Spoils of Eden (22 page)

“Parker has told me you’ve attended several of the meetings of Thurston’s Honolulu Rifles,” Ainsworth said quietly. “So you’re aware of what we fear might happen. We need younger blood in the struggle. If you fill Parker’s seat to finish out his term, then you’ll be in a key position in the Legislature to aid us, and others, in thwarting Liliuokalani’s plans to overthrow the Constitution. If we can motivate you to join the movement, we’ll make certain you have the seat. Who knows the difference your seat in the Legislature can make?”

Ainsworth’s last words may have done more than anything he’d said thus far to grip Rafe. The Board of Health paraded across his mind. He thought of Kip, snatched from his control and sent off to Molokai without his having a word to say about the injustice of the act. Kip was not a leper. He endangered no one. Yet Rafe had not a word to say about the baby’s fate.

“What if I told you I’ve already decided to throw in with the annexationists?”

“I should be pleased, indeed. I thought that you might come to the side of the Stars and Stripes, in the end. The dream of having that flag flying over Iolani Palace is a worthy aspiration, Rafe. Along with it comes the Bill of Rights, the U.S. Constitution granting individual rights for liberty, justice, freedom of religion, the right to bear arms, and the protection of United States government and military. I’ve heard rumors floating from Japan that they’re interested in these Islands.”

“Well said. I find myself fully committed to such laws and rule. I don’t think we’ll have them granted to us under any monarchy.
Kings and queens come and go. Generations pass, and who knows? Without a Constitution anything might happen. As you put it, sir, I like the idea of the Stars and Stripes rippling in the trade winds over Iolani Palace.”

Especially when I’ve been robbed of my right to defend private property and keep Kip as my adopted son
.

“That you’re now on our side is the best of news. I shall write Parker tomorrow.”

“Sir, you should know, however, I’ve also a personal reason for wanting a seat of influence in the Legislature. My rights to adopt Kip as my son have been denied by the Board. I intend to challenge that.”

Ainsworth, puzzled, drew his white brows together.

“Oh, the baby. Your nephew, is he not?”

Troubled, Rafe took a turn around the room, paused, and looked over at him.

“Not exactly, sir. The ‘nephew’ idea was a way I came up with to bring him to my home. I found him on Molokai—with the rising tide of incoming waves about to wash him away.”

“My word!”

“The details of how it all came about can be explained to you later, should you wish to hear them, but for the moment, you should understand he was born of a leper … and that the Board of Health, by enforcing unfair laws, is insisting I turn him over to Kalihi Hospital for indefinite incarceration. He’s even a candidate for the leper colony. However, it is certain that Kip is not a leper.”

Ainsworth’s expression of horror encouraged Rafe. “What! Kip sent to Kalawao?”

Rafe threw out the details as bluntly and harshly as he could, but left Eden out of the Board’s decision. Rafe carefully chose his words. “And that seat in the Legislature, besides giving me power to work for annexation of Hawaii to the United States, may give me the opportunity to help change a ruling that says a child born on Molokai of a leper, even though given a clean bill of health by the Board’s own doctors, cannot be adopted or live freely in Hawaii.”

Ainsworth listened attentively, and the sympathy Rafe saw in his face convinced him he’d made the right move. In the end, Rafe believed that if he worked for annexation, Ainsworth and even Parker Judson would stand beside him in an effort to save Kip.

Despite this hopeful sign, Rafe would take no chances now. Any law he might help enact would take months, most likely years to become incorporated into the laws of the Board of Health. This moment, however, was a beginning. He was surprised to find himself on the same side of the conflict as Ainsworth Derrington.

Where this still-shaky union would lead them, he could only guess. He would do what was necessary to win for a cause he believed both just and honoring to God. If it meant changing his way of life, he would proceed.

