Pointing Leaf

by Lakes, Lynde

  “Taureka’s confession answered the rest of my questions.”

  “The spirits have looked well upon us,” Tukaha said. “We must have a hangi feast to celebrate our good fortune and thank Atua.”

  Rad nodded. He supposed it was the thing to do now that the trouble was behind them.

  Tukaha’s eyes twinkled with mischief. “I want to invite our Toa Mumu to the festivities.” As Tukaha’s grin widened the heavy creases in his leathery face deepened.

  “I rather doubt she’ll have time to come here just for a hangi. But call her if you like. She would be more apt to say yes to you than to me.”

  Again,Tukaha’s eyes twinkled mischievously. “Are you afraid she’ll say no?”

  The muscle in Rad’s jaw tightened. “Don’t you have something to do besides giving me a hard time? Like maybe check out the references of those two new men?”

  Tukaha chuckled and turned toward the house. “I’ll take care of it just as soon as I call our Toa Mumu.”

  ****

  The sun dipped below the horizon leaving behind a blaze of pinkish-orange sky. Country music and a constant hum of gabbing friends grew louder as Rad walked through a maze of parked trucks and cars to get to the well-lit area where a tarp as big as a circus tent sheltered rows of rectangular tables. He lowered his head to keep from hitting it on one of the dozens of amber glass lanterns that hung from the rods that circled the awning.

  Some of the guests had lined up in the food queue; some huddled in groups sharing stories with smiling friends; others just milled around. If a crowd of friends and abundant food and drink were the criteria, Tukaha’s celebration was a success.

  Tukaha and his sons had enlisted the help of the stockmen’s wives and the human grapevine between stations to spread the word of the feast. Ranch folks came to a party at the drop of a leaf as long as it didn’t interfere with work.

  Steam rose from the hangi earth oven where most of the food had been cooked. The aroma of barbecued lamb spiked the air. A dozen station-hands were at long buffet tables, waiting to serve the food.

  Rad craned his neck, hoping for a glimpse of auburn hair. He didn’t really expect to see Toni. If she’d accepted the invitation Tukaha would have let him know, so he could pick her up at the airport. Still, he couldn’t stop himself from wandering through the crowd searching. He greeted everyone with a smile, a firm handshake and an exchange of pleasantries.

  Tukaha edged through the crowd toward him. He looked younger than he had in weeks, and his dark eyes glistened with happiness. “Boss, don’t forget, you promised to do the Maori Warrior’s dance later.”

  Rad didn’t feel like dancing, but it was an honor to be asked; and he knew people expected it of him.

  Tukaha pointed. “Maybe your eyes will smile along with your lips if you look over there.”

  Rad’s heart leapt. It was Toni! She was surrounded by three of the stockmen’s wives, laughing at something one of them had said. Tukaha’s oldest son stood at her side. Toni’s lustrous hair was wind-blown, and her eyes danced with delight. No woman had ever looked more wonderful or more at home. He tried to remind himself that she was a city girl and only there for the celebration. Yet, she didn’t look like a sophisticated townie in her full flowered skirt and off-the-shoulder white blouse; she looked feminine and soft. His arms yearned to hold her, yet he stood there just staring.

  After a moment, the natural good host in him kicked in, and he walked toward her. “Toni! I’m glad you came.” Her light, tantalizing rose perfume enveloped him. He grabbed her hand, expecting cold fingers, but they were warm and fit perfectly in his grasp. He didn’t want to release her, but she eased her hand away.

  Her smile seemed too bright, but she looked directly into his eyes. He knew she was wondering why he hadn’t asked her to the party himself. He wished he had.

  “Tukaha insisted that I come, wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

  “Does that always work?” He wanted to keep it light, but his face was so stiff he couldn’t smile.

  Toni’s voice went throaty as she said, “Only when I want to say yes.” He sensed a double meaning to her answer. He very much wanted to continue the conversation, but Tukaha interrupted.

  “Come on, let’s eat.” Tukaha didn’t wait for a reply. Instead he squeezed in between them and took them by their arms and pulled them toward the steam tables.

