Spoils of Eden

by Linda Lee Chaikin

  Rafe turned to Eden with a smile. “You heard him. Better get out of those wet clothes and into this. You can draw that curtain across the bedroom door.”

  When Eden returned, lifting the hem of the muumuu in order to walk, Rafe had already changed into a pair of black trousers and a clean cotton shirt. He took her in with one glance and laughed.

  “You’re about to taste some of the best coffee in the world,” Keno said, as the pots and pans rattled in the kitchen.

  Who is making coffee? Rafe and Keno were in the room with her.

  “Easton Brand,” Rafe stated. “How does the name sound? Think it will go over on the Mainland?”

  “‘Easton Brand,’” she repeated musingly. “Well … actually, I think it needs a little more ‘Island’ sound.”

  There was amusement in his voice. “All right. How’s this—A Taste from Eden? Make you want to try it?”

  “Yes, I think I might, especially if I lived on a farm in snowy Minnesota.”

  “Wake Up to Paradise,” Keno joined in.

  “Coffee all ready,” announced Ling Li, walking in with a wicker tray and three cups of steaming Kona coffee.

  “Ling!” cried Eden.

  He grinned. “Been here plenny time now. I stand between two big man. They keep me safe from—”

  “Later, Ling,” Rafe interrupted calmly.

  “Yes, Ling talk too much.”

  “Until recently not enough,” Rafe countered.

  Ling looked sheepish. He nodded. “Ling afraid of big haoles. He just come from China to work. Best keep tongue for eating.” He put the tray down and, smiling at Eden and giving a traditional bow to Rafe, returned to the kitchen, where the pots and pans, then continued to rattle contentedly.

  Eden was pleased to see Ling safe and, as he put it, kept safe with the bodyguards Rafe and Keno. So that’s why Ling had been searching for Rafe. He had important information that he’d thought might endanger him.

  “Are you going to tell me everything?” she asked quickly.

  “Everything worth telling, my sweet, and all in good time. Are you hungry?”

  “No—”

  “Rafe is always hungry,” Keno said. He got up and went into the kitchen and said something to Ling. A brief time later fruits and breads were brought out, and some hot food wrapped in brown bundles, chicken pieces stewed in coconut milk, and some shrimps.

  With the wind and rain still howling, and the enticing aroma of coffee adding a touch of cheer to the room, Keno stood and slipped into a hooded jacket of oil-slick.

  “Are you sure you want to risk it?” Rafe asked, but did not appear worried.

  “What’s a little rain? I’ll go to the big house and let Zach and the others know Miss Eden is here, safe.”

  “Knowing Zach, he’ll be pacing the floor,” Rafe said. “The sooner he knows we’re here, the better. Tell him he and I will have a long talk later tonight.”

  “By the way,” Keno said, lingering at the door a moment and focusing on Eden. “Miss Candace didn’t come with you from Koko Head, did she?”

  Eden felt her spirits sink. She said quietly, “No, she remained at Tamarind with my aunt and father.”

  He gave a nod, as though he understood, and opened the door, with a gust of windy rain blowing. A moment later he disappeared into the afternoon weather, as though he were used to it.

  After he’d gone, she must have shown something of her sadness over Candace and Keno because Rafe looked at her. Part of the tragedy facing Candace was that she forbid her to explain, even to Rafe, about her upcoming decision about Oliver Hunnewell.

  “Will Keno be all right finding his way?” she asked.

  “This is nothing to Keno. We faced far worse at sea.”

  Rafe must have mistaken her mood over Candace as worry over the matters at hand. “Let’s begin with Zach,” he said. “At the lagoon you mentioned the suspicions he’d talked about on the boat. What’s troubling you, honey?”

  She loved the way he pronounced the word “honey.” It had a warm, caressing note that gave her the feeling of belonging to him, without too much romantic tension. With marriage well over a year away, they both wanted to avoid intensity.

  “And what’s going on at Tamarind?” he inquired, his expression inscrutable.

