Jewel of the Pacific (8 page)

“And,” Noelani said, “we have permission from the mission board to print some Scripture portions in Hawaiian, isn’t that right, Ambrose?”

“Yes, along with some of their Sunday school materials. Your father is anxious to get there and begin work. So as soon as we get things arranged, Keno and his cousins will haul the supplies to Molokai. Rafe is letting Keno captain the
Minoa
.”

“As soon as we get ashore, Keno and I can get the boys started on the private bungalows,” Ambrose said. “After that’s done we’ll work on the medical clinic. However, it will be several weeks before we can get all the necessary supplies ready and stored on ship. Then we’ll be on our way.” He shook his head. “Thankfully, Rafe signed his name to the money draft this morning. We couldn’t do this without his support.”

Eden felt a lump begin in her throat, and sipped her coffee to hide her emotions. Noelani quickly pushed more cake toward them.

Eden smiled at Noelani, trying to lighten the moment. “You’re letting Ambrose go away for a whole month, Noelani?”

“When it comes to God’s work, I let him sprout wings. Just as long as he comes back home.”

“Oh I’ll be back,” Ambrose teased. “A wise man would become a fool to go away from a good woman for very long, especially one who can bake coconut cake. Besides, none of us can get along without you for long. Especially me.”

“My very words,” Eden said. She rose to her feet, looking at the time. “And I’d best get back.” She kissed Noelani’s cheek.

Ambrose accompanied her to her buggy. She stepped up to the seat and took the horse’s reins.

“Did you know Zachary is going with Rafe to San Francisco?” she asked. “So is Ling.”

“Yes, I’d heard about Zachary, but not about Ling. I’d better get that Chinese Bible to him soon as I can. Now you go home lass. Get some sleep. Leave the future to the Lord, and know that we’re praying for you and Rafe.”

Ambrose pulled a folded piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to her. “Here is your verse. Memorize it. In the days ahead I have a feeling that you, and the rest of us, will need it.”

Eden took the folded paper and drove the buggy to Kea Lani.

When she arrived at the plantation she turned the horse and buggy over to the stable boy. She decided to walk back and look at the water to calm her emotions before going into her house. Nearing the bank, she listened to the soothing lap of water. The melancholy call of a night bird echoed from the trees. She saw a small fishing boat tied up. Not far away stood Silas, hands shoved in his trouser pockets.

At the sound of a low voice she looked toward the open doorway of the
halau
that the canoes were stored in. A figure emerged and walked toward Silas.

The slim figure with the tall hat appeared to be the same person she’d seen in the garden yesterday morning talking to Silas. This time the woman wasn’t with him, unless she was in the
halau.

She backed away. When she was sure she was out of hearing range, she sped toward the front lawn and the pleasantly illuminated plantation house.

Inside, she closed the front door, climbed the stairway to her room, and prepared for bed.

The days of preparing for the trip to Molokai trudged on.

She had heard from Zachary that Grandfather Ainsworth, Mr. Hunnewell, and some others in the Annexation Club would also be on board for San Francisco. Zachary would room with Rafe, and Ling was Rafe’s valet.

During those last few days before Rafe’s departure Eden had thought she would receive a message from him through Ambrose or even Keno, but nothing arrived.

Eden was at Kalihi when the steamer left Honolulu for San Francisco. Watching the departing vessel from the windows overlooking the harbor, she extended her hand and envisioned a moment of unity with Rafe.

“Aloha, my love, and Godspeed.” But she found little to link with her empty hand except a cold gray shadow that dimmed the glimmer of her diamond engagement ring.

How ironic, she thought bitterly, watching the departing steamer. When at last she had chosen to put Rafe first in her commitments, above her work with her father, then suddenly he’d been caught away from her.

Eden remained at the window looking toward the harbor when her aunt, Lana Stanhope, Rebecca’s younger sister, joined her. She was a tall, willowy woman in her late thirties, with thick honey-colored hair rolled up at the back of her neck. Fatigue lined her hazel-green eyes.

She grasped Eden’s hand and her squeeze of understanding imparted courage. If anyone had a right to say, “I understand how you feel,” it was Aunt Lana who’d endured a life of hardship and disappointment. During her years of youth and beauty, she had loved Dr. Clifford Bolton and he’d apparently been in love with her, but their feelings had never been declared, and circumstances had separated them. Only after Lana left the nursing school she’d managed in San Francisco to work at Kalihi did she and Dr. Bolton come together again.

“Clifford and I will leave with Dr. Jerome next week for Molokai,” Lana said. “We’ve decided on a quiet, small wedding before we go. After all, it’s not exactly what others would call a happy wedding, is it? Not with Clifford in his leprous condition. I shall be, well, his
kokua.”

Dr. Bolton’s last sacrificial act was to join her father’s medical team to begin the research clinic on Molokai. It had become Lana’s sacrifice as well.

“And now you’re going back to Molokai,” Eden said softly looking out at the harbor.

