Spoils of Eden (36 page)

“Perhaps the death of his youngest son has affected his mind,” Candace said.

“No, I don’t believe he had the death of his son on his mind just then. I arranged to send him to Hanalei to see Rafe or Keno. They are both at the Kona plantation.”

“When was this?” Eden asked.

“Before I became so ill. Oh, by now he’s on Hanalei and safe, I’m sure.”

“Why wouldn’t he be safe at Kea Lani?” Dr. Jerome asked impatiently.

“I believe his perceived lack of safety had something to do with
his hut being burned down,” Nora said too casually, immediately alerting Eden.

Eden remained silent, but her grip tightened on her napkin. She thought she knew why Ling felt himself at risk. The burning down of his family bungalow was accidental, but Ling was always superstitious, as was his wife, Hui.

Dr. Jerome considered this. “Ling,” he said, as if to himself, “was looking for Rafe Easton. And Rafe was looking for Ling at the camp. Perhaps Ling believes he has something of import to tell Rafe. More than that, he must believe what he has to tell Rafe somehow puts him personally in an insecure position. Interesting.” He drummed his fingers, staring into his coffee cup. “Most interesting. I don’t suppose there was any suggestion of what that was?”

“No. He considered it an urgent matter, however.”

Nora and Jerome looked at one another for a long moment.

Eden did not know how she realized it, but she thought,
Father’s just remembered something that makes him uneasy. And it’s connected with Ling and Rafe. Nora, too, knows what it is
.

“Zachary is going to the Big Island in the morning. He mentioned you were going with him,” Nora said to Eden.

“Ambrose is hoping Rafe can use the
Minoa
to bring a printing press to Molokai. That is, should we raise the funds to buy one. He asked me to speak with Rafe about it.”

“A printing press?” Nora asked, showing interest. Eden told her about Ambrose and Rebecca’s plans, and of the young Hawaiian Ambrose wished to train.

“I’ll certainly contribute,” Nora said.

“So will I,” Candace said.

Great-aunt Nora looked toward the lanai as though she’d heard something that caught her attention. She stood up and walked there, looking out, first in one direction and then the other. She went to the rail and peered below.

When Nora came back to the dining room, she merely stood in the opening.

Eden, seated next to Candace, heard a small intake of breath. Eden looked at her. Candace had the strangest expression on her face as she sat staring at the lanai. “Oh,” Candace said softly, “I see.”

“See what?” Eden asked, frowning.

Candace got up and walked to the lanai, and stepped out into the morning light. She stood perfectly still.

“Do you see Zachary coming?” Great-aunt Nora asked her.

“No. I don’t see Zachary.”

Dr. Jerome appeared lost in his own thoughts for some time. Then, without a word, as though he were unaware of the others, he left the dining room and went upstairs, soon followed by Nora. Candace’s steps were heard going down into the garden, no doubt for one of her long, healthy walks.

Eden, alone at the table, arose and stepped out on the windy lanai.
What odd behavior
, she thought. The palm fronds rustled, and the air was tangy with the salty fragrance of the sea. She walked over to the shelf and saw the binoculars there. She picked them up absently.

Earlier, Nora said shed been looking at a “bird.” Nora never used the generic name for the winged creatures she loved so much, as a novice would. Something was still troubling Nora.

Eden lifted the binoculars and refocused them, studying the sea, the trees, the road. She saw nothing unusual. Below, Nora came out through the front door and walked toward the banana trees. She paused there, with her back toward Tamarind, then strolled out of sight.

Eden lowered the binoculars. They had all behaved oddly this morning. And that conversation between Nora and Dr. Jerome earlier, before breakfast, had suggested something about there being a “reasonable explanation.” Explanation for her medication? Nora had said she was determined about “delving into” the matter. But Jerome had urged her to wait to speak with Ainsworth. “Id rather speak with Rafe Easton since it concerns him,” Nora had responded.

