A deep voice near his elbow jerked William out of his trance. He turned and blinked, startled to discover standing beside him a tall thin man with neatly oiled, carefully parted blond hair and faded blue eyes. The gentleman had separated himself from the gathering and was waiting expectantly for an answer. So too, it seemed, was the rest of the group. One woman had even paused with her teacup halfway to her lips.
Will reached up and straightened his hat. He cleared his throat. “I’m here to see Walker Heart.”
A hushed murmur rippled through the crowd. Women put their heads together and whispered as they continued to stare up at him. A few of the men shook their heads with a look of disgust.
The dandified gent beside him had long, tapered, ink-stained fingers and addressed William with his voice discreetly lowered.
“If you’re here about a job, you can wait for the foreman, Clay Henderson, up at his old shack.” He pointed behind them.
Here on the mainland, with his light brown skin and slightly Polynesian features, Will was used to being mistaken for an Indian. In most cases he had been treated as nothing better than dirt. After three months of travel along the Pacific coast, he had still not grown used to such treatment—nor did he intend to. Standing a good half a head taller than the gentleman beside him, knowing full well that centuries of royal blood flowed through his veins, Will drew himself up to his full height.
“I’m not here about a job. My name is William Ipo,” he said, quickly substituting the Hawaiian word for sweetheart. He was not willing to explain his own relationship to this place in front of all these strangers. As he stared at the beauty across the yard, ipo was the first word that came to him.
“I’ve come all the way from Hawaii to see Walker Heart on a very private matter,” he added.
Another round of speculation passed through the crowd. William stood his ground, but the man beside him shifted uncomfortably. Then, to Will’s surprise, the amber-haired goddess at the head table stood, very carefully swept past the gaping guests and made her way over to him.
* * *
JOSIE HEART felt the blush of embarrassment rise from the lace edge of her high collar and race to her hairline. She could not take her eyes off the dark-eyed stranger who had interrupted her carefully planned, perfectly executed garden party.
The huge man stood there looming over poor Julius, who did little but shift nervously from foot to foot.
Josie sighed. Julian was a gifted poet, a first-quality writer, a well-read, well-educated man, but strength and assertiveness were not his strong suits. She stopped beside Julian and found she had to crane her neck to look up at the bronzed stranger.
“I’m Josephina Heart,” she began politely, “and this is Julian Fairchild. I heard you ask for my
father, Mr.—?”
“Ipo. I need to speak to Walker Heart in private.” His dark eyes quickly scanned the faces in the crowd and then found hers again.
Josie was instantly lost in the big man’s exotic, deep brown eyes. So lost that she found it hard to concentrate on what William Ipo had just said. To think he was from Hawaii, the tropical paradise she had read about, the enchanted land somewhere in the South Pacific, filled her with curiosity. Finally she came to her senses and found her voice.
“I’m afraid it’s too late for that, Mr. Ipo,” she whispered.
Josie took a deep breath and steeled herself to utter the phrase she had been pressed into using for two years, the phrase that still caused her dark memories and great sorrow.
“You see, Mr. Ipo, I lost my father and mother to yellow fever in ’87, so whatever business you have to discuss with them, you’ll have to address to me. I’m in charge here.”
She carefully smoothed down the skirt of her muslin gown, uncomfortable in the blinding white fabric after having worn mourning black for nearly two years.
The imposing stranger seemed momentarily stunned as he glanced over at the assembly again. “I won’t bother you now, miss. I’ll just wait until you are free, maybe this evening...”
Josie could almost hear her mother’s voice in her ear. A lady would never turn a traveler away. She knew propriety dictated that she should send this handsome man to the bunkhouse, but on impulse, either because of something she read in his eyes or her own surprising reaction to him, Josie blurted, “You’re welcome to join us for tea, Mr. Ipo.”
She felt Julian make a furtive movement beside her. The newcomer immediately shook his head.
“I don’t want to intrude on your luau, ma’am,” Ipo said, his words laced with a melodic accent.
