Aloha Love (3 page)
Jane picked at her meal. The delicious aroma had vanished, and the food was tasteless. She could not pressure her father into anything. Matilda was the only person in the world who could come close to talking back to him and get away with it.
And too, Matilda had taught her that more flies are caught with sugar than with vinegar. So Jane sat there being sweet.
“Well,” her dad said, “I realize this is important to you, Matilda. And Jane. . .” Straightening his shoulders, he leaned back against the chair, a signal that he had decided.
“Jane,” he said, “since you will have to wait until your aunt returns before the wedding is planned, and if it’s what you want. . .”
Jane nodded and lowered her eyes lest they pop out with anticipation.
“This trip can be a wedding present from me. That way, apart from the sadness of the situation, you may find some joy in your journey.”
Her heart hammered against her chest. “I really think it’s something I should do, Daddy.”
“Yes,” he said. “I can tell both you and Matilda feel a great sense of responsibility in this matter.” His glance swung toward the high ceiling. She had the feeling he might understand her and Matilda better than she’d realized.
“But with you gone, that would mean changes here, too. Eating dinner alone without my little girl. For a year, at least.”
His gaze wandered to Pilar. Was he thinking he wouldn’t need Pilar and her mother without Jane around? But how could he in all good conscience dismiss them, even for a year, after he’d saved them from a life of destitution?
Her father seemed to be debating the issue himself. “Matilda will be busy comforting her brother.” He smiled at Matilda, then turned his attention back to Jane. “You might become bored.”
Bored?
Jane could hardly believe that word. The stories from Pansy’s letters that Matilda had shared over the years had been enchanting. Of course, Matilda had a way of making a trickle of water sound like an oil gusher.
Matilda slapped both hands down on the table and put on her best smile. “You are so right, Buck. Why not send along a companion for Jane?”
“Wha—” Jane’s father stammered. “Who?”
“Why, who else but the one you implied.” She lifted her hands in the air. “Pilar.”
Pilar screamed, and they all jumped.
She quickly slapped her hand against her mouth, and the gulp of swallowing just about made her choke.
A face peered around the dining-room doorway. Jane glanced from Inez to Pilar, whose head began to bob like it might fall from her neck. Her mother’s head was doing the opposite, moving from side to side as if the very idea was out of the question.
Jane knew that Pilar was happy just pulling down the bedcovers for Matilda. The thought of going to Hawaii would be as earthshaking to her as it was to Jane.
“Daddy, Pilar has been very much like a companion to me—at times, like a younger sister.” That was partly true. In earlier years, they had cried together about Pilar’s loss of her dad.
“Besides, Buck,” Matilda said, looking at Inez instead of him. “Inez is capable of running this household without Pilar. I mean, with only. . .you here.”
Inez’s hand moved to the throat of her high-necked black dress. “But she’s only seventeen.”
“Oh, how lovely.” Matilda about came out of her chair. “Imagine Pilar celebrating her coming-out debut in Hawaii.”
She’d shocked them all into taking on the demeanor of statues. After a long moment, the unblinking gaze of Inez moved to Pilar. The two stared at each other as if looking at strangers.
Jane wondered if Inez was thinking about a coming-out debut. When Inez’s husband had lost his business and killed himself, it had seemed that any hope of Pilar’s marrying into a fine family was gone.
Inez turned and disappeared from the dining room. Pilar’s head was bent, not bobbing anymore, and her teeth had captured her lower lip.
Matilda sighed. “Maybe I can convince Inez to let Pilar go as a companion to Jane.”
After dinner, Jane walked with Matilda in the gardens, and they settled on a bench.
“Matilda, what was the tragedy Pansy mentioned?”
Her aunt paused. “I honestly don’t recall, Jane. We wrote to each other often, and she told about many events in their church and school. The MacCauley name seems familiar, but I just can’t place which tragedy that was.” She patted Jane’s hand. “We can find out when we get there.”
When they got there. Oh, she could hardly wait. And she could hardly believe her dad had given his permission and blessing.
“Matilda, I can’t get over how you can get people do what you want them to. I know why Daddy agreed to send Pilar along.” She laughed. “To help protect me. But Inez was shaking her head with that stiff look on her face. As soon as you talked with her in the kitchen, though, she relented.”
“Didn’t you notice, dear?” Matilda said with an air of superiority. “She didn’t have much fight left when I reminded her that she and your daddy would be here alone.”
Jane wasn’t sure she understood.
Matilda grinned. “Inez used to be very friendly with me. But after your mother died, she seemed to be competing with me for your father’s attention. I think she’s sweet on him.”
Jane’s mouth opened in surprise. “I never suspected. I don’t think he does, either.”
