Spoils of Eden

by Linda Lee Chaikin

  His gaze searched her face. “Rafe and Kip?”

  She sighed and walked up to the desk. “I’ve been sent here by the Board of Health to bring Kip back to Kalihi for quarantine. The Board learned about Kip being born on Molokai to lepers. You know the law. It’s forbidden to keep Kip until the Board certifies that he doesn’t have leprosy. And even then—” her voice trailed off.

  “Even then, it’s not at all certain a baby from Molokai can be adopted.”

  “Yes,” she breathed and sank into the chair. “There’s a ruling that may require Kip to be placed in a hospital-run home for children born on Molokai. Oh, Ambrose! This will be difficult to explain to Rafe. Even so, I’ve arranged with Dr. Bolton to be authorized to examine Kip.”

  Ambrose stared at her, his own concern bringing furrowed lines to his tanned forehead. “This is ill news for Rafe, no doubt about that. Are you sure it’s wise for you to be the one to inform him and claim control of Kip? It won’t go over well, Eden.”

  She rubbed the back of her neck, her head aching. “You’re voicing the same concerns as Lana. All I can say is what I told her. I feel responsible for this tragedy. And I do see it as such. Kip is not a leper. I’m sure of that. I examined him myself after his arrival last year. And Noelani knows what to look for. She agrees he’s clean and has been all along. But I feel I must be the one to explain the situation to Rafe because I—I’m connected with Kalihi Hospital. If someone else brings him the news I fear he’ll think I don’t care. And I do! Oh I do, Ambrose!”

  “Of course you do,” he said gently. “I’m sure Rafe will see it that way in time.”

  “In time?”

  “He’s very attached to Kip.”

  “I know that. But so am I!”

  “Yes, but Kip is even more special to Rafe now that you and he have ended your engagement. Kip is all he has.”

  She jumped to her feet and turned away. “Oh, Ambrose, don’t say it that way. It makes me feel as though I’ve done him dreadful harm.” She turned quickly and faced him. “It so happens Rafe was quite willing to end things for the present. He took the ring back quickly enough.”

  “I’m sure he had his reasons, but I don’t believe that was the resolution he wanted.”

  “You said yourself he’s been difficult to get along with. Well,” she said, suddenly defensive, “he was that way even before I told him I had a calling to work at Kalihi and Molokai. He hasn’t been happy in months.”

  “I doubt it had to do with you, my dear Eden. He thinks highly of you and your strong motivations. He always has. I believe he’s frustrated over needing to surrender his plans for the pineapple plantation to Parker Judson. As we both know, he’s indebted to Judson for a good deal of money. Until he’s made Hawaiiana successful, he’ll not have paid his debt. It’s Hanalei on the Big Island he’s working to get control of from Judson. Hanalei has always been his home, and the plantation he grew up on. Matt established it,” he said affectionately of his deceased younger brother. “And it’s a precious thing to Rafe. It was tragic when Celestine made the error of turning its management over to Townsend.”

  Eden calmed herself and walked over to the window to look out. “Yes,” she said quietly, “I know. I’ve discussed it all many times with Rafe.” She rubbed her fingers together and became aware it was her bare ring finger she was rubbing. Placing her left hand inside her pocket, she turned and looked at Ambrose.

  “Ambrose, I’m the one to tell Rafe, and I’ll need to take Kip back with me to Kalihi. But I can promise Rafe that I’ll not leave Kip any longer than absolutely necessary for me to eat and sleep. I’m going to stay there with Kip day and night.”

  He was quickly beside her. “My dear, you can’t do that. It’s too much of a risk for you.”

  “No, I’ll be all right. I know how to protect myself. Besides, if I go to Molokai one day when my father comes home, I’ll be with lepers every day. This is a call upon my life. Rafe must understand this before he and I can decide on any future together. I need time … and I need him to wait.”

  Ambrose took both her hands into his and looked at her. His eyes were kind but firm. “Eden, you’re asking a great deal of him. Don’t be disappointed when he proves himself only too human.”

  She said nothing for a long moment, then turned her head away. He released her hands.

  “I’ll do all I can to help you,” he said. “Both with Rafe and Kip, and the calling you believe God has laid so indelibly on your heart.”