Eden continued her musings until the bushes and trees shook
and Zachary burst through and strode purposefully toward the front door. He, too, was acting strangely, she thought.
If he’s arranged a boat trip to the Big Island, I’m going with him
, she thought, clamping her jaw. “This time I’ll
demand
answers from Rafe Easton.” She was certain he knew exactly what was going on. She whirled from the lanai, and rushed out of the dining room to waylay Zachary.

When she entered the front hall, he was coming in through the front door and saw her. There was a tenseness in his face that should not have been there after his supposed “little hike in the tropics.” He’d been up to something.

“I’m going to the Big Island right away, Eden. I was going to wait until tomorrow, but I think I need to see Rafe today. If I start out now, I can be at Hanalei late this afternoon.”

“I’m going with you. Do you have a boat?”

“Laweoki owns the
Lily of the Stars
. He’ll bring us. I’ve already spoken to him.”

“I haven’t much to pack. Did you see Nora out front when you came in?”

“Yes, I told her. What about Uncle Jerome? Is he coming with us?”

“He wants to remain with Nora for a few days. He’s waiting for Dr. Bolton to come over.”

“And Candace?”

Eden hesitated. Keno was at Hanalei. Candace would not relent on her heartrending decision.

“No,” she said quietly. “She intends to stay here with Great-aunt Nora.”

Beneath a gray-blue sky that appeared to stretch forever, Eden walked with Zachary along the wharf until they came to the
Lily of the Stars
, a white and green yacht that had been turned into a houseboat. Captain Laweoki, in white knee-length pants and shirt, cheerfully welcomed Eden and Zachary aboard.

“Aloha. Your sore knee all better now I see.”

“My knee?” Zachary questioned, then, as if remembering, he looked flustered. “It’s fine,” he clipped, obviously unwilling to expound. He began to walk away.

Laweoki was not to be put off. “Should never have gone inside Tamarind House that night. That house is cursed by the
kahunas
. Especially when nice wahine Nora Derrington not there.”

Eden looked from Laweoki to Zachary, confused. Zachary hadn’t injured his knee at Tamarind House, but at Hawaiiana in Honolulu, and that was back in early June. This was late September. Why would he even connect Zachary with Tamarind?

Zachary avoided Nora’s house as much as he could. Even today, after just one night there, he’d been anxious to leave for Hanalei. For years, he had blamed himself because Eden had fallen down the stairs while he’d been chasing after her. Eden had hoped his guilt would disappear when he’d become a Christian over a year ago. Evidently mental shadows clung like cobwebs in his subconscious.
Only saturating the mind with the Scripture could chase those memories away
, she thought.

But Zachary was not showing a Christian spirit now. His blue eyes snapped at his Hawaiian friend Laweoki. “Never mind about Tamarind House. My cousin is well aware of its history.” He strode across the deck to the steps and waited for her to follow.

Laweoki refused Zachary’s indifference. “Bad place,” he repeated to her in a low voice.

“It’s just a house,” she responded soothingly. “Zachary could have tripped and hurt his knee anywhere, even on this boat.”

“Yes, he could have,” he said gravely, “but he didn’t.”

“Were you with him when the accident happened?”

“Me? Ha. You won’t find me in mile of that house.”

“Then how did you know he injured himself at Tamarind? Maybe it was at another house.”

Laweoki raised his brows. “Maybe. He was limping a little, I guess when I bring him here from Honolulu late one night. Cost him plenty
of money too, for me to risk dark waters to come here. When he comes back, I see him with both of my eyes, limping.” He pointed to the beach. “He came from there. All ‘riled up,’ as haoles say it.”

“Hey! What are you two chatting about? You’d better wait down here, Eden. It’ll get awfully wet on deck before we reach the Big Island,” Zachary called to her. “Laweoki? Can you send us down some coffee?”

“Yes, yes, I send you coffee. Cost you extra,” he called with deliberate mischief and winked at Eden. “But you rich Derrington. Won’t hurt to dish it over.”

Eden walked across the deck to the steps, where Zachary waited for her. She looked at him evenly. He was frowning.

