18
Inheritance

Kaoru stared at the darkened house, her stomach in knots. She hadn't known how glad she would be to see civilization again, with real houses and where there was modern medical care nearby.

"They must be asleep," she murmured, staring down at her old home.

Kenshin grunted softly. The house was so dark, the land so quiet.

"Go," he said. "I'll wait here until I know you're safely inside."

"I'll miss you," Kaoru said. She swallowed the lump building in her throat.

"It'll only be a short time," Kenshin reminded her. "And I will never be far away." He reined his horse closer to hers and placed his hand over her swollen stomach, over their child. "Take care of yourself and our pup."

"I will."

He kissed her then, a soft, gentle kiss, afraid if he kissed her with any degree of passion, he might not be able to let her go after all.

Kaoru whispered her love and reined her horse toward the house.

Kenshin waited in the shadows, watching. He had been right to bring her here, he was certain. Their separation would only be for a short time.

Kaoru had reached the house now. Dismounting, she tried the door, but it was locked. She knocked twice. No answer.

Kenshin frowned. Putting his heels to his horse's flanks, he rode to the barn and opened the door. Inside it was dark and empty. No stock was inside.

He walked to the house and peered into the windows, but he could see nothing, could sense no one inside.

"I don't think anyone's home," Kaoru said.

"I think they've gone," Kenshin agreed. "The barn and corrals are empty, and there's nothing growing in the garden."

"But they had nowhere else to go," she insisted, frowning. "They would never leave."

Together they checked the back way and all the windows, but everything was locked up tight. Finally Kenshin forced his sword through the slide of the door, caught the latch, and the front door was free to open.

The place felt so empty, and a quick tour of the house proved this to the eyes as well. The closets were bare, some of the furniture was missing, and everything had a fine layer of dust covering it.

"Where did they go?" Kaoru wondered. She lit a lamp and looked around again, as though she might find a clue as to her aunt and uncle's whereabouts now that there was light.

"I'll put our horses in the barn," Kenshin said.

Kaoru nodded. "I'll look around in the kitchen and see if there's anything to eat."

The cupboards were empty, likewise the pantry. She was standing in the middle of the kitchen, her arms folded over her stomach, when Kenshin came back.

"I couldn't find anything to eat," she said.

"It doesn't matter."

"What are we going to do?"

Kenshin shrugged with a small half-smile. "What do you want to do?"

"I think we should go into town tomorrow. My family had some good friends in town, Nara and her husband Miki. They'll know where my aunt and uncle have gone and if they're coming back."

"I can't go into the town," Kenshin reminded.

"Then I'll go, and you can wait here."

Kenshin didn't like the idea of her going anywhere alone in her condition, but he couldn't deny that it was something that had to be done.

Kaoru looked around again. "They took a few odds and ends, but that's all." She frowned as she sat down. "They must be coming back eventually. They wouldn't go off and leave everything else behind. It doesn't make sense."

"You look tired."

"I am."

"Come," he said, reaching for her hand. "Let's go to bed now. Tomorrow we'll know more and then we can decide what to do."

The next morning, Kaoru searched through an old trunk and found a kimono she could alter to fit her, and with a little careful attention, would disguise her expanding girth. It took most of the morning to alter the kimono, and then she bathed and washed her hair. When she was dressed and ready to go, she went to Kenshin to ask how she looked.

"Beautiful, as always. How long will you be gone?"

"I don't know. It takes maybe half an hour to get to town. I should be home before dark. You'll be here when I get back?"

"I'll be here."

"Okay." She kissed him quickly, then went with him to where the horse was waiting outside, and he lifted her onto its back.

"Be careful."

"I'll be fine. Don't worry."

The ride to town was pleasant. It was good to pass familiar landmarks, to be back home again. Iyo was much the same as it had been when she last saw it.

Nearing the general store, which was owned by the two family friends she had come seeking, she noticed a new tea shop in the corner and smiled faintly, thinking that the taste of the old country was getting ever closer. This was something that she must never say to Kenshin.

Nara was sweeping the veranda when Kaoru rode up. She stared at the girl, her mouth dropping open with surprise.

"Kaoru-chan!" she exclaimed as Kaoru dismounted and looped the reins around the hitch rail. "You're here! We…we thought you had been killed or taken by savages!"

"No," Kaoru said, smiling at the older woman. "I'm fine."

"Well, I can see that," Nara said, still grinning. "You always were a pretty little thing. Where have you been all this time, Child?"

"In Seiyo," Kaoru said, a little airily. There wasn't much need to tell Nara about Kenshin or Ataru or anything else that had happened since she left Iyo.

Nara put her broom aside and took Kaoru's hand in hers. "Whatever possessed you to run away like that, Dear? Why, it just about broke your uncle's heart when you left."

I'm sure it did, Kaoru thought, but aloud she said, "I wanted to see more of the world."

"Well, Dear, he grieved for you something awful."

Again, Kaoru doubted the truth of that, but asked, "Where is my uncle? The house in empty."

