Jewel of the Pacific (25 page)

“Oh yes, Candace. She’s going to marry a half-Hawaiian isn’t she?”

Her superiority was offensive. “Yes, a wonderfully gifted man, and very handsome, too. Keno Hunnewell. She’s a fortunate woman. I doubt any woman alive could take him away from her. He is wise.”

The smile was perfect, the social amenities all that were to be expected, but Eden found the blue eyes that measured her to be cold. “So Oliver Hunnewell told me.”

So that was the reason she disliked Candace. Candace had turned down Oliver for Keno. Why should that bother Bernice? Perhaps once she had been after Oliver and lost him to Candace? Then, for Candace to turn him down for Keno would sting one whose pride assumed she could win any man she wanted.

Bernice kept smiling, the perfect model of poise and grace, undoubtedly developed from practice at some elite finishing school.

Eden noticed that Noelani hovered in the background looking concerned. Bernice noticed Noelani, too, for she turned toward her. “That will be all, Noelani. Why don’t you go and see if Mrs. Celestine is ready for her tea. I believe she wants it served in her room upstairs.”

Of all the nerve
, Eden thought. What was she doing playing hostess and giving orders?

Noelani seemed about to speak. Then she must have changed her mind, and with a polite nod of her gray head, took her leave.

Bernice looked at Eden as if they shared a secret. “One must be firm with servants. I’ve found them to be too inquisitive.”

“Noelani isn’t a servant,” Eden said tonelessly. “She’s family to us.”

A golden eyebrow elegantly lifted. “Even to Rafe?”

Eden firmed her mouth and kept silent. She could not speak for Rafe Easton any longer.

Bernice kept her smile in place, but didn’t budge from her stance in the hall as if keeping the way to the “king” blocked from “the unwashed peasant.”

Eden, too, stood her ground—just as graciously, she hoped.

“Can you tell me whether Rafe Easton is here, or in the fields?” she asked pointedly, letting Bernice know she would not be intimidated in Hawaiiana House. To be treated as an unwanted stranger in this home that was built for her pricked Eden’s pride.

The tension between them crackled.

“Rafe is upstairs in his office. I’m afraid he can’t see you at the moment.”

Eden remained silent.

“I’m sure you’ll understand,” Bernice continued, her voice as warm as honey. “He’s been so busy recently. Did you know he is running for a new seat in the legislature? It was Uncle Parker’s wonderful suggestion. We made our plans while in San Francisco. So, he’s backing Rafe to run for a seat. He’ll win. Uncle will campaign for him, and Rafe has asked me to do a little tour with him—nothing too much, you know, just saying a few words to the crowd and pointing out what a fine representative he’s been. So I’m sure that as an intelligent woman you will understand that he does not wish to be
troubled
at present.”

“Oh? Did Rafe tell you so? I didn’t realize you had become his secretary.”

Bernice’s lips tightened. Eden felt malice in her stare.

“Rafe told me he did not care to be disturbed by anyone. If
you
insist—
he
is a gentleman. So, I suppose I could go up and disturb him.”

“Miss Judson, if I cared to insist on seeing Rafe Easton, I would ask Noelani to bring him my message. I wouldn’t be asking you.”

That must have stung, for Bernice lost her poise and stared at her with an expression Eden could not interpret.

“I’ll see him another time,” Eden said with a calmness she did not feel, “a more convenient time for the both of us. Sorry to have disturbed
you
, Miss Judson.”

Eden turned toward the door to leave. She glanced at the stairway and saw Rafe. He was casually dressed in a loose white shirt, and didn’t appear at all as if he’d been hard at work, unable to be disturbed.

The moment Eden saw him, she experienced the same emotion she’d known in his presence for years—only now mingled with vexation. How long had he been standing there, leaning on the banister with arms folded, watching and listening?

The scoundrel! He looked amused, as watching a drama on a theater stage. What was he thinking of two young women locking horns over him?

She tried to keep her heart from running away as their gaze held. She felt a flame of challenge in his dark eyes.

If I were a man
, Eden thought,
I’d feel as if he just threw down the gauntlet and demanded I pick it up
.

“Oh, Rafe, I didn’t expect you,” Bernice said, walking toward the stairs, her dress rustling. She paused in a theatrical pose, one jeweled hand on the banister, looking up at him in a deliberate show of her profile. What would the dramatic Bernice produce next? Eden wondered. A dagger—and threaten to plunge it into her beautiful, tortured heart over this romantic triangle?

“I was telling Miss Derrington you were crowded with desk work and may not wish to be disturbed. I knew we were having dinner with Uncle Parker tonight at the beach house and that you wanted to get as much done as you could before we left.”

Eden looked at Rafe. Somehow she expected him to come to her defense in this awkward moment. She couldn’t explain why she expected this. Except in the past he’d always been there for her. She’d momentarily forgotten that the situation was far different between them now.

When he said nothing, Eden’s pride rose in full force. He was refusing to reach out to her.
Very well, Rafe Easton.

Eden managed a gracious smile of her own. “Oh that is quite all right, Miss Judson. I would never wish to interrupt such a busy
man—and
his secretary. Nor the dinner at the beach house with dear Uncle Parker. I shall be on my way, thank you. I’ve other matters to attend.”

