Spoils of Eden (19 page)

I
t was nearing the dinner hour. Diamond Head sat tinted with gold, and a brilliant tropic dusk silhouetted the tall coconut palms. Sweeping rollers from the coral reef brought a soothing ambience to the occasion.

Colorful lanterns decorated wide-spreading tree branches, casting greens and blues through tinted glass along the front yard and entranceway. Inside the plantation house, stalks of bird-of-paradise and wild orchids decorated the tables. The dinner table was laid with good fare: platters of smoked meats, fruits, cheeses, and a variety of juices served from crystal bowls.

Eden, dressed in an apple-green watered-silk gown, left Noelani and went downstairs in search of her father. As she entered the columned hallway and walked to the balustrade she saw Keno below, moving toward the kitchen and the back of the house. Then he had not yet gone to the bungalow to see Ambrose. Why had he gone around the house?

She walked toward the landing just as a familiar form dressed in handsome evening clothes was coming up the staircase. Rafe appeared to have more sobering matters on his mind than dinner.
He took the last steps two at a time, then stopped as she approached.

Eden wondered if her expression revealed her feelings after her serious meeting with Noelani, for he studied her carefully, then looked into the hall as if expecting to see someone behind her.

Eden was curious if he had any suspicion about Noelani’s feelings on their broken engagement, and the idea brought a tint to her cheeks. She turned away from him and walked back to the balustrade, her gaze focused below in the hall, where one of the staff was coming across the floor with a tray, headed for the dining room.

“Hiding from the Derrington patriarch?” Rafe asked.

Eden smiled in spite of herself. “I understand you have a private meeting with him tonight. Are you on your way to see him now?”

She hoped Rafe would reveal the purpose of his meeting with Grandfather Ainsworth, but she received no illumination beyond a flicker of his energetic dark eyes and a light smile.

“Zachary tell you that?”

“No. Candace. She thinks you might be won over to the Reform Party. Great-aunt Nora is in a tizzy trying to figure out a way to get you back writing for the
Gazette
.”

“Writing demands hours. More than I can give at the moment. But someday, perhaps. I’ve even thought about owning my own newspaper.”

“It looks as if Zachary will need to share the
Gazette
with Silas. Nora hired him tonight to unearth some story about the American Minister Stevens secretly helping the Reform Party overthrow Liliuokalani.” She arched a brow and scanned him as though he were hand in glove with the movement.

“No wonder Zach looks as though he’s wired to a powder keg. Silas appears adept at elbowing his way into things. To change the subject … have you told Ainsworth our engagement is off? And has your father been told? Then again, did your father even know of our engagement since he’s always away?”

Eden grew uncomfortable under Rafe’s penetrating gaze. The remark about her father’s absence brought a rekindling of tension
with Rafe. Did he think Ainsworth wished to discuss the broken engagement? Perhaps Candace was wrong. The meeting might have nothing at all to do with annexation.

She became aware that she was rubbing her ring finger, a recent and uncomely habit. She placed her hands behind her back and straightened her shoulders, showing strength of purpose. His mouth turned with wry amusement. He folded his arms and leaned against the pillar.

“Why—I’m sure Ainsworth would have informed Dr. Jerome that we had become engaged,” she said formally, “either in a past letter or on the steamer from San Francisco.”

“But you have not told him, in any of your letters?”

She was surprised that the idea of her father not being aware of their engagement hadn’t crossed her mind until now. It was Ainsworth’s response that worried her, and Rafe knew it. Until this moment she’d been oblivious to what Dr. Jerome might think, either of a marriage or of a broken engagement. Everything was centered on Ainsworth. What he would think, what he would say, what he would do when he discovered the truth. That she hadn’t worried what her father would say painfully revealed how uninvolved he was in her life. It was a sad reminder that sparked her anger. Rafe became the bully for bringing it up and making her see what she didn’t want to see. He’d brought it up deliberately so she would focus on what Rafe called her devotion to a father image.

“Obviously we both understand it isn’t my father, but Ainsworth who rules over the Derringtons. Dr. Jerome is master of one subject, his medical research, just as he, and I, would have it.”

“So it seems. If Ainsworth informed Dr. Jerome on the steamer that he’d approved of his daughter’s marriage to an Easton, then it’s interesting your father’s not commented to me about it.”

