Spoils of Eden (18 page)

“Is it? What about the Honolulu Rifles, the secret club for annexation started by Thurston?”

Eden recalled her brief showdown with Rafe over the club. Zachary’s mouth tightened, and he made no comment. Silas smiled his victory. Nora watched Silas with sharp attention.

“If what you say is true, Silas, then go ahead and ferret out the facts. If you get hold of them, we’ll print them for all to see.”

“Nora—” Eden protested.

“Hush, Eden. Well?” Nora asked Silas.

“And if I do ferret the facts out?” Silas mildly challenged her.

The answer was plain enough. Eden glanced from Nora to Zachary. He must feel as though the ground were breaking up beneath his feet.

“And if you do,” Nora said, “and prove them to be accurate, well then, the two of you will need to learn how to work together. That should stir up Thurston’s Hawaiian League and put Ainsworth on shaky ground.”

“That’s all I was waiting to hear,” Silas said, on his feet again. “A
word of caution, though. This kind of unveiling will make you unpopular with powerful entities. They’ll want to put you out of business in a hurry.”

“Oh, I’m sure of it. But the
Gazette
is already in debt, so I’ve little to lose. Maybe the truth will attract more readers.”

Silas turned to Zachary. “Together, my lad, we’ll make the
Gazette
sizzle.”

Zachary’s jaw flexed. Eden, who knew him so well, guessed that he was already sizzling. He turned abruptly and without a word strode from the room.

“He’ll get over his temper,” Nora said.

“But not his injured pride,” Candace said quietly.

Eden excused herself from the others. As she walked past Silas, she paused and looked at him. It was difficult to keep the disappointment and anger she felt from showing in her face. He had used clever tactics against Zachary before Nora, and at a time when the
Gazette
was in financial turmoil and needed an experienced leader. Zachary was right when he said it seemed that Silas had arrived on the Islands on a dark cloud. Pride and jealousy could slither into the heart and strike, leaving their venom to ruin and destroy.

Once in the wide hall she stopped. Zachary must have gone out the door. Would he even attend the dinner now? Would Celestine?

Except for the loud ticking of the great grandfather clock standing against the far wall, silence settled in, and adversarial voices faded. She walked across the polished wooden floor toward the stairway and begin to ascend, troubled. A figure moved below, and she paused to look down. It was Townsend moving down the hall.
He must be going to see Nora
, she thought and went on her way.

Father, enable us as Your children in Christ to live wise lives with eternity in view. And for those who don’t know Your forgiveness and adoption, may their blind eyes be opened and their deaf ears hear what You are saying in Your Word
.

She climbed to the upper hallway. There was no need to knock on Celestine’s bedroom door, for experience told Eden that the older
lady would not wish to lay her dignified head on a shoulder to cry out her woes. Her crying would be done alone, with God.

Voices were drifting to her from the nursery. She recognized Noelani’s voice speaking rapidly to someone, certainly not to baby Kip. Eden straightened her shoulders. It was time she told Noelani about her mission here at Hawaiiana to bring the baby to Kalihi. It would break her heart, but if anyone would understand Eden’s dilemma, it would be Noelani, the loving, faithful woman who had become a mother to her after Rebecca was sent to Molokai.

I need a miracle
, Eden thought. But the miracle was to be found in the inspired Word of God. She must depend upon eternal truths. Historical changes and fickle fads of modern culture did not change the Truth. Truth would be the final judge of all.
What a comfort for those of us who love truth and fear the deceptions of darkness.

Yes, the times were uncertain, and trouble grew like thorns in the loveliest of gardens, but she could walk steadily forward knowing she was not alone, knowing that the future was known by God and that the path of faith grounded in His Word would ultimately lead her to His purpose.

She would pray that Silas and Townsend—and all of them, really—would, like John Bunyan’s Pilgrim, lay down their burdens in exchange for eternal peace.

T
he sound of annoyed voices speaking Hawaiian drew Eden toward the lighted nursery. She walked through the doorway and stopped upon seeing a young man in a white cotton shirt standing with his back toward her. Keno, tall and muscled, was talking to Noelani. Despite Eden’s earlier concern for Candace, it wasn’t unusual to see him around the plantation house since Noelani was his aunt.

