"Death by Perfume" Summary

This chapter is a story originating in tenth-century Japan, written by a woman named Lady Onogoro. In the story, a courtier is unfaithful to his mistress with three other women in one night. One of the women is the mistress' maid, whose guilt overcomes her and she admits her crime to her mistress. The lady was tired of her lover's cheating and came up with a plan to kill him. She invited him to the perfume-mixing chamber under the pretext of creating a scent that would be their signature scent. Once there, she covered his body with a variety of fragrances. The lady knew that, in certain dosages, the flower essences, that are otherwise healing, can take on a negative effect. The lady used the essences to create feelings of insecurity, self-loathing, jealousy, inadequacy, discouragement, and apathy in her...