Jewel of the Pacific (24 page)

“There’s no alternative that I can see,” Candace said. “I’ll speak with Grandfather again and try to make him see his family obligation, though annexation always becomes an issue. I suppose the families who lived through the American Civil War faced many of our same problems. Loyalty versus one’s divided family.”

Eden agreed, still pacing.

“We’re left with Grandfather, or Rafe,” Candace said.

I shall never go to Rafe Easton! How can I?

Though Eden refused to entertain the idea of turning to Rafe to save the
Gazette
, she had a strong motivation to contact him about the information her mother, Rebecca, had revealed about Kip’s parentage.

When Eden wasn’t in a dilemma about how to help Nora, she worried about how to handle the critical information on Kip without hurting anyone involved. She had prayed about it, and continued to do so.

Meanwhile she kept the journal and diary hidden in her room at Kea Lani until she could begin writing the material into weekly installments for the
Gazette.
Sometimes Eden became so troubled about the facts concerning Kip and Rafe that she pondered destroying those sections of the journal.

When Eden returned to Kea Lani she went straight to her bedroom to make sure the journal remained secure in its hiding place. Not that anyone was interested enough in Rebecca to remove it. The Derringtons had small interest. She had not come from an important sugar-raising or political family with many friends and relatives. Rebecca and Lana Stanhope had been raised by a widowed father who had died years earlier. He’d been one of those gold and silver seekers who had never discovered anything “but an ache in his back,” as Aunt Lana had once told her.

He’d died when his horse threw him on a mountainous road. Rebecca and Lana were placed in a Christian home for orphans, and then separated for some years before they tracked each other down in San Francisco. People they didn’t know had paid for their upbringing and schooling—Rebecca as a schoolteacher and Lana as a nurse. Through a local church they had heeded the call to missions and had come to the Islands. Everything else about Rebecca was now ancient history, including the Derringtons’ unenthusiastic reception of Rebecca as Dr. Jerome Derrington’s wife.

So, Eden thought, no one in the elite sugar families would steal a journal of her mother’s trials as a leper! Eden’s hopes to have the journal in print were directed toward the compassion of outsiders who would want to help the exiles.

Satisfied about the journal, she checked her personal mail and saw an envelope from Rafe’s mother at Hawaiiana pineapple plantation. Eden opened it quickly.

The message was in answer to one Eden had sent to Celestine before going with Zachary to Tamarind House. She read: “Dearest Eden, so pleased to hear from Rafe that Dr. Jerome is recovering from his serious ailment, and that you are safely back in Honolulu.”

Eden paused. From Rafe? Then he knew about the circumstances in which she had returned. A small pleasure in learning he’d mentioned it to his mother lightened her heart. The optimism fizzled quickly. More than likely Celestine had asked about matters at Kea Lani and Rafe casually informed her of what happened.

Eden read on: “As to your question about our little Kipper, no, sadly, the adoption has not yet gone. Everything was prepared for signing the papers in San Francisco when Rafe lost his sight. I need not tell you about that horrible situation. You understand, perhaps better than anyone, what the possibility of blindness meant to my son. You can appreciate his dilemma about whether to go through with the signing, or to wait for further evidence the adoption was God’s purpose. Rafe did not believe his sight would return, and was not willing to take on the responsibility for Kip’s sake. Evidently you thought the same.”

Eden frowned.
I thought the same? I never implied such a thing. Now where did that come from?

She kept reading: “Rafe decided to wait until he knew he could raise Kip in the way he’d planned. Now there’s been a legal delay again, and so we must wait. Meantime, Kipper is quite happy. He calls Rafe ‘Da-da’ and doesn’t know the difference between adoption and biological birth. At least not yet. When he does I’m sure matters will have been worked out and he will become Daniel ‘Kip’ Easton.

“Do come by Hawaiiana and visit me when you’ve opportunity. I’ll be here until Candace and Keno marry in September.”

Celestine’s answer had complicated matters. How could she tell Rafe that Townsend had fathered Kip in a drunken spree? Would it be wrong to destroy the information to protect Rafe, and Kip’s future?

And yet keeping the facts hidden from him would also be an injustice. Adopting Kip was a grave responsibility. Rafe had a right to know all that was involved.

Another thought troubled her. Since Rafe hadn’t signed the adoption papers would he now find it easier to not do so? And the boy himself—how would the shocking story of his parentage affect his life?

And what about the bond Bernice was forming with Kip? Eden saw Bernice’s actions as a mere connivance to build a stronger connection with Rafe. What would a woman like Bernice Judson care about an illegitimate baby from a leper colony?

Eden sat down, forehead on her palm, and stared at the restful light blue carpet as if it held the answer to her dilemma.

The complicated matter was too serious to ignore or keep locked away in her knowledge. And perhaps the Lord did not intend for her to carry the burdensome decision on her own. She was no longer going to marry Rafe, and Kip was not her prospective adoptee, but Rafe’s.

Eden made up her mind. She would need to tell the facts as they were to Rafe. What he did with the information would be entirely up to him. In fairness to Rafe, it was her mother Rebecca who had first turned Kip over to him.

With the decision made, she felt a load of worry slip from her shoulders and stood to her feet.

