Hawaiian Crosswinds Read online

  “Stop it. You are deliberately goading me, young lady. I’ll have you know I’m going to be one husband who won’t put up with a wife whose tongue is going too long and too sharp.”

  “Indeed. Well, if you’re going to be my husband, you’ll need to get used to it, my young man, because I’m known to have an acerbic tongue at times. I’m so much like my Great-aunt Nora, you know. She’s known for speaking truthfully.”

  He stopped and confronted her. His eyes flashed with temper. “What’s this all about? What are you trying to do? You deliberately called me here just to make insults?”

  She stopped and whirled toward him. “Because you’re a British spy. I don’t care to be married to a man who will trick his own father, and then wear a phony smile as you speak to him over the breakfast table about annexation. You planned to steal your own father’s policy manifesto and turn it over to a British agent working for the commissioner.”

  He looked abashed. “What idiocy is this?”

  “Don’t pretend with me that you don’t know what I’m talking about. I’ll let you know right now that I was there on the beach that night when the two of you discussed the manifesto and Keno.”

  He sucked in a breath and stared at her, searching her face.

  “Oh, yes,” she said. “I heard every word. You told him how Keno, coming along to the garden as he did the night before, was the good fortune you had needed to divert attention away from you, should your plan to steal those papers have been successful. Unfortunately for you, someone else took them before you could. You deliberately insulted Keno to start a noisy disturbance. The more people that gathered around to see what was happening to you, the better to cast blame on any one of them as being the thief.”

  His smile was sarcastic. “My, aren’t you clever. But you have no proof whatsoever. Who would believe you if you said this? I doubt anyone with an ounce of good sense. I? The son of the leader of annexation movement, a spy?”

  “Yes, your same words you said to the agent the other night. Who’d believe Keno? And now, who would believe me?”

  “Exactly so. Not my father. And not Ainsworth, if you’re so unwise as to go to him with this old wives’ fable.” He smiled mockingly. “So what are you going to do, my dear? You’re only making matters hard on yourself. For regardless of this fantastic tale you’ve concocted with Keno, you will still become my wife. By such harsh words as these, you are only undermining your own best interest.”

  “That’s where you are wrong, Oliver.”

  He scrutinized her. “I don’t think so.”

  “Then you shall see the truth. I will let you know now that Keno saw you by the front gate stooping, prepared to knock my cousin Zachary unconscious. Silas also saw you.”

  “Silas!”

  She saw the change as his mocking gaze become sober. “He’s willing, as are Keno and Rafe Easton, to tell your father the truth if you persist in this unwise engagement between us.”

  “What has Rafe Easton to do with this?” he asked uneasily.

  Candace saw the opportunity to advance her cause. “Keno is his friend. They’re going to become partners in Hawaiiana. Even Parker Judson is going to back Keno in his own plantation. With Keno and I having allies like these, I would sincerely advise you to board the steamer with your father tomorrow and return to the city where you belong. You’ll be the one to tell my grandfather and your father that you don’t wish to proceed with our engagement, because you do not love me and will not marry me.”

  His eyes were slits of anger. His breath came heavily. For a moment she had an uncomfortable awareness that they were alone, and on a lonely road nearing sunset.

  He threw back his shoulders and unexpectedly laughed.

  “Well, I’m relieved. And you can be sure of one thing you said that’s indeed true.” His smile vanished and his eyes hardened. “I do not love you at all, Candace.”

  She lifted her chin. “I’m so glad. That makes it much easier, doesn’t it?”

  “I shall board the steamer tomorrow, but only because it’s what I want to do. As for the decision not to marry, that brings me satisfaction as well. You see, I already have a woman in San Francisco that wants to marry me. Good day, madame.” And he turned on his polished boot heel and walked away back to his buggy.

  Candace looked after him sober-faced for some time. Afterward she let out a deep breath realizing how near the edge of the cliff she had come. Then, as it dawned on her that she was once again truly free, a joyous laugher bubbled up from within and she smiled and clapped her hands together. Free to have Keno! She whirled about on the path, then abandoning herself to the happiness that enveloped her she lifted the hem of her skirt and ran off toward the warm sand where she was to meet him. She kicked off her shoes and ran freely toward the wet beach as though a young girl again, feeling the merry waters lapping at her ankles.

