Hawaiian Crosswinds Read online

  Ambrose cleared his throat. Rafe halted.

  “Yes?” Keno said with enthusiasm. “And then?”

  “Then,” Rafe said dourly, “Ainsworth will also hear of it. He’ll warn Candace it’s all hocus pocus, and that she must go through with marriage to Oliver for the good of the Derrington name. And duty will call for the allegiance of our fair maiden Candace.”

  Keno put the plate of coconut cakes down on the table and stared at them with lost appetite.

  Eden folded her arms and tapped her foot. “The humor ceased when you poked fun at my cousin Candace. She’s very straitlaced and dedicated to the family.”

  “You’re not suggesting, darling, she takes after you?”

  “They are two of a kind,” Ambrose said good-naturedly.

  Eden turned to Keno. “How did you discover your father was a Hunnewell?”

  “Grandmother Luahine told me last week. I was over at the hut to see her and about fifty other relatives—all Hawaiian, by the way. I think she believed she was giving me fodder to help win Candace. Having a Hunnewell for a father would turn things around for me, or so she thought. In reality it’s made matters more complicated.”

  “I knew it wouldn’t help Keno,” Noelani said sadly. “I would have talked to Luahine first if I’d known she was about to reveal secrets. It’s not as if the Hunnewells will receive him as part of the family, or suddenly give him an inheritance.”

  Keno straightened his shirt collar. “I’d no intention of mentioning it.” He looked at Ambrose. “Anger loosened my tongue. You warned me, but I didn’t listen well enough.”

  “We all can do better at listening, lad. There’s not a one of us who can boast in our own strength before the Lord. If we do, it’s likely we’ll come tumbling down the hill,” Ambrose encouraged.

  “Anyway, I wouldn’t force myself on the Hunnewell family,” Keno said.

  “Of course you wouldn’t,” Ambrose agreed. “You don’t want to make Hunnewell or anyone else think you can be bought. When Abram rescued Lot and the king of Sodom from the enemy who’d taken them captive, the king of Sodom was thinking of paying Abram for his deed by giving him the booty. Abram refused it. He wouldn’t take as much as a shoelace from the king of Sodom. Blessing, true blessing, comes from God alone.”

  Eden stood to her feet and checked her watch. “I should start back to the hospital. Aunt Nora will want my help soon.”

  “I’ll need to borrow your buggy, Ambrose,” Rafe said.

  “It’s still hitched. I thought we might need it.”

  Keno came up to Eden, took her hand with eloquent display, and bowed deeply. “Merci, mademoiselle. Ah, but how can I thank you for coming to my aid? Henceforth, I am at your beck and call.”

  Eden laughed and retrieved her nurse’s cap from the table. “I’ll remember your pledge of chivalry, Keno. I may need it someday.”

  Eden’s working beside Hartley and a father mesmerized by a belief in “herbal” cures for leprosy was indeed a matter that could lead to a wee bit of trouble. Dr. Jerome was a decent man, and Rafe didn’t doubt his motives were to do good and honor God, but motives and deeds did not always bring an expected harvest.

  Rafe walked Eden out the door and closed it behind them, pausing for a moment on the bungalow steps. The wind buffeted them and the sky was thick with clouds.

  “We’re likely to get drenched before we get there,” he said.

  They moved ahead to the horse and buggy, with Eden appearing anxious to be on her way back to Kalihi Hospital.

  The challenge to win a confession from the prized beauty he had yet to fully capture would not be a simple task. Eden was never simple. As the wind whipped her dress and tore loose some strands of her hair from their pins, he decided the challenge was not merely stimulating, but worth every emotional moment it would demand.

  Chapter Six

  A Matter of Trust

  Eden listened to the horse and buggy clip-clop down the dirt road toward Kalihi Hospital. There was no moon tonight, and thick, low clouds promising rain were rolling in overhead. She heard the sounds of the sea and the palm trees swaying along the roadside in the muggy wind.

  This was the first time she’d been with Rafe in several weeks. His work in the Hawaiian Legislature, the pineapple plantation, and the trips to Hanalei Kona coffee plantation on the Big Island kept him more than occupied.

