The Scent of Sake (19 page)

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worry about Yoshi, though there was no threat to his health. She also wanted to make him wonder about the motive for adopting his two illegitimate daughters.

“So, I believe Father wants you to go to meet the two geishas, to ascertain if the babies are perfectly healthy and normal, then to arrange for their adoption, as you did with Yoshi.”

Jihei sat up, frowned, and rested his head in his hands. “I’m not sure that they will want to give up their daughters.” He rubbed his face.

“You will persuade them, then. They will realize that their lives will be far better than if they were raised in an okiya. And of course they will be compensated, and their daughters well cared for here.”

Jihei groaned and lay back on his futon. Rie smiled and slept well, thinking of the future expansion of the Omura House. Her father’s dream.

The memory of the night Masami became her lover O-Toki would cherish always in some secret recesses of her heart. Only O-Haru of the Sawaraya would know, she who could so well divine anyone’s deepest emotion. Masami had asked for O-Toki at the Sawaraya twice before that night, and she had served sake and played the
samisen
for him and his two friends. As she filled the three small cups she took in the features that set Masami apart from his friends: the finely chiseled chin, the skin that seemed almost luminous, the wavy hair, and the compelling black eyes that seemed to penetrate her inner being.

The fabric of her life was woven of men, so many that she thought she was immune to them, until Masami. And the irony was that she should feel this passion for Masami, a man without the worldly position and wealth of the Omuras. Masami was a cooper’s son, an honest enough profession, but one that could never aspire to the status of a large brewer. After his first two

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visits, O-Toki found herself waiting for his next visit as breathlessly as a sixteen-year-old for her first lover. When he appeared alone, and asked for her again, the force of O-Toki’s passion surprised even herself.

The next day and the days following, O-Toki found herself anticipating Masami’s next visit, regretting that he was not free to come more often. For Jihei she felt only the sense of obligation toward a principal patron. When she became pregnant again, O-Toki knew the child was Masami’s, not Jihei’s.

It was O-Haru who first noticed the physical changes. She and O-Toki had become friends, something difficult at O-Toki’s okiya, where competition so often precluded friendship. O-Toki sat with O-Haru one morning as they manicured their nails. It was a time for confidences.

“Let me see your eyes,” O-Haru said. “Why?” O-Toki asked, looking up at O-Haru.

“Yes,” O-Haru began, “I can always tell when a woman is pregnant by looking at her eyes, even before the other signs. You are pregnant, O-Toki. I’m certain.”

To O-Toki’s dismay, O-Haru was right, as always. As the weeks passed and it became more difficult to conceal her condition, O-Toki had to make a decision . . . two decisions. She spoke with O-Haru again.

“What about Masami? Have you told him you are expecting?” O-Haru asked.

O-Toki stroked her stomach, sadness enveloping her. “He knows I am pregnant and that the child is his. He thinks he is my only patron. But he is in no position to recognize the baby,” she said, trying to hide the bitterness she felt. “He is about to be married and won’t have much to inherit. He isn’t the first son. So he won’t be concerned with the child’s welfare. He knows I can support her. I say ‘her’ because I feel the baby will be a girl.”

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“So you plan to keep the child?”

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“I have no plans for an abortion. But no, I won’t raise her,” she said sadly.

O-Haru raised her eyebrows. “Why not?”

“I let my son go to the Omura House because he’ll inherit a powerful house. A boy born here in the water world has such meager prospects.” She paused to arrange her hair, and cringed as she glanced at her mirror. What would happen when her beauty faded? Where would she go, she wondered with a sigh? At least her children would be cared for. “Now there’s also a reason to give up my daughter, though it pains me more than I can say. Two reasons, or maybe three. I don’t want her to grow up here, to do what I do. I want Jihei to adopt her. And as an Omura daughter she’ll have a good life and a chance for a respectable marriage. And a third reason: it will give me great satisfaction to tell Jihei she is his child when I know she is really Masami’s.” O-Toki smiled and pulled her comb through her high coiffure.

