Spoils of Eden (10 page)

“You have my full attention, Eden. What about Kip and the Board of Health?”

“Rafe, first I want you to understand how I went out of my way to try to get the Board members to change their decision, and that I also requested to be sent to you as their representative. Lana thought I should have let her do it. Maybe she was right, but I had
my reasons. I know this won’t make you feel any better toward me.”

Rafe stopped the buggy where there was shade under several large crape myrtle trees in full magenta bloom. With the plantation house directly in front of them, he dropped the reins, jumped down, and walked around to her side. Before speaking another word, he lifted her down, held her shoulders and faced her. Their eyes locked.

“What about Kip?”

“I wanted to bring the news because I couldn’t bear the thought that you might think I was indifferent to the Board’s decision.”

His gaze narrowed intently. “What decision?”

“I—I almost feel a certain responsibility over what’s happening. Because I’m part of Kalihi, of the medical group who has made these laws. But Rafe, we must enforce them! I have no choice—”

She saw the small flame come to life in the depths of his eyes. And yet his voice came with utter calmness.

“What about Kip?” he repeated.

She drew in her breath and forced her emotions to stillness. She nodded and swallowed.

“Someone, I don’t know who, alerted the Board of Health regarding Kip’s birth at Kalawao … and now you can’t adopt him, Rafe.” In a monotone she continued, “I’ve come to take him back to Kalihi.”

A moment elapsed. The breeze rustled the nests of purple flowers, and the leaves swayed.

“No one is taking Kip to Kalihi, Eden. Not even you.”

His response did not surprise her, but his deadly calm affected her more than a swell of outrage. She would allow the grueling moment to ease a little before going on with her mission.

“Tell me how the information reached the Board,” he said, his jaw clenching.

“Yesterday, a message arrived for Dr. Bolton. It would have been at noon when he was alone in his office. Lana and the others had taken their usual lunch break out on the lanai.”

“Yesterday … ”

“I only learned of it this morning from Lana,” she explained, lest he misconstrue her delay in coming to inform him of anything so tragic.

“It was a letter to Bolton?”

“Not a letter. A sheet of ordinary paper, the words printed in ink, not pencil. The paper was folded neatly in half, and there was no envelope. Dr. Bolton said a Hawaiian boy delivered it to his office. I saw nothing familiar in the writing or in the spelling. All was correct.”

“No pigeon English?”

“No.”

“What were the exact words, if you can remember?”

She reached for her medical satchel. “I can do better than that. I wrote them down. I’ve brought you my copy.” She handed the note to him and watched as he read the words, which she now knew from memory.

The baby boy named Kip held by Rafe Easton on Hawaiiana was born of a leper on Kalawao. You must do something. It’s illegal. The baby is a leper
.

“Dr. Bolton’s sympathetic,” she said quickly, hoping to convince him he had friends at Kalihi. “He and Lana are on your side of this issue. They tried to talk the Board into ignoring the message, but the others refused. The law is clear as they see it. I don’t think they’d have permitted me to represent them if they knew we’d been engaged.”

“Just what does the Board think they’re going to do about Kip?”

“You know the law as well as I. That’s why you kept Kip’s birth a secret when you brought him here. Most people think he’s your nephew. The truth is known, Rafe. I must bring him to Kalihi.”

“For how long?”

She hesitated. “It’s—the time can be rather indefinite. At least until they know he doesn’t have leprosy.”

His discerning gaze made her uncomfortable, and she looked away.

“And after he’s cleared?” Rafe persisted.

He already knew the answer, as did she. He was forcing her to admit to the painful reality about Kip’s future.

“I’ve already said the law won’t allow adoption,” she confessed miserably. “He’ll need to remain on the Kalihi premises, or … ” She could not go on.

“Or be sent to Kalawao,” he said brutally. “Isn’t that the true situation, Eden?”

She remembered the tragic scene she’d witnessed earlier that morning as the lepers boarded the steamer for Molokai. She could envision little “Hansel and Gretel” holding hands to comfort one another and looking with frightened eyes back at their wailing mother. But Kip was still a baby and wouldn’t know why he was being taken from the warm, happy arms of Noelani and sent away to strangers at the leper camp. The thought was unbearable.

“I’ll never let him go to Molokai!” she cried with strong revulsion. “I promise you he’ll remain in the Kalihi ward.”

