Falling Through Glass (26 page)

“No!” Kae shouted. “Emiko is innocent! She has been used. You must investigate first. I beg of you.”

Prince Asahiko glared at Emmi then looked to his son. His harsh expression softened just a fraction.

“She stays there until she is sent for,” Asahiko hissed. Guards posted themselves around her while others pulled Kae away. Emmi heard him trying to talk to his father, but Asahiko ignored him.

Emmi had no idea how long she was there. The sun shifted and began to go down. She was so thirsty. Her knees hurt so badly, and her ankles and feet were going numb. Finally she gave up kneeling and sat with her legs bent to the side. She tried to rub the circulation back into them, and winced as the pins and needles pain shot through her.

Darkness was falling over the palace grounds when a shadow crossed in front of Emmi, blocking out what little light remained. She looked up to see Kojima-san looking down. His expression was indescribable—his nasty, ugly thoughts were projected outward onto his face.

How could she ever have thought this guy was nice to be around?

“I never would have imagined an ill-bred thing like you could topple the mighty Nakagawa no miya and his insipid son.”

“Bastard,” Emmi muttered, returning his icy stare.

He said something to one of the guards, and Emmi was jerked to her feet and dragged toward a building that she’d never been in before. But they didn’t go in, they went around and into a small, enclosed courtyard. When she saw what waited there, she screamed.

It was Kae and his father. They were dressed in white ceremonial outfits that she’d only ever seen in the movies—the outfits that samurai wore when about to commit seppuku, ritual suicide. Before them were tiny wooden tables upon which lay sheets of rice paper and atop that, dagger blades removed from their hilts.

Emmi tried to break away from the guards and run to the old man who seemed to be overseeing it all. She’d forgotten his name but remembered he and Kae’s father didn’t get along. Kojima-san went and took his place beside the old noble.

“You can’t do this! They didn’t do anything wrong! It was a mistake! I didn’t know who the prince was! I swear I didn’t! I thought he was just a boy who lived here and wanted to go outside!”

“Silence!” Kojima-san shouted.

“No!” Emmi shrieked back. “I wasn’t trying to kidnap the prince or hurt him! I was trying to find Kae to make sure he was safe, and that he wasn’t caught up in the raid on the Choshu at the—”

Everybody’s head turned her way. She’d really done it this time. But what else could she do? She would not let Kae and his father die. She had to spill the history even if it hadn’t happened yet. She looked at each of the men assembled in turn and tried to figure out what to say to make them believe her. She noted the usually uber-cool Kojima-san was looking awfully uncomfortable all of a sudden.

Before she could say more, a weird intake of breath from everyone caught her attention, and Emmi looked around to find Sachi and a finely dressed, stately woman standing in the opened door of the building behind the courtyard. Could that be the empress?

Emmi suddenly realized everyone was on their knees and bowing with their foreheads to the ground. Everyone but her. She fell to her knees and did likewise. After what seemed like forever, the noble who’d been presiding over things spoke, and Emmi looked up. Sachi and the lady were gone, and the noble was folding whatever message they’d brought.

“Nakagawa no miya, you and your son are to be confined until further notice, pending an answer to the message his Divine Highness will be sending to Edo.”

You and your son…

“But what about me?” Emmi whispered.

She jumped when the old noble turned and stared at her. “You, girl, come with me.”

She couldn’t move. She was too scared. Two guards roughly pulled her to her feet. Kae tried to jump up, but his father stopped him. Tears were blurring Emmi’s vision, but she kept looking at Kae as the guards dragged her inside. She told herself it was her own tears clouding things and making her think that he was crying too.

Her mouth was dry, and fear shook her so thoroughly that if the guards hadn’t been pulling her along she wouldn’t have been able to stand.

She wasn’t sure how many buildings they went through, but when they finally came to a stop, she fully expected to find a samurai assassin waiting on the other side of the sliding door.

There was no assassin inside. There was no one at all. It was only a big, empty room with new tatami mats on the floor. A raised platform was at one end with a bamboo screen in front of it that almost touched the floor.

