The Promise

by Jane Peart

  “Mahalo.”

  “Jana, I’m not sure when I’ll be back…I hate saying good-bye. I even hate saying good night.” He laughed softly, then drew her into his arms, this time more gently than the other time. “I think I like the Hawaiian way best.” He bent his head and kissed her the traditional way, once on each cheek. “Aloha.” Then he was gone.

  Jana stood there for a moment, looking into the darkness into which he had disappeared. In a few minutes she heard voices coming. Her parents were walking home with some friends and would soon be here. She wanted to be alone when she opened Bayard’s gift, so she hurried into the house.

  Once inside the house, she went straight to her room. She was trembling and didn’t know exactly why. Excitement, probably. It had been a momentous evening. The end of a chapter in her life, the beginning of another.

  It had been a wonderful evening. Only one important thing had been missing: Kimo. Her throat had ached when she saw all the Kipola family surrounding Akela, showering her with leis. Jana wished Kimo had been there. He would have brought her a lei, she was sure. But how could she be that certain? It had been so long, she could hardly remember what it was like when he had been here.

  She understood now why she had responded to Bayard’s kiss that evening. It was Kimo she had been longing to kiss when she was in Bayard’s arms. She knew that was wrong. Unfair. But figuring that out had helped her put it into perspective.

  That’s why she wanted to open Bayard’s present in private. She was afraid her mother would read too much into his gift. Perhaps, in a way, her mother might have liked to see her develop a romantic relationship with Bayard Preston. But Jana knew that would never happen. She was glad she had come to know Bayard in a different way, but it would never be that kind of love.

  As soon as she unwrapped it and saw the name of the jeweler on the small silk box, she knew without opening it what it was. With shaky hands she lifted the lid, and there was the tiny shell pin with the one perfect pearl in its pale pink center. She drew in her breath. It looked even lovelier than it had when she first saw it in the display case.

  Of course, she could not keep it. Not because her mother might think it improper for her to accept it, saying it was far too expensive a piece of jewelry for her to accept from a young man, unless…

  But Jana herself knew why keeping it would be wrong. She and Bayard had used that very word “unless” and understood what it might mean. And there would be no unless. Not now, not ever. Not with Bayard Preston.

  Jana snapped the little box closed. Keeping it was out of the question. And Bayard Preston was out of the question as well.

  As Jana had expected, her mother said she must send it back. Jana rewrapped the present, wrote Bayard a note of thanks and regret, and mailed it to the Preston Ranch the next day. She did not hear from Bayard. Two days later she knew that he had left for Hilo.

  Part Three

  Chapter Eighteen

  Fall 1887

  When Jana heard that Edith Preston was coming home, she felt excited and yet a little anxious. She was afraid her own prediction that Edith would be drastically changed would prove true. Not only because of what Bayard had said about his sister but because of the fact that after her first few weeks at the Virginia school, neither Jana nor Akela had heard much from her. She seemed completely caught up in her new life on the mainland, her new friends, new activities. There had been a few notes, postcards, graduation gifts, but all the signs were that Edith’s life had become a constant round of travel, theater, and weekend house parties.

  The biggest shock and disappointment to Jana was that Edith had not seemed a bit homesick. In the two years she had been gone, she had not once come home to the Big Island. Instead, Colonel Preston had gone to the mainland twice, the last time for Bayard’s graduation from Yale.

  When Jana got the news, she confided some of her anxiety to Akela, hoping she might contradict her. “She’ll probably be terribly changed,” Jana said glumly. “She and her friends at that fancy school move in an entirely different world than we do. Edith could always afford to do things we could never do. But it’s different now. She has friends with the same kind of money, who are able to do the same things she can. She spends time at Newport, Rhode Island—where only enormously wealthy people live, my mother says. They have mansions they call summer cottages! Edith will have nothing in common with us anymore.”

  Akela’s smooth brow furrowed for a moment.

  “Maybe not,” she said complacently. “Maybe Kiki will be glad to be home. With us. Here where she can be herself. Not have to be something everyone expects. I imagine she has to ‘pretend’ a great deal with her friends over there. Especially because they don’t know or understand anything about Hawaii.”

