Ai of the Mountain (A Fairy Retelling #2) by Dorian Tsukioka Read Free Book Online Page B

home to take care of your mother. He said she is very ill.”
    I nod. “I believe she has suffered from a stroke. My father and I are all she has to take care of her. I cannot leave her.”
    “Of course. I completely understand. I sent for the village doctor to come help take care of your mother. They should be arriving sometime later today. Shall we sit next to the river together and talk a bit? Perhaps under that maple tree?”
    I nod and walk beside him to the edge of the river. He sits down on the grassy bank and motions for me to join him. I’ve sat on this bank a thousand times or more talking with Grandfather Koi, and a thousand times more in my dreams next to Kaito. I never could have imagined this moment of sitting here next to Lord Nakaguchi. He doesn’t belong here in this space, and I am afraid that his presence will spoil the beauty of this spot, like a disease festering long after he is gone.
    Several smaller koi swim around in the calm water of the lazy river and for a moment, I see the long, lithe body of Grandfather Koi break the surface of the river. Lord Nakaguchi notices as well, his eyes open wide and he sits forward to look more deeply into the water of the river, but Grandfather Koi has disappeared deep into the water’s depths.
    “I appreciate you coming to see me today,” I say. Seeing the daimyo so focused on Grandfather Koi makes me nervous. I do not want the daimyo to have anything to do with my old friend.
    The daimyo’s face softens and he takes my hand. “It is good to see that your love runs deep for your family. But, I worry for you. Your mother and father are very old. What will happen to you when they finally pass away?”
    The question is not new to me. My parents are elderly and when my mother had her first stroke, I began to question the security of my future. Unfortunately, there is no easy answer. As long as my father can manage to bring home a meager living, and I can help out in the village, I will be fine. Once both my parents are gone, however, it will be much more difficult to survive on my own. Life is not kind to poor, unwedded women in the rural countryside of Japan. I will need a husband. For prosperity, and for protection.
    Lord Nakaguchi knows this answer as surely as I do. I can see by the smug set of his smile, he has come to the same conclusion.
    “I could help you, Ai-chan,” he says. “If you would allow me. You would be quite the jewel to keep in my castle.”
    He draws my hand up to his lips and kisses the back of it. My stomach churns. The daimyo may be charming to some, but I see through his words to their deeper meaning. I would not be a jewel, I would be a prisoner. I can see it in his eyes. Lord Nakaguchi does not care about loving me, only possessing me.
    “Thank you, my lord, for your generous offer,” I answer. “But, my parents are not dead yet. I cannot abandon them to a life of hardship, just so that I can live a pampered life in a castle as the wife of a daimyo.”
    Lord Nakaguchi takes my hand away from his lips, the smile spreading further across his face. “I must apologize. I think you may have misunderstood me, Ai-chan. I was not making an offer of marriage.”
    My breath catches in my throat. “Oh? But my father said you asked to court me. I thought that he meant, that you meant…marriage.”
    “I’m sure you can understand that someone of my rank and position cannot marry a girl in your…situation…no matter how much I would like to. No, I did not mean marriage.” He turns my hand over in his, and brings the palm of my hand up to lips this time and kisses it. His lips travel down the length of my hand, resting against the pulse beating wildly under the skin of my wrist. “No, Ai-chan, I cannot marry you. But, that does not mean you cannot serve your lord and master well and enjoy all the luxuries I am willing to give you, if you will just give yourself to me.” He places one final, possessive kiss against my wrist and releases