Jewel of the Pacific

by Linda Lee Chaikin

  “I’m sorry you care for her,” she said, “but if you want my opinion—”

  “I know you don’t like her. But Rafe seems … Oh, sorry, I shouldn’t be saying that.”

  “It’s all right. He does like her. Very much, I would venture.”

  “I’m not that sure. Maybe that’s why I’m not storming mad at him. He’s strange recently. Seems unauthentic, if you follow me. Everyone notices he’s different. It’s mainly Bernice that tries to capture his attention. She’s always having revelries and insisting that Parker Judson go and bring Rafe.”

  Well no one can force him to go unless he wants to, she thought. She gripped her seat. Bernice again. Stepping in, taking over, daring to push her aside as clutter in the way of her fashionable shoes.

  “Bernice had one look at the house and nearly begged Parker Judson to buy it.”

  “She was at Koko Head? When did she see the house?” she asked curiously.

  “Well I don’t like to say it, but I think she was with Rafe.”

  Eden felt a ripple of anger.

  “If it hadn’t been that Nora wisely hesitated on a sale, the deal may have been signed, sealed, and delivered as they say, by now.”

  “It isn’t right,” Eden murmured. “Anything as important as Tamarind House should first be talked over by the rest of the family. Nora just can’t sell it!”

  “I’m afraid she can,” Zachary said, “and she will before she loses the Gazette.”

  “If that’s true, she may have something to hold over Ainsworth’s head. He wouldn’t be pleased if she sold the house. Nor is the Gazette worth an exchange for Tamarind House.”

  “Actually,” he said with a sigh, “I don’t think so either. But we don’t have anything to say about the transaction. Of course, she may not do anything so drastic. Let’s hope so, anyway.”

  “We’ve got to get Nora a loan,” she said. “There must be someone with money.”

  He looked at her. “Rafe. As I said earlier, I don’t think you’ll get far, but you can always try.”

  “But Rafe brought Bernice to Tamarind to try and influence Nora to sell.”

  “Oh, no, not that, I’m sure that wasn’t the reason.”

  “But you said—” she began.

  He looked at her. “I’d better tell you. Rafe came to Tamarind a few days ago with the same intention I have: to see if there’s any evidence Townsend may have stayed there until he could safely get to the mainland. I don’t know if he found what he was looking for. He hasn’t clued me in. Not that I’ve seen him since.

  “I don’t know how Bernice happened to be with him. She has her whims, and when she has them, she gets what she wants.” He jerked a shoulder with irritation. “She may have run into him accidentally, or pretended it was like that. I can see her coming along, and when she saw the place she decided then and there how much she liked it. Once she liked it—she wanted it.”

  Eden studied Zachary. His tone and insight took her by surprise. “You don’t sound as enamored with her as you once were.”

  He shrugged. “I’m not,” he admitted. “Silas was wrong. Seeing how she’d turn her back on me to track Rafe showed how undependable she really is. Silas made a remark at the table about my interest in Bernice, but he was out of date.”

  Eden was pleased to hear this. She hadn’t actually thought Zachary was truly in love with Bernice as he’d claimed. Eden continued to think Claudia Hunnewell was more adjusted to Zachary’s moods and temperament. Claudia loved him, and was a girl who did not easily ruffle. Although a Hunnewell and wealthy, she wasn’t spoiled. At least their grandfather was right about Zachary marrying Claudia, even if he’d gone wrong concerning Keno. Now, thankfully, he’d come to respect and like Keno, and wholeheartedly supported their engagement. Their wedding was within three months. As for Ainsworth’s support of her past engagement—he was grieving the loss of Rafe.

  The ferryboat ride to Koko Head, where Tamarind was located, was pleasant with calm blue waters and a partially clear sky. The ferry arrived at the landing near Kuapa Pond at Maunalua. Eden and Zachary left the boat, and took the vinetangled path to the horse road, where a horse and buggy waited for them.

  Eden noticed that Zachary was deep in thought as he paid special attention to his surroundings. She believed she knew what was on his mind. This isolated area and the land about it was so thick with wild lantana and palms that it provided an excellent cover for any person who wished to keep out of sight.