She heard another door slide open from somewhere behind the bamboo curtain, and when the noble bowed with his head to the floor, Emmi did the same and didn’t move until he poked her with the end of his fan.

When she looked up, someone was sitting behind the curtain. Oh no. She knew that silhouette. She’d seen it at her wedding to Kae. It was the emperor himself.

Her empty stomach cramped. He probably wanted to kill her personally for kidnapping his son, or at least watch while the old guy beside her carried out the execution.

“My son has said he ordered you to take him outside the palace walls. Is this true?”

Oh, Sachi, I could kiss you, you princely little dork.

It would have been so easy to go along with the story, but she’d never been good at lying, and there was no point in trying to start now.

“He didn’t order me, Your Highness, Sir. I didn’t realize he was your son. I thought he was just a little boy who didn’t have any friends to go to the festival with. Sir, Your Highness. Please, this was all my mistake. Kae, my husband, and his father had nothing to do with it. I acted foolishly, without their knowledge or consent. Punish me if you need to, but let them go. Please spare them and my family.”

Emmi didn’t want to cry but found she couldn’t help it. She kept thinking of Kae and his dad and Takehito and Sadanori…and seppuku.

She bowed her head to the floor again. “Please let them all live. If someone has to die, take me in their place. Please.”

“Go now.”

Emmi looked up. The emperor was standing, leaving. Kae would die. His father, her relatives would all die. “Please believe me! I didn’t know he was your son! It was my mistake, no one else’s! Please spare them. Please!”

He left, and that was that. The old courtier poked her again, and the guards took her back outside.

Kae and his father were gone, but Kojima was there looking like the freaking Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland. She wanted to slap that smirk off his face. Someone rushed out and gave the old noble a letter. He read it and looked kind of cheesed off as he showed it to Kojima, who also looked upset.

Kojima walked past her. “You’ve all been spared for the moment. Enjoy it while it lasts, for it won’t last very long.”

Chapter Thirty-One

As far as jail cells went, Emmi decided hers wasn’t so bad. It wasn’t a real jail cell like the ones at the Shinsengumi compound but simply a small, unfurnished, dark room tucked in the back of one of the palace outbuildings that obviously no one ever came to.

Oh no.

Were they just going to leave her here to rot away and die?

Tears stung Emmi’s eyes when she realized they very well might, but she sniffed the tears away. Everyone back home probably thought she’d been killed in that weird storm that blew through the movie lot anyway, so it didn’t much matter to anyone.

Except to her.

The cramped, dim room was hot and stuffy, but a chill settled in Emmi’s bones and she hugged her arms around herself. The most important thing was that Kae, his father and Takehito were alive. At least she wouldn’t have to die with the thought that her stupidity had taken innocent men to their deaths as well.

She wanted to go home. She wanted to see Jake and her grandparents. Her brother and even her mother. What she wanted more than anything was someone to hug her and tell she was safe.

And, yes, she wanted Kae to be that person, but that certainly wasn’t ever going to happen now.

* * * *

Kae watched silently as the servant women carefully packed up and removed Emiko’s things. So this was it. It was over between them before he’d even gotten the chance to really know her, to love her more than he already did.

“Wait. Not that,” he said to the girl who was taking the parcel of odd undergarments he’d had made for Emmi in Gion.

“But, sir—”

“Just leave it. Please.”

The girl frowned a bit but did as he asked. She set the small wrapped bundle at his feet before withdrawing with the last of Emmi’s things. Kae lay back on the tatami and rested his head upon the bundle, certain he could smell Emmi’s sweet scent lingering in the fabric.

It had been such a short time since she’d come into his life, and yet it seemed as if she’d been a part of his world forever. He knew he would be lost without her, but what else could he do? Even with everyone sworn to secrecy under the penalty of death for what happened to the young prince, the fact was that Emiko must be divorced and exiled as soon as possible. It was only by the grace of the gods that Emperor Komei and the shogun had decided to spare the entire Maeda clan from the retribution that would normally be handed down.