  “Maybe you’re right, but I’m not so sure,” Jana said doubtfully.

  All her fears came to a climax a week later. Edith came tearing into the Rutherfords’ yard on her horse, jumped down from her saddle, and ran up the steps onto the porch, calling, “Jana! Jana! Where are you? I’m home!”

  Jana was sitting at her bedroom window, sketching. At the sound of that familiar voice, she jumped up, spilling her sketchbook to the floor, upsetting her brushes, overturning her water jar. Replacing everything in quick movements, Jana dashed out the door. She heard her mother’s voice greet Edith, and Edith’s enthusiastic response. In the hallway, Jana halted, feeling all at once strangely shy. Then Edith, standing just inside the front door, turned and saw her. “Jana!” she shrieked and rushed toward her.

  The two girls hugged, then grabbed each other around the waist and danced together down the length of the hallway.

  “Oh, Kiki! I’m so glad to see you!”

  “Oh, I’m so glad to be back. You can’t imagine!” screamed Edith, laughing merrily. “I’d forgotten what heaven Hawaii is! I leaned over the ship’s railing so far, Papa kept worrying I’d fall over as we came into the harbor.”

  Jana took a step back, still holding Edith’s shoulders, regarding her speculatively. Dressed in a blue cotton shirt, a divided riding skirt, she looked just the same. The carelessly tied ribbon on her straw hat had loosened and had fallen back, letting her fair hair tumble about her shoulders. All Jana’s apprehensions about a changed friendship faded. The old Kiki she remembered was back, just the same lovable, harum-scarum girl as ever.

  They tethered Edith’s mare in the shade of a sprawling banyan tree beside the Rutherfords’ house, then trudged down the road and up the hill to Tutu Kipola’s house to see Akela. On the way, Edith asked anxiously, “How is she? All the time I was away at school, I worried that you two would forget all about me. That when I came home, you would have changed, wouldn’t want me as a friend anymore.”

  “How funny!” Jana stopped short and looked at Edith in amazement. “That’s exactly what we thought might happen with you!”

  “Really? Well, you two were always so close. I mean, before I came to school, you and Akela were best friends. I wasn’t sure if you’d accept me, and then you did—” She shrugged. “But when I went away, I just thought—well, maybe I was afraid that after I was gone so long…“

  Jana slipped her hand through Edith’s arm. “No way! Never. Remember what we always said: ‘A threefold cord is not easily broken’? We’ll always be friends, no matter what.”

  “And how about Kimo?” was Edith’s next question.

  Jana’s face got warm in spite of her not wanting to reveal too much to her sharp-eyed companion.

  “Kimo is in Germany, didn’t you know? He got a two-year apprenticeship with a famous cabinetmaker. He won’t be home again for I’m not sure how long.”

  “I didn’t know. I just remember him showing up at the rodeo at our house party that Christmas.” She looked sideways at Jana. “You saw him that summer, didn’t you?”

  “No, he left for Germany right from Honolulu. It’s a very long trip, you know.” Jana tried to sound casual. “Kimo was always good-looking.”

  “Yo
u should hear what the girls at my school say about him when I’ve shown them pictures!” Edith laughed gaily. “They roll their eyes, pretend to faint, and giggle like crazy! They call him the ‘noble savage,’ from that picture of him dressed up as King Kahmehameha in our eighth-grade May Day pageant.”

  “How stupid!” Jana reacted indignantly. “I never knew anyone less like a savage than Kimo. He’s the most gentle, kindest, most soft-spoken person in the world.”

  Edith looked at her with a startled expression. “Why are you getting your dander up? It was meant as a compliment—”

  “Well, it certainly didn’t sound like one,” Jana retorted huffily. “What do those girls know about Hawaiians, anyway? To make such a remark.”

  “Jana! It’s nothing to get upset about.”

  “It does upset me.” Jana tossed her head. “Kimo is so intelligent and talented and well read. To make snap judgments about someone you don’t even know seems—well, pretty ignorant of them.”

  “I’m sorry I said anything. I certainly didn’t mean to offend you.”

  “It’s not me, it’s Kimo.”

  “But you’re the one taking offense.”

  “Well, he’s not here to defend himself. I should think you would have defended him when those silly girls made that comment.”