  She threw her arms around him, and he patted her head as though she were a child. “I knew you’d understand. If only Rafe would,” she said, with a slight tone of resentment.

  Ambrose was quiet for a moment. “Rafe has his own struggles. He too, is trying to come to peace with certain issues.”

  “Yes, and one of them is his father. Rafe has always believed his father’s death wasn’t an accident,” she said bluntly.

  Ambrose gave an agreeing nod. “That’s one of his issues and why he wants to control Hanalei. But he has another problem with you, Eden.”

  She lifted her gaze and saw his sobriety. “With me? It looks as if our biggest problems are each other. Maybe we weren’t meant to marry after all,” she said in frustration.

  “Rafe saw in you a woman to stand beside him as he confronts the giants keeping him from attaining his father’s stolen dream. He looks upon running Hanalei as a dream. He wants your love displayed in a commitment to follow him wherever he goes.”

  “A bit selfish, isn’t it?” she found herself saying.

  “No. Not selfish. It was God’s way from the beginning, Eden. A woman follows her man, not the man his woman. If it’s seen differently nowadays, it’s because culture is walking away from God’s plan for marriage.”

  “Oh, Ambrose, I’m sorry.” She turned, placing palms to her temples. “I know, a woman was created to be the helpmate, not the leader. I’ve said so to myself many times, and I’ve said so to Candace. It’s one of the main reasons she doesn’t want to marry Oliver. She isn’t at peace with the idea of following his leadership. And the real reason I gave the engagement ring back to Rafe is that marriage wouldn’t be fair to him right now. I simply can’t release the longing I’ve had since childhood. That’s why I can’t commit myself just yet.”

  He patted her shoulder. “Don’t get yourself too upset. Life is a struggle, and marriage is a struggle. It’s uphill all the way. You’re upset right now, and you’ve too many worries on your heart. This matter of Kip is alarming, and this goal of yours to find your mother and work with your father among the lepers on Molokai—do you believe doing so will release you from this longing you say you’ve had for so long?”

  “Oh yes, yes it will. This is what I want, Ambrose. Except—” her voice trailed.

  “Except your heart is divided because you also want Rafe. You’re in love with him and have been for years.”

  She nodded. “Yes. You know me well. You and Noelani both.”

  “You were a daughter to us,” he said kindly. “When Ainsworth sent you here after Jerome went away, we saw you as the answer to our prayer for a child of our own. We’ve never regretted those ten years you lived with us.”

  She smiled. “I was thinking when I entered this house that it will always be home. And I’ll always be grateful for your guidance and Noelani’s mothering.”

  “Well, just remember you’re not the only one who faced the loss of a father,” he said gently. “From your earliest years, you longed for Jerome, and he wasn’t here. Rafe, too, was dedicated to his father, and then Matt was taken away, suddenly and unjustly. Then Matt’s plantation at Hanalei was taken away. Stolen, is the way Rafe views it.”

  Eden understood Rafe’s resentments—or believed she did. Perhaps she’d not taken them to heart. There had always been her own goal to think about.

  “I’ve been doing much thinking about fathers recently,” he mused. “I’ve come to the conclusion that the father image has strong spiritual implicat
ions.”

  “Spiritual?” She looked at him quizzically.

  “Yes, because in the end, the quest for the deepest relationship we seek can only be fulfilled in God. Who was it that came to the garden of Eden in the cool of the evening and called for Adam, to walk and commune with him as a father walks with a son?”

  She thought about Adam meeting and walking together with God in the garden. What did Adam say? Could he ask God questions as a child does his father? How wondrous it must have been to walk and talk with his Creator in the cool of the evening, among the fragrance of the flowers and greenery, the animals in perfect harmony. Did some gentle lion or elephant follow close behind as their voices carried through the trees?

  “And then the serpent entered and destroyed their fellowship,” she said wearily.

  “And then God came and made redemption possible for those who accept the remedy of the cross of Christ. Adam and his fallen sons and daughters can be restored to an even higher position of fellowship with God as Father. Now we can call Him Abba, Father. Ah, what a privilege! We do have a Father, my dear Eden. We have a family. We belong. And you and Rafe included will never tremble alone or have Him taken from us in death or, like Zachary, know the stab of rejection.”

