Spoils of Eden

by Linda Lee Chaikin

  The return of Hanalei? Now?

  Debt free?

  When the dust finally settled, it was Townsend who reacted—by exploding in rage. He slammed his big fist on the table with such ferocity the lamp danced.

  “Over my dead body! What the devil is all this about? I won’t have it! Do you hear me?”

  “The whole island can hear you. You have nothing to say about this. It will be up to Rafe whether we follow through.”

  Townsend froze in shock.

  Rafe centered his gaze on Ainsworth. “Id think this was a gambit on your part, sir. Except I know you to be a gentleman of sobriety.”

  “I assure you, Rafe, the details, with the exception of some papers needing Celestine’s signature—and yours—are in order. The lawyers, Parker’s and mine, will attend to that in Honolulu in the next several days. Naturally, you’d be wise to hire a lawyer of your own. You can soon be overseeing your Kona plantation, though you shall be a busy man. Parker wouldn’t permit the possibility of finding a replacement for you here on the pineapple plantation.”

  It sounded genuine enough. Still, Rafe was reluctant to permit his emotions to seize the prize he’d purposed to regain since his father was killed at Hanalei—and not by a mere accident, as he’d said to Keno in the bungalow.

  “Parker Judson is a business baron.” Rafe spoke bluntly this time. “What cause does he have to sign over the deed to Hanalei before I’m producing pineapples by the shipload?”

  Rafe’s suspicion did not appear to disturb Ainsworth. He removed an official white envelope from the papers on the table. He tapped it against his palm. The crisp blue eyes glittered. “I prefer to call the return of Hanalei a just repayment of what rightfully belonged to Matt Easton, and to his son, in the first place. Hanalei belongs to you. This is the bill of sale.”

  “You can’t do that!” Townsend nearly croaked. His eyes blazed. “I leased that plantation to Parker under the condition it would revert back to me, should he decide to get out.”

  “And if you could produce the finances to cover its debts,” Ainsworth said in a quiet voice. “The matter of Hanalei is out of your hands now. The lawyers who handle our contractual agreements have been through the details with a fine-tooth comb.”

  Townsend’s face turned ashen. He lowered himself into a leather chair that squeaked beneath his frame. His fingers curled about the arms like bird claws.

  Rafe wondered, could Ainsworth’s offer of Hanalei possibly be as straightforward as he had presented it? There had to be something valuable to both parties involved.

  “You say Hanalei is debt free, but what of Townsend’s gambling debts? He used Hanalei as collateral.”

  “Now just you wait a minute—” Townsend growled, springing up from the chair. “I poured good, honest money into Hanalei. It was Derrington money that built the new high mountain road. It took a year under my supervision.”

  “The incurred debt is paid,” Ainsworth announced, sober faced.

  Even Townsend ceased growling to stare at his father. “Paid? Paid in full? And yet you wouldn’t loan me from my rightful inheritance to have paid that same debt? Had you done so, there would’ve been no need to lease the Kona property to Parker to begin with.”

  “How many times have you borrowed against your inheritance, Townsend?” Ainsworth asked calmly.

  “What’s that to do with it?”

  “If you can’t understand my serious concerns for the future management of the Derrington enterprise, then explaining is a waste of time. Between your weaknesses for gambling and women, and Zachary’s lack of management ability, is it any wonder I’ve decided to include Silas in the family? It may be that Silas will prove himself the leader I need.”

  Townsend, who’d been pacing like an angry tiger, stopped and looked at his father, speechless. “What did you say?”

  “You heard what I said, Townsend. Will it help if I repeat it?”

  Townsend’s shoulders sagged for the first time. His face was colorless, and he looked as if he’d aged. He was silent a moment too long, then altered his emotional course. He stood up and strode to the door, threw it open, and looked back at Rafe, then at Ainsworth. “No, it won’t help if you repeat your threats. I’m mighty proud of my son Silas, if you want to know. You won’t use him as a threat against me. I’d like to see him brought into the sugar enterprise. Maybe you’re right,” he said shortly. “Maybe Silas will prove himself the leader we need.” And he went out as abruptly as he’d come in, banging the door.

  Silence gripped the room. Ainsworth shook his head in grief.

