Free The Fire Kimono by Laura Joh Rowland Page A

his incriminating story about her. Reiko listened in shock.
    “Who is this Colonel Doi, and why is everybody taking his accusation seriously?” she asked.
    “He’s a big man in Lord Matsudaira’s army,” Sano replied.
    “I should have guessed,” Reiko said. “Lord Matsudaira is behind everything bad that happens.” She remembered the matter that had been foremost in her mind just moments ago. “I know you don’t need more problems, but there’s something I must tell you that can’t wait. My bodyguard has discovered that Lord Matsudaira has a spy in our house.”
    Sano lifted his eyes skyward, simultaneously alarmed, vexed, and overwhelmed. “You’re right, I didn’t need that now. But thank you for alerting me. I’ll mount a search for the spy as soon as I have a free moment.”
    Reiko said, “Planting a spy in our midst is bad enough, but now Lord Matsudaira has attacked your poor, helpless mother. This is preposterous! Of course she didn’t kill that boy.”
    “Of course.” But Sano’s expression was grave, conflicted.
    “You can’t think there’s any chance she did it?” Amazement filled Reiko.
    Sano’s frown deepened. “I really don’t know what to think.” He expelled a deep breath. “It seems I don’t really know my mother. She led me to believe she was a peasant, but I just now learned that she’s from a Tokugawa vassal clan.”
    As Sano related how this fact had come out, Reiko shook her head. That her meek, shy mother-in-law had a secret past!
    But as Reiko recovered from her initial shock, she wasn’t really surprised. She remembered things about Sano’s mother that had never fit her persona. Her manners had the effortless grace of a lady. Her speech was more refined than a typical commoner’s. Although she dressed plainly, her clothes had an elegance that had less to do with expensive fabric and the latest fashion than with the wearer’s style. Sano wouldn’t have noticed such things; men seldom did. Reiko hadn’t told Sano because she hadn’t thought it important enough and he would have scoffed at the idea that his mother was someone other than she seemed. But the revelation about his mother explained a lot.
    “How did her life turn out the way it did?” Reiko asked.
    “I don’t know. That’s one question I mean to ask her.” Sano’s expression was stony with hurt because his mother had deceived him, and grim because he now must contend with her troubles as well as his own. “And believe me, I have plenty of others. I have to determine who really killed Tadatoshi, and at the moment she’s my only source of clues.”
    He turned toward the guest room. “She should be settled by now.”
    “Shall I come with you?” Reiko asked, filled with curiosity.
    “No,” Sano said. “I’d rather talk to her alone. Whatever she says, I’ll tell you later.”
    Reiko resisted the temptation to eavesdrop. As Sano entered the guest room, she drifted down the corridor, marveling at the turn of events. Last night she’d offered to help him with his investigation if something arose that she could work on at home. Now it had. The investigation had come to her, in the form of the one and only suspect.
    Sano’s mother lay in bed, propped on cushions, guarded by Hana. Her expression was desolate. She gazed into space, her hands limp on the quilt that covered her. She hadn’t touched the tea set on the table. But at least she was calm.
    “Mother?” Sano knelt at her feet.
    She blinked, and her eyes focused on him. In them appeared the same expression with which she’d beheld him since his childhood-a mixture of love, pride, and maternal anxiety. But there was something new.
    It was fear.
    Of him.
    Sano didn’t want to think what her fear might signify. “Are you all right?”
    She nodded, murmuring, “I’m sorry to make so much trouble for you.”
    “Don’t worry about me,” Sano said with affection. She’d always put him first. “I want to help you. I need to ask you