Nara took a deep breath and released it in a long-drawn-out sigh. "He passed away back in the summer, not long after we got word that the stagecoach you had been riding in had been attacked by dragons."

"Uncle Shiji's dead?"

"I'm sorry, Child. I thought you knew."

"No. I just got home last night. Where is Aunt Urei, then?"

"She went back east immediately after the funeral. Said she couldn't stand to stay another moment in this Godforsaken place." Nara draped her arm around Kaoru's shoulders and gave her a squeeze. "Come inside, Kaoru-chan. I'll make you some tea."

"Thank you," Kaoru murmured. She followed Nara through the store and into the back room. Nara bade her sit down, her voice soft and sympathetic.

Kaoru couldn't believe they were both really gone. She accepted a cup of strong tea from Nara and sipped it slowly. "Did my aunt say when she'd becoming back?"

"Oh, she's never coming back," Nara said. "You know she always hated it here. Why, she could hardly wait for your uncle's funeral so she could leave."

Kaoru didn't know what to think. She had been less than thrilled about seeing her guardians again, but she had also been counting on a brief stay in their home.

She finished her tea without tasting it, then stood up. "I'd better go."

Nara stood up as well. "You go see old Sachio right away. He's been in a stew since your uncle died."

"Sachio?" Kaoru frowned. "Why would he want to see me?"

"To settle your uncle's affairs," Nara explained. "Isn't that why you're here?"

"No."

Nara patted Kaoru's back. "Well, you hurry along now. You can catch him in his office this time of day."

Kaoru stared at Sachio, the town's attorney, unable to comprehend all that he was saying. Uncle Shiji had left the house and property to her, along with a tidy nest egg.

"There's close to a hundred acres of land," Sachio informed her, checking through some papers. "Now, if you'll just sign here, and here," he said, pressing a brush into her hand, "I believe that about wraps it up."

Kaoru signed her name, her mind reeling. The house was hers, all hers! The land she loved belonged to her, to do with as she pleased. Almost a hundred acres. She could swim in the lake to her heart's content, plant whatever she wanted in the garden. The master bedroom in the house was hers now. Maybe she would paint the walls blue, buy a new houseful of furniture if she so desired!

She was smiling when she left the lawyer's office. She had a home of her own, at last. It was hers, all hers, and no one could take it from her!

She was walking on air as she skipped back to the general store. Humming softly, she purchased several sorts of foodstuffs, needles and thread, soap, towels, new blankets, a few pots and pans, and anything else that she thought they might need, including a variety of seeds.

Leaving the store, she went to the livery barn and hired a rig to carry her supplies home.

Her heart was singing when she reached the outskirts of the ranch. My land, she thought exultantly. My land.

She frowned when she pulled up at the house. The garden she had sweated and slaved over was dry and dead, overrun with weeds and thistles. Untying her horse from the back of the hired hack, she turned it loose in the corral.

She felt Kenshin's presence behind her even before he spoke. "Is everything all right?"

"Everything wonderful!" Kaoru exclaimed. She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him soundly.

"You're looking at a woman of property."

Kenshin frowned. "I don't understand."

The smile left Kaoru's face. "My uncle died last summer. He left me the house and the land and a goodly sum of money. I guess he knew Aunt Urei wouldn't want it, and he couldn't bear to see it sold to a stranger."

Kenshin nodded, his expression impassive.

"Don't you understand what that means?" Kaoru asked, disappointed in his lack of enthusiasm. "This place is ours. We have a home, a place for our son to grow up. We won't have to wander around like homeless beggars anymore."

"Is that what I am?" Kenshin mused. "A homeless beggar?"

"I didn't mean it like that," Kaoru said quickly.

"And yet," Kenshin said slowly, "it is what I've become. I don't really have a home, no matter what my sister tried to provide for me. The New People have taken it in spirit."

"This is your home," Kaoru said, frightened by the look in his eye and the defeated tone of his voice.

Kenshin glanced around, then shook his head. "The higher lands should be my home."

Kaoru swallowed hard. Not this again. Not one of these moments when Kenshin could be a stranger, separated from her by customs and beliefs she could never fully understand.

She had learned that drake people couldn't comprehend the idea of owning the earth. But surely, when he thought about it, he would realize how lucky they were. They had a place to live, a place no one could take away from them. It belonged to her; she had a deed locked up safely in Sachio's office that said so.

Unconsciously, she placed her hand on her stomach. Kenshin's son rested there, beneath her hand. One day, this place would be his.

Her heart was a little heavier as she picked up one of the brown-wrapped parcels and carried it into the house.

After a moment, Kenshin gathered the rest of the supplies and carried them into the kitchen. He stood in the doorway, watching as she unwrapped her purchases and put them away.

"What can I do?" he asked.

"We need wood."

Kenshin smiled bitterly. "I'll go cut some."

He found an axe in the barn and spent next hour chopping wood, remembering all too clearly the many hours he spent felling timber to clear a path for the New People's road.