  Eden didn’t know whether to be relieved by his seeming indifference to her of late, or to allow her feminine ego to become miffed by his lack of ardor. They’d already decided there should be little “ardor” between them, as marriage must wait for at least another year.

  The tense silence between them persisted. Her apprehension mixed with concern over his silence. He must be thinking of the message Keno brought him. What was in it?

  She glanced toward him, worried. Rafe wasn’t the only one who had questions that needed answering. She had a few of her own and wondered about the correct time to bring them to the surface. Something important had surely prompted Keno to risk meeting Oliver tonight.

  Despite the sultry night she shivered as she thought about the reason that had brought her to that garden. Rafe would think of questions that even the marshal had failed to follow through on. She had been surprised by how the marshal hadn’t asked her the most important questions.

  Eden turned her head slightly, and from beneath her lashes looked at Rafe, trying to guess his thoughts. Certainly not on her! She looked at the engagement ring on her finger and winced. There was no light, and the gorgeous diamond was as muted of its sparkling glory as she and Rafe were of romantic words.

  She studied his profile, the strong cut of the jaw, the breezes that ruffled his wavy dark hair, the muscled body. So good-looking that Claudia Hunnewell, Oliver’s sister, had said Eden was foolish not to “catch him” while she had the opportunity. “Don’t you realize how many wealthy daughters of other planters have their eye on him? And here you go traipsing off to Molokai with your father.” Eden’s fingers tightened in her lap.

  They just didn’t understand her goals. Well, her cousin Candace did, to some degree. Though Candace had so many problems recently with her engagement to Oliver that she was preoccupied, spending most of her time at the Koko Head house with Great-aunt Nora. Candace had written her, “If my dear mother had been a leper on Molokai, and I’d never been able to meet her, I’d change many of my plans to do so. And as for working with Uncle Jerome, that’s what you’ve been training for these years. It seems to me that postponing marriage for a year to fulfill a dream you’ve had since childhood isn’t too much to ask. Rafe appears very mature about this. If you don’t go before your mother dies, you’ll always grieve that you didn’t meet her. Later on in your marriage, you might even blame Rafe. No, it’s better to get all of this worked out before you vow before God. Knowing Rafe’s maturity, he thinks so as well.”

  Yes, Rafe Easton was a man that many women would be, and were, even now, setting their cap for, even ignoring the fact that he was engaged.

  She looked at him again. Rugged, handsome, sound in the Christian faith, and his eyes, when they chose to meet hers—which presently they seemed not to want to do—were energetic beneath thick lashes.

  The tension in his strong body could almost be felt. He wore what some would describe as a moody demeanor, but she’d known him too long to ever think of Rafe as moody or temperamental. He was one of the most unruffled and self-disciplined men she’d met— when he wanted it that way. And when he did, neither she nor anyone else could dissect his emotions. He was a master at placing them out of reach.

  What should she tell him about the Hunnewell incident? She could not as yet bare her soul’s secrets to him. She’d grown up keeping her emotions under lock and key and she could not easily surrender the key, not even to Rafe Easton, the one man, besides Ambrose, she trusted. She wanted that trust with her father, but as yet did not have it. But because she still didn’t feel free to share her true motives with Rafe, the
re would be an unpleasant standoff between them, something she did not want but seemed unable to keep from happening. If only he would not insist on knowing why she had gone there tonight, but there was little hope of that!

  Earlier, she had felt her heart sink when she’d seen him in the garden, knowing he’d recognized her on the Hunnewell porch. She had thought his sardonic smile would cause her to melt. Why what a pleasant surprise, my dear Miss Derrington!

  Surprise, indeed!

  If it hadn’t been for Oliver goading Keno until that horrid punch in the jaw, she could have avoided detection altogether and slipped away from the back garden as quietly as she had slipped in—without being seen by Rafe or anyone else.

  But then the worst had happened. How foolish of Oliver to call Marshal Percy Harper out of injured pride. He would recover from his debacle in a day or so. A bit of swelling, a smidgeon of black and blue coloring on his jaw, and a few pointed words from his father on the consequences of scandalous behavior. It was for Keno’s sake she’d come forward to tell the marshal what she’d seen, and now she hoped to avoid an inquisition. She turned her head away from Rafe and sighed, looking at Kalihi Hospital.

