A/n Ack, I let this one slip away from me again. On to the story!
P.S. If you're reading this again it's because I posted the missing chapter! Thank you again for letting me know!

Chapter 23

"This is not Takada's sister, which, considering the state she is in, is something we must be thankful for. I doubt Takada would be grateful to us for returning his sister covered in bruises and hit on the temple by some idiot cavalryman's elbow."

The drawling, slight snobbish voice echoed in her ears, making no sense at all. Used to very different accents, to a mixture of tongues, Kaoru fought to focus. Where am I? The words would not leave her mouth. Perhaps opening her eyes would help. She did so and found herself blinking in the subdued light of a cool room.

"Must be the other one, sir. Definitely younger, answers to the description we were given." This speaker had clipped authoritative tomes. Kaoru fought the nausea that was rising in her throat and made herself think. Military. Respectful, yet not subservient. A senior officer talking to a senior magistrate, or perhaps a local governor.

She tried to remember where she was and why and it suddenly came back with a rush. "No!" she struggled up, managing to get into a sitting position before the room began to move and she had to shut her eyes and stay still.

"No." Kenshin, running for her. His image was all she could see, slowed as though time had stretched, his gaze fixed on her even as his sword beat back the soldiers, muscles bulging with the effort, throwing off every obstacle, the soundless flight of the spear as it took him down. Such a small thing to kill such a man.

"Oh, God." It was a prayer and she expected no message of hope. What she got was the sight, as she opened her eyes again, of a middle-aged man, his hair severely cropped, his austere expression at odds with richly embroidered silk tunic.

"Are you Kamiya Kaoru? "he demanded.

"Yes." The admission was out before she could deny it. "Where am I? What happened to the barbarians? I must go back!" She struggled to put her feet on the floor and found herself respectfully, but very firmly, held by two women who appeared from behind the couch she was laying on. "Let me go!"

"You have had a very terrifying experience, Kaoru Kamiya." The man said. "Your mind is confused, which is only natural. The emperor sent the solders to locate and rescue his beloved sister and he was good enough to extend the remit to finding you, as you are the daughter of such a prominent senator."

"I do not need rescuing," Kaoru managed. "I was on my way back to the city. But never mind that, that is the least of it. What happened to the barbarians you attacked? Where are they?

"Where we left them." The soldier moved into her line of sight.

Very senior. I can't remember how to tell rank, why do I feel so dizzy?...oh yes...my head. "They are all dead?" Kenshin, Megumi, Yahiko, Sanjo...no!

"Some, all men. Once we had you and established that we had missed the emperor's sister, we pulled back." He frowned at her. "I have no intentions of risking my troops on that rabble unnecessarily."

"They are not rabble." She sank back against the pillows. Not all dead, then. Just some...just Kenshin. O,h my love. "I must go back to them."

"Poor child, she is quite unhinged by the experience." It was one of the women, smartly dressed, no doubt the wife of the man in front of her.

"I will look after you until you are able to travel home. Dear girl, what you must have suffered." She began to pat Kaoru's hand, an irritating distraction from her circling thoughts.

Kaoru tugged her hand free. "You do not understand. I must go back!"

"But why?" The governor stared down his long nose at her. His good manners obviously at war with the sheer irritation of having to deal with a battered, uncooperative female who showed not the slightest gratitude for her rescue. "You said you were going back to your home. What changed?"

"Your unprovoked attack on my friends." Kaoru snapped.

"My dear Kaoru Kamiya." He smiled at her coolly. "It is a well-known fact captives, if they are forced to live for any length of time with their captors, will become irrationally attached to them. I can see that in your case this pretense of belonging would have made things easier, given you more freedom, but you can cast that affection aside now. You are safe and in civilization once again."

"Civilization?" She stared at him, the comprehensively patronizing tone almost talking her breath away. "I have been living with civilized people these past months, sir, and I can tell you, there is more than one kind of civilization in the world." The beautiful handicrafts, the skills that produced them kept alive despite the dangers and difficulties of a nomadic life. The sophisticated interweaving of family and alliance, kingship and loyalty, the laughing children and the dignified women, having their say, fighting alongside their men. Was that not civilization?

Kaoru looked around at the coolly perfect interior, the silent slaves standing to attention at the sides of the room, the rich silks that adorned her hosts. She knew they would not believe her for a moment if she told them that those long-haired warriors, preserving their way of life even if they had to load it into ox carts and drag it across the continent fighting every inch of the way, aroused more respect in her breast than either of the two civilized men standing before her.

"Please let me go." She said calmly. "I do not wish to be here."

All four faced reflected shock. "Dear child, you must do as your father commands." the woman said soothingly. "She is confused by the blow to her head." She explained to the men. "Leave her with us, we will tent to her. You will see, she will be more rational tomorrow."