“Then tie up your horse by the back door and go on into the house. Magdalena will show you to a spare room where you can wash up. Then she’ll get you anything you’d like to eat.”
He touched two fingers to his hat brim, nodded and said, “Mahalo. Thank you, Miss Heart.” Then he smiled, adding with a slight shrug, “You will have to forgive me. Some of the words of my island home are so much a part of me that I don’t even realize I’m using them.”
“Of course, you are forgiven, Mr. Ipo.” She was certain a man with that smile would be forgiven anything. Josie watched as William Ipo led the roan in the direction of the back door.
Julian took her arm and, as he escorted her back to her place at the head table, he leaned close and whispered in her ear. “Do you think that was wise, Josie, inviting a perfect stranger into your home like that? What will people think?”
What will people think? It had been one of her
mother’s constant concerns—one Josie usually heeded—until this afternoon, until she laid eyes on William Ipo.
“People will have to think what they want to think. Right now, we should get back to our guests.” She let Julian escort her back to the head table and was amazed to find herself trembling as she took her seat.
Ada Fairchild, Julian’s mother, leaned close, her lips pursed, her frown deepening. Permanent lines were etched between her brows.
“What in the world did that man want, Josie, dear? And why is he going into the house?” Ada whispered.
“Because I sent him in. He seems to be a gentleman. He’s come all the way from Hawaii, the Sandwich Islands, to see my father about some business.” Josie glanced at the back door, but William Ipo had already gone inside.
“Well, it’s too bad he had to interrupt the party like that. After all you’ve done to make certain everything would be just perfect for this special day. Such a shame—”
Josie looked at the woman on her left, the woman who would soon be her mother-in-law. Then she turned her gaze to Julian on her right. Finally, Josie looked down at the Spode china with the delicate cherry-blossom pattern that she had inherited from her mother and sighed.
She had never, ever in her life believed in love at first sight. Not until today, not until a few moments ago when she first laid eyes on William Ipo. Now, as she sat with her fingers locked together in her lap, aware of the sweat on her palms, she knew without a doubt that such an incredible phenomenon existed—for Cupid’s arrow had just hit her hard.
Right in the middle of her engagement party.
CHAPTER TWO
AFTER WHAT SEEMED to Josie like hours of smiling and making small talk, the last guests departed. Ada Fairchild left with friends, insisting Julian see that Josie tended to her unexpected visitor and then sent the man on his way.
Josie felt her heart beating triple time as she gave last-minute instructions to ranch hands who were dismantling the party tables and storing them in the barn.
Ada Fairchild had insisted on holding the affair at the ranch, convinced that an outdoor setting would be far more romantic, not to mention more comfortable than trying to cramp all of her guests into the dining room of her home in Tehachapi.
Julian hovered beside her as she moved quickly toward the house. She paused outside the screen door and took a deep breath in a weak attempt to calm herself, then opened the door and stepped into the kitchen.
Magdalena, Josie’s maid, was stan
ding in the center of the busy room overseeing the women Mrs. Fairchild had hired to help her with the multitude of party dishes, silver, glassware and linens that needed to be washed and put away. The soft hum of Spanish filled the air as the women chatted companionably while they worked.
“The señor is in the parlor, Josephina. I offered him food but he wanted only coffee,” Magdalena said, as Josie glanced up at Julian, then hurried through the kitchen toward the front of the house.
“Thanks, Magdalena,” Josie called over her shoulder. She passed through the narrow pantry, then the hallway that connected the older section of the house with the kitchen that her mother, Amy, had added not five years earlier.
She halted on the threshold between the hallway and the parlor, arrested by the sight of the tall, broad-shouldered stranger who stood beside the window. Lost in concentration as he stared out at the stockyard, William Ipo obviously had not heard them come in. Julian lingered behind her, silent as a shadow.
Josie Heart, who at the age of eighteen had found herself in charge of a huge cattle ranch, a girl who had never been at a loss for words in her life, suddenly discovered she was speechless. Afraid Julian would somehow break the spell before she had William Ipo’s attention, she cleared her throat and stepped into the room.
