Jewel of the Pacific (22 page)

A
restive spirit had settled over Honolulu, and Eden’s emotions seemed to match its turmoil. No sooner had she returned to Kea Lani than a flurry of extended conflicts—of both family and Island politics—knocked at her door.

Now that she’d returned to Oahu, sooner or later she was bound to meet Rafe again. How would she react? She refused to let her heart dwell on their past. What was the good of it? The trial at Hanalei and losing his sight had caused him to confront his heart. In so doing he must have decided what he had previously tried to reject—that he was still in love with Bernice Judson.

What could she do about it? Hate him for the rest of her life? Bitterness over her disappointment could have one outcome: it would damage the rest of her life. She must put her trust in God, who had saved her soul and surely cared enough about her life to provide the way she should walk into the future.

If she longed for a meaningful relationship with a man, the last few months had revealed that the heart-to-heart union was not to be with Rafe Easton, however much she still loved him. Especially telling, he had not contacted her, not even to share the merciful news of how God had restored his vision!

If he could not even share that with her, then what remained of their relationship, and what could put it back together again?

Nothing—except the will and purpose of God. At present, it looked as though it was not His purpose.

Keep walking forward, relying on His love and grace. Underneath are the everlasting arms
, she often quoted.
When I stumble—He will lift me up
.

She was also burdened by what Rebecca’s journal had revealed about Kip’s parentage. That revelation could overshadow Kip all his life. What would Rafe do if he learned the truth about the boy’s biological father? The situation was dreadful. Yet, how could she keep such important information from him?

Eden had been home on Kea Lani with Dr. Jerome for several weeks. She was in the process of readjusting her ambitions so she could put her mother’s journal into form for publication in a magazine or newspaper or even a book. She hoped Rebecca’s experience would stir the conscience of many to do more for the Kalawao leper settlement. Her first step was to discuss her plan with Great-aunt Nora.

Eden, when attending Aunt Lana’s nursing school in San Francisco, had spent a summer working as Nora’s secretary on the final draft of a history she’d written on the first missionaries in 1820. Nora had written other short books on the Islands as well, and more recently, the Derrington family history. Whether or not Nora ever intended to continue the family chronicle was unknown. Presently she was agitated over the
Gazette
going into bankruptcy. The debts were climbing, and her attempts to get a loan had met with failure.

“Sometimes I believe that rapscallion brother of mine is influencing his banking allies to keep me from getting a loan. You know why, don’t you, my dear Eden? We are loyal royalists, friends of the queen whose right it is to keep her throne. But Ainsworth is a rabid annexationist. He’s a friend of that mischief-maker Thurston and the other members of the notorious Annexation Club. Vipers, all of them!”

For the most part, she agreed with Nora about Ainsworth hindering a loan, but she disagreed about Mr. Thurston and the annexationists striving for a republic form of government being rapscallions and vipers.

“I might have been able to get a loan from Rafe before this tragedy,” Nora said mournfully.

So far, everyone Eden met since returning to Honolulu spoke of “the tragedy.”

Eden didn’t want to become involved in the problems Nora had with Rafe as a lender, but her great-aunt’s countenance was so distraught that she felt prompted to ask about it.

“Why can’t you request a loan from him now? From what I hear he’s doing well again. He is even dividing his half of Hawaiiana with Keno and expecting no payment until Parker Judson is fully paid for the land.”

“There’s no doubt of that. You’ll excuse me for saying this, Eden, but you seem strong enough to handle these matters—if he should marry the Judson heiress he will become one of the richest men in the Islands.”

Eden shrugged, her heart beating with the same old struggle over anger. “Money isn’t the answer to all things. Nor is health. Far greater lessons in life have been learned through poverty and illness than by owning Nob Hill mansions and winning Olympic medals.”

“Well, all that may be, but money is exactly what I need right now. It would indeed solve my dilemma for the
Gazette
.”

“So Aunt Nora, have you contacted Rafe since he’s returned from San Francisco?”

“No, I hear he’s none too pleasant these days.”

Eden kept silent.
Well, I’m not about to contact him for another loan! Not even to save the
Gazette.

Nora returned to Tamarind House on Koko Head in defeat. When Eden heard a few days later that Nora had twisted her ankle while walking on a windy cliff, Eden was concerned enough to step into a dilemma that she would have otherwise avoided.