“I’ll go where Clifford goes,” Lana said. “He thought I ran away from him when I went to San Francisco years ago, but he misunderstood why I left. I was running away from myself, from my inadequacy. But I didn’t know it then, so I couldn’t explain. Unfortunately, that took away twenty years in which we could have married, had a family, and been happy. Odd, isn’t it? The way things work out sometimes? Though, in everything, if we know Jesus, our circumstances are not left to fate, as some people imagine. He can use ruin in our lives and still bring us to the finish line on time!”

Eden watched the ships in the smoky-blue waters, some leaving, and some coming. “Yes,” she said quietly. “Now you’ll be together at last.”

“Yes, for a little while.” Lana’s voice was steady, without a suggestion of self-pity.

“The Good Shepherd,” Eden said.

Lana looked at her. “Yes?”

“I was thinking that whichever way we go, we have the promise that the Good Shepherd will find His sheep and bring them home.”

Lana smiled. “Yes. A promise for a troubled mind.”

And heart
, Eden thought.

“Neither of us are under any romantic illusions about our future,” Lana commented. “We never were. Illusions are for the young. If either of us had wanted illusions we surely wouldn’t have come to research leprosy. It is an ugly, dangerous work, and few understand our commitment in doing so.”

Eden glanced at her.

“Even though Clifford and I pretend that we were not at risk, we knew we were.” Lana looked at her. “You know as much, Eden. I confess I was secretly pleased when I first discovered you weren’t going to work with us on Molokai because I didn’t want you to take chances. But merely meet Rebecca before she dies—and she’s very ill. You know that, don’t you? Word came in just yesterday that she weakens. Dr. Jerome becomes more determined to go at once. So, we leave next week.” She turned to Eden. “Why don’t you stay here—”

Eden shook her head. “For years I’ve sought this opportunity. Until a few days ago I had given up the idea. Then again, here I am. Rafe has left me—” Her voice became tinged with a hardness that surprised her. “He’s gone to San Francisco. I don’t know when he’ll come back, or if he ever will. I’ll go on with my life as I planned it. I’m going with the rest of you.”

She turned and walked past her aunt and down the hall toward Dr. Jerome’s office to tell him that she, too, was leaving next week. She was sure he would be pleased to learn of the change in her decision. Yes, the paths of life led on, twisting and turning, to where only God knew they would lead.

During the following rushed days, most common things went unnoticed by Eden. The marriage of her aunt to Dr. Bolton was soon put back in the closet of her mind. During this time the society sections of the newspapers, and societal gossip journals buzzed over the announcement of “Miss Candace D. Derrington’s engagement to Mr. Keno P. Hunnewell, a cousin of Miss Claudia and her brother Oliver P. Hunnewell, the gentleman polite society was once mistakenly informed would be the fiancé of Miss Derrington. Meanwhile, the young and sought-after Oliver was said to have recently left the Islands for San Francisco.”

Eden overheard Claudia Hunnewell telling Candace, “Life just isn’t fair. My engagement to Zachary was on the brink of disclosure, when he ran off to the mainland.” Candace had murmured a sympathetic response, but Claudia was not consoled. “I have this horrid feeling he’s gone to see that dreadful niece of Mr. Judson.”

As Eden prepared to leave, the insistent questions from Candace about the wisdom of Eden’s decision darted past her like bees.

“Now that Lana is married and going with Dr. Bolton to Molokai, maybe you’ll be offered her position at the hospital. Think of the authority you’d have in the research department, not to mention the better wages.”

“I don’t think I’d be offered the position. A new physician is coming to take Dr. Bolton’s place and he’ll choose his own assistant.”

“And you’re not even going to try?”

“You forget Rebecca. She is my
mother.
I want to meet her before she dies.

“There’s an opportunity to come back to Kalihi in the future,” she explained. “Dr. Bolton—I guess I can call him Clifford now since he’s an uncle by marriage—has requested that I be given a few months to make that decision. By then, I should know what I want to do with the rest of my life. It’s either Molokai and one day taking over my father’s clinic, or coming back to Kalihi. Time will make clear what the Lord has in store for me.”

“Oh, Eden!” Candace dropped into a white wicker chair. “I simply hate the way things have turned out.”

Eden smiled and laid an affectionate hand on her shoulder. “Thank you, Candace, for caring.”

Candace straightened her shoulders and turned her auburn head away, as if she feared a display of emotion and a gush of tears she so disliked.

“I’ll be all right,” Eden said, and continued packing. “What of you? You’re letting Keno go and serve so gallantly with his cousins.”

Candace sighed. “Yes, I know … it wasn’t an easy decision. Then I saw Great-grandfather Jedaiah’s painting on the wall eyeing me with disappointment. ‘You have so much,’ he seemed to say, ‘can you not give back a little?’ So I gave in. Keno promised he’d stay far afield of any danger zones.”

She got up from the chair. “All right. If you’re certain about this, I’ll not bother you with my wailings and laments.”

Eden kept her frayed emotions from coming apart. She felt safer hiding behind the suitable demeanor of a professional nurse on a venture of self-sacrifice. One thought alone threatened to break through the facade: Rafe was gone.