Twelve Lies I Told Shingen Takeda

Chapter Thirty-Four - Past, Present...

"Even though you were aware someone had been following you, you didn't return directly to the castle?" I hadn't gotten very far in my story (although I had skipped over the issue of the tea Chiyome had given me – that was worthy of a separate discussion) when Shingen interrupted me. The question had been posed in mild tones, but the look he gave me was half-concern and half-exasperation.

"Number one," I lifted up one finger, "there was no reason not to conclude that he was following Sute instead of me." I put up a second finger. "Number two, Sute is one of your highly competent spies – more competent than me. She took off after him, and I thought she could keep him busy for a while. Number three," I put up another finger. "It was the middle of the day in the castle town. Even Mai wanders around unprotected there."

He took my hand. "If your first supposition is true, then so is the converse – that there was no reason to conclude he wasn't following you." He kissed a finger and gently pushed it down. "Secondly, Sute is competent, as are you, however what she gains in fighting skills, she loses in attention span." Another kiss to the next finger, as he pushed it back down. "As to your third point, Mai is never unprotected. Kenshin always sends at least three personal guards with her, and I have one of my own following as well. She... has never realized they were there." He kissed the last finger and pushed that down too. He kissed the back of my hand. "Finally, who is Susumu?"

I resisted the urge to press my hand to my heart and never wash it again. "Susumu owns the restaurant closest to the Inn at the edge of town. Where most of the travelers stop. He's my best source. I have several, but he is well positioned to alert me about outside agents."

A page arrived with the promised salve, some rags, and a pot of warm water. I reached for the ointment, but Shingen got there first. "I can at least do this for you, o' fierce one." He dipped the cloth in the water and removed the make-up Yoshimoto had applied. I shut my eyes as the feeling of that soothing contact slid through me. "Thus far, I haven't heard an explanation for how you acquired this."

I opened my eyes again to find his staring into mine, daring me not to lie to him. "Two of Yoshiaki's men met with an Imagawa vassal, who passed them a message." I reached in my kimono and gave him the stolen letter.

He did me the honor of treating the letter with importance. He set aside the cloth and read through it. "Helpful to have the names. We'll keep watch to see if they make any additional overtures." With a light touch, he ran his finger over my swollen eye. "And this?"

"I'm getting to that." While he softly rubbed the salve into my face, treating my injury with far more gentleness than a doctor would have, I explained the gig with the teapot, the reappearance of the ninja (which yes, I realized proved Shingen's point about the identity of his quarry), the chase, and how I'd ended up crossing paths again with Yoshiaki's men. When I got to the part about the swords, he put down the first aid supplies and pulled me onto his lap.

"What am I going to do with you?" He rested his forehead in the crook of my neck.

"Honestly, I wasn't in that much danger. I knew I could get away from them – in fact, I was about to make my escape when the ninja came back – wait!" I put my finger on his lips, because I sensed another interjection from the peanut gallery was imminent. "He helped me. It turns out he was only following me because-" I pulled out the other letter and gave it to him. "He had a message for you. I understand that it's personal."

Shingen glanced at the outside of the letter, but there was no obvious sign that it had come from Kennyo, and he didn't ask me for further details. He made no attempt to open it. "Is that the entire story?" There was definitely a 'don't even think of lying to me' expression on his face. Geez. Lie to someone ten or eleven times and suddenly you're on their 'list.'