Did Keno know about Kip? Had Rafe explained the dilemma? Perhaps there was no need on her part to tell Noelani.

Noelani glanced over and saw her. “Aloha, Eden dear.”

“Am I interrupting?”

Keno turned at Eden’s question. His quick smile greeted her. “Never, Miss Eden. I was just leaving.” He moved toward the open back door of the nursery, where the stairway led down to the pineapple fields. “Ambrose sent me to ask if Noelani will have dinner here tonight as usual. Rafe says Noelani should attend the fancy dinner with Ambrose to welcome your father home from the wilds. She says no.” He looked at Noelani.

Eden caught the scowl Noelani threw at her nephew. Keno kept smiling.

“Of course she’ll come,” Eden said amiably. “You must take your usual chair beside Ambrose. Rafe is correct. You are family—the only one I ever knew, until recently.” She walked over and put her arms around the statuesque woman in the muumuu.

Noelani patted her arm affectionately, but shook her gray head. “No, I cannot come. Go tell Rafe.” She waved a hand of dismissal toward Keno, picked up her basket weaving, and sat down on a cushion. She concentrated on her work, still frowning.

“Such a stubborn mood,” Keno said with a smile as he nodded good-bye to Eden. They could hear his feet pounding down the outside steps as he departed.

Eden walked to the open door and looked down after him, but he’d already disappeared into the warm night. She could see small lamps burning in huts along the coast, and she watched the waves in the moonlight, foaming and curling a lacy edge along the sand.

The unpleasant task remained undone. She turned back to where Noelani was sitting, involved in her weaving. A door into the small bedroom where Kip slept was open a crack. Eden sadly looked in and saw the baby boy asleep in his crib, with a small lamp burning above casting a pinkish glow on the side of his face.
I promise I’ll protect him
, she told herself again.

Announcing the painful news to Noelani would be almost as difficult as explaining the Board’s decision to Rafe. She walked back to where Noelani sat, head bent, weaving the green palm leaf in her lap as Eden had often done as a child. Noelani had taught her to weave baskets, small rugs, and the leafy head crown that the Hawaiian also wore during their
hula
. Noelani’s strong arms had often embraced her, consoling her after the loss of Rebecca, whispering comforting words in Hawaiian. On Eden’s fourteenth birthday, Noelani even translated an English hymn into Hawaiian from the Foundling Hospital Collection of 1796 and had taught it to her on the ukulele:

Noelani and her relatives worked long hours mending their nets, cracking oysters from the pearl lagoon, or drying ocean fish, seaweed, and coconuts to sell in Rat Alley, the Chinese district in Honolulu. She must remember to warn them to avoid the district for the present. Sometimes Noelani traveled miles inland with the younger Hawaiian women and boys to gather mountain taro roots to store and sell for poi, the staple food of the Hawaiians.

Eden sighed and sat down in a chair near the cushions where Noelani was at work. There were a few moments of silence, nothing unusual between them, but she was unprepared for Noelani’s next words.

“Keno and Candace Derrington. What a tragic love affair.” She shook her gray head. “Much worse than when I fell in love with Ambrose Easton. At least Ambrose was free to do as he wished.
Makua Matt, his younger brother, did not interfere. He had his own troubles with love not meant to be.”

Now what did she mean by that? Eden had never heard of any failed engagement before the marriage between Rafe’s father and Celestine. “It would be a blessing if Keno and Candace were free to make their own decision before God,” Eden agreed.

“Yes, but they are not. Keno tells me Makua Hunnewell is in Honolulu. Now, it’s too late for Keno. And so I told him, he must wake up and accept the painful fact that he will never marry the haole granddaughter.”

“Candace is determined not to marry Oliver Hunnewell,” Eden said. “There’s still a chance, Noelani. Love may yet triumph.”

She shook her head. “No, child, there is no chance. I wish you would tell Miss Candace to leave my Keno alone. She can do nothing but hurt him. She should never have let him think there was a possibility.”

