His Revenge Baby: 50 Loving States, Washington (25 page)

“Ah, Ruby,” Lilli finally broke in, “Look, I know you wanted me to ask Mr.

Nakamura to buy that leg for you, but—”

“Oh, he already say he not buy it for me, even if you ask him nice.”

Lilli blinked. “Okay, what? When did he say this to you?” she asked her niece.

“This morning when Montana-san take me school,” Ruby answered with a shrug.

But Ruby didn’t seem all that upset about this, so Lilli carefully asked, “So why are you so excited about researching things you can do on a leg you can’t have?”

“Because he say I can work for him. Earn leg.”

Say what now?
Lilli frowned. “Work for him? Work for him like how?”

Ruby shrugged again, and this time the action was accompanied by a muffled, Scooby-doo-like “I dunno” sound. For someone who’d only been in the States less than a year, Ruby was definitely catching on to how American kids responded to requests for further details. Either incomprehensibly or not at all.

Lilli was surprised at how little Ruby appeared to be bothered by the prospect of working for her leg. Which was a nice change of pace from—well, pretty much every single day since they’d moved to Seattle. So Lilli decided to put the conversation she’d originally planned to have with her niece tonight on the backburner.

But she was still a little worried about the earlier “conversation” between Ruby and No. And because she had the day off tomorrow, Lilli settled herself on a couch in one of the less formal living rooms near the main entrance and determined to wait up for him. She wanted to get to the bottom of whatever it was he and Ruby had discussed.

Lilli decided to watch TV until No got home from his meeting. It would be just like in Japan, she figured.

Maybe
exactly
like Japan. Lilli frowned at the familiar Naka 4K in the sitting room and wondered if she was being monitored. Hopefully not, because whoever was doing the monitoring would have seen her give up on operating the insanely complicated TV

remote after five head-exploding minutes.

To make matters worse, her cheapest-plan-possible phone service didn’t work out in the Bellevue boonies, and Lilli couldn’t, for the life of her, get onto the house’s wifi.

Remembering the bookshelf on the landing, she climbed the stairs to take a look and, of course, every single book was in Japanese.

Since all the English-language entertainment options were closed to her, Lilli finally resigned herself to settling on the couch with one of Ruby’s Japanese textbooks. Ruby was already past the point where her aunt could be of any help to her at all with her homework, but Lilli resolved to do better…to be better for the baby she would raise on her own. Even if No didn’t stick around after she got pregnant, Lilli had every intention of making sure their child knew about its half-Japanese heritage.

But Lilli had clearly bitten off more than she could chew. She was wiped out from

the stress of the insanely crazy past 24-hours. And as a result, she did something she’d never done before in Japan. Fell asleep while waiting up for No.

Chapter Thirty-Four

AFTER A LONG DAY spent in Portland, the last thing No expected to find when he walked into the house that night was Ana asleep on the couch in the front room, her head pillowed on an English-to-Japanese text book.

Frowning, he walked over to the couch, not liking the unwelcome thoughts her sleeping image pushed into his head. Memories of waking up to the enchanting sight of her so many mornings in Japan. Holding her in the backseat of his car. Brushing the damp curls from her forehead while she slept off her fever in his mother’s ancestral home.

Dashing those memories out of his head, he shook Ana’s shoulder.

Her eyes slowly opened. “Hi!” she said with the same sleepy smile he remembered so well. “I tried to wait up for you, but…” She yawned.

No’s heart panged at the notion of her waiting up for him, not because she was being paid to do so, but because…

Actually… “Why did you wait up for me.”

“Wanted to talk with you about Ruby,” she answered. “She said you guys came to some sort of agreement about buying her a leg…?”

She trailed off, eyes drifting closed, obviously too tired to have this conversation.

“You should go to bed,” he told her, pulling the Japanese text book from underneath her head. “What is this book? Are you learning Japanese?” The Ana he’d known hadn’t seemed all that interested in furthering her Japanese language studies.