  Candace looked up toward the rocks lined with palm trees and saw her prince standing there watching her. She started toward him at a run, opening her arms. Keno began climbing down.

  She waited for him below, laughing, the breezes playfully tugging at her hair.

  In another moment Keno had reached her. His eyes searched hers. Her heart was on display, for he came quickly toward her, pulling her toward him.

  Candace melted into his strong embrace, and as their lips met in joyful reunion, her heart sang with the Island wind.

  Together again. This time, forever.

  Chapter Twenty Three

  Stormy Weather

  Outside Kea Lani sugar plantation, watching … hiding … waiting within the murky shadows for several days, danger loitered.

  Rafe will pay for his meddling, he thought. This is all his work. He’s hated me from the beginning and turned Celestine against me. He stole my rights to Hanalei and the pearl beds. I’ll teach that son of Matt Easton! So he thinks I’m in San Francisco, does he? I’ve fooled them all. I let Celestine and Parker Judson see me, then escaped. The fools will still be looking for me there. Well, I’m in Honolulu to reap joyous vengeance.

  Matt’s dead. Rafe’s wonderful father, eh? Well, I showed him! He’s dead! I’ll get even with Rafe for ruining my life in Hawaii. Tracking me down, is he? Then come, Rafe! Come running to save Hanalei from the flames of destruction! Come running to save Eden, the love of your life! By the time I’ve finished with them both you won’t have anything—not Matt, not Hanalei, not Eden! You’ll see how it feels to mourn the rest of your life! We’re all going up in flames! You can live with the ashes! Let’s see how your boasted Christian faith holds together when everything you care about is dust and ashes. My mocking voice will fill your heart for the rest of your days!

  The clinic would be approved today, and the quest Eden sought on Molokai would soon begin. Despite all this, joy was missing, and in its place an uneasy peace held her heart, the foundation of that calm beginning to crumble. For the past two days she’d been ill at ease, though why this should be remained fogged in confusion. “It’s as though I’m being watched with evil intent.”

  That idea, of course, must be fought. The angel of the Lord encamps round about those who trust in Him and delivers them.

  She had a strong conviction to stop by the bungalow that morning to see Ambrose for a few minutes before going on to Kalihi. She would work with Aunt Lana for a few hours, then change into fashionable garments and join Dr. Jerome and Great-aunt Nora at Iolani Palace to meet with the queen.

  “I feel as if someone is following me, Ambrose. I even get an uncanny feeling at the back of my neck when I walk in the garden.”

  He looked at her thoughtfully. “Well, this is unusual, and troubling. Are you sure it isn’t a taste of lonesomeness because Rafe is boarding the steamer tomorrow?”

  She smiled wanly. “Oh, that too. But this is something, well, different.”

  “Let’s pray about this. Our all-powerful God is also gracious. He’s promised never to leave us or forsake us. So, in fact, you’re never alone.” He
picked up his old Bible and turned its worn pages to Psalm 139 and read it to her in a calm and quiet voice.

  After holding her hands and praying for her day of work at Kalihi and the meeting with the queen, he walked her to her buggy.

  Eden cast aside her gloom and reflected that the path of obstacles still led in the right direction when God’s grace cleared the stony way.

  Whatever the future holds, I’ll get where I’m intended to go. The others she so cared about could as well if they followed the Truthful way, if they acknowledged that Christ was the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

  The faithful promises of Psalm 139 alone were enough to sweep her heart clean of dark concerns.

  “Are you attending Dr. Jerome’s meeting with the queen?” Ambrose asked.

  “Yes, and having dinner with Rafe at the Royal Hawaiian tonight.” She reached over to the box beside her on the seat. “I’ve brought my dress and shoes with me.”

  “Then tell Rafe I’ll be in town tomorrow. I’ll stop by the hotel before the steamer departs.”

  Eden said good-bye, and with a flick of the reins the horse moved down the road.

  Ambrose looked after her. The morning was quiet; the wind rustled through the overhead palms. He grew thoughtful.