"Very well." Said the cavalry officer. "But one vital question before I go. Kaoru Kamiya, where is the emperor's sister? Our scouts could not find her in the days we'd been watching."

Kaoru stared at him. What to say? Would the emperor's sister welcome rescue, or was she, as she appeared and everyone said, in love with one of the councilmen and willing to marry him? And even if she were, these men would try to snatch her back and more killing would ensue.

More or less bloodshed if she told them where the woman was? Her head spun with the effort to decide. In the end, she did the only thing she could think of and collapsed back onto the couch with a little moan.

"She's fainted." The woman said. "I must insist you do not question her until tomorrow. We will leave her to sleep. I am certain she will be calmer and more rational state when she wakes."

Kaoru heard the door close behind them and pay, pretending to be limp and unconsciousness until she was certain they had not left a slave in the room with her. Then she turned her face into the silken cushions and wept.

The rest of the day passed in a blur. They came back to see her in the late afternoon. They pressed food on her, but she could not eat it. They then escorted her firmly, but kindly to the bathhouse, spoke soothingly to her, but all she could do was to drift with them, outwardly compliant-except that she could not force food between her lips-but inwardly focused on just one thing.

I have to find the strength to hope, I have to find the cunning to escape. Kenshin might not be dead, he might simply be wounded, and, if that were the case it might have saved his life by stopping him fighting on. They might all be alive, all her friends. Also, Takada's sister would be unaware that her brother had sent a rescue party after her.

If she was told, and she wanted to escape, then all she had to do was to get to the perimeter of the camp and the hidden scouts would snatch her to safety without anyone being hurt. If she did not want to, if she wanted to stay with her lover, then at least they would be warned that troops had been sent to take her.

But whether or not her warming could help the other woman, Kaoru knew she could not live with this uncertainty. She had to know who had lived and who had died. She had to know what those words were on Kenshin's lips as he had faced her across the chaos of the battlefield, even if she then had to turn and walk away from him.

It should be easy, she told herself. She was not the indecisive, sheltered woman she had been when he had taken her.

She felt a strength, a ruthlessness in herself that these involuntary hosts of hers would not expect. She simply had to pretend to be grateful to be in their custody, feign helplessness and she could slip away, steal a horse...her scheming stuttered to a halt at that point. Having stolen it, could she stay on it? Probably she would be better on foot, and less visible. At least they had left her old clothes when they had dressed her in silks.

Accordingly, Kaoru allowed herself to recover from her faintness, to appear to be confused, grateful and biddable and sweetly distressed that she had spoken so. The governor's wife petted and made much of her, tempted her with the best delicacies from the dining table. And bade her goodnight with a smile and the promise of discussing plans to return her home in the morning.

She had also, as Kaoru discovered when she tried to open the door well past midnight, locked her guest in tight and left a slave outside the room. A large male one, by the sound of his gruff voice when he inquired if the lady required anything in response to her rattling the latch.

Kaoru muttered every bad work she had picked up from Yahiko's unguarded lips and dragged a stool to the high window. It proved to have bars on the outside. She collapsed back on the sleeping futon, all the nervous energy and optimism she had summoned up to escape knocked out of her. Now all she could do was hope and pray and watch like a hawk for any opportunity on the journey back home. And worry.

… . . . …

"My darling daughter!" Her mother embraced her in a flutter of veils, pretty tears and smiles. "You are safe!" She smiled graciously at the two foot soldiers who had been sent to escort Kaoru and the two female slaves home. "Thank you so much."

The soldiers snapped a smart salute and handed over a scroll. "With compliments of the governor."

"Of course. Now, you must go and take refreshments while we prepare a letter of thanks for you to take back." She fluttered a hand at her father. "Could you see to that, dear?"

Alone with her mother and her usual accompaniment of passionless slaves, Kaoru stood silent, not expecting the sweet maternal effusions to endure once they were without witnesses.

"Look at you, Kaoru! You look like a wild thing-your hair, your nails, and those clothes!"

"I was dragged off a battlefield by a cavalry trooper," Kaoru said mildly. "I have just had a four-day journey without my own clothes." It was pointless to feel distressed at this welcome or to waste her energy to be angry.

"And what were you doing there?" Her mother demanded petulantly.

"I was captured by the barbarians during the sack of the city," Kaoru said patiently, sitting down without being invited to. Her store of filial duty was running very low. "As I assume you know."

"We were told you were seen at the CITY SQUARE. How could you be so careless?" Her mother threw herself down in a decorative flutter of painted silk. "I was frantic."

"If you had sent me out with an escort of male slaves I would have been a lot safer. And that poor Maiko I was with would still be alive." Kaoru retorted.

"They murdered her! How shocking." Her mother did seem appropriately appalled, Kaoru was glad to see, then had to bite back her anger when she added. "And she was so expensive for the Geisha house to train. She had such a lovely face. And those barbarians-to think that people have been saying that they were not as bad as they might have been. It just goes to show."