  Rafe already understood the cause for the jealousy between Zachary and Silas, so it was only necessary to explain Zachary’s latest suspicions. She did so in meticulous detail, including the accusation that Silas was the man Candace saw on the lanai at Hawaiiana.

  “The boatman, Laweoki, made it clear to me that he’d brought Zachary to Tamarind on that same night, and that Zachary had returned to the boat sometime later, nervous and limping.”

  “Did Laweoki admit to following another boat with Silas presumably aboard?”

  “Yes. He was sure of what he stated.”

  “Did he mention the name of the boat or anything by which to identify it?”

  She sighed. “I didn’t think to ask him that. Is it important?”

  “Well, if we knew the boat supposedly bringing Silas or someone else to Koko Head, we could check with the captain for proof. I’ll ask Zach later.”

  “What could Silas have been searching for in Nora’s room?” Eden concluded.

  Rafe stood. “My guess? A section of family history. Shed made up her mind to reveal a matter. A secret, most likely. One she’s been keeping for years.”

  Eden turned her gaze to meet his. Rafe already knew something important.

  “But,” Rafe countered, “did Zach actually see Silas? And if Silas found what he wanted, the question is, what good was it? Nora could easily rewrite the missing section. So if it was Silas, he took it as proof to the person he intended to extort money from. Or to protect himself.”

  “But why the need to protect himself? He’s only been on the Islands since April.”

  “So he says. I assume that part’s true, but what if Silas is not a Derrington after all? And Nora knows it?”

  She stared at him. “That, I hadn’t thought of. But somehow, I can’t say why, I always felt it was Nora who’d sent for him to come to Honolulu.”

  “Maybe. But what would she get out of his arrival? He’s not been any help to her on the Gazette. He’s turned annexationist.”

  “For financial reasons. You heard Ainsworth promise him a place in the Derrington fold.”

  “And warn him, if he didn’t become a good little Derrington. Well, in that regard Silas has my sympathy. I’ve had a taste of Ainsworth’s warnings about what would happen if I didn’t cooperate with him. It just so happened I wanted that seat on the Legislature to help Kip. Otherwise, I may have walked out. Then again, there was Hanalei.”

  “Yes, but you do truly believe in the annexation movement now,” she said, “and Silas doesn’t. He’s not a true Hawaiian. He’s not one of us. I don’t think he cares either way.”

  “You’ve read him correctly. Even if he wasn’t the man Zach saw, I believe Silas is untrustworthy as to his motives for coming to the Islands. But I owe him for coming to your aid in Ling’s hut.”

  Thinking back to that moment on Kea Lani brought a shudder. “Yes, he came to my help. I mustn’t forget that.” She frowned. “It would seem Silas must be a Derrington. He looks like his father and Zachary.”

  “He’s sure to be related. The question is whether or not he’s the firstborn of Townsend as they both claim, or a cousin? Then again, Townsend should know if Silas is his son or not. Did Nora ever tell you she was the one who’d brought Silas to the Islands?”

  “No. It was just a feeling I had.”

  “I don’t think she did. She’d have a stronger hold over him otherwise. She could battle Ainsworth over whose side Silas should be favoring. If you remember, she made a fuss at the table, but not enough of one to warrant her sponsorship in bringing Silas here.”

  She sank into her chair, tired. Rafe was probably right. “Then who did suggest he come here?”

  “Go
od question.” He looked at her and smiled. “Maybe no one did. No one in the Derrington family, that is. Did Nora ever find the section of her journal that was missing?”

  “She never mentioned it. She was still recovering from the illness when I arrived at Tamarind.”

  Rafe poured another cup of coffee.“Yes … the sickness. It’s what troubles me most. It’s also the reason I can’t accept Silas as the man.”

  She wondered why he would come to such a conclusion.

  “My father was quite disturbed about what made her so ill, but tried to hide it from me.”

  “Did he?” He looked at her thoughtfully. “Is that why he stayed at Tamarind?”

  “Yes. He kept the matter casual, but he asked me about the prescription I’d brought Nora from Dr. Bolton.”

  “Ah, then Dr. Jerome is onto it.”