Matilda nodded. “She probably tells herself it’s gratitude. The Ashcrofts were never extremely well-off, but they were considered successful and were accepted in society circles. After the bankruptcy and the shame of suicide, that vanished. Inez has, not so graciously, accepted her role as housekeeper and has tried to teach Pilar that she is only working class.”
“Takes a strong woman to do that, doesn’t it?”
“Indeed,” Matilda said.
“Um, Matilda, have you been. . .are you. . .sweet on my daddy?”
Matilda laughed. “My dear, if I were, don’t you think I’d have had him proposing to me by now?”
Jane giggled. “Well, yes.” She had no doubt that Matilda could marry any man she wanted to.
“He’s too much like his brother. So. . .settled, I suppose you could say.”
“Weren’t you happy with Uncle Wesley?”
“Oh, yes. I livened him up, and we traveled all over. But you don’t always know what you want or what you’re getting until after you’ve got it.” Her eyebrows lifted. “Don’t you worry about Austin.” She smiled off into the trees. “You’ll liven him up.”
Realizing she was twisting the ring on her finger, Jane looked down. Traveling to Hawaii and back would take about ten months, at least. They couldn’t just get there and turn around and come right back. Possibly for more than a year, she wouldn’t have to be concerned about planning or even thinking about a wedding. Just as Austin’s travels had settled him, so would hers.
When she returned, she’d be ready for that. . .surely.
She dared not look at Matilda. Burning deep inside her and making vivid pictures in her mind was that island of paradise. Like a jewel in the sea on the blue Pacific, it seemed to sparkle in her mind with a brilliance far greater than what she wore on her finger.
Before Mak could dismount at the mission school, Rev. Russell ran out of his house across the street and rushed up to him. Mak’s first thought was that Pansy had died. But the reverend wore a wide smile, and his eyes were brighter than Mak had seen in a while. Maybe he was going to say one of those phrases like his wife was now in heaven with Jesus. If he did, Mak would turn Big Brown around and have him gallop back to the ranch.
Although it likely would be true, no man had a right to be glad his wife had died. He braced himself. The reverend waved a pink piece of paper at him. “Mak. Mak. My sister is coming to the island.”
“Your sister,” Mak repeated for lack of anything more to say.
“Yes, yes. Come on. Get down from there and look at this.”
Mak dismounted and took his class materials from his saddlebag. He passed the reins to a schoolboy who ran out to lead the horse out back and tie him in the shade where he could have feed and water. After giving the stallion a farewell stroke, Mak looked down at the pink paper.
The way Russell was tapping the paper with his finger prevented Mak from reading it, but the man looked up at him above his half-glasses and told him what was in it.
“This was written the week before they planned to leave port. They could be here within a week. Or sooner, depending on how smooth the crossing is.”
“They, you said?”
“Ah, yes. Matilda, that’s my sister’s name. Haven’t seen her in ten years. She’s bringing her niece. Oh, how old is that little girl now? Janie was about thirteen, maybe fourteen last I saw her.” He looked off, not seeing children at the door of the school but a memory tucked in his mind.
“Janie was a skinny little thing. Orange pigtails. Big eyes and a face full of freckles.” He sighed and looked at the ground as if he’d returned to reality. Then he gazed into Mak’s eyes. “That was a hard time for her.”
Mak could imagine. The description Russell gave left a lot to be desired.
“But Matilda can do anything, Mak. Doesn’t matter if it’s a business or a school, she can run it. Why, she could even take over the preaching if need be.”
Mak stared at Russell as he chuckled. “Oh, and a companion for Jane. A young woman they took in after—” He folded the paper. “But you don’t need to know the details.”
Mak could agree with that. The most he needed to know was that someone was coming to help at school and he could get back to his business on the ranch. “How is Miz Pansy today?”
Russell’s face brightened. “This has done her a world of good, Mak. We can see where her illness is headed, just like the doctors said. But she’ll hang on for Matilda.” He nodded. “You just wait and see.”
Mak nodded, wondering which was easier: knowing your wife was going to die or experiencing the unexpected shock of it. He focused his gaze on a wagonload of children being drawn up to the school, grateful for any distraction from his disturbing thoughts.
With a finger movement toward his hat, Mak left the reverend and walked toward the long, two-story school, as many children were now doing. Lessons would begin soon.
Greeting children while walking across the long porch, he was again reminded that some were as young as Leia. Was it fair to turn his mother into a teacher? She was already a substitute mother. He wasn’t sure anymore. . .about many things.
After morning classes, Mak returned to the ranch, and Leia ran out to meet him as usual. After dismounting, he knelt to take her in his arms. He hardly felt her soft little arms around his neck before she moved back and began asking a zillion questions.
“Is Miss Pansy any better? What did you teach? Can you teach me what you teached them? Put me up there and let me ride. You can hold me real tight and I won’t fall off.”