  Rafe left the Reform Party meeting. He’d returned the manifesto to Thaddeus Hunnewell much to the shock and delight of everyone present, including Ainsworth. A hundred questions had come Rafe’s way. He’d adroitly managed to parry each question with an understatement. Someone had tried to steal the papers from the library desk, but Silas had foiled the attempt and turned them over to Dr. Jerome for safekeeping. Dr. Jerome had handed the manifesto over to Rafe to return to the Reform Party delegation on their way to Washington. Only Ainsworth had been silent. He’d watched Hunnewell with a grave face. Rafe believed that once aboard the steamer he would have a long conversation with Hunnewell about his son, Oliver.

  After a few last-minute decisions on the political mission to the US Secretary of State Blaine, the meeting had ended and Rafe was taking a waiting hackney over to Iolani Palace.

  The bells of Kawaiahao church across the street were striking.

  By now, Dr. Jerome, Nora, and Eden would have had their meeting with Queen Liliuokalani. The hackney, as usual, brought Rafe past the Kauikeaouli Gate on King Street. This entrance was used only for visits of state. The wrought-iron barrier was shut and two uniformed native Hawaiian sentries were in their narrow sentinel boxes, watching them pass. The hackney brought him, as required, midway around the eight-foot wall to the Kinau Gate on Richards Street, then turned into the palace yard.

  The royal mansion with Corinthian balconies and colonnades seemed to some to be out of place in the tropics. To Rafe, the pillars in the setting of prodigious flora and acres of lucid green with rugged mountains and topaz sky looked at home, being neither implausible, nor of a “grass-hut” ambience.

  Rafe went up the stairway through a more public side door, spoke to the Hawaiian guard on duty whom he knew, and asked if Dr. Jerome Derrington’s group had met with the queen as yet. He was assured that they were even now in the stately Blue Room with Liliuokalani.

  Rafe walked down the corridor, permitted because he was in the Legislature, and waited across from the closed door into the Blue Room. There was so little doubt in his mind about the clinic being approved that Rafe considered the matter closed. Jerome would be a rejoicing man today. Eden too. He was here to talk to Eden and bring her to dinner at the Royal Hawaiian before he left in the morning.

  The door opened and Zachary came out quietly, not wishing to disturb the meeting. Rafe was a little surprised to see him, but thought Nora must have wanted him present for the Gazette.

  Zachary noticed him and walked across the corridor to where he waited.

  Zachary looked better today. The strife over Silas at the family meeting had brought him a serious spiritual tumble. Afterward he’d become so discouraged over the walking stick incident that he’d closed himself up in his room.

  Rafe had received a note from Eden, which motivated him to return to Kea Lani to encourage Zach to stand up and begin to walk again with the Lord.

  Rafe had learned that with Zach, it was important to reassure him, to affirm the fact that he was still accepted, forgiven, and a friend.

  In Zach’s room, Rafe had calmly explained that Silas did not attack him in Hunnewell’s garden. Oliver was the culprit. The walking stick was a red herring.

  Rafe had also told Zach that it wasn’t Silas he’d followed to the gambling den in Pan Alley that night, but Herald Hartley. The explanations had taken some time to work, but with Eden’s help they’d managed to convince him, get him out of his bed of depression, and encourage him to come downstairs to dinner.

  Silas, as planned by Eden, had been there waiting, and walked up with a disarming smile and held out his hand of friendship to Zach. For a brief desperate moment Rafe had thought Zach wouldn’t take his hand. But he had, and replied with a brief apology for his false accusation. Even a brief apology to Silas meant that things were improving by giant leaps!

  Rafe stood now in the corridor at Iolani, leaning his shoulder against the wall as Zachary came up.

  “Well, it’s all settled. The clinic is approved. Dr. Jerome is leaving for Molokai next week. By the way, Ambrose is in town looking for you.”

  Rafe assumed he’d come to see him off to the mainland. “He’s probably waiting for me at the hotel. I’ll wait for Eden, then go meet him.”

  “Eden? Oh, she didn’t come. Just Uncle Jerome, Nora, and me. I’m to write this up for the Gazette before I leave with you and Ainsworth in the morning. C’mon. I’ll walk with you to the hackney.”