“It’s Ruby’s book. For school. But I’d like to learn a little, too,” she answered from behind closed eyes. “You know, for the baby. So he or she understands where they came from.”

Suddenly the pang in his heart became a full on ache, and No had to look away from her…away from the future they could never have together. But… “I will get you a Japanese tutor, Ana. And a better textbook. And…if you ever have questions about Japan or the language, I will answer them for you, even if I am not here with you.”

However, his offer received no reply, and when he dragged his eyes back to her he found…

Ana had once again fallen asleep.

THE NEXT MORNING, Ruby arrived at his gym.

No wasn’t surprised. As disrespectful as the child had been to her aunt, he’d sensed a fire in her. A determination that might serve her well in life if she could channel it and learn to control her words.

“Good morning,” he greeted her, waiting for her bow.

It came sharp and quick. Almost grudgingly, as if she believed such customs to be a waste of time.

“What kind of job will I do here?” she asked him, looking around the large space.

Like the garden and his bedroom suite, he’d had this room custom-built to his precise specifications. It was a cross between a home gym and a dojo, and had the standard exercise equipment, like a treadmill and a weight rack. But the majority of the floor’s surface was covered in judo-grade tatami mats, and he’d had a mirrored wall installed, along with a weapons wall which boasted several swords, both ancient and new.

“So do you want me to clean this place?” she asked, shaking her head at all the tatami which, even in Japan, had a reputation for being hard to clean.

“No,” he answered. “I have already hired staff to do that for me.”

The girl looked from side to side in a way that reminded No of Ana, despite Ruby’s tilted eyes. “Then why am I here? What do you want me to do?”

“You are half-Japanese,” he said, settling into a tall, formal kneel on the floor. “Can you tell me about your mother?”

Ruby shrugged, but followed his cue and took the
seiza
position across from him.

Obviously with her leg, she had a less than graceful time getting down to the ground.

But nonetheless, she matched him kneel for formal kneel before answering, “She died and Aunt Ana moved in. There is nothing else to tell.”

“Did she tell you anything about her family? Did you have any special traditions?”

Ruby started to shrug again, but then stopped. This time, she really seemed to give his questions some thought. “When I was a kid—before she got sick—we went to the temple on New Year’s Eve. My dad usually went out to
gaijin
clubs on that night. But my mother and I would clean the house together and eat soba noodles. We would also go to a shrine outside of Kyoto where she grew up, but we never met relatives there.

My mother said she used to do the same thing with her parents, but I never met them, and they never gave me
Pochi Bukuro
.

No nodded, easily putting together the story despite only having a few details.

Ruby’s mother had probably been disavowed by her family for marrying outside her culture, but she had clung to a few of her Japanese traditions for her daughters’ sake, even though her parents didn’t so much as give their granddaughter the traditional gift of New Year’s money.

“My mother, brother and I would take similar trips during this time of the year,” he told the girl. “But we would go to the Ibaraki prefecture in the north. Have you ever been?”

“No,” Ruby answered. “Do they have a baseball team?”

“They do not,” No answered with a small smile. “But my mother hailed from a great samurai family. One with many traditions you might find strange, especially when it

came to how the girls were raised.”

No waited to see if Ruby would respond sullenly or even show the tiniest bit of curiosity. She seemed to be on the fence about it. Shifting in her formal kneel, as if trying to decide which way to go.

But in the end, she said, “Tell me about these strange traditions…” Then remembering herself, she bowed and added an “
onegaishimasu
.”

With a small bow of acknowledgement for her last-minute “please,” No continued.

“My mother’s clan goes back many centuries, and her family name is still well known throughout the prefecture as one that gave rise to several great warriors. These warriors were called upon to fight and protect others on numerous occasions. This meant their wives were often left alone, sometimes even while pregnant. Do you know how the warriors dealt with the problem of leaving their pregnant wives exposed to their enemies?”

“No…how?” the girl asked, leaning forward and no longer pretending to be anything less than enraptured by his story.

