Silent Honor Read Free Page B

many languages, go to other countries. She can be anything she wants to be, go anywhere she chooses.” Hidemi giggled at him. He was so silly sometimes, and it had been so much harder than she'd thought, but she loved him so dearly. He reached out and took her hand in his, and bent low to kiss her forehead. And then he sat for a long moment, looking with pride at their daughter. He meant everything he had said to her. He didn't mind at all that they had had a daughter. “She is beautiful, like you…. What shall we call her?”
    “Hiroko.” Hidemi smiled. She had always liked the name, and it was the name of her dead sister.
    “Hiroko-san,” he said happily, looking from his wife to his child, and engulfing them in the love he felt. “She will be a thoroughly modern woman.”
    Hidemi laughed at him then, beginning to forget the pain, and then she smiled, looking suddenly a great deal older. “She will have a brother soon,” she promised him. She wanted to try again, to do it right for him the next time. No matter what he said, or how wild his ideas were, she knew she owed him more than this girl, and that there was nothing more important in life than bearing sons for her husband. And one day, he would have one.
    “You should sleep now, little one,” he said softly, as his sister-in-law brought in a tray with tea for them. Hidemi was still shaken from the loss of blood and the shock of all she'd been through.
    Hidemi's sister poured tea for both of them, and then left them alone again. But Masao left the room a few minutes later. Hidemi was very tired, and her sister needed to tend to the baby, who was stirring.
    His mother-in-law went back into the room then too, and pulled the fusama screen to divide the room and give Hidemi privacy. Masao walked through his garden, smiling to himself, prouder than h2 had ever been in his entire life. He had a daughter, a beautiful little girl. She would be brilliant one day. She would speak English perfectly, and perhaps even French, and German. She would be knowledgeable about world affairs. She would learn many things. She would be the fulfillment of all his dreams, and just as he had told his wife, she would be a completely modern young woman.
    And as the sun rose in the sky, he smiled up at it, thinking what a lucky man he was. He had everything he wanted in life. A beautiful wife, and now a lovely little baby daughter. Perhaps one day he would have a son, but for now, this was all he wanted. And when he finally went back to his own room to sleep, he lay on his futon and smiled, thinking of them …Hidemi …and their tiny daughter …Hiroko….

Chapter 2
    T HE EARTHQUAKE that leveled Tokyo and Yokohama in the first week of September that year rattled Kyoto as well, but not as badly. Hiroko was seven weeks old by then, and Hidemi clung to her, terrified, when the quake struck, and Masao hurried home to find them. There had been considerable damage in the town, but their house withstood the shock fairly well. And it was only later that they learned of the total devastation of Tokyo. Most of the city had been leveled, fires blazed, and for weeks people wandered the streets, starving, and desperate for water.
    It was the worst earthquake in Japan's history, and for weeks afterward Masao talked about leaving Japan and moving to California like his cousin Takeo.
    “They have earthquakes in California too.” Hidemi had reminded him quietly. She had no desire to leave Japan, no matter how great the risk there. Besides, Masao had just been promoted. But he didn't want to risk his family, now that he had one. To him, they were far more important.
    “They don't have earthquakes as often there,” Masao had snapped at her, unnerved by everything that had happened. He had been terrified for her and the baby. And for weeks they were horrified to hear stories about what had happened to relatives and friends in Tokyo and Yokohama, and the surrounding towns around them. His cousin Takeo's