“She’ll be all right,” Zachary told her. “Dr. Corlay says nothing is broken. Even so, I want to go to Koko Head.” He scowled. “There’s something I want to check at the house. I’ve been thinking about it ever since Townsend escaped. Both Rafe and I think Townsend might have stayed there until he could pay some contact in the gambling cartel to take him out by private vessel.”

Eden was interested at once. “I thought something like that myself soon afterwards. Marshal Harper never checked Tamarind.”

“No,” he said ruefully. “He was too busy with the obvious, checking public steamers. As if Townsend would be dumb enough to go out in public as beat-up as he was.” He chuckled at the memory, and then stopped quickly. “I suppose I shouldn’t have laughed—well, anyway, I’d like to take a look around the cellar, and all that. Just to see for myself if there’s any evidence he was there. Rafe is almost sure of it.”

“I’m coming with you,” she said. “I want to know, too. And I need to talk to Nora about an idea I have to get a loan for the
Gazette.”

“A loan? You mean from Rafe?”

“No,” she said abruptly. “I was not thinking of him.”

She thought Rafe was deliberately taunting her. She had received an envelope that morning addressed to her.
Rafe Easton, The Royal Hotel
, was written in the upper right-hand corner. Inside was a bill for the clinic and four bungalows, the use of the
Minoa
, and, as if that wasn’t enough: “Soon overdue” was written at the bottom with a bold underline.

Zachary glanced at her. “Just as well that you not ask Rafe. I don’t think he’d give it to you. I don’t know what’s gnawing at him recently, but something sure is. I think it all began at the Judson mansion.”

“Yes,” she said with determined disinterest. “I’ll go pack a few things. When do you want to leave?”

“No time like today, but we’d better have the noon meal first.”

She was about to leave the room when she looked back. “Why can’t Candace grant Nora a loan? They’ve always been close. She’s at Tamarind now.”

“Candace? Oh she would’ve bailed the
Gazette
out of its muck a year ago if she could use her inheritance. But she can’t.”

“What do you mean,
she can’t?”

“It’s all tied up until she turns thirty. I thought you knew, she doesn’t inherit a penny until then.”

“By then we’ll be sunk.”

“All she has is her monthly allowance, but she said she’s used most of that on her wedding trousseau.

Eden grew silent. She could have thrust the nasty bill Rafe had just sent her to Zachary to show Zachary how dreadful Rafe had become, but she held back.
No sense upsetting Zachary now.
Eden had wondered why Candace hadn’t produced some of her inheritance money to help her future husband secure Hawaiiana. Now she knew why.

Eden did not wish to admit—especially now after the engagement to Rafe was broken and there was no hope of her owning Hawaiiana—that a faint germ of jealousy had lurked within her heart. That smidgen of jealousy nudged her within, just looking for a weak spot to fill her heart with resentment. Rafe had built the plantation house with her in mind. Now it would go to Candace.

Well, my eyes are green
, she thought,
but I don’t want to let the green-eyed monster of jealousy devour me. I’m happy for Candace and Keno. They’re like brother and sister to me. Besides, I wouldn’t have lived there often anyway. Rafe’s heart was set on Hanalei. And I’ve let that slip through my fingers, too. Now it looks like Bernice will share it with him
.

“Candace will be wealthy someday,” Zachary was saying, with the suggestion of envy in his voice. “She’ll receive her father, Douglas’s, inheritance and also what Grandfather hands over to her as his chief inheritor. I’ll be fortunate if I inherit anything. With Townsend a criminal and wasting what he did have on gambling debts,” he said bitterly, “there won’t be much of anything left to me. And even that will be divided with Silas—or maybe he’ll get it all. Grandfather isn’t likely to leave me much either. I was hoping to eventually get the
Gazette
from Aunt Nora, but that too, looks like it’s turning to dust. You probably won’t get much either, dear cousin. Uncle Jerome, I understand, can’t pay Rafe for the clinic and bungalows.”

“Oh, don’t even remind me of that loan. The first payment is drawing near.”
And if Rafe’s mood is any indication, he’ll enjoy holding his hand out
, she thought.

“Who’s going to pay?”

