Gensai-Sensei visited the farmhouse every few days to check on Yahiko's broken ribs and Kaoru's sprained wrist. His granddaughters always came with him. Ayame and Suzume took an instant liking to Himura and would insist that "Ken-San" play with them while their grandfather treated Kaoru and Yahiko. No matter how busy Himura was, he always dropped what he was doing for the little girls.

"Have you ever thought about having children?" Kaoru asked Himura one afternoon after the Gensais had left.
She'd sat on the engawa and watched him play Kagome-Kagome with Ayame and Suzume. Himura was good with children and they all seemed to adore him. Kaoru couldn't help but think he'd make an excellent father.
"Why?" Himura gave her a wicked grin. "Is Kaoru-Dono offering?"
Kaoru blushed. She'd walked into that one, hadn't she? The only response she could make was an awkward laugh.
He bowed to her, then went to finish weeding the garden, which was what he was supposed to be doing before Ayame and Suzume dragged him off to play.
Even though he couldn't see her, Kaoru smiled at him.

"Why do you do that?" said Yahiko, who was sitting next to Kaoru on the engawa. He was no longer on bed rest but hadn't yet fully recovered. His attitude had only gotten worse.
Kaoru shrugged. "Do what?" What was the little runt getting at?
"Smile at him. Laugh at his jokes. Let him flirt with you."
"I didn't let him flirt with me." Kaoru rolled her eyes. "He just did."
She tried to watch her behavior around Himura and not encourage him, but she sometimes slipped. Himura was far from the monster Kaoru had thought he was and she couldn't help liking him. He had an uncanny ability to put her off her guard.
Yahiko scoffed. "You like it, don't you? I guess ugly girls are grateful to get attention even from a monster."
Kaoru balled a fist. The nerve of this little shit calling Himura a monster after Himura had graciously taken Yahiko in and paid his medical bills.
"At least I didn't run away to where I wasn't wanted," she said. Yahiko would only be a nuisance to Sanosuke and Aoshi. How could they fight for the Shogunate when they had to babysit him.
"Shut up, you old hag!"
Kaoru slapped her brother. She hit him with her right hand. Her right wrist was still sore and tender and that slap hurt her almost as bad as it hurt Yahiko.
"Yeah, I am an old hag," she said. "And you're an ungrateful little punk. What a family we are."
"Yahiko-Sama." Tsubame stepped out of the house carrying a tray containing the tea things and Yahiko's medicine.
Yahiko's sweetheart had been a big help since she came to the farm house. Kaoru, though her injured wrist had mostly healed, didn't feel bad for shifting everything she didn't want to do onto Tsubame. If Tsubame was as ready for marriage as she thought she was, then she could do housework.
Kaoru and Yahiko composed themselves so Tsubame wouldn't ask any questions.
"It's time to take your medicine," said Tsubame. Gensai-Sensei had proscribed two willow bark pills and a cup of ginger tea twice a day.
Yahiko grumbled but accepted the tea and pills from Tsubame. "Thank you," he said.
Though Yahiko had been restless and bad-tempered during his recovery, he never took it out on Tsubame. Kaoru would have smacked him senseless if he had.
Like the old, married woman she'd somehow become in this past several months, Kaoru chaperoned the young couple whenever she could. Much to her relief, Yahiko and Tsubame didn't seem to have gone beyond holding hands. Still, Kaoru made them lay out their futons on different sides of the house.

After Yahiko drank his tea and took his medicine, he dozed off with his head in Tsubame's lap. Tsubame stroked Yahiko's forelock, which hadn't yet been cut. Yahiko was supposed to have his genpuku, coming of age ceremony, in a few weeks, but that would have to be postponed until Sanosuke and Aoshi finally convinced him to return to Edo.

Tsubame sighed. "How beautiful he is," she said.
Kaoru laughed. Her baby brother was quite a doll, which was why he'd always gotten away with so much.
Yahiko began to snore. His mouth fell open and a droplet of drool ran down his chin, just like they used to do in the good old days when he was a baby and couldn't talk.
Kaoru stroked Yahiko's smooth cheek. He hadn't even yet started to shave. "And to think," she said. "This boy believes himself to be all grown up."

