Musuko (Book Two of the Kakureta Hana series)

VIII: Hachi

Life settles into a simple routine after the wedding. I wake up next to Amaya every morning, her head pillowed against my chest and her hair tangled about her face. I always take a moment to admire her in the soft morning light, watching her light breaths as they press her curled fists into my chest. I always tell myself that even if I am called to battle tomorrow and perish on the field, I would never regret marrying her. My only regret would be leaving her alone in this world.

She usually goes with Yori to visit Sakura in the morning while I head off to attend to the minor and major problems that have popped up in the middle of the night. I find that my wife needs those quiet moments away from the clan almost as much as I need our evenings to be as undisturbed as possible. I do not think that either of us realized how much the marriage would thrust Amaya out of the shadows that she has spent her own life in and how unused to that kind of attention she truly was.

Now that the clan has gotten used to the fact that I have taken a wife, they are not so intent upon seeing us at every meal. The unabashed attention of the older women especially unnerves Amaya, their not-so-hidden glances towards her middle as if they are trying to gauge the possibility that she is hiding the swelling of a babe beneath the folds of her kimono.  Their scrutiny is quiet if a little unnerving at times.

The men bother me more than my wife.  Unlike the women who only stare, the men talk.  It began as ribbing about my newly-married state, which occurred when Lord Taro was not around.  No one wanted him to hear them probe his new son-in-law about what he was doing with his daughter.  When it became clear that a child was not imminent, it turned into whispers.  Whispers about how it had taken my grandparents years and years to have a single child, whispers about how perhaps the Amachi line had been cursed, whispers about how things had not seemed quite right since my father had been born, whispers about how perhaps the Amachi heirs would never have more than one child to carry on their name.

I have taken more than one man to the training field, hoping that it would serve as a warning to others who might slip in front of my wife and reveal the worries of the clan.  I refuse to burden her more than she already is even when she refuses to tell me what worries lie on her heart. After several months of this, I find myself almost hoping that a battle would start, just to get everyone's minds off of the misfortune that has followed the previous two generations of Amachis.

I am in the training yard, watching as Ryuu runs through drills with some trainees.  I find him to be more patient than the retainer who I was first meant to train under.  I hear occasionally from the older men that Ryuu takes after his father quite a bit, the general before him.  Of course, there are whispers about his family as well, ones that revolve around a mother that he never truly knew and dead children.  Those I block out, knowing that if I was meant to know, Ryuu or Sakura would have told me the truth at some point.  The rumors may contain a grain of truth, but they have existed for so long that it would be difficult to discern which is the true strand woven into the story.

A commotion near the front gate draws my attention.  Bickering loudly with a couple of the retainers on watch is a young man.  He is clearly travel-worn, clothes coated with a thick layer of dust.  He waves a crumpled missive in the faces of the two men, and despite their loud voices, I can't quite make out what is being said from where I am sitting.

With a sigh, I rise to my feet, knowing that my involvement was the easiest way to ensure that everyone would return to what they were doing instead of staring.  The three men do not notice me approaching until I clear my throat behind them.

"Lord Amachi," one of my retainers says, dropping into a low bow, "this man claims to bear a missive from Fujioka Ichirou. "

"Then what has compelled you to stand here bickering with him instead of finding me or Lord Motome to inform us?  You have disrupted others' work as well as delaying potentially urgent news."