Jewel of the Pacific (17 page)

“She doesn’t believe Silas is an annexationist,” Rafe said, calmly. “She believes what pleases her. As for digging up these ‘big stories,’ I agree they’d likely burn the pages of the
Gazette
, but don’t forget she stands with Ainsworth on protecting the Derrington name. That’s your answer, Zach. She’s not likely to put anything into print about Townsend, or Silas.”

“She’ll have to in the end. And a lot more than just Townsend and Silas. You just wait. The stories I dig up while
here
in the Bay City will sink a ship. Why, I’ll bring an upheaval in Honolulu.

“I’m going to Sacramento on Monday,” Zach announced. “Remember how Silas claimed he worked on a newspaper there? Well! We’ll see!”

“Let me guess,” Rafe said. “Silas is involved with the drug and gambling cartel.”

“Yes,” Zachary insisted, “I’m glad you’ve come round to the truth at last.”

Rafe already knew Silas was involved with the cartel. Silas had admitted that much to him. Rafe had encouraged him to go to Ambrose for help from the only One who could change his life.

Rafe had kept the disclosure between them, giving Silas time. Getting out of the trap wouldn’t be easy. One of Rafe’s former workers, Sen Fong, was dead because he’d wanted out of the cartel after coming to Christ through the Bible teaching that Dr. Jerome and Ambrose had conducted among the Chinese workers on various plantations. Silas might also risk their strong disfavor, depending on how much he knew, and whether they were convinced he would keep silent about what he knew.

The idea that Silas could be in danger—and for that matter, Zach too, since he was digging about where the body of truth about the cartel was buried—added to Rafe’s frustration of being shackled by his inability to boldly enter the fray.

You need to learn to pray more, trust Christ more, and lean less on your own abilities
, he could imagine Ambrose saying.
“My grace is sufficient for you. For My strength is made perfect in weakness.”

When a man can’t solve the world’s problems
, he thought,
it’s best to turn it over to the wisdom and power of the Almighty
.

Rafe decided to spend some time in intercession for Silas. He didn’t need his eyesight for that.

“Say what you will, but I’m staying on the lookout for Townsend just the same,” Zach was saying. “I’ve given orders to Ling to make sure each of our room windows are closed and bolted tonight. And today I stopped in a store and bought us each a .38 caliber pistol.”

Rafe put a hand on his head and moaned.

“What the
Gazette
needs to bail itself out of the red is some robust reporting that will set the society of Honolulu back on their polished heels. What about a Derrington journalist turning the light of justice on another Derrington by the name of Townsend? With his son doing the job, at that. Not that illegitimate Silas—but me.”

“Ling!” Rafe pushed himself up from the chair, reaching to the side of a table to gain his balance. “Ling!” he called.

“And, Mr. Zach, don’t forget Sen Fong,” Ling said, entering from the connecting room.

“Yes! The body was discovered right in Rafe’s own garden at Hawaiiana. What a story!”

“Ling,” Rafe snapped, with such emphasis as to make him scurry toward him.

“You call me, Mr. Rafe?” came Ling’s apologetic voice.

Rafe stared into the gray misty fog at the vague figures before him.

“What time is it, Ling?” he asked, changing the subject. “There’s a dinner tonight at Parker’s, isn’t there?”

“Yes, Mr. Rafe, at eight o’clock. Almost seven o’clock now. Some big sugar men be there. Mr. Spreckels too.”

“Spreckels? Then there should be quite a confab over mashed potatoes and gravy. We’d best get dressed, Zach.”

Once Parker Judson and Claus Spreckels got going on the sugar business in Hawaii and California, any other topic went out the window. Not that Rafe minded, especially when Bernice would be trying to overwhelm everyone at the table with her charm and beauty. He felt she was doing everything in her power to stir some old memories he did not want springing to life again.

Another testing, another temptation. And poor old Zach was smitten badly. Bernice was definitely the wrong woman for Zach. Yes, little Claudia Hunnewell could put up with his tirades and soothe his nerves—something Rafe wished he had for himself at the moment.

R
afe was at the Judson mansion on Nob Hill waiting in the library with his mother, Celestine, for the dinner bell to chime. He wasn’t surprised to find her distraught over news about Townsend, and he tried to calm her.

“Yes, it’s disappointing about his escape, but he won’t come here. He’s selfish to the core. Even before the fire he’d planned to go to South America. He’s either there now or will be soon enough. He couldn’t have hung around the Islands for long or he would have been spotted. Stop worrying, Mother.”

“Well, I do hope you’re right. However—”

“I don’t want to ask this, but I’d better. There is gossip in Honolulu about you and Parker. Some thought it might help Townsend at his trial if he were to bring out that you’ve been here in Parker Judson’s care for several months. Just what are your feelings about him? Is something going on, or—?” He arched a brow. “It doesn’t look too good, you know. Regardless of the bum Townsend is, he’s your legal husband.”

Celestine drew in a deep breath, and sank to the divan, Rafe bowing over toward her.

“Well I guess that’s my answer,” he said dryly.

“Shame on you. All right, dear. I do love him, but—”

“Not Townsend! Say it isn’t so.”

“No, silly boy. How could I? He’s a murderer.”

Rafe felt her shudder and put an arm around her shoulders.

“That he is. But never mind that now. Tell me about good old P.J.”

“Absolutely nothing untoward has occurred.”

“I’m sure of that.”