  Edith stopped walking, turned and faced Jana.

  “Listen, Jana, I’m sorry. For whatever I said or did—or didn’t say or do! Don’t let’s quarrel, for heaven’s sake. It’s my first day home. Please.”

  Jana felt ashamed and somewhat embarrassed by her outburst. “I’m sorry, too,” she mumbled.

  “Is there something you’re not telling me?” Edith asked quietly. “Something about Kimo—and you? You love him, don’t you?”

  Jana met her friend’s eyes slowly. “Of course I love him.”

  “And not like a brother, right?”

  “Oh, I don’t know, Kiki. He’s been gone a long time. I don’t know how he feels or—I suppose you’d say, as a dear friend.”

  “More than a friend?” Edith persisted.

  Whatever more she was going to ask was interrupted by a voice calling to them from the top of the hill. Jana turned and, seeing a figure in a wide-brimmed straw hat and colorful mumu standing there, said, “There’s Tutu. Let’s hurry.”

  That afternoon, it did seem like old times. The three girls had a happy reunion. Edith left earlier than Jana, saying that she had to stop at the post office for the ranch mail and that her father expected her home for dinner.

  After she was gone, Akela gently chided Jana. “See, what did I tell you? Wasn’t Kiki just the same as she used to be? I didn’t think she’d changed a bit.”

  Jana did not comment. She herself had sensed something different about Edith. She didn’t talk much about her life at school, on the mainland, or with her new friends. Instead, she seemed happy just to do the things the three of them had always done.

  Jana soon dismissed the idea that her friend had changed. But even during the occasional times they spent alone together without Akela, Jana felt there was something held back, something Edith wasn’t quite ready to open up about, even to her close friend.

  That is, until one afternoon when Edith arrived at the Rutherfords’ house quivering with suppressed excitement. Her dark eyes were shining. “I have something wonderful to tell you, Jana. You first, because you were in on it from the beginning. But it hasn’t been easy to bring off. I had to come clear home—but it worked! Look, look!” She thrust out her left hand and wiggled the third finger, on which a large emerald ring sparkled. “I’m engaged!”

  “What?” gasped Jana.

  “I couldn’t wait to tell you. I can hardly believe it myself.”

  Jana glanced from the ring to Edith’s radiant face.

  “Yes, yes, it’s true. I’m going to be married. To Greg Amory.”

  “Greg Amory,” Jana repeated. Of Bayard’s chums at the house party, Greg was the one she had liked least. She almost exclaimed, “Oh no, not him!” Then she remembered that Edith had set out to capture his heart, had mapped out a whole campaign. She must have continued to pursue him when she was on the mainland.

  “Remember how smitten I was with him at the time? He was so…so sophisticated, so aloof. I didn’t want to make a fool of myself. But I played my cards just right. I told him that if he wasn’t serious, I was going home to the island and not ever coming back to the States. I wasn’t even sure when I left if it would work. But it did. I got letters, and then—it happened.” Edith snapped her fingers. “He sent the ring. It came by insured mail this morning!” She laughed delightedly. “It’s taken me a long time to catch him. But persistence won the day! Oh Jana, I’m so excited, so thrilled. He is so handsome—you do remember, don’t you? Tall, blonde. He’s captain of the tennis team at college and—oh well, so many things. And he thinks that”—she threw back her head, laughing—“I’m adorable. Can you imagine?”

  “But isn’t this all—well, awfully sudden?”

  “Well, no, not really.” She pulled a face. “I thought I’d better act quick. Before he changed his mind!” She laughed again, a laugh that sounded a little high and forced to Jana. “You see, he was planning to go to England for a year, travel on the continent. I was afraid he might meet someone going over—you’ve heard of those shipboard romances! Anyway, Greg’s parents were sending him abroad and—well, you just never know. Well, Bayard and I were invited to their home on Long Island Sound. It was then that I worked all my magic.” Edith looked down at her ring again, holding it out so it glittered. She admired it for a minute before she rushed on, saying, “But I also issued my ultimatum…“

  Jana found herself speechless, unable to think of anything appropriate to say. Somehow Greg Amory, at least the Greg she remembered, was not—could not be—right for Edith. Could he? Before she could think this through further, Edith said something that halted her cold.

