The trembling began as she neared the palace. Her heart raced as her memory carried her back in time. The day she’d lost the baby had begun with her and Sano and the children escaping from house arrest and a death sentence. Since then, her mind had gone over and over each moment of that day, like a waterwheel churning a pond. Now, more than four years later, as she walked the same path as then, she again felt the weight of her pregnant belly and the painful contractions that signaled that the baby was coming soon, too soon. “What’s the matter?” Her escort’s worried voice jolted Reiko out of memory, into reality. She was bent over, panting, and holding her stomach outside the little house where the shogun’s wife lived. The soldier asked, “Are you sick?” “No, I’m fine.” But the sight of the house made Reiko feel giddy and faint. She hadn’t been here since that day; the last time she’d seen Lady Nobuko was four years ago, at her own home.
