Nojiko felt like a field mouse that had wandered into a palace.
The marble floor beneath her feet gleamed like a mirror, reflecting fragments of the crystal chandelier overhead. She took every step gingerly, afraid she might break something priceless.
Oil paintings hung on the walls-not prints, but real paintings made stroke by stroke with pigment, their frames edged with gilded decoration.
Along both sides of the corridor, celadon vases as tall as a person stood every few paces, holding flowers she could not name, fresh dew still clinging to their petals.
She instinctively edged closer to Nami.
Nami, however, looked perfectly at ease. Holding her hand, she walked down the corridor with practiced familiarity and pushed open a carved oak door.
"Come in."
Beyond the door was a room larger than the wooden house in the Orange Grove.
No, not a room. A bathroom.
An enormous bathing pool occupied the center, large enough for more than a dozen people to bathe at once.
Its walls were milky-white marble veined with dark green. The water was so clear that the pebbles lining the bottom were visible.
Steam curled up from the surface, becoming a flowing golden mist in the last rays of sunset.
Shelves against the wall were filled with bottles and jars of crystal, porcelain, and enamel, all gleaming softly in the candlelight.
Nojiko's mouth formed a little circle.
"Oh my goodness..."
She instinctively lowered her voice.
"Nami, this pool... is even bigger than our house."
Nami had already taken off her outer clothes, revealing a waist just beginning to take shape. She bent down to test the water, nodded in satisfaction, then looked back at Nojiko, who was still standing in the doorway in a daze.
"What are you standing there for? Come in."
Nojiko stepped carefully into