“I don’t care what kind of fool notion you got in your head, young lady. Walker Heart left me to look after you and I’m gonna do what he’d do if he was here. I’m gonna ride into town and bring that damn Julian back at the end of a shotgun barrel.”
“The baby’s not Julian’s.”
“I don’t care if he hollers like a stuck pig, he’s gonna do right by... What’d you just say?”
“The baby isn’t Julian’s, Clay, and I don’t want to hear any more about bringing anyone back at the end of a shotgun barrel. I’m having this baby and I’m not ever marrying the father, or anyone else for that matter. If you’re too ashamed to work for me, then you can leave. I won’t hold you to any promises you made my father.”
Her declaration left him stunned speechless, which for Clay Henderson was a new experience. He opened his mouth to speak, shut it, then whipped off his hat and ran a soiled kerchief over his forehead before he shoved his hat on again. When he glanced over at her, his brow was furrowed.
“It had to be that goddamn Hi-waiian,” he mumbled, thinking aloud. “Wasn’t it? You slept with that big handsome Hi-waiian that rode through here last spring.”
“It doesn’t matter who—”
“If I ever see him again, I’ll kill him on sight.”
“You won’t either, you old buffalo. Besides, we’ll never see him again. He’s gone back to Hawaii and he won’t ever be back.” She was amazed at how time and fear of what was to come had dulled her senses, if not the pain.
Unable to hide his fury, Clay rode on ahead. She knew he would eventually come to respect her wishes, but he would have to work through his anger and disappointment in her. As Josie watched Clay skirt a rock formation jutting out of the hillside, she thought of Will and of the lonely days and nights, the challenges ahead. Standing alone on the hillside, Josie whispered to no one.
“No, he won’t be coming back.”
* * *
“MEBBE TODAY you finally tell me whats’a mattah, Wiliama.”
Will stared up at Nani, who stood over him, with her fists planted on her hips, the flounce of her muumuu still swaying from her rapid charge across the wide lawn in front of their hillside home.
“What do you mean, Ma?”
“You know what. Tree months now you been home. Tree months long I gotta look dis sad face. You no moah happy and I like know why.”
Will sighed. “I fell in love on the mainland. I fell hard.”
Her frown deepened. “You love one haole girl? One mainland girl?” She shook her head, her lips pursed.
“I’m half haole, Ma, or did you forget?”
“You not going back mainland.” Fear of losing him was behind her disapproval.
“I’m not going back.”
“Mebbe I let you go one time moah, bring dis haole girl back Hawaii. You be happy den.”
Life was simple for Nani. It always had been. He wished like hell it could be simple for him.
“I can’t, Ma. I can’t ever have her.”
“So. She tink she too good for my boy?”
He could see her anger rise and tried to head off the eruption. No one slighted any of Nani Heart’s children. Not ever.
“She loves me, too. At least she did when I left her.”
“Den whats’a mattah? Go get her. I get tired you do nothing but look da sky all-a-time.”
Will shook his head and then leaned back against a coconut palm and watched the trades blow the passing clouds across the sky. Without telling Nani everything, he knew he had to give some explanation as to why a future with Josie Heart was impossible. Otherwise his mother would never leave him alone.
“Ma, when I was in California, I went to see the ranch Papa talked about all the time. I saw the place he came from. His son, Walker, had passed away, so I was too late to meet my half brother, but I did meet his daughter, Josie.”
How could he explain, how could he convince his mother that he had fallen hopelessly in love in less time than it took to ride around the Big Island?
Nani hiked up her skirt, gingerly lowered her bulky figure to the ground beside him and smoothed out the material of her holoku, the Mother Hubbard–style gown the missionaries had introduced to the island women. When only her bare feet and ankles were visible, she was satisfied. She leaned toward Will and brushed his hair back off his forehead. With a sad smile she said, “Dis Heart girl, she da one?”
“I’m afraid so, Mama. I fell in love with my own brother’s keiki.”