The man from Hawaii made a half turn in her direction, and when his eyes met hers across the room, Josie’s step faltered. She nearly tripped over the pastel hooked rug in front of the settee. Julian grabbed her elbow and helped her quickly right herself. Josie tried to will away the blush that stained her cheeks as she crossed the room.
“Your home is beautiful,” William said in a lilting cadence that made her pulse jump a notch faster.
“My mother took great pride in this house.” She glanced around the room, so familiar, so welcoming with its sunny yellow wall coverings and vases of wildflowers mixed with her mother’s roses. Amy Heart had made certain that she achieved the style of the times, filling the room with color and a collection of items near and dear to her. Josie had not changed a thing.
“I am truly sorry to hear you have lost both your parents, Miss Heart.”
“You said you had something to tell my father, something private. I’m in charge of Heartbreak Ranch now, Mr. Ipo—”
“Call me Will, please,” he interjected and seemed to shift uncomfortably.
She nodded. “Feel free to discuss any business matter you might have had with my father. But first, let me introduce you two,” she said, turning to Julian. “This is my fiancé, Julian Fairchild. He has my trust and confidence. Anything you say here will go no farther.”
As she watched William move with an easy grace and contained power, Josie felt herself flush again. She quickly turned around and headed for the settee, wondering how, in the name of heaven, this man could possibly have such a disturbing effect on her. She avoided looking at Julian for fear he would notice her intense discomfort. She felt breathless and found it hard to believe the men couldn’t hear her heart pounding.
Will studied the haole man with skin the color of a shark’s underbelly. Julian Fairchild walked around the settee to stand behind Josie Heart. Every inch a gentleman in his dress and demeanor, Fairchild was everything Will wasn’t. Fair, slender, refined and no doubt well educated, this whey-faced man, who said nothing but stood watching so closely, had somehow managed to win the heart of the most captivating woman Will had ever seen on either side of the Pacific.
“Please sit down, Will.” She nodded at an overstuffed chair upholstered in shining gold fabric.
Will felt himself move like a sleepwalker, unable to take his eyes off Josie. Once he had settled in the deep, comfortable chair, he sighed and began to “talk-story,” as his mother, Nani, liked to say.
“I came here to tell your father that his father, your grandfather, Sam Heart, passed on six months ago. He died peacefully, in his sleep, on the Big Island of Hawaii after attending luau for his wife’s second cousin’s youngest child. We thought maybe he ate too much.”
He watched Josie’s stunning, blue-violet eyes darken in confusion. “My grandfather, Sam Heart?”
Will nodded. Surely she knew of so close a relation. Surely her parents had told her about Sam Heart?
“He was Walker Heart’s father and the man who founded this ranch.”
“But—” Josie was about to ask for an explanation when Julian cut in.
“I believe Amy and Walker chose not to subject Josie to the sordid details of Sam Heart’s past. But I’ve learned some things here and there about the man. I’m quite sure I was told that Sam Heart disappeared around 1869, Mr. Ipo. He was quite the gambler, I’ve heard, and it is believed he was too ashamed to return to the basin after a trip to San Francisco where he lost the ranch. No one ever heard from him again.”
“If he lost the ranch, then how did it stay in Heart hands?” Reeling with shock, Josie had to know.
“Your mother arrived with the deed. Walker married her and the ranch belonged to a Heart again.”
“I can’t remember Mother ever mentioning Sam Heart.” Josie sat frowning, aware of how little her mother had told her of the past.
“Sam Heart was shanghaied while on that trip to San Francisco,” Will said. “He sailed around the world twice before he jumped ship, met a beautiful wahini and lived out the rest of his life in Hawaii.”
“A va-hini?” Josie asked, mimicking his pronunciation.
Will nodded. “A woman. He married her.”
“He met a Hawaiian woman and never came back to California? How could he turn his back on his only son?” Josie wondered aloud. “Did you know him well?”