Himura came in from the garden followed by Rooster-San and his wives. He carried a basket filled with daikon radishes.
"The first of the season," he said. The chickens pecked at the ground near Himura's feet, expecting him to throw them some tasty radish leaves.

He presented the daikon radishes to Kaoru with enthusiasm of a hunting dog bringing back its quarry to its master. Again, Kaoru couldn't help but smile at him.
"I'll make a daikon salad to serve with dinner," she said. Daikon salad was one of the few dishes she could make without spoiling it beyond edibility.
Himura beamed as if the prospect of eating Kaoru's daikon salad was the most wonderful thing in the world. "There's rice vinegar and chili powder in the cupboard," he said.

Kaoru flushed. What in Kami's name was wrong with her?

While Kaoru prepared the daikon radish salad, Himura made porridge from leftover rice. Out on the engawa, Yahiko still snuffled like a puppy as he dozed in Tsubame's lap and Tsubame continued stroking his forelock.
Himura tossed chopped shallots into the pot and smiled. "She'll make him a good wife," he said.
Kaoru agreed. Though Tsubame only came from a low-ranking samurai clan, she was sweet, pretty, and dutiful. Everything a man could want in a wife. 
"But they're so young," said Kaoru. "Are they ready?"
Yahiko and Tsubame were both growing up so fast. Maybe that's what wartime did to people?
"Is anyone ever really ready?" said Himura.
Kaoru opened the bottle of rice vinegar to drizzle it over the chopped daikon. "Were you ready?"
Himura hadn't been much older than Yahiko when he was betrothed to Tomoe and left to go fight for the Inshin-Shishi. Perhaps he saw something of his younger self in the boy?
"No." Himura shook his head. "But Yahiko-Kun has an older brother and a cousin to look after him and his feelings for Tsubame-Chan are requited." He put a hand on Kaoru's shoulder. "Yahiko-Kun is a Kamiya. Keeping him from battle is like keeping a duck from water. He has a warrior spirit, just like his sister."
Kaoru smiled. Himura really knew what to say to a girl.

Kohana-San paid Kaoru a visit a few days later.
Harvest was approaching and Himura had gone to the village shrine to make offerings to Inari Ōkami for a bumper crop. Yahiko and Tsubame went into the woods to gather maitake mushrooms. So Kaoru was home alone.