She took his hand and held it gently, sharing his pain as together they looked out over the mist-covered mountain, listening to the breeze that rustled the palm fronds and the cardinals calling out to one another in the trees.
Finally, Nani sighed. The sound seemed to come from the bottom of her toes. “Wiliama,” she began, “I need talk-story. You listen. Long time ago, I was young girl. Pretty girl with no sense. I very wild. Very lolo.”
“I can’t imagine you acting crazy, Ma.”
“I did when I sure I love one married haole man. But it no work. Pretty soon later, I meet Sam Heart. Sam plenty sick. Plenty tired from working on boat all-a-time. Sometin’ make me love him. He loves Nani, too. Plenty. When Sam Heart ask me marry him, my heart go broke. I gotta tell him da truth. I already have one keiki in belly, keiki from the lolo time I lose my head over married haole man.”
Will tried to comprehend where his mother’s story was headed and then realized with shock that she was sharing a deep dark secret she had kept from him for his whole life.
“You were already pregnant when you married Papa?” He shoved away from the palm and took her upper arms in his grasp. Nani tried to look away but he forced her to meet his eyes.
“You were already pregnant, with me, when you married Sam Heart?”
“You make me shame,” she whispered.
“No, Mama. No shame.” There could be no shame when he felt like sunshine had just burst into his heart. “No more shame.” Overwhelmed by the news, he had to ask, “So, I’m really not Sam Heart’s son?”
She took his face between her hands and gently cradled it. “In all ways, Sam Heart is your faddah. All ways but blood, Wiliama. Sam always love you as his firstborn keiki. I nevah want tell you, but today I see the sadness in your eye and know I gotta tell you da truth. You and dat haole girl on da mainland not got same kine blood.”
Will shook his head, then began to laugh as he pulled Nani into his arms and hugged her tenderly. They rocked back and forth, locked in an embrace until she shoved away from him. Her frown was intense, meant to be threatening, but Will only chuckled.
“What’s wrong, Ma?”
“Now you going mainland, yeah? Mebbe you not come back home.” Her voice trailed off and she would not meet his eyes.
Will pushed off the ground and braced himself, reached down and pulled Nani up beside him.
“Mama, you’ve just given me the one thing in the world I want most, but don’t think I’ll turn my back on you. Josie might not want to give up Heartbreak Ranch enough to move here, but you can bet we’ll be back as often as we can manage. I love you, Ma. Besides, I want to find out as much as you can tell me about my real father. And, most of all, I want you to get to know Josie.” He took her arm and started off across the lawn toward the clapboard cottage nestled against the hillside.
“So you going back, den, to dat haole girl, for sure?”
“For sure, Ma. I just hope she’ll still have me.”
CHAPTER NINE
IT HAD TAKEN Will longer to make arrangements to leave the island than he had expected. Nearly a month and a half after his mother’s revelation he finally found himself standing in the dark at the ranch house door again, feeling the bite of a crisp, late October night. He’d skirted the bunkhouse and outbuildings and ridden straight to the front door, hoping to find Josie at home, wishing he could have arrived before sunset.
Lamps were burning in the house, but the curtains were shut tight. As he raised his hand to kno
ck, he hoped she was home, then prayed she was alone and had not married Julian after all.
At first, no one answered, then finally he heard footsteps on the other side of the door. The lock clicked and the door opened. She didn’t react, didn’t move, but simply stood there staring as if she were seeing a ghost.
“Josie?”
She was thin and pale. Violet shadows stained the translucent skin beneath her eyes. He stepped over the threshold unmindful of propriety and took her in his arms.
“Josie, what’s wrong? Are you ill?”
She stood so stiff and cold in his arms that his heart pounded with anxiety. What in the world had happened to her since he had been gone? Five months had taken their toll and he could only blame himself.
Josie finally found the strength to stir in his arms. She’d had one of the greatest shocks of her life when she opened the door and found Will standing there looking gloriously sun-kissed, tall and proud and vibrant with life. If he hadn’t grabbed her and held her close, she would have fainted dead away at his feet.