  She stared out the window. The hibiscus flowers were visuals of the Father’s care, brightly colored and basking in the warmth.

  Ambrose said no more. His reassuring pat on her shoulder told her their conversation would be kept between them. “Take my buggy to Hawaiiana,” he said. “The horse is hitched.”

  Several minutes later Eden became aware she was alone at the window and that Ambrose had quietly gone about his business. She picked up her sun hat from the table where shed laid it, tied the ribbon under her chin, and went out the front door. Onward to Hawaiiana … and her meeting with Rafe.

  Eden drove the horse and buggy up the half-mile dirt road toward the Hawaiiana plantation. This fledgling plantation, if all progressed as planned, would one day become Oahu’s largest pineapple plantation, boasting the largest, sweetest, and juiciest pineapples on the islands. With a nostalgic smile, Eden recalled tasting sections of such a pineapple while on board the Minoa, anchored in San Francisco Bay. She could still remember the sweet golden flesh and the warm juice that seeped through her fingers when she bit daintily into the section he had handed her.

  The breeze tugged at her dark hair beneath the sun hat. The road narrowed when she turned onto a well-used section leading toward the building and planting now underway. It was a hard-pressed volcanic dirt path, lined by trees and ferns, and presenting a view of an unbounded blue-green sea beyond the cliffs.

  The Hawaiiana Great House had been started during her engagement with Rafe, and its wondrous lanai remained under construction, but there were sections already completed that housed Rafe’s mother, Celestine. The nursery, too, was in use, and it was there that Noelani cared for Kip. With Ambrose’s approval, Noelani remained at Hawaiiana five days a week to care for the baby, then returned to her house and Ambrose from Friday through Sunday night, where she assisted Ambrose with his preparation for the worship service.

  Eden understood that, with the engagement between her and Rafe broken, it was likely she would never live at Hawaiiana as they’d planned. If she allowed her emotions to reign, dwelling on the loss could be overwhelming. She was not blind to Rafe’s dependable Christian character, his intelligence, and yes, his obvious good looks. She was at the age when romance, love, marriage, and a family of her own were desires yearning for fulfillment. The loss was especially painful to her heart when she felt weary, alone, and disappointed. Quite suddenly the thought of seeing him again after two months unnerved her. She fought an almost overwhelming urge to turn back and ride instead to Kea Lani. She must have been dazed with arrogance to think she could simply walk back into the fire and not be tested! Maybe Lana was right after all about who should meet with Rafe. Yes, she should turn back. Turn back now. Go home to Kea Lani where she would be safe. Safe, because Rafe wouldn’t come there to confront her love for him. As long as they kept apart and put up a front, they could pretend they didn’t need each other.

  Grandfather Ainsworth will be home this afternoon, she thought, sitting in the buggy, clutching the reins. Maybe she should go home and wait to welcome him back from the States. After all, she could always send a message to Lana at Kalihi to call on Rafe Easton about Kip.

  Eden stopped the buggy on the side of the road and sat listening to the sigh of the tropic breezes in the palm trees and breathing the fragrance of wild orchids.

  Chapter Four

  Rafe Easton

  Rafe Easton stood in the bungalow doorway as the breeze blew in and cooled him. His shirt was off, and he wore white cotton trousers. Tan and muscled, with dark eyes and hair, he watched his friend, ally, and chief foreman, Keno, speak with a Hawaiian woman.

  He had raised this temporary bungalow in the midst of the new pineapple plantings. Hawaiiana lands covered over a thousand acres stretching from the old Easton family pearl beds, by Pearl River, all the way to the rim of the Koolau mountain range.

  Parker Judson, his partner on Hawaiiana, was one of several sugar magnates with political influence in both Hawaii and San Francisco, where he kept a second home on Telegraph Hill. Many claimed that he stood on an equal footing with the biggest sugar king of them all, Claus Spreckels. Parker had no son or daughter, and after a meeting with Rafe in San Francisco, he’d taken an unusual liking to him—or as Rafe would clarify, “an affectionate liking for my French Guiana pineapple slips that I risked my neck to smuggle out.” And so, Parker had backed him in the establishment of a new pineapple enterprise, which Parker owned.

