Jewel of the Pacific (26 page)

With the divisive winds of power politics blowing strongly, Eden naturally believed Oliver’s motives in returning to the Islands at this time were politically rooted. From a young age he had shown himself adept at politics, winning a seat in the legislature just a year after returning from a British university. He and Rafe were perhaps the youngest men to have held seats in the legislature. While attending a dinner at the Hunnewell house, Candace had overheard a conversation between Oliver and an Englishman in service to the British minister Wodehouse, discussing spying for the British. She’d used this information to get Grandfather Ainsworth to reconsider his insistence upon marriage to Oliver.

Did Rafe know Oliver was in Honolulu? If he did Keno probably knew, even if Candace did not. Keno was not likely to greet the news of his old rival’s return tranquilly.

Later that day in her room at Kea Lani house, Eden reread Great-aunt Nora’s letter to decipher her insinuations. If Eden’s attempt at reading between the lines was in any way correct, it sounded to her as if Nora was suggesting that she, Eden, consider Oliver Hunnewell as a romantic investment now that Rafe Easton was no longer viable.

The evening of the queen’s royal dinner was a warm and humid evening in July. Zachary arrived home at Kea Lani early from the
Gazette.
She noted a certain excitement in his otherwise ice-blue eyes that hadn’t been there at breakfast, putting her on alert. When she casually mentioned his demeanor, he took her into the library and shut the door. He looked at her nervously.

“I’ve been a clever hound on the trail of
the
fox.”

Oh, no. In Zachary’s mind
the
fox could be none other than Silas.

“A big story will soon break in the
Gazette,”
he said.

“Do be cautious. Your good graces with Grandfather depend on not attacking the Annexation League. If your big story concludes with the name of Silas
Derrington
, you know what Grandfather’s reaction will be.”

Zachary shrugged. “Grandfather just won’t accept the truth, but that won’t put a hurdle in my way. Even when I try to please him, he has some other reason to criticize me. Did you know Oliver Hunnewell’s back in Honolulu?”

She admitted she did, and he went on, “I wonder how Candace is going to take this?” He looked toward the mantelpiece to the clock. “Anyway, that’s all I can say now. I’m going over to the hotel to talk to Rafe. Then I’ll pick up Nora. Then we’ll come by for you this evening for the ball. Oh—I’d better bring my dinner clothes. I’ll change at Rafe’s.”

Later that evening while Eden prepared herself for the elaborate ball at Iolani Palace her concerns were mounting over Silas. She had an impression that he was aware of trouble and was worried. Zachary must have information that would diminish him in Ainsworth’s eyes.

Candace had come to Eden’s room to help arrange her hair and to share her pearls to match Eden’s exquisite gown. Candace got on fairly well with Silas. Eden turned in the chair at the vanity table and looked at her thoughtfully.

“Do you think Silas is behaving—well, sort of strange recently?”

Eden dared ask, knowing that such a discussion could lead to more trouble.

Candace paused with comb in hand obviously surprised.

“Strange? Suspicious! Well, I can’t say I’ve noticed anything as bizarre as all that. Why?”

Eden drummed her fingers on the table looking at herself in the round mirror. “Perhaps it’s my imagination. I’ve thought him pensive and rather worried about something recently. I’ve tried to get him to talk, but he merely smiles at me, as if I’m a little girl in pigtails.”

Candace laughed. “He’s a lone wolf all right. I noticed that since the time he arrived. I do think he’s beginning to mellow a wee bit, though. I know he does talk a lot with Ambrose.”

That caught her interest and brought some hope to her heart. “Oh? How do you know that?”

“I’ve seen them together walking around the mission church, or on the road to Hawaiiana. I admit, like you, I’m rather taken aback. Silas is such a cynic I wouldn’t have thought a man like Ambrose would fit his mindset. But I do see them together.”

Eden found the news encouraging. She knew well enough what a praying man Ambrose was, and she admired him for it. Everyone was busy
doing
, but few spent time in the warfare of intercession to God—including herself. She sighed.

“I’m happy to hear it,” Eden said as Candace went back to work on her hair. “Ambrose must be answering Silas’s questions about God. Silas is so unhappy.”

“I don’t know why he should be. He is getting more opportunity from Grandfather than Zachary. He’s almost in the place of a son rather than grandson. After what happened with Townsend I think Grandfather is overreacting to the loss.

“I wouldn’t mind Grandfather making Silas a son, if—”

“If what?” Candace formed the last steps of the popular upsweep, making sure several fashionable curls remained near Eden’s neck and temples.

“If I were confident Silas was as loyal to Grandfather as everyone assumes he is.”

Candace watched her thoughtfully. “Now that’s a strange thing to say, Eden. Why wouldn’t Silas be loyal to his own grandfather? Look at all Grandfather’s done for him.”

Eden did not want to pursue the topic too far. She said simply, “Well he does have some mysterious friends, or maybe I should call them associates, or acquaintances.”

She was thinking of the strange couple she had heard Silas speaking with months earlier in the garden. She hadn’t given much, if any, thought to the matter with so many other concerns in her heart. But it was surfacing in her mind once more. Was there anything to it?

“I cannot say I’ve noticed anything unusual,” Candace said. “However, don’t pay too much attention to my ignorance. You know how absorbed I’ve become with the wedding next month.”

“Oh that’s quite understandable.” She looked at her curiously. “Candace, you’ve never told me your views on the annexation issue. Made up your mind yet?”

“Well, I wasn’t invited to the queen’s ball,” Candace said wryly. “That should tell you how the royalists think of me.”