  They’d arrived, and not a word yet passed between them.

  Kalihi had begun as a small hospital three miles west of Honolulu, and surrounded on three sides by water. Eden discovered on her first arrival here that the Board of Health had at one time shut down the hospital and sent its lumber to Molokai where some of it was used to make coffins for the lepers—an item of history that disturbed her.

  The new Kalihi Hospital and the Kakaako leper detention center were built on the waterfront between Honolulu and Waikiki. At Kakaako suspected lepers were held until diagnosed with the disease by the Board. There was also a small research laboratory where a team of doctors studied the disease. Eden felt fortunate to be working for her aunt Lana Stanhope, Dr. Clifford Bolton’s assistant and fiancée.

  The Kakaako branch was fenced with guards to detain the suspected lepers and keep them separated from the general population center only a mile away in Honolulu. After the Board’s legal medical verdict they were either released or put on the boat for the oneway voyage to the leper colony. They would then arrive at the rugged coastline of Molokai where the boat couldn’t dock and the waterway was rough and hazardous. In an earlier time they’d been literally dumped into the water to make their own way to shore or drown. Now smaller boats were let down from the leper steamer and rowers braved the waves to take the diseased as near to the black-rocked shore as possible.

  Here in Honolulu, the blue waters of Kalihi Bay fronted the leprosy hospital on its west and south sides. Across the bay lay a large area and just past this was Ewa Field. Separating the two land areas was the natural anchorage called “the Pearl Lochs.”

  “The perfect place for a great naval harbor,” Rafe commented.

  His first words since they’d left the bungalow.

  Eden couldn’t resist. “The United States Navy, I suppose?”

  “Would you prefer the Japanese, or the English Navy?”

  He was in a riled mood.

  “Why can’t it simply become the Hawaiian Navy someday?”

  “That sounds pleasant enough, but reality demands its way. It would not survive for long among the world powers. Think of the future, not just 1892. The Pearl Lochs would eventually be taken by some empire, unless the annexation movement succeeds.”

  She decided not to argue. “Well, if I must choose one of those three, it would be the United States.”

  “It will be one of those whether we choose or not. That’s why we need to support annexation while we still have the opportunity.”

  His smile was disarming. He stepped from the buggy, walked around, and lifted her down. His hands lingered a moment, resting on her shoulders, and his gaze was intense. “Tell me why you were prowling the garden area in Hunnewell’s yard during a secret meeting of the Annexation Club.”

  “Really, Rafe! Prowling?”

  Oh no. I knew this was coming, she thought.

  “I’m serious, Eden.” His eyes were bright with intent. “Do you trust your future husband or not?”

  Startled by the implication, she paused, then: “Trust you? Of course I trust you!” Her voice had an injured edge to it.

  “Do you? I wonder. If so, then trust me with your explanation.”

  “I can’t.” She withdrew from his hands and turned her back, looking at Kalihi.

  “Then you don’t trust me. It’s as simple as that.”

  “It is not as simple as that. This is a personal matter.”

  “If we marry, your heart and life are laid open to me.”

  She turned, alarmed. If we marry? Why had he put it that way?

  She’d never seen him so angry before. She’d been so busy recently at Kalihi, and with Great-aunt Nora, trying to arrange a meeting for Dr. Jerome with Queen Liliuokalani, that Rafe’s changed mood came upon her unexpectedly.

  “You speak of personal openness,” she said, “but does that include your heart and life?”

  “I’ve been open with you.”

  “Then what was in the message that Keno risked so much to bring to you?”

  She saw his jaw tighten. “It was from Celestine in San Francisco. She recognized Townsend there, watching Parker Judson’s house.”

  Eden couldn’t silence the gasp that made all else she worried about momentarily flee. Her uncle Townsend, stalking Celestine … and maybe Kip too.

  “Has Grandfather Ainsworth been told?”