  “It was a romantic weekend all around.” She glanced at Jana, her dimples showing. “No one was immune, including Bayard. Actually, Bayard has been seeing quite a lot of my roommate, Vinnie Albright, who is a friend of Greg’s sister, Katherine. As a matter of fact, both she and Katherine will be my bridesmaids. And of course you and Akela will, too.”

  At this Jana felt her heart pinch. Bayard?

  It was too much for Jana to take in all at once. She tried to listen as Edith went into the plans for the wedding, explaining that her Aunt Ruthie was coming from San Francisco to oversee the details. However, Jana’s mind was like a phonograph record with the needle stuck in place. Edith’s casual reference to Bayard being romantically interested in Vinnie Albright kept playing itself over and over. After all the things he had said to her—about Edith’s mainland friends, about how different and refreshing he found her. Yes, Bayard had said a great many things. Maybe none of them should have been believed. But in spite of herself, Jana felt hurt.

  If she had been taken in by Bayard’s flattering attention those few weeks he was here in the spring, it was her own fault. The whole rather intense time might have been a combination of his own unsettledness and the fact that she had been there.

  Edith’s voice brought her back to the present. “We’ve set a date six weeks from now. Not much time to plan everything. But Aunt Ruthie will be here soon to help arrange it all. I’ve already decided that I’ll wear my mother’s wedding gown. It will have to be altered a little to fit me. Just wait until you see it, Jana. It’s simply gorgeous—yards of Brussels lace over ivory satin, the train six feet long and embroidered with seed pearls. I’ve also decided on the bridesmaids’ gowns—different pastel shades to suit each one’s coloring. Yours and Akela’s will be perfect for you both. Yours will be a lovely color of blue to match your eyes, and Akela’s will be a deep rose…“ Edith rambled on and on about the wedding while Jana only half listened. It still seemed incredible. A restlessness about this marriage stirred in her spirit. It was an uneasiness she couldn’t explain, yet she fe
lt it deeply. But Edith was so deliriously happy…

  “Come, let’s go over to Akela’s. I want to tell her too and show her my ring,” giggled Edith, flinging out her arm dramatically and wiggling her finger so that the stone’s facets danced in the sun.

  Later, after their visit with Akela, Edith and Jana walked back down the hill to the Rutherfords’ house. On the way, Edith squeezed Jana’s arm and said, “Isn’t it thrilling, like something out of a dream or a romance novel? But all this is really happening to me. It’s like a kind of fairy story, with a prince falling in love with me.”

  But Edith Preston was certainly not a Cinderella, even though she might have been treated like a princess all her life. Neither did Jana think Greg Amory was any Prince Charming. In fact, Jana thought he was a spoiled, self-indulgent rich boy. Could these two possibly find happiness together? For Edith’s sake, she hoped so.

  “We are going to Europe, Jana, on our honeymoon,” Edith rattled on. “Just think, I’ll see Paris, Florence, Rome! I’ll visit all the galleries and museums for you!” She jumped up. “I must be going. Aunt Ruthie is coming, did I tell you? She’ll be here until the wedding to see to all the details. Papa says I’m not competent now that I’m out of my head in love,” she laughed gaily. “Greg won’t come until the week of the wedding. Come up to the ranch tomorrow and you can sketch my idea for the bridesmaids’ dresses so we can give them to Aunt Ruthie. She’ll have her wonderful seamstress, who does the most exquisite work, make them.”

  How long had Edith secretly been planning this? Jana wondered. Greg Amory never had a chance. Once Edith set her mind on something, she either got her way or else.

  “See you tomorrow!” Edith gave Jana an impulsive hug, and then she was gone.

  Jana went inside the house, then decided to walk down to the beach. That was where she did most of her “heavy thinking.” And today she had plenty to do.

  She sat on the sand, her arms locked around her knees, looking out at the ever-rolling surf. As it usually did at the beach, time passed almost unnoticed. Her mind turned over all the changes that had happened in just the past two years. Kimo in Germany, Akela and Pelo in love, and now Edith planning to marry. And she would be going away herself, to the mainland. Either to teachers college or art school—she had not heard definitely yet.