  The horse road, which had been rough in places, was now level and smooth. As they rounded the bend, the house came into bright view, set on a terraced hillside with a wall of leafy tropical greens—emerald and lime-colored with splashes of crimson, pink, and yellow blooms. A strong structure, three stories high, Tamarind greeted them with memories, both light and dark. The buggy was halted on the familiar lava rock court, and as Zachary and Eden stepped down, Candace came to meet them, smiling cheerfully.

  “She’s getting better. At first I feared her ankle injury was serious. The doctor assures us nothing is broken, just a mild sprain. She’s waiting for us in the parlor with refreshments. Come along.”

  Neither Eden nor Zachary mentioned their suspicion that Townsend had hidden in the house during Nora’s stay at the Royal Hotel in Honolulu.

  After refreshments, as the sun was setting, and they were informed that dinner wouldn’t be served until eight, Eden saw Zachary slip toward the back of the house. She knew he was headed for the basement or the trash hut in the backyard. She wanted to follow him for she had her own suspicions to satisfy, but after assisting Great-aunt Nora to her room to rest for an hour, Candace drew Eden away.

  Eden decided there was no reason to be anything but forthright about the dilemma they faced, and Grandfather Ainsworth refusing to give Nora a loan.

  “Tell me, Candace, were you here with Nora when Rafe and Bernice came?”

  Candace raised her delicate auburn eyebrows and seemed to measure Eden’s mood. She must have decided that she was strong enough for the jolt.

  “Yes I was. Bernice is beautiful, but I think she’s soulless.”

  “Soulless? Everyone has a soul.”

  “Oh, you know what I mean—without a conscience, or any genuine depth.”

  “What makes you say that?”

  “Well, the way she floated about, looking like the cover of a magazine, making over the house as if she were a child insisting on a certain bonbon.”

  “I don’t know her very well. I only saw her one Christmas holiday.”

  “She lived in Honolulu for a while when we were growing up. I used to play with her sometimes. Even then she had to win at everything, from ball and jacks to hide-and-seek. I can understand what most men see in her. You would too, if you were around her long enough. I’m just glad she never decided she wanted my Keno.”

  “What I am really trying to learn is whether or not she was serious about gaining control of Tamarind. Zachary seems to think so. He thinks she will talk her father into offering Nora a great amount of money.”

  Candace lounged on her daybed, twisting a ring of her lovely auburn hair around one finger. The diamond engagement ring from “her Keno” sparkled. Eden rejoiced to see it. Candace had never appeared so contented and happy as she had these few weeks since Eden had come home from Kalawao. Such satisfaction was a long time in coming, and to see her coolheaded cousin finally reap this reward was enough to cheer Eden’s heart.

  “Yes, I do think Bernice was serious about wanting Tamarind. I know she offered Nora a large price, right in front of Rafe.”

  Eden tensed. “Did he side with her?”

  Candace looked off into the distance. “Well, you know Rafe better than I do. You know how he can be absolutely—what’s the word …”

  “Enigmatic,” Eden said coolly.

  “Yes. Sometimes it’s difficult to know what he’s thinking. He’s a master at shielding his emotions.”

  “He said nothing to Nora about doing as Bernice
asked?”

  “Nothing. Actually, he just wandered off somewhere in back and returned later.”

  She refused to feel mollified that Rafe had not tried to talk Nora into selling Tamarind. As far as wandering out back, she knew the reason for that—to look for evidence that Townsend had stayed here. She wondered if he’d found anything.

  “Candace, we simply cannot let Nora sell this house. Like I told Zachary, it’s a family holding, full of history and memories. We must do something to keep her from such an error. She’s so worried about losing the Gazette she may decide to exchange a real Derrington treasure for a failing news journal. That would be a tragedy, and Grandfather is in a fighting mood.”

  Eden went on to tell her about the disagreement at luncheon between Zachary and Silas, and what he’d threatened to reveal in the Gazette.

  “He wouldn’t do that. He doesn’t know Silas aided Townsend. I understand the cause for tension between them, but Silas is family. Anyway, Nora wouldn’t allow that in her paper.”

