Akira Rises Read Free

learned guests have water, tea, ample ink and make certain your brothers are equally comfortable.” Lady Akira had smiled broadly then as she did now remembering the expressions of Akira’s face as she digested the reason for practicing being a gracious hostess. “I am sure you can learn much from being a gracious hostess.”
    The sound of Akira’s voice drew her mother back to the present. Akira asked again, “What is making you smile, Mother?
    “I was remembering you sitting outside the library listening to debates on combat strategy. You were drinking the tea for the tutors, doing cross stitching. Instead of a flower, you cross stitched a foot soldier's combat formation.”
    Akira giggled. “Well, I was not permitted ink or paper.”
    Mother and daughter laughed.
    ~
    Akira loved the freedom she was given to read to the village children. The freedom to go to the nearby village was negotiated in exchange for agreeing to learn to sew and act like a lady when expected to. Akira promised to produce at least three pieces of embroidery a week. She just did not promise to do it all by herself. Akira enlisted the help of a village girl known for her fine stitching. The girl would work on the embroidery in trade. The girl wanted to learn to read. It seemed an agreeable exchange of services. The girls were satisfied with their secret bartering. The lessons were given in private. Akira would have given the lessons for free, but the village girl had pride and needed to pay in some way for her lessons. Akira respected her fierce need to not feel indebted. Akira justified the deception as she handed the embroidery over for inspection to her mother. When she was praised she relayed the praise to the young village girl. Her conscience was almost appeased.
    When Akira realized the children she read to were hungry, she packed herself large picnic lunches, and shared them with the barefooted children when they were excused from endless chores that helped their families survive their meager existence. The parents of the children were happy to allow their children a weekly reading from Lady Shy’s daughter. The children came home with chunks of dried bread, small rounds of cheese and sometimes pieces of salted meat. The time taken from the children’s' chores was worth the generous gifts Akira shared. The parents of the children often discussed whether the baron suspected how generous his daughter was, and always they agreed he had no idea his daughter shared his provisions with them.
    That she was so unspoiled endeared her to the peasants and commoners. She was a credit to her mother, who was well known to secretly make up for her husband’s callous ways with intercessions arranged through the church. The local villagers wondered who her father would marry her off to. The village boys who had crushes on her competed for her smiles. She would laugh at their antics in a kindly way, always saying she was never going to marry no matter what station in life a suitor came from. “I’d rather become a shriveled up spinster than marry,” she said. Her village girlfriends looked skeptical. “Seriously, as I see it, a wife is nothing but an elevated servant.”
    “But what about love, Akira?” The question came from the girl she was teaching to read.
    “It’s a trap. Women get tricked into having babies, getting tied down. They do not get to travel without a man at their side. I’m surprised they let us have babies. I am sure if they could, they would do it themselves. They think us soft headed.” She pushed her stomach forward and waddled about. “Imagine a man going through birthing.”
    Her friend laughed and said, “Oh it hurts, it hurts, I am dying.”
    Akira laughed. Then she quit laughing. “Marriage is not for me.”
    She had no idea how loved she had become. The girls were in a bit of awe of her. No fancy airs, no fancy clothes, and she offered to help with milking, washing, and drawing water from the well. Akira had been