“Be careful as you go down. We don’t want any more reasons to fuel Laweoki’s superstitions.”

“You have some explaining to do,” she said flatly and went past him down the short, wooden steps.

Below, there was a small enclosure, cramped and holding crates. Zachary had to duck low as he followed her. She faced him. His mind was on something that bothered him. There was a pinched look about his mouth, but she didn’t think it was because of the discussion about Tamarind House. He’d been under a great deal of strain recently.

Eden carefully removed her hat and set it down by a barrel, along with her overnight bag. The gathering clouds outdoors darkened the area, and Zachary turned up the wicks on several lamps that Laweoki had already lit.

Eden accepted the few minutes of reprieve and thanked the other Hawaiian boy, maybe Laweoki’s son, for the mug of Kona coffee. She found her mind wandering back to Rafe. She hadn’t seen him in well over a month.
I’m not supposed to miss him this soon
.

She sat down, pensive and worried about Zachary, wondering about his strange behavior. Had Zachary injured his knee that day in June on the lanai at Rafe’s pineapple plantation, as he’d said, or here at Tamarind as Laweoki insisted?

Nora must have been watching him with the binoculars, but why? When he’d come rushing in the front door after she and the others had finished their breakfast, he had looked nervous or … afraid, perhaps? “I must go to the Big Island
now
”, he’d said.

“Silas is a schemer,” Zachary said unexpectedly, putting his mug down on the table with a thud.

Schemer. Was he? She frowned, uncomfortable with his mood, back to jealousy of Silas.

“Notice how he flatters Grandfather for his leadership in the annexation movement? When almost immediately beforehand Silas was lecturing me and Nora about uncovering a story to hurt the annexationists.”

She remembered well.

“He was all about scalping me for being too pro-Hawaiian League,” Zachary went on. “But as soon as Grandfather practically assures Silas hell be heir of ‘all things Derrington,’ well, then old Silas is suddenly for annexation.”

Eden rubbed her temples, feeling a headache coming.

“Remember the night at Hawaiiana when Candace said someone was prowling around Hanalei on the lanai?” he asked abruptly.

She came alert. “Yes, all of us remember it quite well. Even Ambrose was brought into it.” She felt cross about all of the problems piling up around her, like faggots waiting for the flame. “Why didn’t you just come out and admit it was you on the lanai whom Candace saw? She did see you, Zachary.”

He drew back, offended. “Me! It was not me she saw loitering outside Nora’s guest room! It was Silas. He came sneaking over from Kea Lani that night, and I followed him.”

She looked at him, puzzled. “Are you sure?”

He made an impatient sound. “Absolutely sure.”

“Now, Zachary. Candace saw you. You leaped from the lanai, and injured your knee in the process.”

He frowned and was silent a moment. “Well, I did leap over the lanai—but so did he.”

“Laweoki just told me you were not only at Hawaiiana that night, but he also brought you here to Tamarind. He believes you injured your knee
here
and blames it on bad fortune from the old
kahunas
.”

“I
know. He talks too much nonsense.”

She did not think it was nonsense this time.

“Evidently it just took a while before my knee swelled and was sore,” he said. “You know how an injury can be. Sometimes you don’t even know you hurt yourself till the next day.”

She turned her mouth ruefully.

“Now, wait a minute,” he protested. “I admit I was on the lanai at Hawaiiana, but it was Silas who was doing the prowling, and it was Silas Candace saw up to no good.”

“She
did
see you. Stop fibbing.”

“Fibbing! Are you calling me a liar?”

“You were at Hawaiiana that night in June. You injured yourself in your haste to escape when Candace saw you. Then, for some reason, you’re saying it was really Silas. Afterward, you came here to Tamarind on Laweoki’s boat and went up to the house, knowing full well that Great-aunt Nora wasn’t here, but back at Rafe’s. If you insist on telling me this is all fabricated, I’ll say you’re fibbing.” She folded her arms. “Tell me the truth, Zachary. I want to know what’s going on.”