  Rad didn’t want to eat anything. He wanted to carry Toni off somewhere. But he had to play the good host. After all, he couldn’t run away with Tukaha’s guest-of-honor before the party got in full swing. How absurd of him to think she would go along willingly after the way she’d eased her hands away. Apparently she didn’t even want him to touch her.

  After they ate, Tukaha introduced Toni to the other guests. It looked to Rad as though Tukaha intended to keep him from being alone with her. The old man drew Toni to the microphone with him and introduced her again. Then he announced that his boss would do the Maori Warrior’s dance.

  Tukaha’s high-handedness exasperated Rad, yet he had no choice but to comply.

  Behind the curtain Tukaha had hung for that purpose, Rad stripped

  down to a beige tapa loincloth made from bark and patterned with burgundy Maori tribal symbols. He oiled his body, and drew stripes and spirals on his face with a black marker then added arm bands of bright yellow feathers over his biceps.

  He picked up the tewhatewha spear. This was embarrassing. Never before had he danced in front of a woman he loved. He closed his eyes a moment. Ae, he knew it now. He was hopelessly in love with the disconcerting pakeha detective.

  As he self-consciously began the dance, the frantic drumbeat stirred his blood, and the native in him took over. Even during his warlike leaps, stomps, and grunts, his gaze rarely left her face. Toni’s eyes grew wide, but they never left him; and gradually her look of embarrassment was replaced by a sultry look of desire.

  He danced wildly, exaggerating masculine gestures, maximizing his muscle action.

  The drumbeat grew faster like heartbeats before climax. He met Toni’s gaze. Do you feel my heated wildness, my passion, my longing for you? Do you want to escape to the bush and do our own dance of love as much as I do?

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Toni was conscious of her burning cheeks but couldn’t control the flush. The ferocity and passion Rad put into his dancing reminded her of their lovemaking in Mutunga-iho Cave. During their mating, his hair, now a glistening raven rope, had been loose and free, and it had caressed and tantalized her body with its silken touch. His energy and passion had matched hers.

  Suddenly she laughed. Rad was sticking his tongue out further than she had ever thought humanly possible, making what was supposed to be a fierce face. At the same time, with a muscular, wide-legged stance, he jumped up and down, grunting and thrusting his spear toward an imaginary opponent. He looked so funny, so dear. So sexy.

  He disappeared behind the curtain, and the crowd applauded and yelled for an encore. He then did a torrid dance with flaming poles, taking the fire over his body, slow and teasingly, as though the flames were a lover. Toni felt she was those flames, licking his glistening muscles, freeing her passion. Her body blazed with desire.

  Tukaha handed her a glass of ice water. “Warm night, ae, Miss Toni?” He chuckled.

  She drank the liquid down without comment. Calm yourself, she told her pounding heart.

  Rad was still in costume when he returned to the microphone. He’d wiped his face clean of the warrior make-up. “I need assistants for a game.”

  Toni knew the activity had been planned because a half dozen young men and women emerged from the audience in Maori native costumes and carrying bamboo sticks.

  “I need one more,” he said looking directly at her.

  She shook her head, wishing the floor would swallow her. Yet when he offered his hand, as if in a trance, she took it and joined him and the others. She followed their lead as they distanced themselves from each other a
nd sat on their haunches.

  “For our newcomer, we’ll run through the tittorea game slowly the first time.” He tossed a bamboo stick to her. She caught it and passed it on as instructed.

  Toni, Rad, and the others in the group continued passing the sticks to the beat of the music. The audience clapped in time. As the music grew faster it became more difficult to catch the sticks, do the routine, and pass the bamboo to the next person. Rad methodically passed to her. In spite of his help, the game took all of her concentration. His last toss flipped wide. She reached sideways, barely catching it. By the end of the game everyone was laughing and shouting at the near misses.

  Reflections from nearby lanterns glistened in Rad’s eyes. “You did great,” he said. “Excellent coordination.”