  “A loan,” Eden murmured, pacing. “I have to find someone who will lend enough money to save the paper.”

  “There’s no alternative that I can see,” Candace said. “I’ll speak with Grandfather again and try to make him see his family obligation, though annexation always becomes an issue. I suppose the families who lived through the American Civil War faced many of our same problems. Loyalty versus one’s divided family.”

  Eden agreed, still pacing.

  “We’re left with Grandfather, or Rafe,” Candace said.

  I shall never go to Rafe Easton! How can I?

  Though Eden refused to entertain the idea of turning to Rafe to save the Gazette, she had a strong motivation to contact him about the information her mother, Rebecca, had revealed about Kip’s parentage.

  When Eden wasn’t in a dilemma about how to help Nora, she worried about how to handle the critical information on Kip without hurting anyone involved. She had prayed about it, and continued to do so.

  Meanwhile she kept the journal and diary hidden in her room at Kea Lani until she could begin writing the material into weekly installments for the Gazette. Sometimes Eden became so troubled about the facts concerning Kip and Rafe that she pondered destroying those sections of the journal.

  When Eden returned to Kea Lani she went straight to her bedroom to make sure the journal remained secure in its hiding place. Not that anyone was interested enough in Rebecca to remove it. The Derringtons had small interest. She had not come from an important sugar-raising or political family with many friends and relatives. Rebecca and Lana Stanhope had been raised by a widowed father who had died years earlier. He’d been one of those gold and silver seekers who had never discovered anything “but an ache in his back,” as Aunt Lana had once told her.

  He’d died when his horse threw him on a mountainous road. Rebecca and Lana were placed in a Christian home for orphans, and then separated for some years before they tracked each other down in San Francisco. People they didn’t know had paid for their upbringing and schooling—Rebecca as a schoolteacher and Lana as a nurse. Through a local church they had heeded the call to missions and had come to the Islands. Everything else about Rebecca was now ancient history, including the Derringtons’ unenthusiastic reception of Rebecca as Dr. Jerome Derrington’s wife.

  So, Eden thought, no one in the elite sugar families would steal a journal of her mother’s trials as a leper! Eden’s hopes to have the journal in print were directed toward the compassion of outsiders who would want to help the exiles.

  Satisfied about the journal, she checked her personal mail and saw an envelope from Rafe’s mother at Hawaiiana pineapple plantation. Eden opened it quickly.

  The message was in answer to one Eden had sent to Celestine before going with Zachary to Tamarind House. She read: “Dearest Eden, so pleased to hear from Rafe that Dr. Jerome is recovering from his serious ailment, and that you are safely back in Honolulu.”

  Eden paused. From Rafe? Then he knew about the circumstances in which she had returned. A small pleasure in learning he’d mentioned it to his mother lightened her heart. The optimism fizzled quickly. More than likely Celestine had asked about matters at Kea Lani and Rafe casually informed her of what happened.

  Eden read on: “As to your question about our little Kipper, no, sadly, the adoption has not yet gone. Everything was prepared for signing the papers in San Francisco when Rafe lost his sight. I need not tell you about that horrible situation. You understand, perhaps better than anyone, what the possibility of blindness meant to my son. You can appreciate his dilemma about whether to go through with the signing, or to wait for further evidence the adoption was God’s purpose. Rafe did not believe his sight would return, and was not willing to take on the responsibility for Kip’s sake. Evidently you thought the same.”

  Eden frowned. I thought the same? I never implied such a thing. Now where did that come from?

  She kept reading: “Rafe decided to wait until he knew he could raise Kip in the way he’d planned. Now there’s been a legal delay again, and so we must wait. Meantime, Kipper is quite happy. He calls Rafe ‘Da-da’ and doesn’t know the difference between adoption and biological birth. At least not yet. When he does I’m sure matters will have been worked out and he will become Daniel ‘Kip’ Easton.

  “Do come by Hawaiiana and visit me when you’ve opportunity. I’ll be here until Candace and Keno marry in September.”

