There were times when Suga imagined how it would be if the mistress were to go away somewhere, but she was quite sure that no hints of her own could ever make Yukitomo turn her out. Sexually Tomo might mean nothing to Yukitomo, but she was secure in her position as his most trusted manager. He could have no more convenient and faithful supervisor of his affairs. Even supposing he got rid of Tomo, Suga would never have the ability to supervise the property; how much easier to go on living her days passive beneath the mistress’ repressive regime than even to contemplate such a troublesome, disturbing idea … But if the mistress were to die unavoidably and unexpectedly, it would be different. If such a thing happened, what a sense of relief it would bring, as though the thick layer of clouds lowering above her head had quite suddenly cleared away … Each time she had such thoughts Suga felt guilty despite herself and strove to brush aside the cobwebs gathering about her heart. It was as though a devil had taken residence within her. At the same time, she felt quite clearly that she would never have been a devil had she not been trapped in her present surroundings.

Inside the self that achieved expression neither in action nor in words, that seemed so ineffectual, the feelings that could find no relief lay dark, cold, and silent, like snow settled by night.

The untroubled quality that Yumi maintained in the same situation had inspired Suga with envy as well as a sense of dissatisfaction, but now Yumi, with no resentment in her heart, was about to slip away out of the hell where Suga was helplessly floundering and fly up into the open skies … In Suga’s eyes Yumi was to be envied not for her marriage to Iwamoto but for her escape from the workings of the wheel of fate.

Suga knew, though, that Yumi would never understand this even if she were to tell her.

‘Don’t, Suga – don’t cry, you’ll make me sad too,’ said Yumi, shaking her by the shoulder. Suga lifted her face and saw Yumi’s face close to hers and the tears brimming in the long, almond-shaped eyes. Yumi mistook my feeling, she thought, and was instantly seized with a burning shame; then in her eyes, too, the tears of sadness at parting with Yumi came welling up spontaneously.

‘When you think about it, your destiny and mine must be linked somehow,’ said Yumi. ‘It’s unusual for two women in the position of what people call concubines to look after the same master for a whole ten years and stay on good terms without quarreling. I think, you know … perhaps we were sisters in a previous life?’

‘I’m sure we were,’ said Suga in a voice full of emotion.