“I spend most of my time with Kip and with Bernice. Parker and I do care about each other. I was a fool to have married Townsend. Once I knew he was responsible for Matt’s death—and now with his diabolical plan against Eden and you, well, I want to be free of him. Even if he is in South America. Frankly, I hope he never returns. When I return to Honolulu I’m going to see a lawyer about legally protecting myself from him.”

“You’re doing the right thing.”

She relaxed. “I’m very relieved. About Eden—” she began.

“What about her?” he asked sharply.

“Now it’s my turn,” she said. He felt his mother’s hand on his sleeve.

“I don’t care to upset you,” she lowered her voice, “but a letter arrived this afternoon. Bernice was just leaving the house to meet friends for tea when the postman came …”

“Where is the letter?” he asked tonelessly.

“That’s the difficulty. I can’t locate it.”

“Can’t locate it!”

“I knew you’d be coming to dinner tonight so I put it on the salver in the room you were using. I was going to give it to you after dinner. When I went to the room, it wasn’t there. Of course, I wasn’t wearing my glasses, but even so, I would surely have noticed an envelope sitting there where I’d placed it.”

“One of the servants could have removed it.”

“I’ve asked around the staff. No one has seen it.”

His agitation rose.

“I’ll ask Bernice if she removed it. If she did, please don’t be too stern with her. She’s very much taken with you, you know.”

“And Zach is very much taken with Bernice. The last thing I want right now is a triangle!”

“I know, dear, I know. It’s all so troubling. I found Bernice crying in the garden the other day.”

“Crying! Oh, come, Mother, there’s been nothing between us for four years.”

“Well she seems to think differently.”

“And even then it wasn’t love. Not on my part.”

“She’s as upset about poor Zachary as you are. She has no desire to marry him, but he’s evidently misled himself into believing so.”

“As she’s misled herself into believing that she and I are two hearts beating as one?”

“Rafe! You can be so hard sometimes.”

“Mother dear, I don’t want to marry Bunny. I don’t want to become involved with any woman, or any project right now, except Hanalei and annexation. Before I can give myself adequately to these two goals, I’ll need my sight recovered. Forget Bernice. In fact, that letter from dear, sweet, faithful Eden can just remain as invisible as my foggy eyesight as far as I care—”

“Dear, you don’t mean that. The letter
must
be around somewhere and, I shall find it. Oh, I believe that was the dinner bell—”

“By all means,” he said, “let us go hear what the Sugar King genius, Mr. Spreckels himself, will enlighten us with this evening. I’m sure it will aid our digestion.”

“Such a naughty boy sometimes. Come, dear.”

Bernice Judson stood near the library door, studying Rafe Easton as he stood leaning against a table, arms folded across his chest. She liked what she saw. He was everything she wanted and she intended to marry him in any way she could manage.

“In this life, short as it is,” she had recently told her women friends, “we must collect what we want before our one commodity is spent. Time is a thief and a robber. My grandfather used to tell me, ‘A woman can have few things to bargain with in this life. Beauty, wealth, and a name in society.’”

And I
, Bernice thought pragmatically as she watched Rafe Easton,
have them all. I am beautiful, I have money galore, and I have the powerful Judson name, respected in San Francisco and the Hawaiian Islands
.

“You sound positively arrogant,” one of her friends had said courageously—courageous, for if “Bunny” Judson got angry at a friend it meant the end of that girl as far as society and its entertainments and connections were concerned. Bernice’s answer was plain and forthright. What was the use of denying her assets by wearing robes of false humility? Mirrors did not lie, neither did her inheritance, nor the collection of families she associated with on Nob Hill. She was sure she could marry any man she wanted.

Bernice wanted Rafe. She liked his wavy dark hair, his stimulating eyes framed by dark lashes, and his strong build. It amazed her how he’d escaped capture by now. The Derrington girl must be very foolish indeed. Bernice almost felt sorry for Eden.

When her usual tactics hadn’t worked—she’d heard he was engaged to Eden—Bernice decided she would need to use a ruse. So before Rafe Easton arrived from Honolulu to see Dr. Kelly, Bernice had planted misleading evidence in clever ways. As fortune smiled on her, events had fallen into her hands.

She had studied him for a year, and learned as much about him as she could through friends in Honolulu, including Zachary Derrington. Naturally, she had to play Zachary along to gain an open door into the arena of life where Rafe moved.

She had also studied the Derrington woman from afar. Bernice did not like her. She was too religious. Too dedicated to unselfishness. Imagine! Willing to work with vile lepers. To trail after the steps of her father, an old man, and one who was a trifle touched in the head, if her sources were correct. Perhaps Eden, too, was a bit “teched,” as the Scotch put it. Imagine! A man like Rafe wanting to marry her while she’d strung him along for years. The girl must be a fool.

And I will win in the end
.

Actually, she was delighted Eden was on Molokai.

Bernice had no father to worry about pleasing as Eden did. Uncle Parker was as impressed with Rafe as she, and he also wished for a marriage. He liked Rafe’s business head, his abilities, and his energy. Bernice liked Rafe’s coolness, his determination—except she wanted it focused on her.

In the last month enough had happened here in San Francisco to convince her he could be taken. She wasn’t worried about him regaining his sight. She understood from Uncle Parker and Rafe’s mother that Dr. Kelly was pleased with signs of improvement in Rafe’s vision, and was gaining confidence in his recovery.

And so she’d made her plans. Rafe’s present dependency had worked to her advantage. Rafe had written a letter to Eden, which Ling had placed in the hall for the postman to pick up. She had intercepted that letter, and now she would enjoy “reading” Eden’s letter to him.