“Hold on a minute.” Andrew hurried forward. “We’ll take you back with us. Why don’t you …,” his voice trailed off. He held the lamp as high as he could. A lost breeze momentarily swept the immediate vicinity clear of steam, but there was no sign of the old man. It was as though he had vanished from the face of the Earth.
Valerie slowed as she drew abreast of him. “Andrew, what did he mean, ‘overturned’?”
“I don’t know.” He continued to stare in puzzlement into the reforming mist. Where had the crazy old fool got to? Eventually he shrugged. There’d been no splash, so he hadn’t fallen into one of the pools. Probably gone behind a rock somewhere. In any event it was no business of theirs.
“It all sounded like nonsense to me.”
“Yes,” she agreed doubtfully. “It probably was.” She looked down at her feet. “Maybe he meant the ground here is going to collapse. That happens from time to time, you know.”
“I’ve heard the stories.” While an infrequent occurence, sometimes the thin crust of ground overlying the thermal regions gave way in places, sucking down the occasional unlucky traveler. “If that’s the case we’d better get you away from here.”
“Not to bed,” she said, pouting. “Not already.”
“No.” He grinned down at her. “We’ll go back and rejoin what’s left of your father’s celebration. We belong there anyhow.”
“Do you think we were missed?” She was wiggling into her own clothes as she spoke.
“I don’t know, but nothing could have kept me away from this place tonight.”
“Nor me,” she assured him boldly.
4
Andrew reined in his mount, staring. The inlet was only a minor arm of Lake Tarawera but that made the sight no less puzzling.
Valerie halted her horse and rode back to rejoin him. “What are you looking at?”
He nodded. “This little bay here. I used to play in this place when I was a child. There was always water in it.”
“Maybe the level of the lake is down.”
“Not this much.” Dismounting, he walked his horse over to where the ground became soft, gazing at the mud drying in the sun, at the crumpled water plants and dying snails. “I wonder what happened.”
Suddenly Valerie straightened in her saddle. “Andrew, look! The water is coming back!”
He rose from his crouch to stare. As they watched, a six-inch-high wavelet was racing shoreward from the middle of the lake, advancing silently like a moving carpet of quicksilver. It splashed up against the dry banks of the inlet, rolled back on itself once, and was still. A moment ago the inlet had been empty. Now it was full again. A freak tide, he thought?
“I’ve never seen anything like this before. I wonder what it means?”
“Maybe a hot spring caused it,” she suggested. “That happens sometimes.”
“That might make water come in, but what made it go out? Tarawera’s six miles across. The action of one hot spring couldn’t affect it like this.”
She put a hand on his arm. “Leave it to the gods, Andrew. If we don’t hurry we will miss seeing your parents.”
“That’s right.” He turned back to his mount. Today of all days he wanted to make sure he found his mother and father at home.
He could see Valerie’s eyes widen as they turned the last bend in the lakefront road and the mansion came into view. It looked larger than it was since it stood all alone on the low hill.
“Is that all one house?”
“It is. And my father owns other houses. I’ve been told he used to have an even bigger place in Auckland, but I never saw it.”
“It is like a palace. Like the god-homes in the legends.”
“It’s just a house. This is where I grew up.”
They tied up out front instead of going around to the stables in back. He wanted her to enter through the main door. Two Maori gardeners looked on curiously as they mounted the steps and crossed the sweeping porch that dominated the front of the house.
Before they reached the door Andrew swept Valerie up in his arms and carried her the rest of the way. She put her arms around his neck, giggling.
“Andrew, I don’t understand.”
“This is an old pakeha tradition. Carrying the bride across the threshold.”
“But I’m not your bride,” she reminded him coquettishly. “Not yet.”
“Details.”
She reached up to kiss him and he responded readily. It was left to him to pull away. “At this rate we’ll never get past the door.” He reached out, balancing her awkwardly, and pushed down on the latch.
