Black Arrow Lord Ch. 05

"And for yourself?" Matsu asked, already wondering why her temper wasn't rising quite so quickly.

"For myself," he said, "Not that it could ever happen, but for myself, I'd be honored to try to see if we can make more out of this between us, Matsu.I find that you have placed a longing in me for that."

Her eyes opened wide and he wondered if he could ever get to learn how to recognize all of the pitfalls that living here placed in front of him. The thought that he'd likely ruined something really bothered him now.

"Wait a moment and I'll let you up," he said sadly as he began to do it, "I've never felt anything like what I felt with you, but I guess that was only to show me what I'll be missing and -- "

Matsu lunged for him and she pulled him down onto her with a grunt as she tightened her arms, "You will go nowhere, Gaijin. I don't care about expectations. I believe that I may have found the one that I want.

We will need to see, won't we?

If I can hold you to me with my poor and slightly manly charms, then if I must, I will find some way to keep you next to my heart somehow. If it can be done, we might have to marry and set up a home somewhere so that we need a pair of servants," she said, moving her chin to indicate the others in the room.

Kōichi already loves you, and I know that I could love you so easily after this. I find that I might be falling already. I have no want to frighten you, Valdemar, but I find that I have to keep pushing away my desire to let my mind run free as I imagine what a life as the Black Arrow lord's wife might be like.

You will need to love with the third one of us very soon, if any of this appeals to you. I can already see it in her eyes, Valdemar. Aiki-san wants you too."

"She has already said as much to me," she whispered, "I think that she has been waiting for you and I to do what we did here tonight."

"Do you want to try?" she asked, "Valdemar, I would not ever mind knowing that you love with all of us. We seem to be in agreement that we all want you. I think that I just seem to want it in a more formal way with you, since it would be easy to make their lives better that way. For me, there must be a certain, ... formality to it, being who I am."

"That's the only reason that you have?" he asked.

She did manage to slap his ass that time.

"No. Do not be foolish. I have my own hopes as well. But a girl does not say things like this and make her admissions to a man as she lies with him after the fourth joining."

"Fine," he grinned as she felt him just beginning to harden again against her thigh, "What about after five times? I've felt something with you that I've never felt before, and I think I saw right into you past that mysterious outer shell that you all seem to hide yourselves behind."

"What did you see?" she asked, not fighting him as he pulled her onto her side a little.

Her eyes opened wide at the soft slap of his hand against her backside in a little retaliation.

"I think that I saw the most wondrous thing -- even though my eyes were closed at the time. It just came into my head then that somehow, I caught a glimpse of your heart, Matsu. Other than how you always look so good to me, I don't think that I've ever seen anything so beautiful or deep in my life."

Matsu ignored her mild and surprised outrage at having her bottom slapped. She lifted her leg over him again, "Gaijin," she whispered, "then I hope that you can see your fine luck as it comes to you.

I know that I can certainly see my own."

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In the morning, they all looked out and stared at the sheer volume of the snowfall. As Aiki began to set to the making of some sort of early meal, the rest spilled out of the door and tried to at least clear the pathway to the road.

After about a half an hour of it, they all looked up as they heard some quiet sniffling and weeping. It was the pair of women that Valdemar had helped with the wood walking along looking like walking misery and dragging their sled behind then which was piled with a few possessions.

It took more patience than he had to stand out in the cold as they shivered and tried to speak of it. "Let's get them inside," he said," Perhaps with a little warmth and hopefully something warm inside of them, we might come to learn of their troubles today sometime, I would hope."

When they'd finally gotten it out of them, they learned that the heavy snowfall had caused their small and poorly-built home to collapse. All that they had -- everything that they owned -- now lay under the broken beams and bits of thatching which stuck up out of the snow in a very small area. They'd had no food and very little warmth over the night as they'd huddled against what was left to them in the world, which amounted to not much more than what they were wearing and some furs which they clutched to hold around them.