No smiled to himself and continued, “All of the young daughters in my mother’s clan were trained in the way of the samurai so they could protect their homes, even when their fathers and brothers were away. And this is where you come in, Ruby-chan.

As you know, the special leg you so desire is very costly. More costly than what the people who clean my tatami mats could afford.”

“But—” she started.

“Ruby-chan. Would you like to learn the easy or most difficult way not to interrupt adults when they are speaking?” he asked her, his voice as sharp as the swords on his weapons wall. “You may choose to continue with your questions and lose the opportunity to earn your leg, or you may remain quiet until you are invited to speak.”

No gave her a long hard look. And after a moment’s hesitation, Ruby clamped her lips tightly closed and waited to hear what he would say next.

No bowed again in acknowledgement of her decision to practice reserve before continuing.

“I will eventually leave this house to your aunt. If you wish to earn a leg beyond the one your aunt is most kindly providing you, I can offer you the job of house samurai. If you choose to accept this job, you are agreeing to protect our house and those within it at all costs when I am not here. You will be trained by me in the way of the samurai, and if and when a threat comes to this house, you will offer up your life in exchange if it means protecting anyone under this roof who is pregnant with child.”

He waited.

And so did she.
Good girl.

“You may speak,” he said, with another inclination of his head.

“May I ask questions?”

“
Hai
.”

“Does being a house samurai mean I could die? Like my parents?”

“Most likely no, but death is always a possibility.”

“Is Aunt Ana pregnant?”

A personal question, but not an impertinent or unintelligent one, he decided. “She is not,” he answered.

“Are you planning to make her pregnant?”

He gave her question some consideration before once again choosing candor on this particular subject. “
Hai
,” he answered with a sharp nod.

Now Ruby thought for a long moment before asking him quietly, “If I become house samurai, does that mean you won’t send me away when the new baby comes?”

He was instantly reminded of his
hafu
brother who’d been barely tolerated after his Chinese mother’s death, and then completely disowned after divorcing the Japanese wife their father had hand-picked for him.

“No. You will not be sent away,” he answered the girl, with perhaps more emphasis than necessary. “You and your aunt will always be together if that is what you wish. I can promise you that.”

“But that is not true. You cannot promise me that,” she answered, her tone bitter.

“No one can make such promises.”

He inclined his head in acknowledgement, realizing the truth of her words. “You are correct. A promise like this cannot be made. I, like you, watched my mother die in front of me.”

“
Ehh
?” Ruby answered, with the blunt surprise of a young Japanese teen. “How?”

“She was poisoned by our enemies,” he answered, matching her straightforward tone. “My brother, Hayato, and I watched her die at the breakfast table. There was nothing we could do to save her.”

A shadow crossed the girl’s face as she digested his story. Then she admitted, “I didn’t see my mother die. She went to the hospital and never came out. But my dad…

we were in the car together. And I had to wait for help to come while he…while he…”

Ruby was a very strong girl in many ways, but not strong enough to tell him what he already knew. That by the time help arrived, her father was already dead.

What she didn’t know was that No’s own father had most likely ordered her father’s death. Just as No had briefly thought of ordering Miyuki’s death, only to find upon his return from the ancestral house with Ana that this decision had already been taken out of his hands.

“I can promise if you and your aunt part ways, it will not be by my hand,” he told the girl. “You need her, and I am aware of that, even if you are not.”

Ruby frowned. Seemed to want to argue, but at the last moment she pressed her lips together before deciding to say, “What you are asking me to do—it is a deadly job. If I agree to do it, I want more than my leg. I want all my gymnastics lessons paid for. And a private coach.”

No tilted his head, a grudging respect for the girl forming in his chest. “You are smart to negotiate for more, but in this case, you will accept my offer of the new leg and the weekly lessons to start. Once you have progressed in your samurai studies, you may petition me for a new gymnastics
sensei
. Are we in agreement?”

Ruby nodded, a wide smile spreading across her face, transforming her immediately from a sullen teen to a happy and radiant girl. “
Hai
, we are in agreement,” she answered him.