. She would somehow have to intervene, so that her father wouldn’t realize he had made a poor choice in Jihei. That Jihei could not be worthy of the house Rie had no doubt now. And that he had been a poor choice for a husband, she was certain. No love was growing between them as her mother had hoped, only an uneasy alliance. She thought of Saburo and felt an unnamed yearning so strong it almost made
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    her stagger. No. She could not give in to weakness right now. She straightened her obi before entering the room to pour sake for the men. And to listen, closely.

    In the ensuing months White Tiger did begin to increase its sales to Edo, reaching a total rise of twenty percent.
    “You were right, Kin-san,” Rie overheard her father say in the inner office one day. “The risk was well worth it.”
    She peered in around the shoji, equal bursts of pride and relief inside her.
    Kin bowed. “Now we are moving up to Yamaguchi in our Edo shipping.”
    Rie smiled to herself and walked back to the kitchen. She’d been right! Now she knew she had what it took to make her father’s dream a reality. Later in the evening she found a chance to slip into the inner office when she knew her father and Jihei were dining.
    “Good evening, Kin-san.” Rie bowed as she entered the room. “ Ah, O-Josama.” Kin beamed. “The increase in our shipping
    to Edo has succeeded.”
    “You didn’t tell Father that I spoke with you, did you?” “No. I believe he thought it was my idea.”
    “Thank you, Kin-san. I knew I could count on you.” Rie nodded slightly, but inside she was dancing. “This is a big step for White Tiger.” Rie was so pleased that even the thought of her inept husband couldn’t subdue her good mood.

    After her experience of the wedding night, Rie had shuddered at the thought of a repetition, but knew there was no choice if she were to fulfill her major obligation and produce an heir for the house. For many nights over the next weeks and months she forced herself to succumb to Jihei’s drunken groping and thrusting, wishing it were Saburo instead of this horrid man who disgusted her. She imagined Saburo soft, tender, those intense
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    brown eyes watching hers . . . unlike Jihei, who didn’t seem to notice whether or not she responded, caring only for himself. Rie wondered how other women