“Of course he liked you,” Haruna said. “There isn’t a man alive who wouldn’t like you. But he is the heir to the clan: he’s not going to fall in love with you. Don’t expect him to. He’s not another Hayato.”

But Akane still missed Hayato. She liked having men in love with her. She had been flattered by Lord Shigeru’s interest in her, and she found him very pleasing. She wanted to be with him again; she wanted him to love her.

“I don’t expect we’ll be hearing from him again,” she said. “Everyone knows I spent the night at the castle-and why. It’s so humiliating. Can’t you put it about that I spurned him?”

“I give him three days,” Haruna replied.

Akane spent the next few days in a very bad temper, quarreling with Haruna and being spiteful to the other girls. It was still very hot-she would have liked to walk to the volcano, but she could not go out in the sun. The business of the pleasure house went on all around her, day and night, sometimes arousing her desire, sometimes her scorn for the insatiable lust of men. On the evening of the third day, after the sun had set, she walked to the shrine to see the flowers and shrubs planted by the old priest. Some exotic yellow flower whose name she did not know gave out a heavy sweet fragrance, and huge lilies gleamed white in the dusk. The old man was watering them with a wooden bucket, his robe hitched up into his sash.

“What’s up with you, Akane? You’ve been alone all summer! Don’t tell me you’ve gone off men!”

“If I had a grain of sense, I would,” she replied.

“You need one of my amulets! It’ll spark your interest again. Or better still, come and live with me. I’d make you a good husband.”

“I’ll do that,” she said, looking at him fondly. “I’ll make you tea and scrub your back, clean the wax from your ears, and pluck your beard.”

“And keep me warm at night, don’t forget that!” He laughed so much that he began to cough and had to put the bucket down.

“Don’t excite yourself, grandfather,” Akane said. “It’s bad for your health at your age!”

“Ah, no one ever gets too old for that, Akane! Here.” He took a knife from his sash and carefully cut a spray of the yellow flowers. “Put this in your room; it will perfume the whole house.”

“Does it have a special power?” she said.

“Of course. Why else would I give it to you?”

“Do you have spells to make men fall in love?” she asked idly.

He looked curiously at her. “Is that your problem? Who is he?”

“No one. I just wondered.”

He leaned toward her and whispered, “Spells to make them fall in love and charms to bind against love. The plants have many powers, and they share them with me.”

She walked back, carrying the spray, conscious of the fragrance enveloping her. She walked past Haruna’s room and called mockingly, “Three days, eh?”

Haruna stepped out onto the veranda. “Akane! You’re back! Come up for a moment.”

Still holding the yellow flowers, she stepped out of her sandals onto the veranda. Haruna whispered to her, “Mori Kiyoshige is here.”

She went into the room and bowed to him. “Lord Kiyoshige.”

“Lady Akane.” He returned her bow and studied her frankly, his eyes glimmering with amusement and complicity. His courtesy told her everything. She did not allow herself to smile but sat with impassive face and lowered eyes.

“Lord Otori was very satisfied with our last collaboration,” Kiyoshige said. “He has another assignment for me. I am to arrange for a house to be built for you. Lord Otori thought you would prefer to have your own establishment rather than moving to the castle. I’ve spoken to Shiro, the carpenter. He will come tomorrow and discuss the design with you.”

“Where is it to be built?” Akane said.

“There is a suitable piece of land near the castle, by the beach, in a small grove of pines.”

Akane knew the place. “Is it to be my own house?”

“You understand the arrangement, of course?”

“It’s far too great an honor for me,” she murmured.

“Well, everything is written down-servants, money, and so on. Haruna has read it and says she approves.”

“Lord Shigeru is extremely generous,” Haruna said.

Akane pouted. “How long does a house take to build?” she demanded, irritable.

“Not long, if the weather holds.”

“And in the meantime?”

“You may return to the castle now with me, if you have no other plans.”

It irritated her further that he should think she had nothing else to do with her life. “It’s almost dark,” she said. “No one will see me.” She did not want to appear to be smuggled into Shigeru’s rooms.

“I will provide torches,” Kiyoshige said. “We will make a procession, if that is Lady Akane’s wish.”

He made me wait, Akane thought. I will make him wait for me. But only for one night.

“I should read the agreement,” she pleaded. “And discuss it with my mother. I will do that tonight, and tomorrow, if you would be so kind, you may return-a little earlier, I think, before sunset.” She was already imagining how it would look, the palanquin, servants with huge sunshades, the Mori retainers on horseback.

Kiyoshige raised his eyebrows. “Very well,” he agreed.

Haruna brought tea, and Akane served him. When he had left, the women hugged each other.

“A house!” Haruna exclaimed. “And built especially for you by the best carpenter in Hagi!”

“I shall make it so beautiful,” Akane replied, now visualizing the house under the pines, surrounded by the constant sighing of the sea. “I will see Shiro first thing in the morning. He must show me the site-or does that appear too eager?”

“There is no hurry,” Haruna said. “You can take your time.”

The building of the house was delayed by the first typhoons at the end of the summer, but it was sheltered in the lee of the mountain range and was not damaged. It rained hard for a week, and umbrellas replaced the sunshades when Akane made her thrice-weekly visits to the castle. As her relationship with the heir to the clan progressed, she became more flamboyant, and people began to line the street to watch her palanquin go past as if it were part of a festival.

By the time the nights had begun to cool and the maples to put on their brocade, the house was finished. It was built facing south to catch the winter sun, thatched with grass-reed stalks, with wide eaves and deep verandas of polished cypress. The screens were decorated by an artist who had long been one of Haruna’s clients. Akane herself had slept with him several times, though neither of them referred to the past. At her request he painted flowers and birds according to the seasons. Akane chose beautiful bowls and dishes in the local earthenware, made by the most famous craftsmen; mattresses and quilts filled with silk cocoons; carved wooden headrests.

When the house was complete, she had a ceremony performed to purify and bless it. Priests came down from the shrine and performed the rituals, sprinkling water and burning incense. After they had departed, late that night when she lay next to Shigeru, listening to the sea, she marveled at what fate had given her and what her life had become.