  Rafe, in return for selling Parker the rare pineapple slips and developing the plantation’s lands, earned the right to manage the Kona coffee plantation, founded by Rafe’s father on the Big Island of Hawaii. Matt Easton had died there during Rafe’s boyhood, and though the authorities considered his death an accident, Rafe had never accepted that explanation.

  Matt’s death not only robbed Rafe of a close relationship with his father, but matters turned darker still when Townsend Derrington married Rafe’s mother, Celestine, and wrangled control of the Easton plantation away from her. While still a youth, Rafe had lost not only his father, but the land that would have become his inheritance. Townsend, ever looking for new ways to pay down his persistent gambling debts, had leased the Easton lands to Parker Judson. But now, Hanalei would be run by Rafe, and it was for this prize that he worked such long, demanding hours for Parker Judson.

  Rafe used the bungalow for his field office and general habitat when working late, often well past midnight. It was a ready place to eat and rest rather than having to return to the main house, though it offered little comfort in the heat of the day when the sun beat relentlessly on the palm frond roof.

  Keno turned away from the Hawaiian woman who’d been seated beside the road and walked toward Rafe, carrying a large ahi tuna. Nearing the bungalow, Keno held up the slippery fish, its scales glinting in the sunlight.

  Leaning in the doorway, eating an overripe melon with a wooden spoon, Rafe shot Keno a quizzical look. “What’s that all about?”

  Keno gestured toward the lingering woman. “She wants you to buy this.”

  When she grinned at Rafe, he smiled and looked back Keno. “I don’t like fish, so you buy it and send it over to Ambrose.”

  Keno thoughtfully stroked the slippery fish with one finger. “Hawaiian wahine has heard how poor, handsome makua Rafe is heartbroken over haole girl with green eyes.”

  Rafe flicked away some melon seeds and narrowed his gaze as Keno continued. “Hawaiian woman says her own eyes are black, but she can cook an ahi great and delicious. She wants to come inside and comfort you.”

  Rafe didn’t so much as bat a lash. “Tell her that poor, heartbroken makua Rafe cannot be solaced. He only wants ‘green eyes’ in his little hut.”

  Keno dug in his pocket for some
change. “I’m broke.” He held out his palm. Rafe dug into his own pocket but also found nothing.

  Rafe gestured. “Bring the fish back.”

  Keno, a strongly built pearl diver, trotted down the slope to where the woman waited, seated by the narrow road with her basket. He shook his head no, firmly handed her the ahi, made negative gestures with his hands—then pointed down the road. His voice carried on the breeze: “Go up to the big house, ask for Noelani. She’ll buy the fish. Rapidamente!”

  Rafe turned his mouth. Spanish? Of all languages to use with her.

  The woman walked away in the direction of the Great House, and Keno trotted back toward the bungalow.

  Finishing the melon, Rafe wiped his hands on a towel. The one woman he wanted, he couldn’t have, even after offering her everything—his heart and his life. No small offering as far as he was concerned. He would never understand women. One brought him a big smelly fish, anxious to stay, the other kept him dangling on a line while she awaited the return of her long lost father, daily risking her future to leprosy at Kalihi Hospital.

  Keno came inside, brushed past him, and sat down by a desk cluttered with papers, books, and a Bible. He reached for a pencil.

  Rafe tilted his head. “You were a little brusque with her, weren’t you? ‘Rapidamente!’ he mimicked good naturedly.

  “If I wasn’t firm with her, she’d camp out there. Gotta be careful, ol’ pal. Remember that divorced lady, the haole? She kept coming to see Ambrose, wanting to tell him all about how lonely she was for a fellow and how she needed counseling to deal with her temptations?”

  “I remember. He learned his lesson and got rid of her in a hurry. Told her that Noelani would be happy to counsel with her … a woman’s heart to a woman’s heart. Wise, isn’t he?”

  “Safest place for you, my friend, is to get you on board the Minoa again,” Keno said, finally finding Rafe’s map. He reached over and spread it across the desk. “No sooner will you board ship for French Guiana than ‘Miss Green Eyes’ will pine for you, weeping tears into her lace hanky. She will bemoan how she lost you, and become pale and wan. Then, Dr. Jerome will realize how he’s manipulated her to support his work, send for you posthaste, and have Ambrose perform an immediate marriage—” Rafe promptly muffled Keno’s mouth with a towel.