O-Haru nodded. “Ah, O-Toki, I’ve always known you were clever. It’s the only kind of power we really have, isn’t it, the ability to dissemble? And if I’ve learned anything working in the water world all my life, it’s that nothing is what it seems. There’s what we see on the surface but something else beneath it, something quite different, which may possibly be the truth.” O-Haru paused and glanced at O-Toki. “But will the Omuras want a gei-sha’s daughter when they already have an heir?”

“What Jihei tells me makes me think his wife and her father are willing. They have recognized a girl from another house, the Kitaya I believe. Jihei has been busy here in the quarter, it seems.”

O-Haru pursed her lips and frowned. “That’s strange, isn’t it? Not that he frequents more than one house, but that the Omuras want to recognize the daughter of a geisha. A son I can under—

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stand, since the house had no children of its own. But the daughter of a geisha stays with her mother. And doesn’t Jihei also have a daughter? Daughters are useful to us in old age. The patron gives something toward raising her but does not recognize her.
Hmm.
It’s an unusual situation, something I haven’t encountered before.” O-Haru smoothed her hair slowly.

“In any case, I won’t need to discuss the baby’s future with Jihei until after she is born.”

One evening Jihei went on his errand to the Kitaya to see O-Yumi. She was a woman taller and more mature in years and figure than O-Toki. She also seemed genuinely fond of Jihei. He wondered.
Perhaps the fact that she is getting on in years, starting to lose her youthful bloom, makes her so attentive, almost anxious
. Of course, geishas were all attentive, Jihei knew, but with O-Yumi her devotion seemed to surpass the simple training they all received in serving a man’s moods and needs, especially in the case of a patron. Still, it was becoming difficult financially to be the patron of two women, since Rie was keeping such close track of finances now, but Kin gave him a small sum on the side each month, the secret “navel savings” fund that did not enter the ledgers. After all, it was expected that a man of substance would have a woman other than his wife. And Kin was pleased to have Yoshitaro in the house. He knew the importance of maintaining the continuity of house head for White Tiger, and he was after all a man himself.

As soon as Jihei arrived at the Kitaya, O-Yumi hurried to the entrance and greeted him enthusiastically.

“Oh, Master, welcome. I’m so happy to see you.”

She led him to the room they regarded as their own. The house was not as lavish as the Sawaraya, but Jihei felt the atmosphere was warmer, less commercial and imposing. And more intimate,

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as soon became apparent when O-Yumi helped him to undress and put on a house yukata, preparing him for a bath.

“I’ll join you in a few minutes,” she promised.

The bath was a small private one, not generally intended for guests. Jihei enjoyed the intimacy and inhaled the fragrance of citron left from New Year’s that gave the steamy room a lemony aroma. As he waited he mused.
I married according to my parents’ wishes and produced an heir for the Omura House. Now I’ve earned this. A man needs something for himself. But how do I persuade O-Yumi to give up Kazu?

When O-Yumi joined Jihei she disrobed, washed, rinsed, and stepped into the bath. She embraced him without hesitation. He decided to speak before he lost his nerve.

“How is Ka-chan today?” he asked, releasing O-Yumi’s arms from around his neck and looking into her face.

O-Yumi laughed. “She is growing fatter every day, such a joy.

I’m so glad I decided against an abortion.”

“So am I,” Jihei said, pausing. “Actually, the Omura House would like to adopt her.” He pursed his lips and frowned, aware that O-Yumi would protest.

“No! I can’t give up my daughter! She is mine. She will comfort and support me in my old age. No geisha wants to give up a daughter. I can’t.” She began to sob.

“But O-Yumi, you won’t really be giving her up, you know. You will be able to come to special events . . . her marriage, to watch. And you know she will have a good life and good prospects for marriage being brought up as an Omura daughter. We will care for her well.” He refrained from saying “better than you could.”

“What will happen to me when I can no longer work, without her to help?” She was biting her nails in distress.

He put his arms around O-Yumi and tried to comfort her as

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