  “Onto what? I’m the one who brought her the medicine some months ago.”

  “But it wasn’t always under your supervision was it?”

  “Well, no—Rafe! You’re not suggesting someone deliberately changed the medication?”

  “That will be left for physicians to decide. Is it out of the question? No. It’s quite within reason.”

  “But that would mean—” She could not go on. She remembered her father asking about Dr. Bolton. Almost wearily she confessed, “Yes, you could be right. Oh, this horrible. I’ve just remembered my Father has sent a message to Kalihi asking Dr. Bolton to come to Tamarind to discuss the medication.” She jumped up from the chair. “Even so, we both know how Nora is when it comes to health and doctors. Even though she promised me she’d take it, she probably set it aside and refused to bother with it.”

  “Maybe. Then, at Tamarind, she might not have felt too well. Something caused her to take a dose. And once she did, whatever it was put her in bed. If she’d kept on taking it, well—” He looked at her and must have noticed how upset she felt. “Let’s wait for your father’s and Dr. Bolton’s conclusions.”

  She cast him a despondent glance. “I’m afraid they’ll have a problem coming to a certain conclusion.”

  He set his cup down abruptly, frustrated. “Don’t tell me she tossed the bottle?”

  Eden nodded.

  “Regardless of what Zach says about Silas, I’ve decided he’s not our man after all.”

  Eden rubbed her forehead. Now why did he come to that conclusion? Rafe had said that Nora’s sickness disturbed him the most. Why? Because it implied someone could actually hurt another member of their own family? She looked at him quickly. He watched her alertly.

  “Then you don’t think Silas has the unbridled evil in his heart to murder?”

  He folded his arms. “Well done. Exactly.”

  “The question then is, who does?” she asked quietly.

  “Yes.”

  Silence gripped the room.

  “My little suggestion about Silas not being Townsend’s son isn’t one that I believe. I think he is who he claims to be.”

  “But, if he is,” she said, “what’s there to fear from Nora’s revelation?”

  “Something important enough to risk putting Nora to sleep and burning down Ling’s hut with his wife inside. To protect his reputation. To keep the truth about Matt Easton quiet.”

  Perhaps she had known it all along. “It wasn’t Silas that Zachary saw … it was Uncle Townsend.”

  “Exactly. It was Townsend on the lanai at the pineapple plantation. And it was Townsend at Tamarind searching for Nora’s work. He had to discover if what he feared was true. That she knew and was about to mention certain facts in the history that would shine the light toward him. Well, she did know. Townsend killed my father.”

  She sank into a chair, sickened. She had always known Rafe believed this, but somehow it was never real to her, but an idea that floated in the background.

  “I’ve known it all along,” Rafe continued, calmly enough, “but I couldn’t prove it. I still can’t. But now, if we’re right about Nora’s revelation in her history book, Townsend must own up to his evil. Was it premeditated? I don’t know. At times, I don’t think it was. But he’s guilty of letting my father die. Could he have saved Matt? I don’t know that either. Maybe not. But again, he deliberately let my father die. He refused to go for help. He walked away and left him badly injured.”

  She looked up, horrified. “How do you know this?”

  “Ling. He was a witness.”

  “A witness!”

  “Townsend knows Ling is a witness, too. First, Townsend had to discover if his fears were true. It was Nora he feared. Did Nora know all along? Was she going to reveal it? He had to get hold of her work and see for himself. He must have succeeded. Then Ling became the big problem. Ling could testify to what he saw. Ling’s the big piece of the puzzle. After Rat Alley, when he returned to Kea Lani, he found his hut burned to ashes. When he discovered from his wife what happened and heard her story of why she believed Townsend set it on fire deliberately, with her inside—Ling knew Townsend would no longer be content to ignore him. Not with Nora’s history coming out. People would begin asking too many questions. Newspaper men would come prying, offering little prizes to Ling for his story. I can only guess, but once Townsend knew for sure Nora intended to include my father’s death in her history, he had no recourse in his own mind except to rid himself of the one actual witness. Ling.”

  Eden stood still. “How did your father die? You never told me.”

