The Princess and the Shadow

Chapter 17: Yukimura Sanada

Ina watched Kaoru talk to Kaede. Kaede began to show the kimono she had made at Kaoru's request, beautiful and silky kimono must be expensive. Ina watched her gestures, she tried to mimic the gestures of the typical hime, but there was something forced on her, maybe Kaoru wasn't a real hime, maybe she just wanted to be one. A slight smile appeared on her lips as she watched this.

A maid came to bring tea for three and knelt beside Ina with the tray and began to pour the tea. Ina looked at her, the girl was young must have been a little older than her, but looked tired or sick, she wasn't sure. She smiled at the girl, who was surprised by her smile and smiled back.

"Thanks for the tea."

Ina spoke softly to the girl who just kept her smile and nodded. She was in front of Kaoru and didn't want to make any mistake in front of her, so she was avoiding talking to Ina, she wasn't sure who she was, so she decided not to talk to Ina in front of Kaoru.

Kaoru looked at the girl, she bowed after pouring tea, got up and left the room. Ina watched her a little confused. Was Kaoru picky with her employees? Ina thought about it, even her father, who had a higher status than she was kind to his employees, was the least he could do.

"Don't worry, Chie, she's just a little sick today."

Kaoru spoke and Ina looked at her and smiled nodding and picking up her tea and bringing it to her lips. She smelled the green tea and then the taste was good tea. Maybe grown on Sanada land.

"Where are you from, Chie?" Kaoru asked bringing the tea to her lips.

"Mikawa. This is next, sometimes I travel to other provinces, but my father asked me to try here because he heard about the beautiful fabrics it had here."

Ina smiled sympathetically at Kaoru, that nodded as she looked at Kaede's kimono, agreeing they were beautiful, and then looked into Ina's face.

"Mikawa. The Daimyo from there, Ieyasu Tokugawa is our ally. In fact my husband made an alliance with him a few months ago, this castle he built for us. He's a good man, but for some reason my husband doesn't trust him, maybe because he's ambitious."

Kaoru smiled to see that Ina was listening to her words, maybe she liked politics, so the interest.

"I didn't know him in person, my husband did. I'm not sure, but they both don't seem comfortable with this alliance. Since my husband went to Mikawa, he took our two sons. The boys were dazzled by the place, it seems that the castle is big and beautiful. Yukimura was interested in learning to fight a yaru for the first time when he saw a man training with such a weapon."

Kaoru spoke in his deep voice, a little odd at times, as if forcing herself to speak in the best language he could.

Ina sipped her tea and gracefully put it on the tatami and looked at Kaoru after hearing everything her family thinks of her father. Was Ieyasu right to distrust the Sanada? What kind of rivalry was there between them? She had heard that Masayuki Sanada was a great strategist. Did Ieyasu see this as a problem?

She smiled at Kaoru and studied her gaze, she didn't seem to understand much of politics, but she couldn't let her realize she knew Ieyasu, so she needed to comment superficially, but to get more information.

"I heard that Ieyasu-sama is very shrewd, currently he is a man close to Hideyoshi Toyotomi-sama. Maybe your husband has noticed something about Lord of Mikawa, which is why he doesn't trust him."

Ina spoke and Kaoru put a hand to her lips as she thought about what Chie had said. The girl seemed to understand a little about politics, but she didn't know her lord, so she must have said only what she heard about him.