  “Thanks. It was fun.”

  “Next time I’ll teach you the poi ball twirling game.”

  Toni’s heart skipped a beat. Next time, he’d said.

  Folks opened leather cases and took out guitars. A loud sing-along started. Rad was saying something. She shook her head. It was impossible to hear over the voices raised in song. Looking exasperated, Rad pointed to her, then at himself, and made a sign to indicate he wanted to talk. Before she could respond, he gripped her arm and led her through the crowd, past the parked cars and trucks, toward his partially darkened ranch house. She didn’t resist.

  He drew her inside and locked the door. Her heart thudded loudly in her ears. Rad’s black hair was pulled back from his face and revealed his strong English features. Even in the subdued entry lighting, she saw mirrored in his dark, searching eyes, the same hope and desire that she was feeling. She yearned for the touch of his lips, but she thrust her hands deep into the pockets of her flared skirt. A thorn pricked her finger.

  “Oh, I forgot to give you this,” she said, pulling out a rosebud. Rad took it from her. Toni’s breath caught as their fingers brushed. Her gaze held his. “Tukaha told me about the tradition. He explained that giving of the bud is the way guests show they care.”

  “And do you?” His puzzled expression revealed that probably there was no such tradition.

  “Of course.”

  “Enough?” His voice sounded constricted.

  She touched the tendons in her neck and felt them tighten. “Enough to do what?”

  Rad touched the rose to the tip of his nose. She wondered if somehow the fragrance carried a spell. His eyes looked smoky. He put his arm around her shoulders. “Let’s go into the solarium and sit by the pool. What I want to say may take some time.”

  As they passed the control box, Rad punched a button. There was a grinding of gears as the ceiling opened to expose a dark sky filled with thousands of blinking stars. Distant, romantic music from the outdoor party drifted in.

  Rad led her to a lounge chair near the edge of the pool and sat next to her. He took both of her hands in his. For a moment he just looked at her. “You’re lovely, more than I ever dreamed one woman could be.”

  The huskiness in his voice revealed strong emotion. “I’ve changed since that day you walked into my yard, and in ways I would never have dreamed possible.”

  “That seems like a long time ago,” she said softly. “I guess what we’ve gone through has changed both of us.”

  “It’s been a gut wrenching metamorphosis for me.” Suddenly he stood and went to the edge of the pool. Moonlight silvered the mist over it. He kept his back to her. “Do you remember what I told you that night in the cave? That all my life I’ve felt trapped between two cultures, tormented because I didn’t feel like I belonged in either?”

  She wanted to protest. But all that came out was, “I remember.” She lifted her chin, fighting tears.

  A muscle in his jaw twitched and faced the pool again. “I craved wisdom, harmony with the earth, and the courage of the Maori. But I couldn’t be Maori enough, no matter how hard I tried.” Rad closed his eyes for a moment and lifted his face to the sky.

  She felt every sensation, including the electricity in the air between them, eager to hear where he was going with all of this.

  “I had this crazy idea that if I married a Maori woman, one who kept the old traditions, it would make me more Maori, and I would finally belong somewhere. But I feel different now.” He turned. “When I marry it will be for love, not to fill a ridiculous bloodline requirement.”

  “What made you change your mind?” she asked softly.

  He took her in his arms and tilted her face up to his. “You. Seeing you in danger, knowing that without you nothing else mattered. And the absence of you, suffering through two weeks of endless days and sleepless nights.”

  Toni’s heart swelled with love. She reached up and wound her arms around Rad’s neck. His arms tightened around her.

  “When I swept your house with the bugging device, I saw your carving of the Maori woman. I wondered…that is…you must have loved her very much to capture such beauty.”

  “Deeply.”

  Toni’s heart pounded loudly in her ears. It was the answer she’d feared. She lowered her arms from Rad’s neck and rested them on his forearms. “Do you still see her?”

  “Only in my dreams and heart. I carved it from my grandmother’s wedding day picture.” He slid Toni’s arms back around his neck. “I liked your arms there.”

