Autumn Bridge by Takashi Matsuoka Read Free Book Online Page A

sins.
    “I beg your pardon,” he said, “but is coffee available by any chance?”
    “I’m afraid not. Do you really prefer it to tea?” Coffee was apparently one of the more recent postwar fads in the United States. “I find it rather acidic, and it tends to upset my stomach.”
    “It’s an acquired taste, I suppose. During the war, when Brazilian coffee was more readily available than English tea, I found coffee to have one great advantage. It supplies a tremendous burst of energy completely lacking in tea.”
    “You seem, if anything, to have an excess of energy rather than a dearth,” Emily said. “Perhaps you should reduce your coffee consumption in any case.”
    Robert took the offered tea and smiled. “Perhaps,” he said, and continued to smile at her in such a way that she knew she could lead the conversation in another direction with little effort. That direction, which Robert had attempted in several previous conversations, had dangers of its own, however, so Emily stayed with the subject at hand.
    “Must I cover the subjects of geisha and Buddhism again, Robert?”
    “I concede that your explanations, if true, would be valid.” He held up a hand to stop the protest he knew was coming. “And further, I concede, for the sake of argument at least, that they are valid.”
    “Thank you. Now, as a military man yourself, you surely know that martial tradition is what sometimes compels samurai to take their own lives. By our Christian standards, this is a mortal sin. There is no question of that. But until they are converted to the true faith, we can hardly hold them to standards that are, at present, utterly repugnant to them.”
    “That seems an excessively flexible viewpoint for a Christian missionary, Emily.”
    “I do not consent. I simply understand, which is all I ask of you.”
    “Very well. Go on.”
    “As for the delivery of heads” — Emily took a deep breath and tried, without complete success, to avoid visualization. She had seen too many of them herself — “that is considered the honorable thing to do. If Lord Genji had not done so, it would have been a breach of the samurai’s equivalent of the code of chivalry.”
    “Chivalry? How can you even think of using that word to describe wanton acts of butchery and mutilation?”
    “Excuse me, Lady Emily.” Hanako knelt at the doorway and bowed, her right hand to the floor, the empty sleeve on her left draped elegantly beside it. “You have another visitor. I told him you had a guest with you, but he insisted—”
    “Well, well, how gratifying to see you at leisure, Admiral. But can you really afford such a luxurious expenditure of time?” Charles Smith smiled and arched an eyebrow at Robert. His Georgia drawl, Emily noticed, was highly exaggerated, as it always was in Robert’s presence. “Don’t you have homes to loot, cities to burn, and defenseless civilians to bombard?”
    Robert shot to his feet. “I have borne the last insult I will ever bear from a traitor such as yourself, sir.”
    “Gentlemen, please,” Emily said, but neither gave any indication that they had heard her.
    Charles gave the slightest of bows to his adversary. “I am at your service, sir, at any time of your choosing. And the choice of weapons, sir, is also yours.”
    “Robert!” Emily said. “Charles! Stop it this instant.”
    “Since I have offered the challenge,” Robert said, “the choice is necessarily yours, sir.”
    “I am compelled to decline, sir, since it would confer upon me an entirely unfair advantage,” Charles said. “I would naturally choose either pistols or swords, and you and your kind, I believe, are much more comfortable with long-range mortars, flung torches, and starvation by siege.”
    If Emily had not flung herself bodily between the two men at that moment, there was no doubt they would have come to blows on the spot. Thankfully, they both retained enough presence of mind to halt before colliding with her.
    “I am