"I didn't know you were still in the country," said Kaoru when Kohana-San walked through the door.
The courtesan's face wasn't painted and she wore a simple yukata and her hair in a modest and understated style. She looked like an ordinary housewife (a particularly beautiful one) and Kaoru almost didn't recognize her.
Kohana-San knelt on the floor mats next to Kaoru with a  grace and dignity that an empress might envy. "Lord Hiko has been kind enough to let me stay at his estate while I recover from an illness," she said.
"If it isn't too impolite of me to ask..." Kaoru stoked the fire to heat up water for tea. "What kind of illness did you have?"
Illnesses were such a genteel subject, weren't they? There was nothing invalids loved more than griping about their various complaints.
Kohana-San primly folded her hands in her lap. "At my age, Lady Kamiya," she said. "A woman should have at least one or two children, but the joys of motherhood are forbidden to those in my profession."
All Kaoru could say in response was "oh."
"Even if it's the child of the man you love."
Kaoru stoked the fire again, unsure of what else to do. "Kohana-San...?" Had the child been Lord Hiko's and that's why he agreed to put her up while she recuperated from the abortion?
The courtesan held up her hand. "My real name is Komagata Yumi," she said. "And before you ask, no. The child wasn't Lord Hiko's. It was my husband's."
Kaoru was confused. "Your husband?" Courtesans could have husbands?
"You might have heard of him," said Kohana... no, Komagata-San. "His name is Shishio Makoto."
Katara bit her lip. The name Shishio was familiar. Hadn't Himura and Katsura-Sama mentioned it from time to time? Then it hit her. Shishio's was one of Katsura-Sama's assassins, a rival to Battousai in his skill and ferocity. "Your husband is a..."
"Our menfolk are in the same line of work." Komagata-San's mouth curled into a wicked grin.
When the water in the kettle boiled, Kaoru prepared tea for the both of them. She recalled everything Megumi and Ikumatsu had tried to teach her. She might not impress a sophisticated courtesan like Komagata-San, but she wouldn't look like an uncouth bumpkin.
"Thank you," said Komagata-San when Kaoru handed her a cup of tea. She looked around the farmhouse. "You have a lovely home, Lady Kamiya."
Kaoru smiled. Though the farmhouse seemed plain and quaint compared to Wolf's Castle or Otou-San's mansion in Edo, she was proud of it and all the work she and Himura had done to turn it into a home.
"I can't take all the credit," said Kaoru. "Some of it should go to Himura."
Himura really was a wonder. Most men wouldn't stoop to doing housework. Kaoru couldn't imagine Otou-San making mochi or Sanosuke weeding the garden or Yahiko sweeping the hearth.
Komagata-San took a dainty sip of her tea. "You're lucky to have such a considerate husband."
"I really am." Kaoru was also fortunate that Himura didn't seem to resent having to pick up her slack.
"And he's lucky to have a wife like you."
Kaoru nodded. When Himura was born a peasant, no one could have imagined that he would one day marry a noblewoman. "But in your profession, you would know that men rarely appreciate what they have."

After dinner, Himura liked to sit out on the engawa and look up at the stars. Kaoru would join him for a cup or two of sake if she finished her spinning and sewing early. They'd talk about their day and whatever was on their minds. Himura sometimes fell silent and stared off in the distance with a wistful smile on his face. A fear constantly gnawed at Kaoru that he was thinking that he was thinking about Tomoe.

Komagata-San laughed. "Is there a lady he appreciates more than you?"
"Did you know that Himura was betrothed to another woman before me and she jilted him."
Over several more cups of tea, Kaoru told Komagata-San all about how Tomoe. How she was the daughter of one of Otou-San's retainers and the Little Miss Perfect that Kaoru was constantly told to be more like growing up. How Tomoe's family tried to marry her off to Himura but she chose to elope with Kaoru's cousin, Akira, instead and how Himura still pined for her anyway.
"You were right, Lady Kamiya," said Komagata-San. "Tomoe-San does sound perfect."
Kaoru sighed. Komagata-San knew much more about men than she did. It would be obvious to her that she would never measure up to Tomoe.
Komagata-San squeezed Kaoru's hand. "But do you know how men treat their perfect wives? They prefer to spend all their time with women like me."
"What do you mean?" said Kaoru. Dammit, maybe she was a bumpkin and couldn't understand someone so much more sophisticated?
"Tomoe-San sounds like the type of woman men think they want but quickly get bored of." Komagata-San squeezed Kaoru's hand again. "I don't think you have anything to worry about, my dear."
Kaoru rolled her eyes. "Thank you." At best, the courtesan was lying to her to be kind and at worst, she was mocking her. 
"Anyway. You'll never know until you tell Himura-San how you feel."
"I can't say I know how I feel." Karou had struggled to make sense of Himura from the beginning. He was a complicated man who stirred up complicated emotions. How could the kind and gentle rurouni who made delicious dango and handled Kaoru's whims with the patience of a Buddha and the assassin who returned every night covered in blood exist inside the same person?
Kaoru could spend the rest of her life trying to understand him and never get anywhere.
Komagata-San reached over and stroked Kaoru's cheek. "I suggest you figure out how you feel soon," she said.  "We live in uncertain times,  Lady Kamiya, later might be too late."
She was right. They were living in the middle of a war and Himura was a wanted man. If Kaoru did love him, then he might die without ever knowing it.
"I will," said Kaoru. That night, she and Himura would finally have the conversation she'd been avoiding for weeks. Why delay it any longer?