Free The Gilded Fan (Choc Lit) by Christina Courtenay

an imposing chamber, no doubt designed to intimidate the accused prisoners brought here. There was a distinct smell of fear in the air, making Midori take shallow breaths in order to avoid breathing it in.
    ‘I can walk by myself,’ she hissed, but the guard refused to let go of her arm.
    Her eyes darted around to see what or whom she was up against. On the dais at the other end sat a small, wizened man in black robes and with a black hat set on top of his white hair. A pointy goatee beard and drooping moustache, together with the oblong shape of his face and barely visible eyes, made him look like a disaffected rat. When he started to speak, Midori wasn’t surprised to see that he had rather large, protruding front teeth. She concentrated on the image of a rodent in order to distract her mind from all the other thoughts crowding into it, so as not to show any signs of fear.
I’m not afraid of rats.
    ‘Kumashiro Midori,’ the man stated. ‘You have been arrested by order of the
Shogun
as a
gai-jin
and traitor. Do you have anything to say?’
    ‘I am not a
gai-jin
, my lord, I am a true
Nihon-jin
and I would fight to the death for my country and the
Shogun
. I have been falsely accused, I know not by whom,’ she stated boldly, raising her chin a notch for added measure.
    ‘We have it on good authority your mother was a foreigner and a Christian. You have been tainted by her,’ the man said, his tone emotionless.
    ‘No!’ The word came out a bit too forcefully, so Midori took a deep breath before continuing. She had to stay calm, had to convince them somehow. ‘That is, yes, my mother was a foreigner, but I didn’t adopt her faith. I follow my father’s teachings, nothing else.’
    ‘I think not. You have been observed.’ The man rustled some pieces of paper and peered at one. ‘It says here you have been heard praying to the Christian god and that you own a symbol which signifies your acceptance of this faith.’ He beckoned to someone next to him who held up a small gold cross on a chain. Midori blinked.
    No, it can’t be!
    ‘This belongs to you,
neh
?’ Rat-face took it from his henchman and threw it at her contemptuously. With quick reflexes she caught the offending object, staring at it in disbelief and almost with loathing.
Such a small, pretty thing, but so dangerous. I should never have kept it.
    ‘I … it was my mother’s. She left it to me as a keepsake, but it means nothing to me other than that. I swear.’ Midori clenched her fists in frustration, slipping the offending item into a secret pocket inside her sleeve. How had they got hold of it? She’d been so sure it was well hidden, but she realised now that whoever had searched her basket must have unpicked the seam, then put the parcel back inside without the cross. She cursed inwardly; she should have made sure. But who had done such a thing and why? There must have been someone in Ichiro’s household spying on her, perhaps even one of her own servants.
    ‘I see you are proving difficult.’ The man nodded to himself, as if this was something he had already expected. ‘Well, we shall soon see if you change your tune. Tie her up and take her away.’ With a flick of the wrist, he dismissed her from his sight and the guard shoved her in the direction of two coarse-looking individuals.
    ‘No! I can prove it. I’ll sign a declaration, anything …’ Midori tried to protest further, but was cut off by a cuff across the cheek.
    ‘Let’s go.’ The taller of the two men dragged her away and she knew then that Ichiro had been right all along – no one would listen to her. No one would believe her.
    She had lost.

Chapter Seven
    Outside the main gate of the prison, Nico was wondering if he’d taken leave of his senses.
What on earth possessed me to offer to help?
Any sensible man would have boarded his ship, not become embroiled in some doomed rescue attempt because of a misguided sense of duty towards a woman he’d only met