Kae didn’t even bother to worry about where he would be sent. Most likely he’d be exiled to some remote temple and forced into monkhood for the remainder of his days. Not that it mattered. There was nothing for him here, nothing without his Emmi.

“Kae-san?”

Kae’s eyes snapped open at the sound of a boy’s voice, and he immediately prostrated himself before the emperor’s heir. “My Lord, you should not be here.”

“Are you no longer my friend?”

“The foolish actions of my wife have brought too much dishonor. Please, my Lord, I beg you to remove yourself from this unworthy one’s presence.”

“No. I will stay.” Sachi sat in front of Kae. “My father is very angry.”

“As he should be, my Lord,” Kae said with his forehead still pressed to the tatami.

“I was angry, but now I am sad.”

“Sad?”

“I have been lonely since they locked you and Emiko-chan away. I miss you telling me stories when I can’t sleep. I miss watching your wife write such bad poetry. I miss the happiness she brought me at the festival. I miss your wife, Kae-san.”

Kae lifted his head enough to glance up. Sachi was a blurred shape through the tears that formed in his eyes.

“As do I, my Lord, but it cannot be helped. We have offended you. We have brought shame upon our families and ourselves. We must be punished.”

“So they say.”

The young prince rose and disappeared back into the hidden passage from which he’d come.

Kae sat up and wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. Perhaps death would be the best option for him now. At least it would still the pain in his heart.

* * * *

Kyoto

Present day

Jake Hillhouse shifted nervously and glanced to his sister before turning to Emmi’s mother.

“Tara, I have a real bad feeling about this. I don’t think you should go through with this ritual or ceremony or whatever it is.”

“My daughter is missing. I will do anything to get Emmi back, no matter how crazy it seems. She didn’t get blown away in that storm. She’s not dead. She’s somewhere. I know it, and I’ll get her back with Honji’s help.”

Jake glanced at his sister again, but watched silently as Tara stepped into the waiting elevator with the former Buddhist monk who was certain he could return Emmi to their living world.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Kyoto

1864

It seemed to be a week before they stopped shoving food trays through the door to Emmi’s cell-like room. Hana, the girl who brought the food, finally joined Emmi for a meal. Hana also had the dubious honor of bringing her a bucket of cold water to wash with in the mornings and taking away the other disgusting bucket that served as her bathroom.

Emmi almost choked on her rice when Hana said that she would take her to get a real bath and a change of clothes once she had finished her meal.

“I would give anything to soak in a tub of hot water and be able to wash my hair—” Emmi felt the smile drop from her face. Maybe this was not a good thing. Maybe they only wanted her clean and presentable when it came time for the long-delayed execution.

Emmi pushed her food tray away. “I can’t eat any more.”

Hana looked at her a moment, then nodded and took the tray outside. She came right back with a tray containing clean clothes. A flash of pale yellow caught Emmi’s attention, and she reached under to lift the kimono. She bit her lip and tried to blink away the tears that were stinging her eyes. It was the silk underwear Kae had given her.

“I will help you to the bath now.”

Emmi wiped the tears away with the back of her hand and stood, clutching the tray with the clothes to her chest.

Emmi felt awkward with the maid hanging around while she undressed and bathed, but she supposed they didn’t want her to try to escape or drown herself. At least sitting in the big tub and being able to pour water over her head hid the fact that she was crying like a baby the whole time. The bath should have made her feel better, but it didn’t.

Emmi hardly noticed that when they left the bathhouse, Hana wasn’t leading her back the way they’d come. Finally she looked up and realized that this corridor was familiar. This was the way to Kae’s rooms.

“Emmi.”

She spun around so fast she almost lost her balance and had to reach out to grab the wall. There he was. Kae was there—here—standing just a few feet away in the doorway that led outside. She bolted forward and threw herself at him. She hugged him as tightly as she could and buried her face in his shoulder. She didn’t even care that the hilts of his swords were jabbing her in the stomach.

“They’re going to kill me, aren’t they? But I don’t care. Not really. Not as long as you and your father are all right. You’re going to be okay, right? And Takehito is safe? And Sadanori?”