Minami laughed with the crowd, but his eyes were hard when they met Peony’s, his message clear: If she disobeyed the customers, she would suffer. Almost fainting with embarrassment, she hiked her skirts, revealing her huge, bare buttocks and shaved pubis.

The clients jeered, gagged, and held their noses. Peony fled, sobbing, down the dark corridor. The door to one of the guest chambers stood open. From it issued giggles and moans. Moonlight streamed through the window, illuminating two nude figures entwined on the futon, and an item that lay amid scattered clothing. Quicker than a breath and more quiet, Peony was inside the room, then out again with the thing hidden beneath her kimono, and triumph spreading a balm over her wounded pride.

Now, secluded in the privy, she smiled. She’d soon learned the significance of her treasure, and what crimes its owner had committed. The sōsakan’s mention of the crucifix supported her other suspicions. In her excitement, she’d almost revealed Deshima’s secrets to him, then caught herself just in time. The owner of the treasure wouldn’t want such damning evidence to reach the Edo authorities. How much would he pay to get it back? Surely enough to buy her freedom from the pleasure quarter!

Quickly Peony stuffed the box back in its hiding place. She grabbed the coins also secreted there, replaced the board, and left the privy. Luck favored her; she met no one as she hurried out the back door and into the street. She scanned the crowds, yearning for the limited independence she’d once had.

At age fourteen, Peony had gone to work as a maid in a rich man’s house. She’d cleaned and sewn, fetched and carried from dawn until late at night. Fearing her employer’s wrath, she’d controlled her thieving impulses until the eldest daughter’s wedding day, when she’d stolen a set of hair ornaments, gifts to the bride. If she’d hidden the loot right away, she might have escaped her sad fate. But vanity proved her downfall. She was inserting an ornament in her hair when her mistress walked into the room, saw the ornament in Peony’s hands, and cried, “Thief! Thief!”

Soon the dōshin arrived and took Peony to jail. At her trial, the police testified that they’d found other stolen goods in her room. Citizens came forward to report past thefts associated with places Peony had frequented. And her employer had considerable influence with the bakufu.

“You, Peony,” said the magistrate, “will work as a courtesan in the Nagasaki pleasure quarter until you have repented of your crimes, made reparation to your victims, and repaid the cost of your keep while serving your sentence.”