  Heat flooded into her cheeks. Fine detective I am. I should have known it was his grandmother.

  “I may never completely resolve the conflict of my dual cultures, but it doesn’t matter. It’s no longer the main force that drives my life. I’m ready to accept what my mother and grandmother tried to tell to me, that I didn’t have to choose between cultures. With her dying breath, my tupuna told me to draw upon both cultures to find my place in the universe.”

  “And have you found it?”

  “Yes.” He traced the line of her jaw with his finger. “It was there from the beginning. All I had to do was embrace it. And once I did, the terrible burden lifted.” He kissed her lightly on the nose. “You did that for me, Miss Conners.”

  “And to think you tried to send me away that first day.”

  “It’s ironic that a man can be so set against the very thing he needs most in his life.”

  “Like an American woman detective?”

  He smiled. “Like you.”

  Toni trailed her fingers from his neck down the curve of his bare shoulder, and touched the soft yellow feathers on the armband that stretched against the bulge of his bicep.

  “You were so hostile when we met.”

  “I had reason to be. According to Maori belief, when you picked up that leaf and pointed it at my heart, it meant you came in war.”

  She gasped. “No wonder you were so inhospitable.”

  “I was a fool.”

  “There might be something to the belief. We did have a war going between us for a while.”

  “Warring isn’t what I want to do with you.” He smoothed the surface of her hair.

  “Exactly what do you want to do to me?”

  “Later. First I need to make something very clear. “I love you.” He paused and looked up, beyond the stars and faintly whispered, “You love her, too, don’t you, Tupuna?” Then he met Toni’s gaze with probing intensity. “But our lives are very different; I’m a rancher and you’re a city woman.”

  She nodded. “But if we love each other…” Her voice trailed off while she searched for a convincing argument. This was an argument she had to win. After a moment she said, “Your mother and grandmother both married Englishmen whose lives must have been very different from theirs.”

  “And only a strong love and determination got them through it.”

  “Nothing worthwhile is ever easy.”

  “You have determination,” he said. “But do you love me enough to live here with me?”

  She tilted her head. “Radford Manawa-Nui Murdoch, is that an indecent proposal?”

  He laughed. “I assure you it’s honorable.”

  “Then, yes.”
/>   “You wouldn’t miss the city?”

  “It’s only a plane ride away, if I do.”

  “What about your business?”

  “I could run it from here with only one or two days a week in the office.”

  “And children?” His piercing brown eyes glinted bright.

  “Of course! This big house would be wasted without them.” She hoped the boys would look just like Rad.

  “It’s important to me that our children know the richness of the Maori culture as well as the white culture.”

  “We’ll teach them to love both, just like your grandmother taught you.”

  “It seems we don’t have any problems then.”

  “I can think of one. You haven’t asked me to marry you.”

  “Don’t hurry me. I’ve never done this before, and I want to do it right.” He got down on one knee in front of her. His loin cloth lifted, revealing more muscled thigh. “Now, my sweet, Tua Mumu will you marry me?”

  In her wildest dreams, Toni had never imagined that she would seriously consider the proposal of a tattooed man, with a rope of hair to his waist, dressed in a loin cloth and feathers. But that was exactly what she was doing. She smiled, as she quietly absorbed the love and commitment being offered to her.

  “Say something,” he demanded, “or at least nod your head.”

  “Don’t hurry me. I’ve never said ae before, and I want to do it right.”

  He laughed. “It’s ae?” he asked, with awe in his voice.

  She nodded.

  “That’s all I need to know.” He raised her with him as he stood. His embrace tightened. He groaned softly when Toni curved into him. He grasped strands of her thick hair. Then his mouth was on hers. She tightened her arms around his neck, pressing closer.

  “I love you so much,” Rad whispered against her lips. Then he swept her off her feet, and headed for his bedroom. His warm scent mingled with the rose fragrance coming from the garden. The scent grew so strong it seemed as though they were in a closed room filled with dozens and dozens of roses. She took that as an omen for their rosy future.

  The End