“He only just arrived,” she protested, though she had no wish for her father to speak to Rafe. It could be the means for Ainsworth to learn the engagement was broken.

“I beg to differ. They arrived this morning. There’s been ample
time. And it’s natural for your father to seek me out at once and interrogate me on why I deserve—” he stopped, bowed, and continued,
“deserved
his only daughter.”

Her heart beat faster with annoyance. Rafe said pointedly, “I spoke alone with Dr. Jerome while you and Candace were getting dressed for dinner. He is unaware of most things that don’t coincide with his hopes for a clinic on Molokai.”

“If you’re hoping to cast my father in an unflattering light, it will do you no good. Of course his main thoughts are for his work. It’s quite understandable. He’s traveled the globe searching for a cure to save Rebecca. He’s not in strong health. Anyone can see that. He’s gaunt—and while he won’t admit it, I’m sure he’s plagued with malaria.”

“I would agree that it’s malaria. I’ve seen many cases in the tropics. Look, Eden, let’s not fight about Jerome. It’s Ainsworth that poses the chief problem. He believes we’re still engaged. That means trouble for you.”

“I know that,” she confessed. “I’ve been concerned all day and keeping my ring hand out of view.”

“So I noticed.” The corner of his mouth tipped. “On several occasions I was about to suggest a glove.”

“It’s not amusing.”

“It’s exasperating. The entire charade could end now if you’d keep the vow you made to me that night on Waikiki and marry me.”

“Rafe, please.” She turned her head away, holding on to the banister. His hand closed about her arm.

“You’re the most frustrating of womankind, do you know that?” he gritted.

“I’m sorry if you think so. It’s not my intention. Do you think I enjoy bringing pain into your life? First, with what I must do about Molokai, and then with Kip?”

At the mention of Kip, his hand loosened on her arm and he drew back. She rushed on. “I was hoping Ainsworth wouldn’t find out, for at least tonight.” Her eyes came to his, anxiously searching.
“Rafe, I need a little more time to prepare a suitable explanation.”

“My exact thought,” he said smoothly. “I have decided to be mercifully generous with you. I agree that a little more time will help you survive tonight—in spite of how you threw my expensive engagement ring back at me.”

She sucked in a breath. “I did not!” She knew he enjoyed the exaggeration and folded her arms. “I cried.”

“I didn’t cry. So I will become the magnanimous gentleman and, like Samson, let the pillars collapse upon me as I come to your rescue. I will say nothing about our separation.”

Relief swept over her as she understood he was willing to help her. His maturity was overruling any revenge. “Oh, Rafe, it’s generous of you to keep quiet. I feel dreadful about all of this.”

“So do I,” he quipped dryly. “I’ll buy you more time to decide when and how you wish to confront the old lion. Zach won’t say anything tonight; he’s riled over Silas.”

“Candace and Nora have promised they won’t bring it up, either.”

“They know the storm it will cause. And Candace has her own mountain to move.”

“You’ve been more than fair with me, and I—”

“And you, my heartless one, have been a frustration to yours truly.” He lifted her chin with one finger. His gaze dropped to her lips. “Ah, but love is patient.” He opened his palm, and the diamond engagement ring sat winking in the evening lamplight. “Yours, my dear, for the retaking—at least for tonight, if not forever. Call me gallant, if you like.” He placed the ring on her palm, then gently folded her fingers around it.

Eden felt a lump in her throat. She swallowed hard. The cold diamond began to warm, and if her imagination were rich enough, the stone began to beat with a life of its own, bringing her senses back again to Waikiki, the warm white sand beneath her feet, the wind, his arms around her, his kiss …

“Yes, I can be patient, but not so patient that I won’t ask something in return,” came his next words, jarring her back to the
moment. Her eyes lifted quickly to his. Dark and vital, there was love and mystery mingled in their depths.

“So! There’s a trap to this!”

“Not at all, my sweet.” His smile was disarming. “I’m trying to help you, to protect you from the ire of Ainsworth—should he learn it was
you
, not your humble fiancé, who wanted out of our perfect love affair on its way to a happy home and many future children.”

“My, how poetic you’ve become.”

“I’m bighearted is all, and as you’ve said, you need time to prepare your case. And I, being the unrequited devotee that I am, offer you such—on one condition.”

“I knew it.”