Stacking the wood beside the house, he thought of Kaoru. This as her land now, and he knew she wouldn't want to leave it after their child was born. Again, he wondered how they could really dare to say they owned the land, rather than it being the other way around?

He walked toward the back of the house. Peering in the window, he saw Kaoru bustling about. He could hear her singing softly as she worked, saw the pride in her eyes when she looked around. They had been there only one day, but the place already reflected her personality. There was a jar of spring flowers resting by the window, a blue ceramic cat resting on a shelf.

Turning, he left the house and began to run, his strides fast and easy, quickly carrying him past the lake and up to the top of the ridge. Coming to a halt, he stared down at the road. It was finished now, and even as he watched, a shiny black carriage passed by, driven by a middle-aged man in fine city attire.

Kenshin sighed as he raised his eyes to the distant mountains. Once, all this land was freely roamed by his own people. And now it belonged to the New People. To Kaoru.

The next few days passed quickly. There was much to do. Kaoru swept the floors, washed the windows and measured them for new curtains, scrubbed out the cast iron stove, eliminated the lacy cobwebs from the corners. She washed the kitchen walls, waxed the floors, and went through the trunks and closets, discarding whatever she deemed useless.

She sewed the new curtains, went into town and bought a rooster and six hens so they would have fresh eggs and poultry. She also bought a pig, a cow, and a goat.

And then she began to work in the garden. Kenshin saw her working hard, uprooting weeds and preparing the ground, and, deeming the work too strenuous for a woman in her condition, he took the spade from her hand. Kaoru insisted she was fine, but in truth she was grateful he refused to let her continue to work in the garden. She tired easily these days, and her back seemed to hurt all the time. She was still adamant on planting the seeds, though, and Kenshin deferred to her experience. He didn't know anything of gardening or growing things.

In the evening, while he worked on repairing a worn bridle or oiled his sword, she sewed things for the baby, very certain that it would be a boy, and she made several roomy kimonos for herself.

In spite of the long hours and hard work, Kaoru couldn't sleep well at night. Her aunt and uncle had enjoyed a very large bed of thick mattresses raised up from the floor on wooden legs, a bedding design from yet another country, but Kenshin found this entirely too alien and wanted to keep sleeping on the floor instead. At first, Kaoru slept beside him, her head pillowed on his shoulder, but as her pregnancy progressed, the floor grew harder and harder and finally, at Kenshin's insistence, she returned to the bed. After the hard wooden floor, the mattress felt like the softest of clouds. But she didn't like sleeping alone, nor did she like the slight strain between them.

She worried. She made several remarks about the future, about what they would plant the following year, about adding a room for the baby, but Kenshin merely listened and nodded, never adding his own ideas or opinions.

Kenshin was Wild. Would be unhappy here? If he was, would he be able to stay? Would she be able to keep him here? Would he want to go back to where the fighting was? Would she take up her son and follow him back into it?

What was right? What?

It was on one such night, when sleep wouldn't come and her heart ached with this until the burdens overflowed and she began to cry quietly, tears muffled by her pillow.

"Kaoru?" She had thought Kenshin sound asleep, sitting up beside her bed, but he was instantly by her side. "What is it? Are you in pain?"

"Yes."

"Is it the pup?" he asked, worried now because the child wasn't yet due.

"No."

"What, then?"

Kaoru reached for his hand and placed it over her heart. "I hurt here," she said softly. "I guess I'm just afraid the fighting will draw you back into the higher lands after the baby is born."

He sat on the edge of her bed, his hand still resting over her heart. "I've thought of that myself." Then he drew her into his arms, nose nestling in her hair. "But if I have to go back to fight, I will always come back to you," he vowed. "No matter how far from you I might go, I will always come back."

"I need you, Kenshin," she told him firmly. "And so does your son."

"And I need both of you," he said, his breath warm in her hair. "Like the air I breathe." His eyes drifted to the window and the darkness beyond. "If I stay here, I'll always have to be on guard. Even now, I dare not stray too far from this place, in case someone recognizes me."

"Maybe you're worrying needlessly," she suggested. "No one in town knows you killed Kamishi. No one ever saw you up close when you were on the road gang, and your name was never mentioned."

"Maybe you're right."

"Would you rather live underground again?" It was the only wholly safe place for dragons and Wild People anymore, even if that was a base for counter-attacks to keep New People out of the higher lands.

"No. I want to live as my people have always lived."

But that was rapidly becoming impossible, and no one knew it better than he as the hill villages dwindled. There were rumors of Wild People finally giving up on their simple ways of life and assimilating into the culture of the New People, preferring it to extinction. Maybe that's what Kaoru was asking Kenshin to do as well. What was to become of him?

"Kenshin…"

Gently, he placed his hand over her mouth. "Let's not worry about it now, but just live each day until the pup is born."

He kissed her, filling her with sweet yearning, and the problems of tomorrow no longer seemed important. Indeed, nothing mattered but the taste of his lips and the touch of his hands, and the soft huskiness of his voice as he whispered his love…