As for Eden, he suspected that if he appealed strongly enough to Ainsworth, he might gain the marriage he wanted, regardless of Eden’s wishes to go with her father to Molokai. The question that gnawed at his heart was whether or not he wanted to force her into a commitment she wasn’t ready to make.

He still wanted her, but he knew the union must be on mutual terms. If she didn’t love him, need him enough to yield her heart and will to his headship—then, to Rafe, the concept of marriage and all that it meant would best be forgotten.

Regardless of the direction Eden would choose, the struggle he pledged to carry out both for Kip and for Hawaii would be a worthy effort. And the return of his Hanalei debt free, waiting serenely on the Big Island for his return, would be the treasure found—and Eden, the woman he loved … the missing jewel.

E
den stood with her father on the living-room lanai, this one of generous size, screened to the outside, and presenting a view of the white beach below. The brief tropic dusk muted the bright colors of Waikiki, while the sound of waves breaking on the shore was a constant reminder of the blue-green Pacific.

Eden waited in the evening stillness for her father to speak. Her anticipation heightened. What was on his mind? What would he tell her?

Dr. Jerome, she knew, was fatigued by more than his voyage from San Francisco. She believed he had tropical fever. He was struggling against a prolonged sickness that he, apparently, did not wish to discuss, perhaps because it might impede the realization of his ambitions. Nonetheless, his emotions bordered on jubilation.

“This is a celebratory day, Eden, my dear. My plans to open a research clinic on Molokai have been fortified this afternoon with the arrival of Herald Hartley. I can tell you this, Dr. Chen’s journal adds a great body of research to my own.”

Surprised, Eden turned. “Oh, then you have Dr. Chen’s research journal?”

“Indeed, we do. What a bounty he has left to my charge. The greatest treasure I could have been awarded, and by Dr. Chen himself.”

Eden listened intently while her father explained how Hartley’s sole purpose in rushing here to Honolulu was to bring the journal to Dr. Jerome. Hartley had kept the journal a secret until alone with her father.

“Herald understood that Dr. Chen’s journal of the past thirty years was priceless to me. A letter, though a separate issue entirely, was also in his care.” Her father placed his lean hands on her shoulders and smiled wearily, but with twinkling eyes. “At any rate, my dear, we now own Dr. Chen’s work, and I couldn’t be more pleased.”

So that’s why Herald Hartley had guarded the satchel like it was a golden treasure! She almost laughed. She knew little about Dr. Chen or his research, except for what was disclosed earlier that day on the lanai, mostly through Rafe’s questions.

“We’ve been richly blessed,” he was saying. “I wanted to make my announcement to you first of all. In my long absence, you too, have endured privation. Therefore you share in the victory. Our mission is coming to fruition at last, and I want you to be a part of our plans, our success, Eden. I expect a mandate from the Board of Health to open a new research clinic on Kalaupapa.”

Eden caught a breath and for a moment couldn’t respond.
Our
plans,
our
mission. At long last she was linked with her father’s invaluable calling, though for much of her life that work had been shrouded with mystery. The implication of his words warmed her heart. He recognized the emotional deprivation she’d experienced and was drawing her into the final success. She was the first person in the family that he was announcing his successful plans to.
A clinic on the island of Molokai, at the Kalaupapa encampment!

Moved by his enduring love for her mother, she was thrilled to see her father’s high spirits.

“I’m sure the Board’s physicians will be as enthused as I am when
I present my findings before them,” he said. “However, I’ll still need your help with Dr. Bolton. Your grandfather’s help with Liliuokalani will be needed as well. Kalakaua was in many ways a serious thinker when it came to the threat of leprosy on his islands. I’m not as knowledgeable about his sister. Liliuokalani may not be as willing to back me financially as was Kalakaua.”

“I’m afraid Grandfather won’t be of much help when it comes to Liliuokalani. She considers members of the Reform Party as enemies to her rule.”