  Rafe walked to the screened windows and gazed across the pineapple fields and toward the mountains. The moon was hovering, soon to dip behind the shagged palm fronds. Along the beach some boats with lighted torches bobbed in the dark waters of the lagoon. Palms grew thick along the bank, and from somewhere music filtered up to them.

  He waited for the smoke to clear while Ainsworth composed his thoughts. It was several minutes before he addressed Rafe again.

  “As I was saying, you’ll receive the Kona property as soon as the papers are signed. Let me tell you, Rafe, Parker’s got a high estimation of you. He expresses confidence in your future here in Hawaii and wants to invest in it for the good of the Islands. I’ve the notion if it weren’t for my granddaughter Eden, he’d like to arrange a marriage between you and his niece, that Judson girl—what did you say her name was again?”

  “Bunny. You know better than any planter in the Islands how long it would take me to make the Kona business productive. Why are you willing to do this?”

  “If anyone can make the Easton lands financially viable again, you can. You’ll manage to do it for Matt, if for no one else. I’ve not explained any of this to Celestine, but I’ve small doubt she’ll be anything other than thrilled that Hanalei is free again—our own kind of Jubilee, you might say. You’ll be able to inherit what Matt wanted you to own. That is all Celestine wants.” He smiled in his faint, rueful manner. “And don’t forget, marriage to my granddaughter makes you a grandson. I’ll be able to add you to the list including Candace, Zachary, and now Silas.”

  Rafe was now obligated to let him know the engagement was broken. He walked over to the glossy wooden table where Ainsworth sat with the papers in front of him. “There is a serious issue you need to take into consideration before we go through with this. The trouble is, I’m not able to discuss it tonight.”

  Ainsworth looked puzzled, but surprisingly he was not so concerned; he replaced the envelope inside his jacket and called it a day.

  “Then we’ll discuss the issue when you feel free to do so. And … it will give you some time to consider a matter connected with the offer Parker and I are making you.”

  Rafe’s gaze focused on Ainsworth. I might have known it!

  Ainsworth wore a faint smile.

  Rafe tilted his head. “What matter?”

  “Rest assured, neither I, nor Parker, wish to trap you.”

  “That’s yet to be demonstrated, sir.” Don’t trust either of them.

  “Nonsense, it’s not what you think. We’re bestowing a political honor upon you.”

  Political? Since when had he been involved in politics?

  “We believe you have the ability to run for the Legislature and win,” Ainsworth said calmly. He folded his hands together, interlocking his fingers.

  Rafe was taken off guard. The Legislature. “Sir, surely you’re joking.”

  His white brows lifted. “No, indeed, were absolutely serious. Were also confident you can win the race.”

  Rafe could see his earnestness.

  “The Legislature,” Ainsworth repeated, as though savoring the plan he had in mind. “Think of what we might accomplish with you, a planter, holding a seat.”

  “I know little about politics. And what I do know, I don’t like. The corruption, the influence peddling—”

  “You can learn the honorable way easily enough.”

  “A seat in
the Legislature would tie me down in Honolulu. I can’t manage Hawaiiana and bring Hanalei out of its financial losses, cooped up in a building in Honolulu.”

  “Were confident you will do better than you think. And we do not need your presence at Iolani Hale every day.”

  Rafe was starting to recognize that he would be expected to follow orders in the Legislature, the orders of the Reform Party.

  “You can be convincing in speech, and you handle yourself well in matters you care about. That’s important and, we have the seat in mind that’s available. Parker Judson’s.”

  Parker Judson’s!

  “It’s this way, Rafe. Parker gave me a copy of a letter he wrote to Liliuokalani and her cabinet. Here it is.” He handed it over from a folder in the pile. “He’s resigning his seat in the Legislature. He wants you to fill in for the rest of his term. There’s no doubt his request will be honored. Once you’re in place, he’ll decide not to run again.” He went on, laying out the agenda. “You’ll have a head start on any opponent. Naturally, those of us in the Hawaiian League will pay all expenses for running against your opponent. Many of the big planters will line up behind you.” He unclasped his hands, pushed back his chair, and stood. “You have a great future ahead of you, Rafe.”