She would find out when Rafe was next at Hawaiiana and rally her courage to go there. She hadn’t any doubt that he would receive her. Especially when she let it be known that Kip was the reason for the meeting.

A
t Kea Lani, Eden hurried downstairs and onto the front lanai facing the carriageway. Yes, her horse and buggy were still there under the shade of the clustered coconut palms. She wanted to get the meeting with Rafe over as quickly as possible. She left the lanai and dashed down the stone steps.

The trip to Hawaiiana was not long, maybe five minutes inland after she reached the turnoff to the mission church near the old Easton pearl lagoon, which had been so long in the greedy hands of Uncle Townsend. Recently the pearl lagoon, along with the Kona coffee plantation, Hanalei, were returned to the rightful heir, Rafe, whose father had developed both.

Eden scanned the distant hills of green foliage among dark boulders.

It was nearing four o’clock when she arrived at the pearl fishery, less than a half mile from the mission church. A new road had been cut and cleared to reach inland toward the mountains. Sitting on the edge of her seat and holding the reins in gloved hands as the buggy bumped along the ungraded road, Eden scanned the land. The mission church stood alone in the field, and the thatched roof bungalow Ambrose and Noelani lived in sat nearby among tropical shrubbery and palm trees.

If Rafe hadn’t intervened, Parker Judson would have torn down the bungalow and mission church when the two partners first began laying out the land for Hawaiiana.

On either side of the road the land had already been cleared for planting—land that stretched to an invisible bright blue horizon. The earth was a rich brownish-red, perfect for growing. The direct sunlight was hot, the trade wind refreshing, and she felt a certain pang of loss. Rafe had once meant for her to be a part of this, and even the big plantation house had been constructed with her in mind.

How could she have let it slip through her fingers? And yet she had, a little at a time through her delays in her love relationship with Rafe Easton. For the last two years it was
wait, wait
until finally, she supposed, he had wearied of it all and turned to Bernice Judson.

Now Rafe’s half of Hawaiiana was divided between him and Keno, and she would never live in the great house. It would go to Candace. Bernice would have Rafe and Hanalei—plus all of Parker Judson’s holdings—to bring to her marriage.

It seemed to Eden that her long-laid plans of going to Molokai to meet her mother and to work with her father had ended with little of blessing in return for her service. She had a fistful of wind, as the saying went.

Since she’d lost Rafe Easton, perhaps another man would be in her future. But if so, where was he? As she looked down the long narrow road, it was empty, just the way her heart felt. She did not think any more love was left in her life to give to another man. It had always been Rafe. Without him there was no one. She would probably end up like Aunt Lana who’d been nearing her fortieth birthday before marrying Dr. Clifford Bolton. And now that they were married, he’d contracted leprosy.

Eden! How cynical you have become. Where is your trust in the goodness and loving-kindness of your heavenly Father? Does He not have the best plans for His children? Those plans may not always seem to be what is desired or expected by the human heart, but in eternity’s view, when it comes to reaping eternal rewards, His plans lived out by faith in His provision are more precious than gold
.

Why are you cast down O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God
.

Eden looked toward Mauna Loa. A haze robed the mountain with mixed shades of charcoal, purple, and green.
How often does a mist come between our vision of trusting God, and the long path we are walking, sometimes struggling, or through barren places? Yet, the Lord knows the way
.

The palms and ferns rustled along the road. Eden stopped the buggy beneath several large crepe myrtle trees in full magenta bloom. With the plantation house directly before her, she dropped the reins, climbed down, and looked toward the entrance.

She straightened her shoulders, took a deep breath, and dashed up the steps to the front porch. She rapped the bronze door knocker.

Noelani opened the door. Surprise crossed her pleasant face and then vanished into an expression of consternation.

“Eden, dear, what are you doing here?” Her voice was lowered and she looked past Eden’s shoulder to see if anyone was with her.

“I need to see Rafe. Is he here?”

Before Noelani could reply a voice called from another room, “Who is there, Noelani?”

Footsteps sounded, and Eden, believing it was Celestine, smiled in greeting.

Her smile fell as she saw Miss Bernice Judson.

Noelani stepped aside and Eden came through the door. She removed her sun hat and met the frosty blue eyes of the beautiful young woman with fair hair, and an afternoon dress of expensive embroidered silk, artfully chosen to match her eye color.

“Why, you must be the nurse I’ve heard so much about. Eden Derrington, isn’t it? And fresh from the leper camp—oh my, but interesting. Do come in,” she said as if she were the lady of the house.

The voice and words were socially polite enough, but Eden felt the unmistakably condescending attitude.

“I’m Bernice Judson,” she continued. “My uncle is Parker Judson, a man you’ve no doubt heard of.”

Just about everyone in Honolulu knew who Parker Judson was. Was she offering a reason for her own importance?

At first Eden’s emotions balked. But she reined them in. There was no reason why Bernice could not visit Hawaiiana if she was welcomed, as no doubt she was. Eden reminded herself she no longer had a right to question Rafe Easton’s social agenda or what women he preferred for company.

“You may remember me from the Christmas holidays of two years ago when I came from Nob Hill to visit,” Bernice went on. “I believe Zachary is your cousin?”

“Yes he is—and Miss Candace Derrington.”

For some reason Bernice’s smile froze at the mention of Candace.

Now what is this about?