She didn’t protest and went inside. He heard the sound of running water and dropped down on the bed, wincing at the wound in his shoulder. He ran through what he would do with Sakura once he had finished with her this evening. She was a beautiful woman, and there was a pleasure to be derived from being with the woman who had chosen his brother as her husband. His early interactions with her had been driven by his own resentments, but that had changed. He had begun to hope that their relationship might evolve into something more. He knew that she tolerated his demands in return for her safety and the safety of her son, but he had hoped that—in time—she might see beyond that. Katsuro was not naive enough to think that she might love him, but perhaps she would one day accede to him without the same fear in her eyes. He could see now that they had not reached that point yet. She still resented him.

He would just have to try harder. She would see sense in the end.

There was a knocking on the door. Katsuro opened it and saw that the manager had brought him the bottle of champagne with two flutes. He took the bottle and dismissed the man.

Katsuro removed the foil from the bottle and held it with his left hand so that the seam where the two parts of the bottle joined was facing up. He opened the bag and took out the tantō and, with a quick downward stroke, brought the blade down against the annulus of the bottle, breaking it and ejecting the cork across the room. He stood the glasses on the bedside table and started to pour.

108

Milton wandered, telling himself that he was making sure that he was not being followed but, really, just walking with no idea where he should go. He knew that he would have to tell Hachirō what had happened, but he didn’t know how to start. Everything that could have gone wrong had gone wrong: he had lost the sword and Sakura. And it was his fault. He knew that. His fault and no one else’s. He had been careful with their arrival into the city, and had been as sure as he could have been that they had not been detected, but he had overlooked something, and the consequences could not have been worse. Katsuro had found them. Milton had erred and now Sakura was going to pay the price. He didn’t know what he was going to say to her father.