  Rafe was rapidly putting the pieces together in his mind. He thought he knew the bumpy road they had chosen for this long-distance trek, but again, what were they expecting to reap in return? His caution mounted. Politics meant power. Power meant money. Money meant more power. On and on it went, one generation after another, until cultures rotted and empires fell.

  “And Hanalei will be mine,” Rafe repeated.

  “Absolutely, free and clear. But we need you to join the Reform Party, to work zealously for annexation, to become one of the annexationist speakers in Honolulu, even in Washington D.C. You’ll join Parker, Thurston, Hunnewell, me, and a few other planters who are well connected. As I said, we’ll back you fully in the Legislature and use our influence to see that you’re heard and elected to your own term.”

  “I’m a loner, sir. That means I don’t care to be out front making speeches and getting headlines. I’d fail you with my first dud speech.”

  “I know better. You wrote those powerful essays on the rights of the monarchy for Nora’s Gazette a few years back.”

  “That was different. I only wrote it.”

  “You could deliver much the same information in a speech. Those editorials wielded a good deal of attention and support.” Ainsworth added with a touch of grievance, “Do you recall that unsettling debate you and I had at the dinner-ball for Candace after her return from Queen Victoria’s Jubilee? If I remember correctly, you held your own on that night. And what greeted me the next morning at breakfast? Your editorial in Nora’s paper.”

  “And if I recall correctly, sir, Townsend read you my editorial.”

  “He did,” Ainsworth said stiffly. “But look here, Rafe. Surely you can see why we consider the absolute rule of the monarchy dangerous both to us, our future grandchildren, and the Islands as a whole.”

  “Then Townsend went down to the Gazette to rough me up, but I wasn’t at the office. So the editor-in-chief, poor old Mr. Thornley, got pushed around.”

  “Thornley, yes, poor fellow, indeed. That was none of my doing, I assure you. He’s no longer at the Gazette, is he?”

  “No. Zachary’s holding his position now.”

  “I’d prefer Nora kept Zachary. I’ve not kept up with the Gazette while away, but I’m told he’s avoided all-out approval of Liliuokalani. That he’s managed to do so, in spite of Nora’s support for the monarchy, tells me he’s avoiding ire from the family.”

  “Silas has offered to heat things up for Nora by writing investigative articles in favor of the monarchy and against the Reform Party. I don’t know what information Silas thinks he can uncover.”

  Ainsworth frowned thoughtfully. “Oh really? Hmm. Disturbing. Where did you hear this, Rafe?”

  “Eden was in the room with Nora and Zachary when Silas pointed out weaknesses in the headlines and articles. He claimed he could write articles exposing annexation plans.”

  “Indeed. Well, I’ll do what I can about it. As I told Townsend, if Silas wants to get on in the Derrington family, then he’ll need to know which side of the annexation issue we stand on.”

  Rafe suspected that one of Silas’s main reasons for coming to Honolulu was to worm his way into Nora’s favor. If Silas was from San Francisco as he claimed, he would be well aware of Nora Derrington from her speaking tours in the Bay City. She went to the Palace Hotel frequently, usually to promote a new book on the history of the Islands. She was working on another one now, which his mother was editing.

  Rafe wondered if he was reviving the big brother syndrome again where Zachary was concerned. But he did think Zachary deserved better. He and Zach had both suffered at the thoughtless hands of Townsend when they were children and in their teens. Zach would surely be troubled that Silas was so soon favored over him by Nora, and now that Silas was about to be grafted into the Derrington family tree, it appeared he would be a thorn in Zach’s side from now on. First though, Silas would need to prove himself loyal to the family and an essential help to Ainsworth. When Townsend explained the possibilities open to Silas under Ainsworth’s broad canopy, Silas would easily worm his way back from the Gazette and over to Ainsworth. But what of me? Am not I being offered back the Hanalei plantation on the condition that I join the Hawaiian League?

  Yes, but I’ll never fight for a cause I don’t believe in.

  As matters now stood, after the passage of time, Rafe had seen serious shortcomings in the monarchy. Those fiery articles he had written three years ago were no longer finding support in his own thoughts. For some months now, he’d felt himself edging toward annexation as the most secure answer to Hawaii’s future.