She hadn’t actually worried about the loan until now, since she’d expected to marry the “lender.” Now, with her father too ill to work, all of that was left in ashes. The only thing that had survived was the dollar sign of debt.

Eden sighed. “I suppose I’ll need to start making payments. I’ll need to go back to work at Kalihi.” Even with her full weekly pay she could not pay him off quickly.

“But Grandfather has begun giving me a monthly allowance,” she said, pleased.

“You should have had that a few years ago, like the rest of us. Maybe we’ll both end up in debtor’s prison,” he said morosely.

Maybe I will
, Eden thought.
How much money has he spent on his little “Bunny” lately
, she wondered. Once again she had to nip the bud of bitterness before it bloomed.

Luncheon was served in the pleasant dining salon at Kea Lani before Eden and Zachary left for Koko Head. The doors onto the lanai stood open, revealing a stunning view of white sand and aquamarine sea. She never tired of that scene or took it for granted, even if she saw it every day.

She was weary, however, of the emotional tension crackling between Zachary and Silas. And to add a little more tension, ever since Grandfather Ainsworth had returned from the mainland, he was turning each meal into a discussion of annexation versus the Hawaiian royal throne.

Looking stately, garbed all in white, his small, neat beard glinting, he sat at the head of the long table while luncheon was served. He discussed with great concern the queen’s “suspicious dealings” with her chief aid, a Hawaiian named Samuel Nowlein.

“Not proven at all, Grandfather,” Zachary said, shaking his head. But Silas nodded. “Absolutely correct, Grandfather.”

Ainsworth was lecturing: “And there are plans afloat at this very hour to throw out the ’87 Constitution.” He tapped on the table for emphasis. “A Constitution that is legally part of our governing system, signed by King Kalakaua. It is nonsense for the royalists to call it a ‘Bayonet Constitution.’ It’s mere rhetoric to stir up the people.

“Liliuokalani, too, understood perfectly what was in the ’87 Constitution. She willingly vowed to the legislature and cabinet, before she took the throne, that she would uphold it! But now! Ah, yes, but now! Now, if Thurston is right she plans to revoke it at the beginning of the year. There are secret meetings held in Iolani Palace and in Washington Place,” he said of the queen’s private residence, “with Samuel Nowlein and others about how to overthrow the Constitution and replace it with a new one that favors her sovereignty.

“If she does, it will be our signal to move. And this time, without backing down as we did with Kalakaua. She wants to go backward to a time in her brother’s reign when the throne was absolute—and also corrupt—so she is free to do anything she or her constituents want at our expense.

“Well, we built
this
Hawaii. It was nothing before that. Nothing but grass huts. We planted the trees, introduced the sugar, the coffee, the pineapples, the buildings, and businesses. And we’re not going to surrender it all now and have no voice in the way taxes and governmental decisions are made. I say we cannot have that kind of arbitrary rule in the Islands and survive for long. The times are different. We need to form a republic, just the way the colonies did in the United States in 1776!”

Eden was hardly listening. She was thinking of what Candace had told her before going to Koko Head about Rafe rebuilding Hanalei. At present, Celestine and Kip were living at Hawaiiana. After Candace and Keno were married, Celestine insisted she would leave for Hanalei on the Big Island, even though Candace said she could stay at Hawaiiana.

“As you know,” Candace had told her, “there are plenty of rooms. So I told her how Keno and I would be pleased to have her stay on with Kip, but she intends to go to Hanalei just as soon as Rafe has the damaged rooms rebuilt. Rafe wants Kip to grow up on Hanalei rather than on Hawaiiana. Right now, Celestine is practically Kip’s mother, grandmother, and governess all rolled into one. She’s a wonderful woman.”

Eden would never argue with that. Celestine had always treated her kindly and had supported Rafe’s decision to marry her. What did Celestine think of him changing his mind and seeing a good deal of Bernice? Knowing Celestine, she would stay out of any conflict and support Rafe in whatever he did, just as Celestine had loved his father, Matt.

Thinking of Celestine and Kip brought Townsend to Eden’s attention. Eden worried about Kip. What should she do about the startling knowledge of his biological father? Was it right to keep silent? She had still not told anyone. There was no one to gain advice from, since discussion would open the proverbial Pandora’s box. She thought about going to Ambrose, but he might feel obligated to go to Rafe. Then, what? How would it affect Kip’s future?