Ok everyone, chapter two. The story is finished so I will be updating quite frequently. Please read and review!
-Mia21
As always, the standard disclaimer applies, although I really wish Kenshin and Kaoru were mine!
"Come along, miss." Akane said, and Kaoru followed to her new bedroom. When Akane opened the door, Kaoru's breath caught. A world of underwater fantasy stretched before her. The bed was shaped like a gigantic seashell and curtains of filmy green-blue hung about it. The floor was of mottled blue marble, and in the wall niches there were statues of dolphins and sea gods. Even the dressing table was painted blue and filled with combs, brushes, and faceted crystal bottles and jars of ointments and powders. Akane showed her the clothing room where there was also a bath. Kaoru wished she could take a bath right then and go to bed, but it was still early and Akane asked, "You will go down and have supper with the Master won't you?"
"Yes." Kaoru said, prepared to be sociable.
Pulling out a clean kimono, Akane said, "Either I or one of the housemaids will help you until your own maid arrives."
"Thank you, but I don't think I'll need a maid. I'm used to doing things for myself." Kaoru told her.
"Nonsense, the Master has said you will have a maid so you will have a maid." Akane told her, as if that explained everything.
She helped her dress, and then led her back down the winding corridors and staircase to the banquet hall.
Throughout supper, Kaoru had found Enishi pleasant and funny. She had thanked him yet again for his graciousness in letting her come to live at the abbey and said she wished there was someway she could repay him.
Later that night, Akane helped her into her nightdress and tucked her into bed. Once she had left, Kaoru rolled over on her side near the edge of the bed, absently twisting her father's ring on her finger. It came off, fell jingling to the marble floor and bounced under the bed. Kaoru climbed out of bed and lit the lamp to reveal it lying there deep in the recesses. By wriggling partially under, she was able to reach it, and was edging back out when something caught her eye. There, scratched into the opalescent paint, was a name – Shiori. Kaoru wondered briefly whose name it was, then shrugged, blew out the lamp and slipped between fragrant and silky sheets.
Akane joined Kaoru for breakfast in a small morning room.
"It's so pretty outside," Kaoru said, looking out the floor to ceiling window. "I think I may stroll through the grounds after breakfast."
"I shouldn't think you'll have time today. The Master has ordered that I give you a tour of the house."
Kaoru nodded. "All right, we'll start on the house."
Akane looked visibly relieved to have her agree so easily.
They began the tour right after they finished breakfast. Kaoru was led through salons and hallways, a sculpture gallery and an enormous library with thousands of volumes of books on shelves. They crossed acres of floors of marble or polished wood. Akane was able to impart a good deal of information about many rooms and the things inside them. Eventually they passed through the portrait gallery, which was lined with hundreds of years' worth of paintings of the abbey's former owners. Next to Enishi's portrait was a rectangular, faded patch.
"Was that where his wife's portrait hung?" Kaoru asked.
"Various ladies' pictures have hung there," Akane said. "The Master has been married more than once. He does not care to have the painful memories thrust upon him, so the paintings have been removed."
"These are the sorts of things I need to know if I'm going to live here." Kaoru told her.
"Yes, of course. I told the Master you ought to be told his history, but he wouldn't hear of it. I'll tell you, but please don't let on."
"I won't breathe a word."
"The first was Miss Takara Funaki. She and the Master met in Kyoto and a more beautiful girl you could not imagine. All those abundant black curls. The Master was just twenty when they married, and they were happy for a long while. Two years after they married, Master Haru was born and the Master could hardly contain himself for joy. All was well, until the accident happened. Haru wandered too close to the fire grate and his nightgown took ablaze. His mother rolled him in the rug quick as she could, but he was burned to badly. He lingered a week before passing away, then everything changed. Master blamed Takara, you see. And after his death, they hardly spoke to one another. Miss Takara was terribly unhappy, and ended up running off with a young kendo instructor."
"So who came next?" Kaoru wondered, knowing now that there were more.
"Miss Shiori Koruba. The Master met her in his travels across Japan after his divorce was final. They were happy for a bit, until she became with child. It wasn't a happy time for the Master because it reminded him of little Haru. And then the baby died and the mother as well. This has not been a happy household," Akane said, shaking her head sadly. "Not happy at all. Next came Miss Rika Amori, and they never had a happy day here. She was always provoking the Master about this or that. I'd hear them shouting in the library. Sometimes Miss Rika would even smash vases and things. They hadn't been married long, only a year, when she…died."
"How did she die?"
"She…she committed suicide. One of the servants found her, she'd stabbed herself. The Master had her body interred at night even though the law now says you may bury suicides during the day."
"In the churchyard?" Kaoru asked. Akane shook her head. "All of Master Enishi's beloved dead lie in a walled churchyard on the property."
"And there's another wife?"
"Yes, one more. Miss Ayano Yamamura. He married her just a few months after Miss Rika died. She lived here for a few years, but was always unhappy. Nothing her husband gave her was what she wanted; nothing he did for her was enough. His only fault ever has been his choice of women. Miss Ayano's health took a turn for the worse, and about eighteen months ago the Master whisked her off to some healing springs. She died while they were gone. He brought her body back to be buried here."
'He has indeed been unfortunate in his relationships,' Kaoru thought. 'All those tragedies lying behind that handsome face. It's a wonder he can still smile.' She would show him that there could still be happiness in the world.