“I want you to enjoy your dinner tonight with your beloved father, home at last to sit before the cheery fire crackling in the hearth—”

“In Hawaii?”

“So you can wear my ring freely tonight. Let’s agree to three days, to avoid a showdown. By then you’ll be ready for the gladiator arena.”

“That’s indeed bighearted of you, Rafe,” she said sweetly.

He smiled. “For you? Anything. Now, we’ve got that settled.” He glanced below. “Ainsworth’s asked me to meet with him in the billiard room before dinner for a one-on-one chat.”

“Yes, but it couldn’t be about the engagement,” she hastened, “because he doesn’t know yet.”

“Quite. He doesn’t. However, there’s no telling what might come up in that warm little confab. Who knows? I might lose control of my emotions and break down in bitter tears, telling all. All about how his most gracious of granddaughters, his most beautiful by the way—and that green dress is lovely on you—has broken my heart, as well as the engagement, and intends to follow the footsteps of her father, not to Timbuktu, but … to leprosy-infected Molokai.”

She narrowed her gaze. “I always knew you were but an inch from behaving the scoundrel. You would have made a telling pirate.”

“Perhaps.”

“If I remember correctly, it was you—
you
who were anxious to take the ring back once I offered it, you nearly snatched it from my hand.”

“Let’s not quibble, my sweet. Look, you’re not the only one who could use a little time to think through these unexpected events. I need time, as well. To think about Kip.” He tilted his dark head. “To decide some issues that are important to me. So if you’ll give me a few days to think about Kip—then, well, I’ll say nothing to the old lion tonight. That’s fair, is it not?”

She wouldn’t have responded, even if she could. She studied him a moment, and when he lifted a brow, she let out a breath. “I must say, I’m surprised to learn your motive in all this is Kip. Are you saying you’ve changed your mind about turning him over to me?” Her heart melted a little in sympathy when it came to the baby. “I promised you I’d defend and protect Kip at all costs,” she said fervently, “and I will.”

“I believe that. But I haven’t said I’ve changed my mind.”

“Then I don’t understand—”

“I’ve offered you a short reprieve with Ainsworth. We both need to catch our breath. As I said, I too, need to rethink this matter with Kip. When do you need to return to Kalihi?”

“Not until Monday morning. I’ve arranged it with Dr. Bolton and Lana so that I could stay the weekend at Kea Lani. Now that my father’s arrived, though, I might manage an extra day. He’ll return to the hospital with me, of course, to present his research to the Board.”

“He’ll want to gain their support for a clinic on Molokai?”

Remembering his words about following her father to Molokai, she grew uncomfortable. “Yes, certainly. Dr. Jerome’s research must be a crucial treasure of information.”

“Perhaps, but leprosy and tropical diseases are subjects I can’t debate with you.”

She smiled.

Amusement showed in his eyes. “Well, it would take an intelligent woman to break my heart. So, then, Dr. Jerome will assume
his past position at Kalihi in research?”

“He hasn’t said so yet, but I’m almost certain he will. He’ll want to speak with Queen Liliuokalani, too. It was her brother who sponsored his world travels and research.”

“Yes, I remember. Kalakaua had his strong points. All right, then, Eden. We agree to give each other three days.”

She hesitated, unsatisfied, and yet his compelling gaze won out.

“Very well. Until Tuesday, then.”

He was about to say something when someone entered the hall below. Eden turned to look down the banister. Ainsworth Derrington stood, a tall, singularly slim man with silver hair, and a short V-shaped beard. He was dressed in tropics white, a somber man with eaglelike gray-blue eyes.

“Ah, there you are, Rafe. I hesitate to interrupt, but if we’re to talk before dinner, we should begin soon. How about the billiard room?”

Rafe’s fingers enfolded her arm, and they descended the stairs together, Eden holding tightly to the ring behind her apple-green skirts. He left her at the bottom stair and walked across the wide hall to the library. Rafe opened the door and waited until her grandfather passed through, then followed, closing the door behind them.

Eden watched, disturbed. So Rafe needed time to rethink the issues involving Kip. Had he decided not to follow through on discovering who had alerted the Board? Knowing Rafe, he would remain committed. Eden opened her palm and looked again at the engagement ring. She thought of the warning Noelani had given her. Then, soberly, she slipped the ring on, walked across the hall, and entered the living room.