Rafe gave a stiff shake of his head. “You won’t be able to stop it, Eden. That decision will be left to the Board. I’m going to find out who it was that meddled in my private affairs. And when I do, he’d better slink away unseen for the first boat to Shanghai.”

“Rafe, please. Let me handle this.”

“Just what do you think you can do?”

“I can protect Kip at Kalihi until it’s proven he doesn’t have the disease. Then, we’ll find a way to … to release him to better circumstances.” She didn’t think he was still listening.

“There were just a few of us who knew about Kip’s beginnings,” Rafe was saying pensively. “That gives me a good start where to begin asking questions. From there I’ll talk to Lana Stanhope and Bolton and anyone else at Kalihi who might remember something. I’ll not give up till I track him down—if it was a he.”

“You don’t think that Lana would do such a thing!”

“Lana?” For a moment it seemed he’d never heard her name before. “Lana didn’t know where Kip was born. Did you ever mention it to her?”

“I’ve never mentioned Kip’s birth to anyone, not even Ambrose and Noelani.”

“I know it wasn’t them or Keno. They’d all die at the stake before harming Kip’s future.”

Eden waited, but he said no more. She formed fists in her lap. “Why didn’t you include me in those who would ‘die at the stake?’ ”

“Do you need to ask me that, Eden?”

She remained silent, mollified, then tore her gaze from his.

“Does Zach know where Kip came from?” he asked.

“Not through anything I’ve said. I don’t believe he’d do anything so low. Maybe in the past, but not now. There must be someone else. Someone here at the plantation? A worker who may have overheard something?”

Rafe shook his head, looking at the message again. “The English is too good.” He paused, thinking. “Someone on the
Minoa
, perhaps. Though I doubt it. They’re all loyal. I’ve known them for over a dozen years. They’re paid well, and there are no grudges. I’ll make sure about it, though.”

“Rafe, whoever did this is either afraid Kip actually carries leprosy or else has a grudge against you. Either way, it won’t change the results, even if you discover who notified the Board. You know what I must do.”

Rafe’s gaze sharpened. “And what do you
think
you must do?”

Reluctantly she turned back to the buggy and retrieved from her medical satchel the legal document, endorsed by the Board, that awaited Rafe’s cooperative signature. With her back toward him she bit her lip. Then, in a professional tone, she said, “I’m sorry, but Kip must be put under indefinite quarantine at Kalihi.”

“No one is taking Kip.”

She turned quickly to face him. “No baby born of a leper can be adopted—”

“You’ve told me that.”

“He’ll need to stay in a bungalow at the hospital grounds with some others in his situation—”

He deftly lifted the legal document from her fingers and crumpled it, his gaze meeting hers, and tossed it back into the buggy.

“Kip isn’t going to Kalihi, Eden.”

“But Rafe—”

“And he is
certainly
not being sent to Kalawao. He doesn’t have the disease. He’s as clean as a lily, and you know it.”

“Of course I know it. I’m a nurse, remember? And a student of tropical diseases under Dr. Bolton.”

“You have my highest regards, Miss Eden,” he said with a small bow. His next words came with blunt precision. “Even so, Kip isn’t going to any holding station, not if I can stop it.”

She went to the buggy to retrieve the wadded legal paper, smarting under his retort. Sometimes his wry little remarks about her work infuriated her. He was jealous, that was all. Jealous because she wanted to excel in the study of tropical diseases so she could one day work with her father. Why couldn’t he understand that she loved her father?

“The Board of Health has already made laws that can’t be altered without the Legislature changing them,” she said, briskly smoothing the wadded paper to cover her misery.

“Our brilliant Legislature doesn’t even know what it’s doing half the time. The only thing they care about is keeping their power base. Look, Eden. You’ve already examined Kip for yourself. He’s clean. Noelani cares for him every day. So does Celestine. Placing him at Kalihi in quarantine will only increase his chances of contracting leprosy.”

Her heart melted. She couldn’t help herself. “Oh, Rafe, I’m so sorry. This is such a dreadful situation. When Lana told me this morning about the message, I didn’t know what to do. I’ll make you a promise. I’ll be there working nearly every day, sometimes late into the evening. I vow I’ll not let Kip out of my sight for longer than absolutely necessary. I’ll even put a bunk in the children’s room and sleep there. I’ll protect him, I promise—”

His reaction was sudden and startling. She was in his arms, and his heated gaze wouldn’t let go.