He could have rung for the downstairs maid, but servants had always made him uncomfortable. Once inside he set Valerie down, watched as she ooed and ahed in astonishment over the imported furnishings and exotic artwork. It really must look like a palace to her, he reflected.
It didn’t take long to locate his father. Robert Coffin was sitting in the big chair on the screened-in sun porch out back reading the New Zealand Herald, which he had brought to him every few days by coach. Andrew hesitated, took Valerie’s hand in his. They stepped out together.
“Good morning, Father.”
“Eh?” The powerfully built older man turned in his chair to look back toward them. “Oh, Andrew. Didn’t hear you ride up.” His gaze shifted to Valerie, who instinctively took a step backward. Andrew squeezed her hand tightly and she held her ground. “Who’s your pretty little lady-friend?”
“This is Valerie. Valerie, this is my father, Robert Coffin.”
At his urging she tried a half-curtsey. “How do you do, sir?”
“Very well, thank you, young missy.” He then added a few flattering comments in perfect Maori.
Her expression softened. His Maori was accentless, as good as Andrew’s. And why should it not be, she thought with a start? Wasn’t Andrew’s mother as Maori as herself? She glanced around the porch but there was no sight of that remarkable woman.
Coffin moved his chair the better to see them. “No wonder I can’t get you to tend to business, Andrew. You spend all your time at sport and play.”
Andrew shifted uncomfortably. “This isn’t play, Father. Not this time. Valerie and I, well—we intend to marry.”
Coffin’s benign expression vanished. “Marry?” His tone turned cool and he now regarded Valerie with considerably less tolerance. “Quick decisions are valuable in business, son, but not in life.”
“Father, I’m twenty-five. If anything I’m overdue to settle down.”
“I won’t argue that, but this sort of thing takes careful consideration.”
“I have considered everything, Father.” Andrew’s voice had tightened. This wasn’t going at all as he’d hoped.
Coffin studied the floor for a long moment. “Andrew, one of these days you’re going to inherit everything. Not just this house, but the majority share of Coffin Ltd. Ships, estates, farms.”
“Spare me the inventory, Father.”
“Very well.” Coffin looked up at his son again. “The point is that in your capacity as head of the company you’re going to have to deal with certain people of a similar class. People who would not look kindly on.…”
“On what,” Andrew said sharply, interrupting. “On a Maori wife? What about you, Father? What about Mother?”
“Merita is special. She’s an exception to everything Maori and European.”
“I’m aware of Mother’s uniqueness. You speak of it often.” He released Valerie’s hand and put his arm around her shoulder to pull her close. “Valerie is that way to me. Who’s to say she’s not as special as Mother?”
“Now you listen to me, Son.” Coffin was ready to rise from his chair. “I know this is hard for you to understand, so I’ll make it as brief and simple as I can.” Abruptly he broke off to stare past them. Andrew and Valerie turned to follow his gaze.
“Hello, Mother.” Andrew threw his father a ferocious glare before turning back to the woman who stood in the doorway. “
Mother, this is Valerie. We’re engaged.” He said it as defiantly as he could.
“Engaged?” Merita hesitated, then smiled at their uneasy young guest. “How interesting.” Pitcher and glasses filled the tray she was carrying. She poured lemonade for herself and Coffin.
“I am very pleased to meet you, my dear.”
“Pleased to meet you too, ma’m,” said Valerie, showing off her English.
Merita was nodding approvingly. “I’m sure you’ll both be happy together. What a delightful surprise.”
“Father doesn’t think so.” Andrew couldn’t keep the bitterness out of his voice. “He doesn’t think it’s a good idea.”
“Robert? Why not?”
“Well, because, it’s just—because,” Coffin sputtered.
“Foo! Look at them. They make a beautiful couple.” Andrew beamed and Valerie essayed a hesitant smile. “Now then: wouldn’t you two like some lemonade?”
“I don’t think I have ever had it,” said Valerie.
Merita laughed. “It is one of the better pakeha inventions.”
“I’m not through with this,” Coffin growled.