Valdemar found that he had to smile as the older one of them looked a little aghast as he tried to unwind the frozen rags from her feet. She even tried to fight him a little, but he only shook his head and, finally getting down to her bare feet, he and Matsu began to hold their warm hands against them as gently as they could, while Aiki and Kōichi started in on the still-weeping girl's feet.

There were a lot of painful tears before they managed to get the last of the frostbite out, but there didn't appear to be any sort of permanent harm done, as almost miraculous as it seemed.

Just as they were beginning to get the women warm, a messenger came to ask Valdemar and Matsu to go to the lord's hall for an audience with him. They left, after asking Kōichi and Aiki to do whatever they could to warm and comfort the unfortunate pair and then asking them to go back and get what firewood they could salvage from the ruin as well.

"Not quite so quickly, "Matsu groaned a little as she tried to keep up with Valdemar's long strides. "The daimyo will still be there in his hall even if we walk at my slow speed today."

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The daimyo managed a very small smile as his daughter and Valdemar were shown into the room. He silently motioned for everyone else to leave, though he said nothing and only held up his hand for them to wait. A moment later, Lady Hoshino and her cousin walked into the room and took places on either side of him.

"I have had some time to think of things," he said quietly as Matsu began to translate for Valdemar.

"I make my assumption that last night was a pleasant dream which passed between someone that I hold a great measure of respect for and my daughter, who I have always felt such strong and quiet pride in -- since you both stand there with what I take to be closeness between you.

I have had news that our nearest southern neighbors will soon -- if it is not already beginning -- prepare to march against us. I am pulling our forces down in the north so that I can add to what we will need to repel their attacks.

For this, I will need the skill and ability of many, and to lead them, I will send my own flesh and blood, Matsu-san. But I have asked for you both to be here so that I might ask my large friend's help and that he add his skills to yours."

"What about my cousins, honored father?" Matsu asked, "Since I have been commanding the northern garrison, I see them only rarely."

Maeda was about to speak when his cherished concubine tugged once at his sleeve and he turned to lean his head down to listen for a moment.

He looked at the pair again afterwards with a nod and an almost barely perceptible smile as he said, "This coming time will be turbulent for everyone before it is done, I am certain. But after this, if we prevail, then it is my intention to send you both back to the northlands to continue to guard there. I will allot some funds so that you can have a proper home there, and of course, you will require people there to run the home -- though you, daughter will need to oversee the expenses and upkeep.

Think of this in the way that I do," he smiled, "that it might be a rather true test of what I see before me. Before such time, your cousins can continue as they have done here, but now I wish for them to live in my esteemed friend's little house in the village. I wish to see if they can manage that at all well."

Valdemar turned to Matsu and reminded her of the women whose home had fallen in.

When he heard of it, Maeda nodded a little sadly, "I have heard that there were three homes such as that. Let them remain where they are until the spring reveals to us what might be spared of their home. The mother, as I recall, was a woman of pleasure at one time, but her swelling belly forced her to draw back from the business and she never returned to it, choosing instead to live poorly and raise her child.

I give them to you, Matsu-san. Make them into servants if you need to, so that the kuroi yajirushi hanshu's home might have a little harmony still in it when you both return. It is our need to win this," he said, "and if I might have a wish, I begin to see it as an opportunity to give a landless lord at least a measure of my respect and thanks."

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"What do you think?" Matsu asked as they walked back together, both of them still rather amazed at what they'd been told.

"I think that your father fully expects you to kill me in a fit of rage one day, but before then, he wishes me to help you in any way that I can," the Dane smiled, "so that is what I will do."

"I don't see it in quite so severe a way," she smiled back, "I believe that he intends to capitalize on something between us and use it to hold onto what he has here, while at the same time allowing us something that would normally not be permitted. A time of war can allow many veils to fall, Valdemar-san."

They walked to the inn first where Matsu bought two bottles of sake before they carried on back to Valdemar's home.