She took a moment more to compose herself and revel in the feel of his embrace before she planted her hands against the front of his heavy, sheepskin-lined duster and leaned back to look up into his eyes.
“Will,” she whispered. It was all she could say.
The sound of heavy footsteps echoed in the hall. Will glanced up over Josie’s head and watched as Clay Henderson pounded toward them with an old shotgun in his hands.
“Step away from her, mister, so’s I can blow you to kingdom come.” Clay’s face was crimson, his jowls quivering with rage.
“Clay, no—” Josie whirled around, shielding Will as she stared down her foreman. “Put that old thing away. You’ll wind up blowing yourself to bits.”
“You’ve got a lot of nerve coming back here, mister.” Clay ignored Josie’s warning and kept the gun trained on Will.
Will had intended to move Josie out of harm’s way, but Clay’s words made him freeze, his hands gripping her arms. Somehow the foreman had learned what had happened between them. Somehow word was out and Josie was suffering for it.
“You told him?” Will said in disbelief.
“Told me? Hell, the whole damn basin had to know eventually, Ipo. Now, set her aside and face this like a man, though knowing what a coward you are, I can see why you’d hide behind a woman’s skirts.”
Will gently but firmly tried to coax Josie away. She clung like opihi clings to rocks in a tide pool. Reasoning quickly, Will realized Henderson had called him Ipo, which meant Josie hadn’t confessed everything—but how had the whole basin come to know?
“Listen, I’m sure we can sit down and talk this out,” Will began.
“Ain’t nothing to talk out—”
“Clay, please, don’t.” Josie raised her hand, imploring Clay to stop.
“Hell, it ain’t right not to know why I’m gonna kill him, is it?”
“Know what?” Will glanced down at the crown of Josie’s head and then flashed his gaze back to Clay Henderson.
“You rode out of here and left Josie’s good name in ruins and I ain’t takin’ that lightly. If her pa was here, he’d be doing just what I’m about to do.”
“Stop it, Clay!” Josie pulled away from Will and took a step toward the foreman.
“Josie, get away now, step out of range.”
“Clay, put that gun down or you’re fired,” she cried.
Will stayed where he was, frozen to the spot, terrified he’d lose Josie now that he had a right to lay claim to her. He didn’t breathe until Clay slowly lowered the gun. Hurt emanated from the older man’s eyes.
“Is that the way it is, then? You’re choosin’ this no-good, low-down stranger, takin’ his side after he left you to go through everything all alone?”
“I love you, Clay,” Josie said, her voice breaking, “but you don’t know the whole story. If you’ll just calm down...” She reached back for Will’s hand and then out for Clay’s. As she stood between them, clinging to each of their hands, she finished. “If you’ll just let us explain, we’ll tell you why we can’t ever be together.”
“We’ll tell him why we thought we could never be together,” Will corrected. “Then I’ll tell you both why we can and why I’ve come back to make you my wife, Josie Heart. If you’ll still have me.”
His fingers tightened on hers as Josie stared up at him with tears shimmering in her eyes.
“What are you saying?” she whispered.
Will reached up and pulled off his hat. As he slipped his arm around her shoulders and drew her near again, he looked over at Clay and said, “Would you come in the parlor and hear me out?”
Once they were settled, Clay peppered them with questions and, despite her embarrassment, Josie quickly gave him most of the answers. She outlined the events of the night she seduced Will, as much as she dared, and then told him it wasn’t until the next morning when the elixir wore off that Will told her he was Sam Heart’s son.
Will had not let go of her hand throughout the telling, even though Clay had spent the entire time glowering at him with bloodlust in his eyes.
“Now it’s my turn to talk-story,” Will began. “I was like a walking dead man when I got home,” he began. “I had convinced my mind that I would never see you again, Josie, but my heart was dead inside. My mother could see my unhappiness. Although she knew it would shame her to tell the truth and she would probably lose me to you, she told me of my true heritage and freed me to marry you.”