“Do you think risking both yourself and Kip in any way solves my dilemma? Don’t you understand yet, Eden? It’s your protection that I worry about, as well as Kip’s. My mind was made up months ago. I’m going to adopt him. He’s
mine
. The moment I took him aboard ship, I made a commitment. No one is going to thwart me now. Once my heart is committed to someone, I won’t quit trying. Not with Kip—and not with
you
.”

She lowered the side of her face against his chest and closed her eyes, relishing if only for a moment what seemed a restoration of their relationship, but in reality she knew that it was far from settled. She raised her face to look at him. The intensity of his gaze warmed her.

He lowered his head toward her—stopped abruptly, and then stepped back.

“I prefer to wait until you’re sure your own sweet little heart is committed—not to Kalawao or to your honorable father, but to
me
.”

She came rudely awake. “Committed? I’ve been committed to you since you were seventeen, and you know it! But I have a calling … and I must go through with it to see where it leads me.”

“It will lead you to greater risk. Was Priest Damien able to escape leprosy during his service on Kalawao? Do you think Doc Bolton will escape as he handles diseased limbs and fingers day after day?”

She turned away, plucking some of the nearby purple blossoms. “We’re all very careful. We’re trained.”

“Never mind. The Board’s in error if they think sending you here with soft talk will cause me to sign Kip over. If Bolton wants to discuss the matter with me, he can come here himself.”

Soft talk! She whirled. “It won’t be Dr. Bolton who comes. It will be a Honolulu policeman! They arrested a man just last week for trying to run away with his wife. He’d been told to bring her to Kalihi, but he refused. Now she’s in quarantine and he’s being held at the police station.”

“Very merciful of your kindhearted doctors and nurses to use health laws to intimidate and force cooperation. There’s something to be said about the power to imprison people in outdoor cages while it’s decided whether or not they’re lepers.”

Eden was stung into silence. How true! She could not endorse the corruption that occurred, as in past days under Arthur Murray Gibson, “the one-man cabinet” of King Kalakaua. Even now, injustice was displayed in certain decisions made by both the Board
and
the throne. Eden was offended by the “bounty hunters” who were rewarded financially for reporting anyone they could find who might have a visible sore, wound, or lesion. And if those reported didn’t turn themselves in to the leper station at Kalihi for quarantine, the Honolulu police would arrive at their huts with rifles to arrest them. Eden found it distasteful to see frightened people locked up at the leper station for weeks and sometimes much longer, on the mere suspicion of having leprosy. If the lesion in question were designated leprosy, then papers were issued by the Board and the new leper was banished to the Kalawao colony, near Kalaupapa on Molokai Island.

Eden had never been more shocked than when she first arrived at Kalihi and met the leprosy patients she wished to help. They were not typical hospital patients, but internees. Many of them were being held against their will, men taken from families, women from young children. They weren’t kept in comfortable, clean hospital rooms, as she’d thought, but in wired huts, like prison cells. Some were in actual metal cages on the grounds of Kalihi. Ethnicity appeared to have nothing to do with their treatment. Whether the suspects were Hawaiians, hapa-haoles, haoles, or Chinese, the law prevailed. Men and women, old and young, married and single were incarcerated. The first time she’d seen the situation—especially the small children taken from parents—it had broken her heart. In her mind these children were already doomed to die, which actually seemed more merciful than years of dreadful existence on Molokai.

Some of the apparent hardness of the Board of Health could be traced to certain Honolulu businessmen working on the mainland
to promote sightseeing holidays amid Hawaii’s tropical beauty. These businessmen, fearing that growing publicity over leprosy in the islands would hinder annexation, had urged King Kalakaua and Walter Murray Gibson to purge Hawaii of every known leper.

Firmness came into Rafe’s voice. “Is this what it means to live in the Kingdom of Hawaii—to have a few greedy haoles manipulating weak kings who’d rather gamble and drink than rule with authority and wisdom? I, for one, don’t care to have a pack of laws, rules, and regulations that benefit the few in power. I’ll take a republic where individual rights are protected by a constitution. Where the freedom exists to protest self-imposed authorities who want to ramrod their wills through the Legislature.”