Eden turned and opened her own door. She was passing through onto the porch when she could not resist the opportunity to turn around with a sweet smile: “The only reason I stopped by was to discuss a matter concerning Kip. But I shall contact Mrs. Celestine in a few days and give the information to her to pass on to her busy son. Good day.”

Rafe straightened from his laconic stance but Eden did not wait. She had made her sword thrust, and now she needed to sidestep before he could parry. She snapped the door shut behind her, and dashed down the steps and across the yard to her buggy. She knew him well. She had to get away before he could catch up. She heard the door open.

Hurry!
she told herself.

She’d always been quick on her feet when other girls seemed hindered with skirts and fancy shoes. She looked back over her shoulder. Yes, he was coming. He swung effortlessly over the porch rail and was on her track.

Scoundrel! She jerked her skirt up and stepped into the buggy in a flash.

She snatched the reins, hearing his steps coming across the yard. “Away Kona, away!”

The horse moved quickly as if bound for green meadows—

Then Rafe whistled; Kona’s ears pricked up, she whinnied, then slowed, prancing to an obedient halt, shaking her flowing white mane.

Eden shouted: “No, Kona! Away!
Hurry!”

The horse suddenly pulled forward, its mane flying.

“
Good
Kona!” Eden cried with a laugh. Glancing behind her shoulder she saw Rafe standing with hands on hips looking after her. She lifted a hand and waved goodbye.

Back at Kea Lani, Eden was puzzled over Bernice Judson’s behavior. Why would she feel such a strong need to hinder Eden’s meeting with Rafe? Why would a woman as beautiful as Bernice, with the benefit of a large inheritance in her future, feel the need to be so deceptive to win the man she wanted?

She must still see me as a strong competitor. It’s possible she doesn’t feel as secure about him falling out of love with me as she likes to pretend
.

Eden mused. Maybe she had some hold over Rafe Easton after all.

A
few days later at Kea Lani, Eden sat at a table under a canopy on the sloping lawn. She was enjoying morning tea with Candace. She watched her cousin frown with intensity as she poured over fine samples of drapery materials.

Eden’s mind drifted inevitably to Rafe and his unexpected silence on Kip. Strange, after two days she would have thought he would contact her on the matter so important to him. He had responded instantly on the stairs when she had tossed him the bait, just as she had expected him to react when anything concerning the little boy surfaced. Was it possible he already knew?

No
, she thought again,
how could he? His reaction at Hawaiiana showed surprise and concern
.

Then why was there no message from him, wanting to know what she was keeping back? Could he be waiting for her to contact him again? Not likely. She had made it clear that she would not, and the chess piece was in his hand. And it would remain there, she decided.

Candace was pondering two samples. “The drapes now in the master bedroom are much too dark. I asked Keno whatever was Rafe thinking of by installing dark blue shades in the bedroom. Keno gave me one word.” Candace smiled.
“Sleep.”

Eden also smiled. “I thought the bedroom draperies arrived yesterday?”

“Oh they did. They’re upstairs in the linen closet. But I told Keno we should have new draperies installed in all of the upper rooms of Hawaiiana.”

Just then, Eden noticed an envelope on the table that had gotten pushed aside by the samples. She saw her own name in Great-aunt Nora’s handwriting.

“Nora sent me a message from the hotel?”

“Oh! Yes, I forgot.” Candace picked it up and handed it to Eden. “It came in this morning’s delivery.”

Undoubtedly Nora was writing to discuss any corrections for the first installment of Rebecca’s journal. Eden had signed a legal document giving the rights of publication to the
Gazette.

If “Rebecca’s Story,” as it was titled, was successful in sales that would help Great-aunt Nora begin paying off some of the paper’s mounting debts.

Eden opened the envelope and read a quite different message:

Eden was surprised at the news. Now why would Oliver Hunnewell return to the Islands so soon after leaving for the mainland? Eden understood that his father, Thaddeus P. Hunnewell, had mustered the call to family dignity by forcing his son to leave Honolulu when he did. Oliver had caused a societal scandal by fighting with Keno over Candace. When the men had come to blows in Oliver’s garden, he had demanded that the marshal arrest Keno for attacking him. Oliver could not have returned to Honolulu without his father’s approval.

Eden glanced cautiously over the edge of the letter at Candace, hoping she was not paying much heed to what it might contain. With relief, she saw Candace remained absorbed in choosing her new drapery. Would it upset her unduly to learn that Oliver was back in Honolulu just three weeks before her wedding? Eden decided it was best not to mention Candace’s old fiancé when Candace was having such fun as future mistress of Hawaiiana’s Great House.

Whether trouble would spring up depended on Oliver’s reason for returning to the Islands. Did it have anything to do with Candace, or was there something else?

In the past, Grandfather Ainsworth had planned, and even
schemed
, to compel Candace to marry Oliver. Thankfully, that battle from a bygone “family war” remained in the past. Candace’s tenacity in marrying the man she loved had won the day without a hint of conflict remaining between her and Grandfather.