  Rafe straightened, drawing his dark brows together. “Wait a minute. She’s been looking forward to this crowning victory for months. She wouldn’t have missed it. I thought she was inside the Blue Room all this time.”

  Zachary gave a brief shake of his golden head. “Maybe she’s at Kalihi, and she couldn’t get off?”

  “No. She would have come with Jerome,” he said adamantly.

  Zachary looked at him, growing sober as he recognized Rafe’s concern. “I just assumed something urgent had come up.”

  “Nobody said anything? Nora, Jerome?”

  “No one looked surprised, so I ignored it. What’s the matter? Something is troubling you.”

  Rafe tried to relax. For some reason he was tense today. “I don’t know. I just can’t see her missing this rare opportunity. Perhaps I’m the only one who knew how much the clinic meant to her. She and I certainly struggled over it! It nearly ended the engagement. Well, if Jerome and Nora aren’t concerned, maybe I’m overreacting. Let’s go.”

  “I’ll be spending the night aboard the houseboat,” Zachary said as they descended the stairs into the grounds. “Someone’s been seen snooping about lately, I’ve been told. There was a light glowing in the houseboat last night.”

  They entered the warm sunshine. “Some of the Hawaiian boys saw it, and thought I was aboard.”

  “Anything taken?” Rafe asked absently, still not satisfied about Eden.

  “No. Peculiar, that’s what it is. I’ve checked things over and nothing was disturbed. I’d insist it must have been a ghost they saw.”

  Rafe gave him a sardonic look.

  “Oh, well, go ahead and laugh,” Zachary said. “Even Eden says she feels as if a ghost is watching her. Ambrose mentioned it. She stopped by the church on her way to Kalihi this morning to talk to him.”

  Ghosts! Rafe couldn’t conceive of Eden thinking of ghosts.

  “There’s demons, or unclean spirits,” Rafe commented, “but there’s no such thing as a ghost. A ghost implies the soul of someone dead hanging around, but every lost person who dies goes to Hades until the Judgment, and every true Christian is present with the Lord.”

  “Well,” Zach said defensively, with a shrug of his shoulder. “You know more about the Bible than I do, but she was scared ab
out it.”

  Rafe stopped short, hands on hips. He frowned. “Are you serious?”

  “Sure!”

  “I can’t believe it.” Rafe walked on. Zachary scowled back as he kept pace beside him. “Now why would I make it up? What about my houseboat? Someone has been there.”

  “Someone, yes.” Maybe. Rafe gave him a side glance. “But a ghost in a white sheet … with a candle? Look, Zach, whatever form evil spirits may take, don’t mess with them.”

  “That’s the last thing I want to do,” Zachary said dryly. “What I want is a fancy dinner with Bunny—I mean Bernice Judson—in San Francisco. You know, maybe that’s what Ambrose wants to speak to you about … Eden, and her ghost.”

  “Tonight she’s having dinner with me at the hotel. I’ll take care of any little ghost that wants to spook her.”

  Zachary laughed. “I’ll bet you will.”

  The bizarre news about Eden was disturbing to Rafe. Why would she, sensible as she was, tell Ambrose—of all people—that she was bothered by something “ghostly”? This was contrary to everything Rafe knew about her. Zach must be enhancing the story because some loner had been hanging around his houseboat.

  He paused on the grounds and looked back toward the palace. Uncharacteristic of Eden not to have shown up today. Was her absence somehow connected with Zach’s tale?

  “Are you coming back to the hotel?” Rafe said.

  “No, I’m going to the boat. I’ll see you tomorrow on the steamer. Oh! Did Keno tell you?”

  “What else is going on that I don’t I know about? I haven’t seen him since yesterday at Hawaiiana. He was writing Candace a love letter.”

  Zachary laughed. “Well, she sure must have liked what he wrote. She told Grandfather this morning that she’s engaged to Keno and they’re going to marry next year. A double wedding, with you and Eden. Now, if I can just convince Bunny to do the same thing. What a triple wedding that would be!”

  Rafe was pleased about Keno and Candace. He must be a very happy man today. “How did Ainsworth take the news?”