She could only be Lady Matsumae. Reiko studied the maid, whose raised brows and tentative smile indicated eagerness to gossip. “Can you stay a while?”

“Yes.” The maid went breathy with delight. “A thousand thanks.”

“What is your name?” Reiko said.

“Lilac.”

Her eyes reminded Reiko of bright, quick butterflies looking for sweet flowers. Lilac sidled over to the dressing table and caressed Reiko’s silver comb, looking glass in the lacquer frame with jade inlays, and matching box of makeup. Awe parted her sensuous, pursed lips.

“Does Edo have lots of shops where people can buy nice things like these?”

“Yes,” Reiko said. “Haven’t you ever been there?”

“No. I was born here in Ezogashima, and I’ve never left it. My family are servants of the Matsumae clan. But I wish I could go to Edo.” Passion swelled Lilac’s voice. “More than anything in the world.”

She stepped over to the cabinet, where Reiko had stored the few clothes she’d rescued from the ship. “May I look?” she said boldly.

Reiko nodded because they’d struck an unspoken bargain that granted permission for the girl to snoop. Lilac opened the cabinet and lifted out a silk kimono patterned with a blue and silver landscape.

“So beautiful!” she exclaimed, holding it up to herself. Then she sighed. Even it I had clothes like this, there’s no place to wear them around here. And there’s nobody worthwhile to see me. How I wish I lived in the big city.“

It was time for Reiko to exact her half of the bargain. “Maybe you can answer some questions for me.”

“I’ll do my best.” Lilac gave the kimono a last caress, put it away, and knelt by Reiko.

There was a brazenness about her that put Reiko off, but Reiko was in no position to be choosy about her companion. “First, who are those Ezo women?”

“They’re concubines.”

Reiko was startled because the barbarians seemed so strange that she hadn’t imagined sexual relations between them and the Japanese. “Lord Matsumae’s?”

“No, they belong to his retainers.”

That explained why the women were in the castle even though Ezo were prohibited. “Why did Lady Matsumae get so angry at them?”

“She hates them. And I’ll tell you why.”

Lilac glanced at the open door. Across the hall, other maids were sweeping the men’s rooms. They giggled while Marume, Fukida, and the Rat flirted with them. Lilac beckoned Reiko to lean close and whispered, “She and her ladies-in-waiting think the Ezo concubines are inferior, like animals. They’re jealous because the men want them. They punish them whenever they get a chance.”

Because they couldn’t punish the men, they took out their jealousy on the concubines, Reiko realized. And the concubines couldn’t fight back because if they made trouble, they and their people would be punished. Reiko began to pity the Ezo.

“But Lady Matsumae started treating them even worse when her daughter died.”

Comprehension stole through Reiko. “When was this?”

“Last spring.”

“How old was her daughter?”

“Eight years.”

The same age as Masahiro. “Has she any other children?”

“No.” Lilac added, “Lord Matsumae adopted a cousin as his heir. She’s too old to have any more.”

At last Reiko understood why Lady Matsumae had reacted so violently when asked whether she had any children and if she knew what it was like to lose one. Reiko had unintentionally touched a raw wound. Now she pitied Lady Matsumae; she regretted her own words and the fact that she’d provoked Lady Matsumae’s cruelty toward the helpless Ezo concubine. She wondered how Lady Matsumae’s daughter had died, but shied from talking about a child’s death while her own son was missing. And she had more pressing concerns.

“I want to find my son,” she said. “Can you help me?”

Lilac drew back from Reiko. Her eagerness to please dissolved into worry.

“You know something, don’t you?” When Lilac wouldn’t meet her eyes, Reiko pleaded, “Tell me!”

“I think I saw him,” Lilac said reluctantly.

Dizzied by hope, Reiko said, “When was this? Where?”

“About a month ago. Here at the castle. A little boy, with three soldiers. I’d never seen them before.”

They had to have been Masahiro escorted by Lord Matsudaira’s men, Reiko thought. The hesitation in Lilac’s speech made it clear that she didn’t want to tell this story because the ending wouldn’t please Reiko, but Reiko had to know the truth. “What happened?” she demanded.

Lilac sighed. “Lord Matsumae’s troops brought them inside the palace, to Lord Matsumae’s chambers.”

Lord Matsumae had lied when he’d told Sano he didn’t know anything about Masahiro, when he’d claimed the boy had never reached Fukuyama City.

“I don’t know what happened in there, but…”

“Go on,” Reiko prompted, even though dread filled her.

“After a while, the troops brought out the soldiers. They had ropes wound around them, and gags in their mouths. The troops took them to the courtyard. They made them kneel down. And then-” Lilac gulped. “They cut off their heads.”

Reiko felt a terrible darkness crowding out all the light in the world. There was no reason to think that Lord Matsumae had spared her son after killing his escorts. “What about the boy?” She forced the words out past the breath caught inside her.

“I don’t know,” Lilac said. “He wasn’t with the soldiers.”

A fragile, tenuous relief seeped through Reiko. If Masahiro hadn’t been killed during the execution Lilac had seen, perhaps he was still alive. “What happened to him?” she almost didn’t dare to ask.

“I don’t know. He never came out of the palace, at least not that I saw.”

He could have been killed inside by Lord Matsumae, who’s mad enough to murder the chamberlain’s child. The voice of her common sense taunted Reiko. Lord Matsumae lied because he didn’t want Sano to know he’d killed Masahiro. He was sane enough to be afraid of punishment. But Reiko’s spirit refused to believe it.

“Have you seen him again?” Reiko demanded.

Lilac recoiled, frightened by the intensity of Reiko’s gaze. “No.”

“Could he still be in the castle?” Reiko sat very still, her ears pricked, her eyes wide, mouth open, every sense straining to detect her son’s whereabouts.

“He could,” Lilac said, but she sounded more as if she wanted to please Reiko than as if she thought so.

One of the other maids peeked in the door. “Lilac! Lady Matsumae wants you.”

“I have to go,” Lilac said, rising.

Reiko clutched her arm and whispered, “Can you find out if my son is here? Will you look for him for me? Please!”

Sly satisfaction glittered through the sympathy in Lilac’s eyes. “I’ll try.”

As she hurried off, Reiko knew that she’d put herself right where Lilac wanted, in her debt. Reiko didn’t trust someone who would take advantage of the mother of a kidnapped child, but she would deal with all the gods of evil to find Masahiro. At least now she had more hope than before, something else to wait for besides news from Sano. But the waiting grew even harder to bear. With every moment that passed, Reiko’s patience stretched beyond the limits of frustration.

The other maids came to sweep her room. When they finished, they fastened their fur-lined coats and pulled their leather hoods over their heads, preparing to go out into the cold. Inspiration flashed through Reiko as she looked at their clothes, then at her own that Lilac had given her. She quickly tagged after them. People took servants for granted, didn’t pay them much attention. The maids were chattering together and didn’t seem to notice Reiko. She kept her head down, and the guards at the door didn’t look twice at her as she walked past them out the door.