“Of course you are, dear,” said Merita, placing one hand on the back of his neck.
“Father, you’ve always told me I could have anything I wanted. Well, all I want now is your blessing. Valerie’s father has already given his.”
“Blessing,” Coffin harrumphed. “I’ve just met this girl. We know nothing about her.”
“I live in Ohinemutu,” Valerie volunteered quickly. “My mother’s name is Numeni and my father is a chief.”
“An ariki?” Coffin asked sharply in Maori.
“No, not an ariki. Just a rangitira. But he has much mana. He was a great fighter in the wars and—oh!” She put a hand to her lips and looked worriedly at Andrew. “Maybe I should not have said that.”
“It does not matter,” Merita reassured her. “The wars are over with. From now on we all must live together in peace, for good or bad. What is your father’s name, child?”
“He is called Opotiki, ma’ m.”
There was a crash as the tray struck the floor, one of the remaining glasses shattering, the pitcher not breaking but spilling pale yellow liquid across the smooth wooden planks.
“What is it, did I say something wrong?” Valerie hugged Andrew for protection. He gazed curiously at his mother.
“Yes, what’s wrong?”
“Opotiki?” Coffin was out of his chair now, standing. “Opotiki the son of the great chief Te Ohine?”
“That was the name of my grandfather, yes.” Valerie was staring nervously at Andrew’s parents. “What is it? What is the matter?”
“Nothing. It’s all right. It’s all right.” Merita was already recovering from the shock and her breathing was returning to normal. She managed a weak smile. “It doesn’t matter. It is nothing to stand between you.”
“Stand between them?” Coffin roared like a wounded bear. “What do you mean it needn’t stand between them? I didn’t want this marriage when Andrew first mentioned it. Now it’s impossible.” He turned to face his son, who stared back at his father unyieldingly. What had begun badly had become worse, and he had no idea what had gone wrong.
“Why? What difference does it make who Valerie’s father is? He’s already told me he was a Hau Hau.”
“That’s not it, that has nothing to do with it.” Coffin sliced a hand toward the floor. “He killed without mercy but so did many of us. As your mother said, the wars are over with—and we won.”
“Nobody won,” Andrew insisted. “It was a standoif. You know that, Father. The Maoris fought the British Army to a standstill. I’ve read the papers and the histories. No ‘native’ people ever did anything like it before. That’s why peace was made. Because the Maoris couldn’t be beaten.” He frowned suddenly.
“You spoke of Valerie’s grandfather. Didn’t I hear you talk of him when I was a boy?”
Coffin turned away slightly. “Te Ohine was a great man. One of the greatest ariki of all. He was slain by a traitorous band of renegade pakehas. Opotiki was his son.”
“This girl,” said Merita, who was recovering rapidly from the initial revelation, “is not Opotiki.”
“It doesn’t matter.” Coffin was insistent. “The marriage cannot happen.”
“But why, Father?”
“First, because I don’t think it a suitable match for you, and second because of her father’s reputation.” Valerie had shrunk back to try and hide behind Andrew. “To marry with the Maori is not itself a bad thing.” Coffin flicked his eyes at Merita and his tone softened somewhat. “I’ve done so myself though we’ve had no ceremony and signed no papers. But that’s different from having the future head of Coffin Ltd. marry the daughter of one of the worst of the war chiefs.”
“My father has made his peace with the pakeha,” said Valerie boldly. “He lives among them and they speak to one another as friends.”
Coffin nodded understandingly. “Here in the central highlands that is common enough. It’s different in Auckland or Wellington. People there aren’t as forgiving.” He shook his head. “It’s impossible, just impossible. Besides, there’s another reason you can’t marry.”
“There are no reasons I will accept,” Andrew told him.
His father said it almost apologetically. “You and Valerie are cousins.”
Neither of the lovers had a reply for that. Open-mouthed, Valerie looked up at Andrew, who was staring dumbfoundedly at his mother. She was nodding slowly.
