Excerpt from The Concubine's Tattoo by Laura Joh Rowland, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Help...

Then nothingness.

Sano barely heard the assembly's murmured blessings, because the attendants were lifting the white drape away from his new wife's head. She was turning toward him...

Looking even younger than her twenty years, Reiko had a perfect oval face with a delicate chin and nose. Her eyes, like bright, black flower petals, shone with somber innocence. On her high, shaved brow arched the fine lines of painted eyebrows. White rice powder covered smooth, perfect skin, contrasting with the satiny black hair that fell from a center part all the way to her knees. Her beauty took Sano's breath away. Then Reiko smiled at him--the merest shy curving of dainty red lips before she demurely lowered her gaze. Sano's heart clenched with a fierce, possessive tenderness as he smiled back. She was everything he wanted. Their life together would be sheer conjugal bliss, which would begin as soon as the public formalities ended.

The assembly stood as the attendants escorted Sano and Reiko from the altar to their families. Sano bowed to Magistrate Ueda and thanked him for the honor of joining the clan, while Reiko did the same to Sano's mother. Together they thanked the shogun for his patronage, and the guests for coming. Then, after many more congratulations, thanks, and blessings, the party, led by the shogun, moved through the carved doors and down the wide corridor toward the hall where the wedding banquet would take place and more guests waited.

Suddenly, from deep within the castle's interior, came loud, high- pitched screams, then the sound of running footsteps. The shogun paused, halting the procession.

"What is that noise?" he asked, his aristocratic features darkening in annoyance. To his officials, he said, "Go and, ahh, determine the cause, and put a stop to--"

Down the corridor toward the wedding party stampeded hundreds of shrieking women, some dressed in brilliant silk robes, others wearing the plain cotton kimonos of servants, all holding their sleeves over their noses and mouths, eyes wide with terror. Palace officials stormed after them, shouting commands and trying to restore order, but the women paid no heed.

"Let us out!" they cried, shoving the bridal procession up against the wall as they rushed past.

"How dare these females treat me in this disrespectful manner?" Tokugawa Tsunayoshi wailed. "Has everyone gone mad? Guards--stop them!"

Magistrate Ueda and the attendants shielded Reiko from the mob, which quickly expanded to include panicky guests pouring out of the banquet hall. They crashed into Sano's mother; he caught her before she fell.

"We're all doomed if we don't run!" shrilled the women.

Now an army of guards appeared. They herded the hysterical women back to the castle interior. The wedding party and guests clustered in the banquet hall, where tables and cushions had been arranged on the floor, a troupe of frightened musicians clutched their instruments, and maids waited to serve the feast.

"What is the meaning of this?" The shogun straightened his tall black cap, knocked atilt in the scuffle. "I, ahh, demand an explanation!"

The guard commander bowed to Tokugawa Tsunayoshi. "My apologies, Your Excellency, but there's been a disturbance in the women's quarters. Your concubine Lady Harume just died."

The chief castle physician, dressed in the dark blue coat of his profession, added, "Her death was caused by a sudden violent illness. The other ladies fled in panic, fearing contagion."

Murmurs of dismay rose from the assembly. Tokugawa Tsunayoshi gasped. "Contagion?" His face paled, and he covered his nose and mouth with both hands to keep the spirit of disease from entering. "Do you mean to say there is an, ahh, epidemic in the castle?" A dictator of delicate health and with little talent for leadership, he turned to Sano and Magistrate Ueda, the men present who ranked next below him in status. "What is to be done?"

Reproduced from the Concubine's Tattoo by Laura Joh Rowland. © 1997 by Laura Joh Rowland, used by permission of the publishers - St Martin's Press.