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The others at his home were astounded at what they'd heard once it had been explained to them.

The older woman nodded, "We can do that easily," she nodded, "and even better since it is a way for my daughter and I to give something to this fine lady and the foreign lord that she now wishes to keep beside her, if I am correct in what my eyes see. But, ..."

She looked around herself, "This is much larger than our poor home was to be sure, but even so, it is only one room for the most part. We are grateful for the chance nonetheless," she said with a low bow.

"I have always wanted to be a woman who lived in the home of a lord, though I could never find a way to manage it here, since Lord Maeda has his two lovers for his pleasure, and next to them, my poor charms could never outshine those two beauties."

She chuckled in a little embarrassment when it had been pointed out to her that the children of those beauties were there with her in the same room. "I never knew of it," she grinned a little in surprise, "but I am happy to know you now for who you are, and I am so grateful for everything."

She didn't really bat an eye as the relationships and even the hopeful relationships were explained to her. She only nodded.

"It was my hope that my daughter would not be forced by our circumstances to follow the road that I have walked, "she said, "Truly, it was my mistake to come here, hoping to make a living. I should have known that out here, people do not have as much gold to spend for the services of a woman like myself. I had to make do with Oda-san's patronage now and then, not that it took very much time out of my day to do it."

She looked around at the small smiles of the others for a moment, "Well the poor man was always in such desperate need of me. It was easy to see that his useless wife had no concern for him.

Besides, from the way that she looks, she started drying up long ago - only in her, it must have gone from the head down and the slit up to begin with and it must have met in the middle. Why I don't think that she remembers what his pillar even looks like anymore. It must have been so long ago and she must have been drunk out of her senses to allow him to rut with her to make her strutting little bastard with him. Taro-san is worthless, as everyone knows."

They smiled at her and she began to whisper to them as she pointed to her own breast, "I am the one who got the best out of him. To say the truth of it, I have always been certain that Yukiko is Oda-san's daughter, though if he has ever thought of it, he's pretended that it was otherwise, not that I have cared very much.

I didn't have much trade at the time that I made her. Oda-san was all that there was for me a lot of the time, though many men came to me with less than I could allow. To most people around here, Oda-san can be a cold-hearted prick who kicks children and dogs aside if they do not give him the room to pass.

But I learned that he has always been unhappy in his life over the marriage which his traditionally-minded parents cobbled together for him. Once I knew that, it wasn't hard to get him to be a little kind to the one who always took his seed from him with a smile -- since his own wife sure won't."

She sighed, "I think that his unknown daughter got the best of him from our pairings. She is not like him at all and out of all of the things which I have done in my life, making her was the greatest one."

She chuckled a little in her own sentimental moment before she continued her thoughts on the proposed path forward.

"If this comes to pass, and all goes well, then my Yukiko can avoid all of that and live a better life. Still, I have taught her as I was taught in how to best please a man or a woman as the case may be, so if, ... " she looked over at Valdemar and Kōichi, "the two lovely ladies here find that they need rest from their pleasing the men, Yukiko can stand in for them and neither of us would mind."

She leaned toward the pair which she was truly very happy to know and acknowledge as her masters, since her life would now have a fair amount more certainty to it. That was the way that it worked, of course and she was so thankful and even more pleased because she liked Valdemar a great deal. She felt that way because she knew that he had a large heart in him and also because he had a way of stirring her own heart just a little to look at him, though she'd never tell anyone that part of it.

She wouldn't have had quite the same outlook if it had just been the Lady Matsu who was now her overlord. She had nothing against her and had admired her for many things whenever she'd seen the lovely young woman, but there had always been this sense of intensity to her out of her role in the place. Now the woman knew why that was and she could see it clearly.

She was coming to like Matsu-san even more, now that she knew of it all. In her heart of hearts, she offered up a silent prayer for them both -- though she also offered up one for Valdemar alone and she decided that wherever he might have come from in that crazy map that he'd drawn for her out in the snow, the men there must be truly terrible if they went to battle -- if building the love that she was sure that she could see between him and the almost-feared warrior-girl held no terrors for him.