Jerome shook his head over the annexation question. “I’ve never been one for politics. I will leave the annexation debate to others more knowledgeable. At any rate, that isn’t why I wanted to see you alone. It’s about my Rebecca—your mother. Oh, Eden, my poor dear. I realize the deception placed on you as a child. Looking back, I should have insisted the truth be told to you. However, I fear I wasn’t emotionally capable at the time … and I left the matter to others. It was important I begin the search for a means to save her, you see. That was all I thought about, all I cared about.”

“As soon as I learned the truth, that she was alive, I began a search to locate her on Molokai,” she said, lamenting. “I’ve run into one stone wall after another. It’s been exasperating. There was a kokua woman, I know, but Grandfather couldn’t remember who she was, and all my searching since returning to Honolulu was fruitless. The Board would give me but little information. I could have gone to Molokai myself to search for news of her, even her grave—but, again, the Board wouldn’t grant me permission.” She looked at him. He bore the expression of sympathy. “But now that you’re here, there must be something we can do!”

“Eden, there’s no doubt Rebecca
is
alive. Her life was what kept me pursuing my research far and near. There is yet hope. We may be able to help her recover to some form of a happier life. Perhaps, I dare to say it, even to leave the island of Molokai.” He reached inside his coat and removed an envelope.
“This
,” he said, showing her the envelope, “is what I wanted to see you about. This is the letter
Herald also brought me. It’s a letter for you, dear daughter, from Rebecca.”

Eden gasped. She stared, fixated on the white envelope, bright in the moonlight, in her father’s thin, sun-browned hand. Her heart began to thud as she reached for the envelope.

“Her kokua wrote for her, of course,” he said. “We have Herald to thank. He contacted her and explained how you now know the truth of her leprosy and wanted to meet her on Molokai. Herald is a fine man. You’ll come to see that for yourself in time.”

The trades whispered through the palms. The wind, like gentle, soothing fingers, played in her hair and cooled her cheek.

An actual letter from her mother, Rebecca. Her throat cramped. She blinked hard several times. Her fingers smoothed the envelope to make certain it was real. At last a word from
Mother
… the kind and loving woman from her childhood.

Eden remembered sitting on the seat of a carriage in front of a big house that had turned out to be Tamarind House on Diamond Head. The fringe on the carriage top jiggled cheerfully in a warm, sweet wind. Her own childish laughter had sounded in her ears, then suddenly—shouting voices! Her mother was running into some trees. Someone was chasing her! Fear had filled Eden’s heart. “Mommy! Mommy!” she had screamed.

Later, many years later, after she’d grown up, she had learned from Rafe that it was her father, Jerome, who had been running after Rebecca—to hold and kiss her good-bye one last time before she boarded the steamer for Molokai. Her mother had run from him, in fear of spreading the disease.

When Eden first learned this, she had wept.

All that was over. She’d accepted and adjusted to the truth. She’d been praying over her dilemma for months, and now something impossible seemed to be happening. A dream was awakening to reality. But was the answer an end in itself, or the beginning of a process that would accomplish even more? Meeting Rebecca would lead to further understanding, but would the meeting bring her to
the end of her heart’s long search? No matter which way the road went or what obstacles stood in the way, she believed she would learn more of God’s purposes.

“I suggest you wait to read the letter when you’re alone,” Jerome said gently. “Perhaps tonight, after we’ve returned home to Kea Lani. By God’s good grace you shall meet her, Eden. If it’s the last thing I do, you’ll have your conversation with Rebecca.”

Rafe left Ainsworth Derrington inside the library going over the legal documents to bring to Honolulu in the morning. Outside the library door, he glanced at his timepiece. There remained thirty minutes before dinner. That meant Keno would be returning at any time to bring Ambrose’s message to Noelani.

Rafe walked to the living room; when he entered, Eden’s voice wafted to him—

“The work on Kalaupapa is my dream, too, Father. I’ve planned for this opportunity, hoping and praying that somehow it would come together. I’ll do everything I can to help.”