“But she loves Keno.”

“Maybe so. And Keno loves her. As you say, left alone they would do well. But the Derringtons will not leave them alone. She will not marry Keno. Therefore it was wrong of her to let him fall in love with her. She should have known better. She’s a wise girl. Out of her love for him, she should have gone away to San Francisco and left him to recover. Now he speaks again of going to sea with Rafe.”

Eden looked up. Rafe is going to sea? But he couldn’t go. Not when he had Hawaiiana to manage and Hanalei in his sights!

“Keno could have become a lay pastor to follow Ambrose, but he will never stay close at hand now, with Candace here and soon to be married to Makua Hunnewell. She will be driving around in fancy buggies and wearing big hats.”

“Noelani! I’ve never heard you speak like this before. Why, you sound bitter and angry with us.”

“No, child, not with you. You will always be my daughter. I am not even angry with Miss Candace. She is a fine Christian woman.
I’m only disappointed with events. Because she should have seen how it would turn out for Keno and moved earlier to keep both of them from getting badly hurt. Now that Makua Ainsworth is home, and the rich man Hunnewell, Keno as he says, might as well go to sea again. That means he will never be the lay pastor of the mission church. That was my dream, and Ambrose’s since he was a little boy. Now? Gone. Ruined because of the haole woman, Miss Candace.”

Eden was silenced.
This is dreadful
, she thought. “I had no idea you felt this strongly, Noelani. I’m sorry you are so hurt.”

She shrugged and kept on with her weaving. “I shall heal. The Lord will see to my soul. Keno, too, in time. A shame, though, that so much time needs to be wasted on getting healed of hurts and disappointments.”

Eden sighed deeply within.
How can I possibly tell her now about taking Kip?

She could not. Not now.

“Nothing is wasted in the lives of believers. God will use the hurts, pains, and disappointments to burn the dross away from our hearts.”

“Yes, He is faithful. But we must let Him, Eden. He will not force the growth in grace and knowledge of His Word. We grow when yielded, when obeying His Word. Too many times we refuse. Then we end up suffering eternal loss of rewards.” She sighed and shrugged her strong shoulders.

Yes, we must yield. We must stay in the Word and act on what is written
. “What is Candace to do?” Eden asked suddenly, allowing herself to become as frustrated with events as Noelani. “Is she to obey Grandfather Ainsworth? Or is she to go with her heart?”

“Neither, in my opinion. Candace needs to obey God. What does God say?”

“She’s not to marry an unbeliever.”

“She is twenty-three. She is fully mature. Has she not inherited Makua Douglas’s inheritance?”

That was true. Silence overtook them. The tropical wind blew
in through the door and stirred the cane blinds.

Eden stood slowly. “Dinner will be served soon. Are you certain you won’t come down with me?”

Noelani looked at her for a solemn moment. “You, too, will go away. I sense it in my heart. The two that I love the most, like my own children, are being taken from me.”

“Noelani, don’t say that.” She knelt on the cushion and put her arms around her. “I’m never going away from you and Ambrose. Not permanently. I’m not even sure I’ll go for a short time.”

“You will go. He will see to that, Makua Jerome. You, too, like Keno and Miss Candace, are making a mistake. They should separate, but you and Rafe should not. You must be careful. I fear you will lose Rafe if you play this game. You cannot keep him on a fishing line forever. If you try, one day he will become angry, break free, and never let himself be entangled with you again. Who wants to live with pain? You should marry him now. Forget Makua Jerome and leper island. That is all past. Rebecca will die in peace one day. She is a strong Christian. She would want you to live and marry, not risk your body and your life on Molokai.”

The firmness of her words and the seriousness in her eyes convinced Eden that Noelani was baring her heart. Eden remained silent, unable to respond. Somehow, she knew it was true. And yet she could not break free of the tie that bound her to a cause. A cause she believed she must see through to its end. But what
was
the end?

Eden slowly stood. Noelani resumed her weaving, and Eden, after a long moment of silence, turned and quietly left the nursery.