  “Not yet. But try to forget Townsend for the moment. I’d like to know what you were you doing at Hunnewell’s tonight.”

  She couldn’t bring herself to surrender all of the facts for fear he would jump to a wrong conclusion. Yet there was the seemingly equal danger of keeping silent and letting him think the wrong thing about her.

  “Now, Rafe, you heard what I told the marshal.”

  “Yes, that you came for some fresh air. Come, darling, you can do better. I was surprised he accepted that.”

  “You talk of trust, well, why can’t you trust me?”

  “I trust your moral character explicitly, but your politics are allied with Great-aunt Nora’s, and she’s allied with Liliuokalani. If you were at the Annexation Club meeting tonight you weren’t there to applaud. Though I can’t be certain, I’d suggest you were there to gather information. Was it for Nora—to be handed over to the queen?”

  She felt her cheeks flush. “Are you saying that I’m a spy? That I would deliberately work against you … as well as my own grandfather? He was there too—”

  He smiled coolly. “Yes, he was there, as you found out later. But you told Oliver and Silas you’d come by to see Ainsworth. That gave you away. You had no idea he was there until you saw him from behind the bamboo curtain. Am I correct? I think I am.”

  She stepped back. For a moment she couldn’t find her voice, perhaps because she didn’t want to. Her stiff, unsteady fingers clasped her nurse’s cap.

  “If you are accusing me of some evil, then say it plainly.”

  “Were you on the lanai tonight?”

  The crackling tension between them held steadfast. She turned her back.

  Rafe took hold of her shoulders and brought her round to face him again. “So you were there, spying?”

  She tightened her mouth and met his gaze evenly.

  He released her. “Stubborn, aren’t you, darling?”

  “I am not a spy. That should be sufficient.”

  “Who sent you then? Not very considerate of whoever it was to let you risk yourself to disclosure, like a pretty little thief peering in a window?”

  “Oh!” she exclaimed.

  “Was it Nora? The queen—our very own ‘lily of the stars’? Or, perhaps, let me guess! Perhaps the honorable Dr. Jerome?”

  She clenched her hands. “Speaking of trust, you’re behaving as though you have none in me!”

  He studied her face for a l
ong moment. She saw an anger in his eyes she’d never seen before. It devastated her.

  His hands slowly disengaged from her shoulders; he stepped back from her. Somehow this simple act spoke more concretely than any words he may have chosen.

  He kept speaking of not having her trust. Trust, she knew, meant so much to him. From the time she’d known him he’d always been the one she could turn to. Now, he thought she didn’t trust him—

  “Very well, Eden. There’s little use going on like this. We’ll leave matters unsettled between us until you decide you can trust me. In the meantime, I’ve work to do at the hotel. The Legislature meets tomorrow.”

  She froze for a moment, feeling some relief that the horrible showdown between them appeared to be shelved. Any relief died, however, as she considered unsettled between us.

  “You’re angry with me,” she said quietly. “What do you mean, ‘We’ll leave matters unsettled between us’?”

  “Sometimes, darling, I don’t think you’re ready for the sacrifice of marriage.”

  She drew back, stunned.

  “You haven’t the kind of trust needed in the man you say you’re willing to build a new life with,” he stated. “Your emotions are tied to Jerome. Marriage is about love, trust, commitment, and loyalty to one man above all others, your husband.”

  “Rafe,” she cried, a thin edge of alarm to her voice. “You can’t mean this—”

  “I do mean it. I’ve always come last with you.”

  “That isn’t true!”

  “I’m convinced it is, Eden. There’s little room in your heart right now except for Jerome, Molokai, and Kalihi Hospital. Well, darling, you can have them to your heart’s content. They are all yours. But I don’t come with them.”

  She stood, unable to move or gather her wits, watching helplessly as he walked around the side of the buggy.

  “But Rafe,” she called feebly, her voice breaking, hardly above a choked whisper.

  “Good night, Eden.”

  “Wait!”

  “When you’re ready to trust me as a woman should trust the man she expects to marry, you know where you can find me. But I won’t wait long, not this time. I don’t intend to be around much longer. Two weeks at the most.”