  “Matt fell from one of the lava mounds. Some of the rocks were sharp. He was injured and trapped there.”

  Rafe went on to tell her of a terrible argument over his mother, Celestine. “Townsend was trying to start an adulterous affair with her. She refused him, naturally. She told Matt. Matt confronted Townsend. There was an argument. When Matt turned to walk away, Ling saw him stumble and go over the mound.

  “At first Townsend reacted in his better nature. He ran to the mound. But then he did nothing. He stood there for some time. Ling actually heard my father calling for help. Townsend watched. Instead of running for help, he sat down and watched him.

  “Ling was hiding, but he hurried away for help and found Nora in the garden. Whether she understood Ling’s speech back then is doubtful. He’d only just arrived from Shanghai. But he did manage to convince her to find Dr. Jerome.”

  Eden turned her back, depressed, as Rafe explained how Ling brought Jerome to his father.

  “Townsend was nowhere to be seen by then. And no one ever knew he’d been on the plantation. My father went into a coma and died shortly thereafter.”

  “And Ling was afraid to speak,” she said dully.

  “Time passed, and everything was forgotten.”

  “And later, Uncle Townsend married Celestine and gained control over the Easton enterprise and Hanalei,” she said wearily. “Why did she ever marry him?”

  Rafe shook his head sadly. “For one thing, she never knew until recently about Matt’s death or about Townsend. Secondly, I don’t like to say this, but you already know. My mother was weak back then. Townsend was a bully. He dominated her, and she allowed him to do it.”

  Rafe’s silence closed the door. She might have asked, “What do you intend to do about it?” But that question seemed unnecessary. It was obvious Ling was being protected now to be the star witness in the case.

  “What about Celestine?”

  He walked up to her, placed his hands on her shoulders and turned her round to face him. She was surprised by the calmness of his gaze under such dreadful revelations. He must have known most of this for so long that it was almost old news.

  “Celestine is in San Francisco with Kip.”

  She caught her breath. “So that’s where you brought Kip!”

  “Keno and I managed to bring him to the Minoa. Ambrose later brought Celestine, and she boarded with Kip. She wanted to get away from Townsend and think about her marriage. She felt as I did about Kip, so agreed to take him with her. They’re both doing well on Nob Hill, in fact
.”

  “Then Noelani did know where Kid was that night?”

  He nodded. “But she wouldn’t help by bringing Kip to the ship as Keno tried to get her to do. She would keep silent, she said, but have no part in it. Ambrose, however, did have a key part. So if you’re angry at me, you must include Ambrose.”

  She sighed and shook her head. “It doesn’t matter any longer. I’m glad I escaped involvement in bringing him to Kalihi. But how will this change things? The Board will still be seeking Kip. And as a Hawaiian, you won’t be able to adopt him.”

  “It so happens things are turning out better than even I had hoped. Ainsworth, Parker Judson, and others are interceding with the Legislature, of which I am now a member, to pass a law permitting me to keep Kip.”

  “Who do you think sent that message about Kip to the Board?”

  “Townsend. Undoubtedly to get even with Celestine over seeking protection at Hawaiiana, and with me for guarding her from his bullying. The good news is that I have every reason to think this will work out for the good. Kip is going to become Daniel Easton after all.”

  She smiled tiredly. “I’m happy for you, my darling.”

  He cocked a brow. “Darling? Do you know that’s the first time you’ve ever used that word?”

  “But it won’t be the last.”

  “I’ll hold you to that promise.”

  The rain was diminishing, and the darkness was fading. As the clouds thinned, the sun began to shine.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Aloha

  Eden returned to Hanalei with Rafe and eventually rejoined him and Zachary in the living room after changing into her own clothing. Zachary was now pacing up and down the floor. Keno sat watching, and Rafe stood, arms folded, calmly trying to convince him he had not seen Silas but Townsend at both Hawaiiana and Tamarind.

  “Now look here, Rafe. I ought to know what I saw.” Zachary’s jaw was set stubbornly.

  “The mind can play tricks, especially when the heart knows what it wants to see.”