Jewel of the Pacific Read Online Free PDF

the palms of her hands against her temples and closed her eyes.

    There was no carriage out front to suggest that Candace and Zachary had arrived, though the groom might have brought the horses back to the stable.
    Great-aunt Nora had arrived a week earlier from Tamarind house on Koko Head, but she had preferred a room at the Royal Hotel. She was at harmless odds with her brother, Ainsworth, over a loan she needed to keep her newspaper, the
Gazette
, financially stable. Eden was convinced that Nora had gone to the hotel to appeal to Rafe for a loan.
    If things weren’t so tragic Eden could have laughed at the turnaround of events. With possession of Hanalei, owning half of the pineapple plantation called Hawaiiana, and the Easton pearl beds under his rightful control, Rafe Easton had unexpectedly become the man the Derringtons looked to. Before acquiring control of all things Easton, Rafe was merely the adventurous son of Matt and Celestine, respected for his abilities, but not seen as someone either Grandfather Ainsworth or Great-aunt Nora would have approached for help.
    Ainsworth had always taken favorably to Rafe, but in earlier times when Rafe had supported the queen’s rule rather than annexation, Rafe had practically been told to leave Honolulu and not come back.
    As for Great-aunt Nora, ever since Rafe had promised to loan Dr. Jerome the money to build his research clinic on the island called Molokai, where the leper settlement was, Nora had realized that she might turn to him for help with the
Gazette.
She’d come to the hotel, but then the tragedy at Hanalei had occurred—and Rafe was in a coma, and …
    Eden worried. The marshal hadn’t brought any new information on Townsend. If he’d tried to slip away on a steamer, wouldn’t someone have noticed his condition?
    Voices came from the direction of the parlor. However, the room furnished with magnificent native woods and green potted ferns was empty.
    Eden swept across the room and out onto the lanai. She hoped she’d see her father, Dr. Jerome. He could explain everything so much more clearly than anyone else. She’d been disappointed on arriving at Kea Lani to be told again that Dr. Clifford Bolton could not continue as Rafe’s physician since he’d been pronounced a leper.
    Naturally she was confident in her father’s ability to care for Rafe, but he must be told about Rafe’s severe headaches from an earlier injury. Perhaps Dr. Bolton had sent Jerome the information, but she wanted to make certain.
    She leaned over the railing and scanned the garden below. She could see no one amid the thick banana plants, white orchids, and black lava rocks. The voices, however, continued even louder than before.
    She couldn’t distinguish the precise words being flung in disagreement, but the voices were not Dr. Jerome and Grandfather Ainsworth. One was a woman, the other a man—no, there were
two
men’s voices.
    Eden recognized the southern accent of her cousin Silas Derrington. Silas claimed to have grown up in Louisiana, and his accent confirmed that.
    Zachary resented his father’s preference for the illegitimate Silas, but Grandfather Ainsworth and even Great-aunt Nora with her stolid principles had readily accepted Silas. Grandfather thought Silas would prove an asset to the family sugar enterprise and had recently placed Silas in a position of authority—suggesting to Zachary that Silas might be appointed heir above him.
    Eden worried of further misunderstandings and growing trouble between the two half brothers. She imagined the shame and heartbreak the Derringtons would face when Townsend was put on trial. It was Grandfather Ainsworth’s family pride that had caused her family to not reveal to Eden that her mother, Rebecca, was a leper on Molokai. Ainsworth and Great-aunt Nora had feared certain people in society would shun the Derrington name, afraid the disease loitered within the premises.
    Grandfather Ainsworth’s ambition for the family name