  Celestine’s answer had complicated matters. How could she tell Rafe that Townsend had fathered Kip in a drunken spree? Would it be wrong to destroy the information to protect Rafe, and Kip’s future?

  And yet keeping the facts hidden from him would also be an injustice. Adopting Kip was a grave responsibility. Rafe had a right to know all that was involved.

  Another thought troubled her. Since Rafe hadn’t signed the adoption papers would he now find it easier to not do so? And the boy himself—how would the shocking story of his parentage affect his life?

  And what about the bond Bernice was forming with Kip? Eden saw Bernice’s actions as a mere connivance to build a stronger connection with Rafe. What would a woman like Bernice Judson care about an illegitimate baby from a leper colony?

  Eden sat down, forehead on her palm, and stared at the restful light blue carpet as if it held the answer to her dilemma.

  The complicated matter was too serious to ignore or keep locked away in her knowledge. And perhaps the Lord did not intend for her to carry the burdensome decision on her own. She was no longer going to marry Rafe, and Kip was not her prospective adoptee, but Rafe’s.

  Eden made up her mind. She would need to tell the facts as they were to Rafe. What he did with the information would be entirely up to him. In fairness to Rafe, it was her mother Rebecca who had first turned Kip over to him.

  With the decision made, she felt a load of worry slip from her shoulders and stood to her feet.

  She would find out when Rafe was next at Hawaiiana and rally her courage to go there. She hadn’t any doubt that he would receive her. Especially when she let it be known that Kip was the reason for the meeting.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Serpentine Smile

  At Kea Lani, Eden hurried downstairs and onto the front lanai facing the carriageway. Yes, her horse and buggy were still there under the shade of the clustered coconut palms. She wanted to get the meeting with Rafe over as quickly as possible. She left the lanai and dashed down the stone steps.

  The trip to Hawaiiana was not long, maybe five minutes inland after she reached the turnoff to the mission church near the old Easton pearl lagoon, which had been so long in the greedy hands of Uncle Townsend. Recently the pearl lagoon, along with the Kona coffee plantation, Hanalei, were returned to the rightful heir, Rafe, whose father had developed both.

  Eden scanned the distant hills of green foliage among dark boulders.

  It was nearing four o’clock when she arrived at the pearl fishery, less than a half mile from the
mission church. A new road had been cut and cleared to reach inland toward the mountains. Sitting on the edge of her seat and holding the reins in gloved hands as the buggy bumped along the ungraded road, Eden scanned the land. The mission church stood alone in the field, and the thatched roof bungalow Ambrose and Noelani lived in sat nearby among tropical shrubbery and palm trees.

  If Rafe hadn’t intervened, Parker Judson would have torn down the bungalow and mission church when the two partners first began laying out the land for Hawaiiana.

  On either side of the road the land had already been cleared for planting—land that stretched to an invisible bright blue horizon. The earth was a rich brownish-red, perfect for growing. The direct sunlight was hot, the trade wind refreshing, and she felt a certain pang of loss. Rafe had once meant for her to be a part of this, and even the big plantation house had been constructed with her in mind.

  How could she have let it slip through her fingers? And yet she had, a little at a time through her delays in her love relationship with Rafe Easton. For the last two years it was wait, wait until finally, she supposed, he had wearied of it all and turned to Bernice Judson.

  Now Rafe’s half of Hawaiiana was divided between him and Keno, and she would never live in the great house. It would go to Candace. Bernice would have Rafe and Hanalei—plus all of Parker Judson’s holdings—to bring to her marriage.

  It seemed to Eden that her long-laid plans of going to Molokai to meet her mother and to work with her father had ended with little of blessing in return for her service. She had a fistful of wind, as the saying went.

  Since she’d lost Rafe Easton, perhaps another man would be in her future. But if so, where was he? As she looked down the long narrow road, it was empty, just the way her heart felt. She did not think any more love was left in her life to give to another man. It had always been Rafe. Without him there was no one. She would probably end up like Aunt Lana who’d been nearing her fortieth birthday before marrying Dr. Clifford Bolton. And now that they were married, he’d contracted leprosy.