"She was murdered by the respectable citizens who were attempting to rape me. That was when the barbarians rescued me, Mother." Kaoru interjected.

"Rape?" The woman's eyes grew in horror. "Oh my god! Ruined..."

"I said attempting." Kaoru sighed. Not 'how horrible' Not 'were you hurt' But 'Ruined.' Ruined for what exactly?

"Then you are still a virgin?"

Kaoru knew she should have been prepared for that question. Now she didn't know whether to lie or be honest. It was either her face or her hesitation that gave her away

"Those Barbarian monsters!" Her mother raged, jumping to her feet and beginning to pace. "And I supposed you are about to tell me you are with child? How can we explain away some dark-skinned, black-eyed bastard?"

"Purple eyes," Kaoru said between rigid lips. "But you don't have to worry, he was a very careful barbarian monster, you are not about to become a grandmother."

"Insolent child!" her mother's slap rocked Kaoru back on her couch. She was half on her feet, not certain whether she was going to flee the room or shout back when her father entered.

"Some savage has had her!" Her mother wailed "The only blessing is that she says she is not with child."

"He is not." Kaoru caught herself, She had almost said was...tears sprang to the corner of her eyes but she forced herself to go on. "He is not some savage. His name is Kenshin, He is so well-born that he may well be their next king."

"Not well enough, it seems." Her father said. "I have just heard the new king is Aoshi's brother in law! And that he has married Takada's sister."

Kaoru heard her mother exclaiming in horror at the dreadful fate of the emperor's favorite sister. Her legs gave way and she sat down with a thump. Not nephew, not Kenshin, but Aoshi's brother-in-law, who had been safely ahead of the ambush. If it had been Kaito crowned, then she could have hoped that Kenshin was still alive, but with Kaito had been at his side in the fight. Now she had no way of knowing if they had simply both lost the contest for kingship..or their lives.

"Is what your mother says correct?" Lord Kamiya planted himself in front of her. "You are not with child?"

"I am not."

"Then all is not lost. Your fiance is sill waiting to marry you. I believe I may have to increase your dowry under the circumstances, but It will still be worth it to avoid the scandal. I can well do without that just now."

"They did not pillage all your wealth then? Father?"

"No. Between my banker's secure vaults and your mother's skill in hiding the household treasures, we lost nothing."

"And why should my fiance still want to marry me? You do not think he will want me after I've been ruined by savages." Kaoru got up and paced in anger. "Perhaps he is such an inept lover that he'll be grateful I've been broken in."

"Oh! Such coarseness! How can you compare that man to that savage of yours? Besides, do not tell me he ever took liberties with you." Her mother's eyes flashed.

"His kisses were like wet fish, I have no wish to experience any other contact with him."

"You will marry him, my girl, and do your level best to remember you were raised in a respectable household. He needs my support in the Senate, I need his backing for new trade ventures with the West. I have no intention of that good relationship being disturbed because of your vapourings. You will stay confined to your room until your mother's women can at least make you look like a lady again. Then you will receive your fiancee, behave with becoming modesty and accept his offer. And be grateful."

"Or what?" Kaoru demanded.

"Or nothing." Her father's face was white with anger. "You agree, you behave or you stay in your quarters until you do."

"I will never agree," She flung at him passionately.

"Then I suggest you resign yourself to having a great deal of time to remember your lover then."

They stood, glaring at each other for a long moment, then her father shook his head in exasperation. "Confound it, Kaoru. You were willing enough to marry him before. Do you think I wish to be harsh? We were beside ourselves with worry until we learned you were safe."

"You have a fine way of showing it on my return." She said bitterly. "And I accepted the proposal because I knew no better. I have loved a warrior, a leader-do you expect me to settle for some pig politician?"

"Brute strength and muscles? Is that what it is?" Her mother demanded, finding her voice again."Do not show her any weakness, dear. She is not better than those strumpets who lust after ring fighters. Deny it if you can."

"Deny that Kenshin is magnificent? Deny that he is built like a god? Deny his muscles and his strength and his red hair and lavender eyes? Deny that it arouses me just to speak of him? I will deny nothing!"

"Oh!" The older woman covered her ears. "Wicked girl! Go to your rooms at once and do not come out until your father says you may. The slaves have been told not to set foot over the threshold, so it is no use trying to persuade any of them to let you out. Now go!"

"Gladly." Kaoru swept her skirts around her with as much dignity as she could muster. "And if you send that politician to me, I will list every physical attribute of my love to him with detail comparison to his own endowments!" She closed the door behind her on her mother's shriek of rage.

A/n Well, that went as expected. Poor Kaoru.
Anyways, one more chapter left. I'm going to work on it now so it should be up by next week and this story and FINALLY be finished.
Thank you for reading!