Furious

48

“I’m so glad to meet you, Princess Kristine. Face-to-face. At least we’ll be face-to-face if you quit looking at the floor.”

Kris quit looking at the floor.

Princess Emiko proved to be a young woman likely a few years younger than Kris though it was hard to tell for sure. She was not only in full kimono but also the white face paint that Kris had only seen on vids.

There was no question that her arms were wide open, and she wanted to hug Kris. Her getas clopped on the hardwood floors of the drawing room as she hurried to engulf Kris in a hug that was as enthusiastic as it was careful not to smudge the makeup.

“I hate to wear this getup,” the princess whispered to Kris. “The kimono is nine hundred years old, would you believe, and my auntie will not talk to me for a week if it comes to harm.”

Kris eased up on her hug.

The princess took a step back and eyed Kris. “I’ve been wanting to meet you since, like forever. I’ve been a fan of yours since the Battle of Wardhaven. Imagine, taking on six pirate battleships with just your dozen little boats. Wow. They won’t even let me take a boat out on the lake at the palace. What are they expecting, a sea monster to gobble me up? It’s a lake, for Amaterasu’s sake.”

Behind her, the man with the staff cleared his throat.

“Okay, okay, Daisuke-san, bring it over here. I’m not clomping back over there to get it. A girl could break her neck in these getas. Kris, do you have any real clothes I could borrow? I can’t sit down in this getup, or anything. I just have to stand up or risk a seam splitting. They had a van bring me so I could just stand up the whole way.”

“Abby, could you find something? And get some of the household help. They must know how to handle nine-hundred-year-old clothes, I hope.”

“I hope, too,” Abby said, and was gone, with Cara in tow.

Daisuke seemed to have no trouble negotiating the distance to Kris in his own getas. He presented a quite magnificent-looking scroll to Emiko with a bow.

The young princess started to make a face but quickly suppressed it. Although Kris could detect nothing in the exchange between the two, she had experience with someone very much like Daisuke. The chauffeur back at Nuu House, Harvey, was a retired NCO. Kris learned very quickly that the barest twitch from him should be taken as a thorough reprimand.

Kris suspected that Daisuke and Emiko had their own way of communicating praise and disapproval, and she would bet money she didn’t have that Daisuke had just given his princess a full dressing-down, and had done it without saying a word.

When Emiko turned back to Kris, scroll in hand, she was, if not the perfect princess, at least a proper one.

“Father, the Emperor, invites you to share the Way of the Tea with him at six tomorrow evening. It’s the best part of the day, and the sunsets from the palace garden are glorious.” The last was added in a rush and probably not included in the formal charge. “Please come.”

Kris didn’t need any hints. “I am honored by this invitation, and I will most certainly present myself at the palace before six tomorrow evening,” Kris said.

“Good, good, now, please, do you have some clothes I can put on so we can talk. Can I stay for dinner?”

“Most certainly,” Kris said.

“Now, if you gentlemen will leave us ladies alone,” Abby said, leading a half dozen women staff into the room, “we can get this poor child out of those duds and into something decent.” The look Daisuke threw Abby would have melted stones if there wasn’t just the hint of a smile at the corner of his lips.

The men retired, and the household staff began the delicate job of removing several layers of ancient silk from a princess who held perfectly still for them but chattered on with Kris. “Please open the scroll. I did it myself.”

Kris admired the calligraphy, as Nelly gave Kris a dissertation on both the language and the handiwork. Princess Emiko was delighted that Nelly understood the excellence of her work.

While the silks were carefully folded and put into cedarwood boxes, a blue brocade blazer, white blouse, and white silk pleated skirt were provided to the princess. Kris considered the skirt far too short, but Nelly silently assured Kris that this was what all the college girls were wearing on Musashi these days. White knee-length tabi completed the ensemble, and the two princesses adjourned to the couch, so Kris could tell Emiko “everything.”

Supper was served and long eaten before Daisuke was able to persuade his princess that she was expected back at the palace before bedtime and should herself inform the Emperor that his gracious offer had been accepted. That left Kris and her company waving good-bye on the front steps of Fujioka House just before sunset.

“You are greatly honored,” Tsusumu said.

“How will this play in the media?” Kris asked.

Tsusumu chuckled. “Much better than the party in power will want. I suspect there may be a visit to the Imperial Palace tomorrow and a lengthy conversation about the constitutional crisis that an Emperor dallying in political affairs could bring on.”

Kris looked at the scroll that Emiko had once more pressed upon Kris as she left. “Will this invitation be revoked?”

“Not if the Emperor’s backbone is as stiff as I think it is. No. Aki-san has crossed a line with your indictment. A line a lot of us think we must get back across quickly. I had hoped the Emperor was on our side. Still, that,” he said, eyeing the scroll. “None of us had hoped for an indication of the Imperial Will anywhere close to that. You are truly honored, stranger.”

“Honored or not,” Abby snapped, “I’ve got to get you outfitted and dressed properly before six tomorrow. Where am I going to find a nine-hundred-year-old woman’s kimono that will fit you, my tall beanpole?”

“Don’t you have one somewhere in one of your steamer trunks?” Jack asked.

“Not nine hundred years old,” Abby snapped. “You saw what that princess was wearing. I will not have my princess reduced to some backwoods poor relation. It’s gonna be a night.” And she headed for the servant’s area of the house.

“Is she often like that?” Tsusumu asked.

“Often worse. I suggest that you go home and the rest of us attempt to hide in our rooms. Unfortunately for me,” Kris said with a sigh, “she knows where I live.”