Josie reached out for his other hand and clasped them both to her heart. “What are you saying?”
“It seems Sam Heart wasn’t my father, although he raised me as his son. My mother was already carrying me when she married him. She told Sam the truth but he wanted her enough to claim me as his own.”
“Are you saying we’re not related at all?” Josie slowly let the truth of his words sink in.
“Not by so much as a single drop of blood.”
“That don’t ’scuse you of anything in my book, boy,” Clay growled. “The deed was already done, so to speak, when you rode outta here. This little gal here broke off with Julian, which had folks talkin’, but then, when she was breedin’ and started showin’ and was still trying to work the ranch—”
“What are you saying?” Will went cold, his gaze roaming over Josie, taking in her pale cast, the dark shadows beneath her eyes. The deep sadness that lingered there. He let go of her hand and fingered the black cuff of her equally black gown.
“You were pregnant?” He couldn’t seem to keep his hands from shaking. It was a possibility he hadn’t even let himself consider.
She bit her lips and closed her eyes. He watched a tear leak from beneath her lashes and trail down her cheek.
“She miscarried a boy a little over two weeks ago,” Clay said, never taking his eyes off Will.
Now Will could well understand the hatred he saw in Clay’s ice-blue eyes.
“Oh, God, Josie, I’m so sorry. What can I say? What can I do to make this up to you?”
He hated himself for abandoning her when she had needed him the most. He had left her alone to suffer the loss of their son. His son. A boy he would never be able to hold in his arms.
Without a word, Josie went into the circle of his embrace and laid her head against his shirtfront. He could feel the moist warmth of her tears through the fabric.
Clay stood up and left them without a word, but the look he shot Will from the doorway spoke volumes. Will knew it would take time, if not years, before the two of them could become friends, but he promised Clay Henderson with a single nod that he would make things right for Josie. He meant to be there for her for the rest of their lives.
“I feel so helpless.” He knew he still could not possibly feel the loss as much as she, who had carried their child beneath her heart for more than five months.
“Just love me, Will,” she said, pulling back to look up into his eyes.
“That’s too ea
sy. I’ve loved you since the moment I laid eyes on you.” He brushed her hair back off her face and looped a long, thick strand behind her ear.
Josie tipped her face up to his and without a word, offered him her lips, her love, her life. Will leaned close, kissed the tears from her cheeks.
“I vow I’ll never give you cause to shed one more tear, Josie Heart, if you’ll marry me.”
“Of course,” she said on a sigh. “I can’t think of anything I want more.”
As he kissed her full on the mouth, Will felt her arms slip around his waist. When he lifted his head, she looked up at him and said with a tremulous smile, “You know, if I had never dabbled with Bella’s elixir and taken a chance, you might have gone away thinking we were too closely related to be together. We would never have known the truth.”
“Josie?” he whispered as he nuzzled her ear.
“Hmm?”
“Make me a promise.”
“Anything.”
“Don’t ever, ever dig into that trunk of Bella Duprey’s again. I have a feeling there’s nothing but trouble stored inside.”
“I promise I’ll leave it alone.”
“Maybe we ought to get rid of it.” He smoothed his hand over her hair, rubbed a strand between his fingers as he kissed the crown of her head.
Josie’s frown was hidden against his chest. She would keep the promise not to open the trunk again, but she knew she would never be able to bring herself to get rid of it, not when there was every possibility that one day they might have a daughter, another strong-willed, hot-blooded descendant of Bella Duprey.
“Josie?”
“What?”
“I said maybe we ought to get rid of that trunk.”
Her mind made up, Josie leaned back so that she could smile into Will’s eyes.
“What a good idea, darling, but don’t you worry a bit about it. You just forget about that old thing.” She kissed him full on the mouth to reassure him.
Humoring her, Will kissed Josie back, knowing as sure as the sun would rise tomorrow that Bella’s trunk wasn’t going anyplace.
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