“It is true, Andrew. Valerie’s father …,” she seemed to choke on the words, “Valerie’s father Opotiki is my brother. Did you not tell them who you were?”
“Only my first name,” a dazed Andrew replied. “I never.…” He shook himself and his voice strengthened. “What is all this? This is crazy!”
“My father never spoke of having a living sister,” Valerie was murmuring, staring at the woman who claimed to be her aunt. “He said all of them had been killed at the same time as my grandfather.”
“It pleases your father to think of me as dead. I became dead to him when I took a pakeha for my lover.” Merita sighed deeply. “So you see, not all the unreasoning hatreds are on the pakeha side. But it doesn’t matter. If you two love each other.…”
“We do, Mother.” Andrew pulled Valerie into his arms.
“Then the marriage should take place.”
“Merita!”
She turned to Coffin. “It makes no difference, Robert. All that matters is that they will be happy together. Among the Maori marriage within the whanau is common.”
“When Opotiki finds out who his daughter is really marrying he’ll put a stop to this nonsense faster than I.”
“He will do no such thing,” Merita said firmly. “He might, if Andrew were all Maori. But we can have a civil ceremony in Father Spencer’s church. There is no way Opotiki can stop that. Are you so sure, then, he will want to? Valerie says he has made peace with his old enemies. He might remember that you were a friend to his father more than he would remember you as an officer in the colonial militia. All will go well.”
“Damnation, it will not go well! I won’t stand for it. The idea of Andrew marrying his own cousin, the daughter of a war chief to boot, is impossible.”
“A war chief whose father was your great friend, Robert. Remember that Te Ohine was my father, too.”
Coffin was nodding slowly. “I remember. Just as I remember that he died because he was too trusting, too ready to merge Maori ways with those of the pakeha. Your brother fought on because he didn’t trust us. Now you expect me not only to give my blessing to this unnatural union but to invite such a man into our house, to sit at our table and break bread with us.”
“I do.”
“He might come to meet me,” Coffin said slowly, “but what makes you think he will come to meet you?”
Merita blinked, obviously hurt. But she recovered immediately. Nothing could dampen Merita’
s spirits for more than a moment.
“If he will come and sit across from me, then will you give your blessing?”
“Now wait,” said Coffin quickly, “I didn’t agree to.…”
“Will you do that?”
“I—you’re a devil, woman.” Merita grinned slyly at him. “You’ve always been a devil, and you’ve passed it to your son.” He sat down heavily in the chair, eventually looked back up at Andrew.
“You were right when you said that I would never refuse you anything. If you want this marriage then I won’t stand in your way. But neither will I give you any blessings. That I can’t do. I want nothing to do with the whole business. I wash my hands of any consequences, do you hear?”
“That’s good enough, Father—for now. You’d only get in the way of the arrangements anyway.” He smiled reassuringly at Valerie. They’d won, though she didn’t realize it yet.
“Leave the details to me.” Merita approached the two lovers. “We can either use Father Spencer’s church here or the big one at Rotorua. We’ll have a grand time. There will be such dancing and feasting as hasn’t been seen around this country in years!”
“Yes, oh yes!” Valerie was starting to relax. “And I can invite all my friends.”
“And I mine, if I can find any of them in time,” Andrew added.
“There are going to be some disappointed young ladies in this part of the world, Andrew.”
“Mother! Not in front of Valerie.”
“Why not?” She smiled mischievously at her niece. “Surely, Valerie, you knew when you set eyes on my son that he might have encountered one or two other young ladies before yourself.”
“When I first saw Andrew he was about to run over me with his horse.” The two women shared a gentle laugh.
“There will be problems, though.” Merita cut her eyes back at the chair where her husband sat brooding and pretending not to listen. “For example, I do not know whether to have you call me mother-in-law or auntie. Since we are already related it will only be a matter of settling on terms.”
“It can’t work,” Coffin muttered aloud. “Don’t any of you see that?” He was shaking his head regretfully. “It just isn’t done.”
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