She looked up in a bit of surprise as Aiki got up from where she sat to come to her and kneel on the floor.

"Honored mother," she said after bowing her head to the woman respectfully, "it comes to me that there might be an opportunity for me to learn a little at some time. My own poor mother before she was killed was also a friend of the lady Hoshino. The mothers of my cousins here took me in and raised me between them as they could, but I was never given much in the way of learning of that sort. I would like to be taught by you or Yukiko-san whenever you might find the time or have a kind thought for me."

The woman snorted a little, "My dear young friend," she said with a broad smile, "How could either of us not have a kind thought for you? I have known you for most of your life, though I never knew where you came from. It does not happen very much anymore now that you are both grown, but I can remember times when you and Yukiko-san were friends. I used to love to see you together, always laughing. After what you have done to give us comfort on such a terrible day, it would be our honor to help."

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After the evening meal, they sat together and talked with Valdemar sitting in a bit of wonder to see the way that they just began to draw together like a family and he also saw the beginnings of his household in many ways as they almost planned for the other side of whatever conflict was on it's way to them. When he was asked about the look that he wore, he said so.

"And why not, lord?" the woman smiled, "My daughter and I have little anymore, but we were plucked out of the snow by some fine people. We know that none of you have very much, yet we are given tasks and duties to perform and it all leads to hope for the future."

After a couple of shared sake bowls between them all, she sat with a smile which looked to Matsu and Valdemar as almost a little contentment when the other three seemed to just tumble into the bed together with a lot of laughter.

She heaved a bit of a sigh as she looked on, "I know that a lot of this is out of the uncertainty which will come very soon, but I like to see this start between them. I know that Kōichi-san has had his troubles and none of them were of his own making. It was all out of the way that we all look down on others. Yukiko-san never really had this to face, since she did not get her looks from me. I come from the south too, but she escaped the stupidity that Kōichi-san and Aiki-san have always faced."

She laughed a little as they listened to Aiki's shrieking laughter for a moment. "That is good to see," she grinned, "As long as they are a little careful and no babies come from it, what harm can there be to something as nice as that?

I miss times like that in my own life. For certain, I rarely had a chance to laugh that freely, ever."

She heard no response from them and she looked from one to the other, very surprised at what she thought that she saw there.

She almost blushed as she looked down, "I think that you both must be feeling the sake. I am an old woman, long past my time of beauty now -- too far past it for the way that you look at me, my lord and lady, though I thank you for the honor of it all the same if I am right."

Matsu grinned at her after tossing a sly wink to Valdemar, "Oh really? And just how old must a woman be to be considered old in your view, revered mother?

Why, by what I know from what Aiki-san has said to me, you cannot be one moon older than thirty-six or at most, thirty-seven, no?

Perhaps, it is not only my cousin who feels as though she faces a challenge in loving. Perhaps I might yearn to learn at the hands of a woman of pleasure myself. Have you had a good look at the test which I must face in loving with my Gaijin beast here?

All night, Masako-san," she smiled, "all,... night, ... long last night, he had me. I cannot think of what I would have done if I'd had to ride my horse today."

She bowed a little from where she sat, "Please, revered mother, teach me a little of your magic this night, so that I might have the hope of at least a little sleep tonight, since he and I must set out tomorrow."

The woman stared at her and then at Valdemar, "But ... I am not young anymore."

"It might be so," Matsu smiled, "but I doubt that you are aged and dry, all the same. Can you tell me with no hint of a grin or smile that you'd turn down a night in those arms with me?"

She sat back a little with a chuckle, "Go on then, tell Valdemar-san that you are too old, and must spend the time washing your lovely hair or some such thing. Look at the way that he smiles at you, Masako-san. You would turn away from that to think about knitting?"