  Ainsworth was sounding pleased with his pronouncements. “An impressive young man of your character, ability, and accomplishments, who can write for the journals, can convince others of the necessity of securing Hawaii. The sons of the older planters who have yet to make a stand will listen to someone of their own generation. Many of them are already talking about your voyage to French Guiana for the new variety of pineapple slips.”

  Rafe measured Ainsworth, his one-time opponent and now ally. He remained silent, allowing him to make his case.

  “We’ve got to do something to guarantee our generational rights and freedoms in Hawaii. We can’t be left to the whims of future Hawaiian kings or queens. If we do, everything we’ve worked to establish since 1840 will be at risk.

  “Queen Liliuokalani is neither weak like King Kalakaua, nor indolent. She’s not one for gratifying a call for pleasure and play as many of the Hawaiian sovereigns before her. She knows what she wants for Hawaii, and she’ll push to attain it. She has said in secret, ‘Hawaii for the Hawaiians.’ I shall take her at her word. However, it’s for we haoles who built Hawaii into what it is today, to act for the preservation of our grandchildren’s future. We, too, are Hawaiians. Most of us are second-and third-generation Hawaiians! We have strong evidence she and her allies in the Cabinet and Legislature are planning behind our backs to overthrow the ’87 Constitution.” Ainsworth moved about the room, hands behind his back. “Do you know what that means, Rafe?”

  He did. He had also been offended by the notion that he was not a Hawaiian because he was a haole. As Ainsworth had said, Rafe was a third-generation Hawaiian.

  The 1887 Constitution had been labeled the “Bayonet Constitution” by the disgruntled supporters of King Kalakaua. In reality, the Constitution was a victory for individual rights. The anger over that victory still simmered among supporters of the monarchy. Many of the haole businessmen, who in 1887 had grimly marched with Lorrin Thurston to Iolani Palace demanding King Kalakaua form a new government limiting his powers, were in 1891 supporting Hawaii’s annexation by the United States.

  Kalakaua had recognized his inabil
ity to stop the revolution of ’87, so he’d cooperated and signed the new Constitution that limited his authority while granting more power to the new Legislature to write laws and curb wasteful spending, which Thurston and those with him had claimed was bankrupting Hawaii.

  His sister, however, then Princess Liliuokalani, had been furious that the king had given in to the haoles’ demands by permitting the new Constitution.

  And therein was the problem. She was a firm believer in royal sovereignty, and it was this Constitution that she was about to overturn. The haoles feared they could not trust total authority to any one man, woman, or assembly without the legal right to appeal. Perhaps most of them did identify in heart with the Constitution of the United States.

  This debate of supreme rule over the people of Hawaii had been at the forefront of their displeasure when Liliuokalani came to the throne. While she claimed it was her royalist supporters and the Hawaiian natives who wanted her to end the “Bayonet Constitution” and disband the new Legislature, she herself firmly believed that it was her duty to the Hawaiian royal family to have the ’87 Constitution revoked in favor of her sovereign authority. Rafe could also understand her reasoning. He had once supported that premise.

  “She’s a headstrong woman,” Ainsworth commented.

  “She’s also intelligent and gifted.”

  “Indeed, no argument there, but she is wrong.”

  In the meetings of Thurston and the Honolulu Rifles, Rafe heard enought from reports from spies and those in position to know that a royalist counterrevolution was a strong possibility. Whether or not the present controversy would end in armed conflict was constantly debated in the meetings of the Hawaiian League, also known derogatively by their opposition as the “Missionary Party,” because the men in leadership, such as Thurston, Dole, Parker Judson, Hunnewell, and Derrington, were grandsons or sons of the early missionaries.

  “Parker has told me you’ve attended several of the meetings of Thurston’s Honolulu Rifles,” Ainsworth said quietly. “So you’re aware of what we fear might happen. We need younger blood in the struggle. If you fill Parker’s seat to finish out his term, then you’ll be in a key position in the Legislature to aid us, and others, in thwarting Liliuokalani’s plans to overthrow the Constitution. If we can motivate you to join the movement, we’ll make certain you have the seat. Who knows the difference your seat in the Legislature can make?”