The last time Mak had tried that at her request, she’d screamed no at the last minute, and he’d visualized the horrible scene all over again and felt the emotion of it. Yes, he understood his little girl wanting something she couldn’t have. He had lived that way for three years.
He nodded to a stable boy who came to lead Big Brown to the barn.
Leia put her hands, balled into little fists, on her sides and poked out her bottom lip.
“Watch out. Your lip might get stuck like that.”
She snickered.
He smiled at his little girl, aware of her beauty, like her mother’s. Black curls and eyes so dark they often looked black. Her skin was a smooth, deep, tan color typical of Tahitians.
His mother often said Leia resembled her mother in coloring but was like him in stubbornness.
“I’ll tell you all about school at dinner,” he said. “I need to check on Panai.”
He saw the droop of her little shoulders when she turned toward the porch. He didn’t look into his mother’s eyes, but felt her stare. Maybe someday he could shake that feeling of tension that he didn’t measure up to what his mother wanted of him.
After finding out how things went at the ranch and apologizing to Panai for not being around him all day, he cleaned up and joined his mother and daughter for dinner.
His mother gave thanks, and then she and Leia bombarded him with questions about the visitors, most of which he was unable to answer.
“Reverend Russell did say that one of the visitors had orange hair and freckles.” He hoped to prepare Leia so she wouldn’t be too surprised upon seeing the reverend’s guest and blurt out something to hurt her feelings. She’d been raised with people of different nationalities and coloring, so she had no problems with that. But he didn’t think either of them had seen anyone with orange hair.
He watched the twitching of Leia’s lips as if she wondered how to deal with that. Her little shoulders fell as she exhaled deeply and began to eat. His mother’s eyebrows arched, but she changed the subject.
“You seem to enjoy teaching at the school.”
Was that a note of pride in her voice? Had he finally pleased her?
“Believe me, teaching horses is a lot easier than teaching such energetic children. They are a challenge. But yes,” he said. “I find it fulfilling. I’m glad to be of service to society the same as anyone else.” He sighed. “I know you would like to help, Mother. And you could do it better than I. But I need you here with Leia.”
Her silence spoke as loud as her words. He, or she, could take Leia along.
“Daddy, what’s their name?”
“Who? The children?”
She held up three fingers. “The one-two-three new ones that’s coming on a ship.”
“Matilda, I think. And Janie. I don’t recall his saying the name of the other one.”
“How old are they?”
“Well, Matilda is Reverend Russell’s sister, so she would likely be about his and your grandmother’s age. Janie. Let’s see.” He looked into his memory. “Reverend Russell said he saw her ten years ago and she was thirteen or fourteen. So, she should be twenty-three or twenty-four. The other one is a companion, so she wouldn’t be a child. But I don’t know if she’s young or old.”
“This Jane must be single,” his mother said as if she were not thinking of someone for him. But she was always thinking of someone for him. “I mean, coming this far with a companion and not a husband.”
Mak shrugged. He wouldn’t know. But it’s possible being an orange-haired woman with eyes big as a crocodile’s and a splotched face might be reason enough for still being single at that age. He immediately chided himself for the unkind thought. One couldn’t always help one’s outer appearance any more than they could help what fate dealt them.
“Daddy, can we meet them at the dock?”
His grimace made the hope on her face wane.
It was a great treat of most islanders—going to the dock, greeting newcomers and visitors, seeing how they dressed, what they brought with them, finding out if they were going to stay.
“These are Reverend Russell’s relatives,” his mother said. “I can’t imagine that we wouldn’t go.” Her eyes questioned, or perhaps challenged, Mak. But she waited for his reply.
He nodded. “Doesn’t everyone go to the docks when ships come in?”
Leia squealed and clapped her hands. Ah, he’d made the women in his life happy. . .for the moment. “Can we make leis for them?” She glanced from him to his mother, looking for approval. “They’re coming to help Miss Pansy. And Miss Pansy is my special friend.”
“That’s a wonderful idea,” he said.
For the next several days, they took as much interest in those leis as he did his horses. His mother and Leia were making three leis of shells, beads, seeds, and feathers. Greeters would bring fresh flowers to the dock. Those could be added to any kind of lei the moment a ship appeared as a dot on the horizon.
“You two are doing a fine job,” he said. His mother and daughter looked like he’d given them a piece of heaven when he added, “Reverend Russell said his sister has been a teacher and that her niece has finished college and one or both will probably take over for me in the classroom. Leia, when the new teachers come, I will think about letting you go to their school.”
He’d pleased his family and told himself he would seriously consider it. Pansy’s sister-in-law and niece would likely have the same sweet, loving, gentle nature that Pansy had.