“Yes, I suppose so. Like grandfather, like favorite granddaughter,” and Eden smiled.

Candace laid the comb down, finished with Eden’s hair. “I wish you and Zachary wouldn’t keep suggesting I’m the favored one. I am not. I am merely the only child of Grandfather’s firstborn son and it’s cultural to—” She stopped, and her mouth curved into an ironic smile.

Eden laughed. “It is cultural to favor a firstborn grandchild perhaps?”

“Well—it’s not my fault. And anything Grandfather leaves to me, I’ll gladly share with you and Zachary.”

“Oh you silly thing.” Eden was on her feet and hugging her, smiling. “I shouldn’t have brought it up. I am not a bit jealous. You’ve always been generous. Why even tonight, look at the pearls you’ve brought me—and this gown. Even when I lived in the bungalow with Ambrose and Noelani you were generous.”

“Oh I wish it had never happened. It was wrong! Plain sinful, if you want my opinion on how you were treated. You were always a Derrington, and you had every right to share in the family blessings as Zachary and I did. When I was younger I should have done more for you. I should have spoken up and made an issue of it with Grandfather and Great-aunt Nora—but I did not. I’m ashamed of it.”

Eden grew serious. She thought of the times as a young girl when she had watched Candace in the role of Grandfather Ainsworth’s favorite. Back then, with Eden longing for her father, Jerome, and believing Rebecca dead, she would have given almost anything to exchange places with Candace—just to bask in the approval she had seen Grandfather Ainsworth shower on Candace.

Eden no longer desired that favored position, nor did she need Grandfather’s or Dr. Jerome’s approval in order to feel whole. She had learned, both on Molokai and in Honolulu that her relationship with her Father God through Christ the Son fulfilled the longing in her heart for acceptance and security. She was a member of the “household of God,” as Scripture said, and “accepted in the beloved.” She could now reach out to her father and grandfather with love and not expect, or need, their applause. She was content with being who she was—and who the Lord intended to make her in His family of the redeemed.

“Dear Candace, don’t feel guilty,” Eden told her. “There’s no reason. I can look back now and see that God ordered my steps. I thought I was the forgotten one, but He remembered me all along. If it had not been for Ambrose and his knowledge of Christ, I may not have come to God as I did. He’s always been an earthly father to me. And now, why, you’re like a sister to me.”

Candace hugged her. “I feel the same. And yes. There is much to what you say about God’s leading in our lives. We do not always see the good that God is working. I wish now, that I’d had more time with Ambrose and Noelani.”

Eden looked at the clock. “Oh! We have to hurry. Zachary will be here soon with Nora.”

Eden finished dressing for the ball in full attire of satin trimmed with pearls. The dress was stunning, with the finest silvery hue that lightened the pale intermingling colors of blue and green. She sighed when Candace had first brought it into her bedroom. She had never seen such a color before and it went perfectly with her own eyes, hair, and fair complexion.

She was not unaware that she had been born with beauty, but she had always been careful to not flaunt, something Bernice did with great fanfare.

Eden had been taught restraint and dignity. “Better the female heart is adorned with purity and faithfulness. If you want a man to respect you, then you must respect your own body as important, as having value,” Noelani had said during Eden’s teen years. “Don’t grant a young man liberties he doesn’t deserve. Only your husband, who has committed himself to you, should enjoy them. Never think you can keep a man by surrendering what belongs to your marriage alone. If he will not consider marriage to you, then he’s not worth your time—he is a taker and not a giver of the honor of bearing his name. Nothing would sting worse than trading your value for promises from an uncommitted man. Let him go now, and keep yourself for the man the Lord has for you.”

I
n his suite at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, Rafe dressed for the queen’s ball. He slipped into the pristine white shirt Ling had handed to him. Ling then picked up the dinner jacket, inspecting it for lint. Finding none, he passed it to Rafe who watched him ruefully.

“You know, Ling, I really can dress on my own. My mother even taught me to tie my own shoes.”

“Go to see the queen. Must look very good.”

Rafe sighed. “If I must. Ah, for the good old days of my youth.”

Ling laughed. “You ancient fellow, right?”

“You should have seen how I dressed aboard the
Minoa
, then you would have something to complain about.”

“Prob’ly holes in trousers. Shirt torn.”

Rafe hadn’t intended to go to the affair at Iolani Palace, preferring a quiet evening in the hotel with newspapers and books to read. He would enjoy the Royal Hawaiian Band—but even then, he preferred classical music, which always made Keno groan, since he liked his ukulele.

“You like to stay home because you lazy fellow,” Ling jested.

“You want to keep from people. You still mad at Miss Green Eyes.”

Rafe gave him a hard look. “Now where did you pick up that name?”

“Keno say you
always
call her that—”

“Forget what Keno says. Take my word for it; since all he thinks about is his marriage, his mind is twisted. I don’t want to hear about
green
or
blue
eyes.” He took the tie from Ling’s hand. “I’ll put it on.”

“You bad mood tonight. I leave you put own shoes on, too!”

“Thank you,” Rafe said wryly, when someone rapped on the door. He glanced toward the front room. “Answer it, will you? I’m expecting Zach.”

“What am I—butler too?”

“Throw in ‘cook,’ when the dining room is closed. That reminds me. Order more coffee beans from Hanalei. We’re out.”

Ling covered a smile and went to the door mumbling, “I send for coffee beans two day ago. See what good servant I am? You lucky I not go back to Shanghai.”