The concern in her voice made Will hesitate. He glanced once at the man standing protectively behind Josie Heart and admitted nothing more than, “Yes, I knew him well.”
“You say he married this woman. Did he have other children? Did my father have any half brothers or sisters?”
“Nine.”
“Nine!”
She paled and her hand flew to her throat. Will watched Josie’s long, tapered fingers toy with the lace edging the collar of her gown. Her gaze met his and in her eyes he read her anxiety.
“Oh, my God. Do they intend to lay claim to Heartbreak Ranch? Are you representing them?” Her tone was strained; her perfect complexion had gone ghostly pale.
“Now, Josie—” Julian laid his hand on her shoulder.
“Do they?” she demanded of Will again.
Josie was fighting so hard to stay composed that, rather than cause her any more worry, Will quickly shook his head and smiled, trying to reassure her.
“They don’t want any part of your Heartbreak Ranch. Sam Heart had a golden touch. He was able to buy up plenty of land on the Big Island. His Hawaiian keiki, his children, have no desire to live here on the mainland.”
Josie felt her fear slowly subside, but not entirely disappear. William Ipo seemed sincere enough. Desperately, she wanted to believe him. Still, hearing such shocking news—that her grandfather had abandoned his only son to settle in Hawaii and father a whole other family—was unsettling.
“What was he like, this Sam Heart? My parents never told me anything about him.” Josie feared Will Ipo would leave now that his message had been delivered. She watched Will casually lean back in the chair once more. His eyes took on a faraway look.
“He was handsome, even in old age. Dark hair sprinkled with gray and snapping black eyes. He was a hard man in many ways, but he claimed the years at sea did that to him. He and your father never got along. Sam always said Walker was more like his mother, more sensible. Sam liked to tease, loved to gamble. He was forever spending too much money on newfangled inventions that showed up on the island carried over on the merchant ships.
“My...his wife, Nani, still has all the kitchen gadgets Sam bought her stuffed in boxes and drawers. Every time he brought home another, she would tell him that even if she knew what the thing was for, she couldn’t use it. She likes to do things the old way
.” Will laughed. “One of the last items he purchased was a box for saving soap slivers.”
Listening to him, Josie slowly relaxed enough to smile. She suddenly felt the warmth of Julian’s hand on her shoulder and was reminded of his presence.
“Please, sit down, Julian. I’ll have Magdalena bring in some coffee for you, and more for you, Will,” she said when she noticed the Hawaiian’s empty cup.
“Actually, I should be leaving. I have work to do,” Julian said, clearing his throat and throwing a meaningful glance at William Ipo.
Josie was ashamed of the wave of relief that poured through her. She was appalled at herself for actually wishing her fiancé would leave her alone with William Ipo. She was off the settee before Julian had a chance to change his mind, walking around to take his arm and lead him to the front door.
“I’m so sorry for keeping you this long,” Josie said, smiling up at him. “I entirely forgot that you said you were working on that new piece for the Summit Sun.”
Julian glanced at William again and then back at Josie. “I really shouldn’t leave you two alone like this,” he said in a voice barely above a whisper. “My mother wouldn’t approve, and neither would yours if she were still here.”
She whispered back. “But you’ve seen for yourself that Mr. Ipo is a perfect gentleman. Besides, Magdalena’s here. I have to invite him to dinner—the poor man rode all the way into the basin on his errand. The least I can do is be polite. Besides, remember how intrigued I was when I read Miss Isabella Bird’s Six Months in the Sandwich Islands? There’s absolutely no harm in chatting with him over dinner and then sending him on his way.” She tried to reassure Julian with a discreet pat on the arm. “You go along and get your story done for the Sun.”
Julian sighed and carefully smoothed down his hair with both hands. “I suppose you’re right.”
“You know I am.” She smiled up at him.
When he took her hand, his palm felt slick with hair oil. He hovered, staring down at her, obviously still uncertain. “Mother would object.”
“She doesn’t have to know everything, does she? Now go, and don’t forget your hat,” she reminded him. “It’s in the kitchen.”
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