A Fox for a Wife
Chapter three
Disclaimer: The characters all belong to Watsuki-sama and all the Companies that hold copyrights. This is from The Enchanted Island Stories from Shakespeare adapted by Ian Serraillier. I don't know Kaoru's father's name so I'm borrowing the name that Akai Kitsune used.
I didn't get permission from the above parties.
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The carriage tumbled along the path, jarring Megumi all the way. The roads were in desperate need of repair and on top of that the roads were muddy. Halfway to Sagara Sanosuke's house, the front wheel of the carriage got stuck in a pothole and no one could manage to get the wheel out. Megumi had to walk in the muddy road from there on. Yahiko had offered but Megumi politely turned refused after Sanosuke demanded that Yahiko jump of his horse that instant for Megumi to ride.
When the house came into sight Megumi almost fainted with relief! She stumbled a little and broke her heel before she caught herself. After little urging from Yahiko and silence from Sanosuke, Megumi rode the rest of the way on the gangly horse.
Megumi was relieved to find that everything in the house was better than the outfit Sanosuke wore for their wedding. Inside the house Megumi couldn't find a stray piece of furniture or a speck of dust. Everything was in its rightful place. There were fresh cushions and the floors were freshly polished, but Megumi was too tired to fret even if something was out of place. Sanosuke looked around his house, not satisfied with something.
"Where on Earth are my servants?" He barked into the house. "Tea! Tsubame! Okon! Get out here!"
Tsubame came rushing in with a duster in hand and a flushed face muttering, "sorry milord! Won't happen again milord!"
Tea came running in from another door, a pot in hand and grease stains marring her otherwise spotless apron.
They lined up in front of him stiff as a bamboo pole.
Okon was the slowest to arrive, she came with no tools to explain her tardiness, her appearance showed no sign of strain.
Sanosuke looked at them with disgust painted for all to see across his face. "Why weren't you here to greet me at my door? Don't you want to see your new mistress? You certainly took your sweet time to arrive after my summons!" He spoke of Okon but directed the venom also to Tea and Tsubame. "If this happens again I'll have you flagged! Now go get me my supper!"
Tea and Tsubame hurried off to the kitchen like frightened puppies. Okon walked lazily behind the others until an icy glare from Sanosuke sent her running also.
Sanosuke was mean and short-tempered with his servants. He was the exact opposite with his wife who he was kind and loving to.
Sagara Megumi.
He led her slowly down the hall to the dinning room. He sat her down in a comfortable chair then turned from her and yelled down the hall in a harsh voice that startled Megumi. He yelled for some one to take his overcoat and also he sent one of his servants to get something to freshen up his wife.
A man with hair that resembled a broom stepped forward to comply with Sanosuke request and started ever so slowly to peel his coat off of him. Sanosuke drew impatient with Chow's fumbling hands he shoved hard on the man and sent his flying backwards. As another servant came in bearing cups of tea Sanosuke 'accidentally' bumped I into him sending the cups and tea shattering to the floor.
"You clumsy oaf!" He yelled at the poor guy picking up the shards of porcelain. "Can't you do anything right?"
Megumi couldn't stand to see the ugliness of her new husband. "Please! Please, Sanosuke! Stop! He shouldn't be blamed!" She pleaded.
"He is!" Sanosuke defended himself rather childishly. He smoothed out the anger from his face and beckoned his wife for Megumi to sit down at the table beside him, "Megumi, dear, come to the table, you must be famished!"
Before Megumi could respond Sanosuke swept her up in his arms and carried her to the table where the servants put the warm dinner.
After Sanosuke and Megumi were sitting around the table Sanosuke eyed his food. He then leaned over and smelt the food that he was going to be fed. Anyone could guess that he didn't like the food because he made a sick face. "They call this food?! A tanuki girl could cook better than this!" He threw the food at the fleeing servant's backs hitting some.
Megumi looked grudgingly as the last of the food was thrown, some saliva finding its way down her delicate chin. "Sanosuke! That really wasn't necessary! That food is certainly edible!"
"Megumi? I. Know. Food. And that is not food. Food shouldn't smell that way! It's just wrong! I would rather eat Kimchi than that!" Sanosuke threw the remainder of the plates and cups at the servants.
When he finished his tantrum he gathered himself together and pulled the sleeping Megumi to their bedroom. When he got to their room he left Megumi standing in the doorway. He traveled over the room inspecting it. When he got back to Megumi he looked angry.
"Those baka servants didn't even lift a finger when I was gone! There's dust all over the place! Look at these flowers! It looks like a man arranged them! This is unfit for us to sleep in. Even for one night!" He took a handful of the flowers, jerked them out of the vase and ripped them apart. He dropped the now demolished flowers on the flower and turned to his wife. "Megumi, we will have to have another room prepared for us. I may take a while before a suitable place is made for us.
Megumi was too tired to fuss anymore so she followed her husband. She did want to complain, Sanosuke was doing all this for her. For their budding love.
Megumi had a fitful sleep due to her husband's insistence that their room wasn't perfect and that she was starving. She went to the dinning room to find Yahiko standing beside the table as if he was waiting for her snoring husband to come in any second.
Megumi was a proud, honorable woman. She knew her place among others, especially servants and the like. She knew what she had to do. It broke her spirit to do it though.
She got on her knees in front of Yahiko, "please, Yahiko. Bring me some food!" She pleaded. She wasn't use to not getting her way.
Yahiko looked outraged that Megumi was down on her hands and knees, begging for a scrape of food like a dog.
"Megumi-sama! Oh, all right! How would you like a calf's foot?"
Hope sparked up in Megumi for she wasn't going to die soon. "I would love it Yahiko-san!"
He studied her face for a while. "I don't think you should eat it, it might make you ill."
Megumi wasn't going to take no for an answer so she begged as hard as she ever had any one beg to her.
Yahiko didn't think the food would suite Megumi. He asked her how she would like some sushi instead, or some soba.
"Yes, yes! Yahiko-san, anything! Please!" She begged on her knees.
"No," he said thoughtfully, holding his chin in his hands. "I don't think you'd like any of that."
Megumi, unused to not getting what she wanted when she wanted, decided that she had had it with the foolishness that Yahiko was giving her. She quickly got off the floor and slapped Yahiko across his face. She grabbed a broom that had been resting against the wall and chased him around the room.
Unfortunately, that's when Sanosuke came in. "Uh... Konichiwa Megumi. Why are you upset? Soon you will be happy, koishii. Look what I have. I made it myself just this morning. Come, we eat!" He put the food specially made by himself and beckoned Megumi to join him at the table which she gratefully did. She was about to eat when Sanosuke stopped her. "Megumi, I made it myself. Don't you have anything to say to me?"
Megumi looked up into Sano, at a loss of wait he wanted. Megumi quickly recovered her wits and said what he wanted her to. "Thank you Sano."
Megumi quickly went back to her food.
"Megumi, it's about time I got you some new kimonos. We are going to your fathers soon," Sano told her.
"Hmm..." Was all Megumi could answer with her mouth full and be polite.
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A/N: I don't know the Japanese equivalent to a calf's foot or fat tripe. (That's why it took so long to update. Blame the food!) I cut this short. I was trying to keep these chapters the same as in the book, but if I were you I'd be too impatient to wait. I'm too lazy for my own good. Well, bye until next time.