When Suga, at her directions, had finished getting the boxes containing small tables and soup bowls down from their shelves, Tomo asked her about Yumi. Although jealousy might have been expected between concubines of the same man, they had never shown any sign of rivalry for his affections. Perhaps it was because they were both young enough to be his children. Yet grateful though she was for the sisterliness that kept the household free of strife, there were times when Tomo could not help wondering at the meekness with which the two young women accepted their lot. For that same reason, though, she felt it wiser in a case like the present one to use Suga as an intermediary in ascertaining Yukitomo’s and Yumi’s true feelings.

Kneeling on the matting with a box containing a small lacquered table still in front of her, Suga lowered her thick eyelashes as she listened to Tomo, then said in a dismal voice:

‘The master would agree. I believe he was the one who first suggested that Yumi should leave and settle down in her own home.’

Her face as she sat with the sunlight falling on her back was in shadow, the large eyes alone gleaming with a mournful light. Tomo had the illusion that Suga was blaming her for something.

‘From the very beginning I don’t think the master was as fond of Yumi as he was of you … I don’t suppose that’s changed lately has it?’

‘Me …?’ Suga stirred lethargically and rubbed her hands on her knees as she spoke. ‘It doesn’t matter about me. But Yumi’s such a lively girl. I expect she’s got tired of always being a “second woman.”’

Suga’s low tones as she uttered the words ‘second woman’ had a leaden quality that struck home forcefully to Tomo’s heart. Whenever she heard the phrase, Tomo was reminded vividly of the time when at Yukitomo’s command she had gone to Tokyo, found the young Suga, and brought her back to Fukushima where her husband worked. For the change from the charming young victim to the apathetic Suga of today, dull as a silkworm’s cocoon, there lay a responsibility that could not, Tomo felt, be attributed to her husband alone.

‘We are resigned to being ‘second women,’ but when people who aren’t supposed to be like us start behaving in the same way, I think it’s terrible.’

A great tear splashed down from Suga’s heavy-lidded eyes and fell on her knee. Looking down, she covered it with her finger and remained with head bowed.

‘I know – you mean Tsunamachi, don’t you? You don’t know how much that’s worried me too. I thought perhaps you’d understand at least a little.’

Tomo sighed, her gaze resting on Suga’s finger as though she resented the tear.