“I’m going, too,” Leia said.
Mak heard his mother explain, “Leia’s grandparents on her mother’s side live at the plantation. But, Pilar, you must know Susanne from school.”
“Yes, we’re both seniors.”
“Well, Rose,” Matilda said. “Since our young girls will be away, why don’t you visit with me on Sunday?”
“That would be perfect,” Rose said. “I’ll be at church.”
They’d been gone for about thirty minutes. “I’ll take you back around a different way,” Mak told them.
“I could go on forever,” Jane said. “This is the most beautiful countryside I’ve ever seen.”
“We do still have a ride back to town, you know,” Russell reminded them.
“Okay,” Jane said. “But if we’re going to head back, there’s something I have to do.” Mak stopped the horses when she began climbing over the seats.
“Uncle Russell, change places with me, will you?”
They managed to make the exchange, but Mak wasn’t about to sit anywhere but right beside her. He should have expected it when she reached over and clutched the reins. “It’s either this, or you walk home.”
He handed over the reins.
After a while, he quit watching her every move and even enjoyed the ride when she had the horses canter. When she had them come close to a gallop, he murmured, “Ump uh,” and she slowed them.
He could not remember when someone else had given him a ride. He was always at the reins. All he needed to do was occasionally tell her the way to go until, in the far distance, his home rose like a man’s castle atop the gentle slope.
Seeing it as he thought his visitors would, he wondered how long it had been since he appreciated what he had.
When they returned to the house, Jane let her passengers out at the house. She drove him down to the stables. Chico smiled broadly, as did the stable boy, who came to take the wagon inside and unhitch the grays.
“Not bad,” Mak said, “for a lady.”
She gave him a reprimanding glance but again thanked him profusely.
She walked down to Panai, and again the horse let her touch him. Chico was right: She had a way with horses, Mak realized. They took to her, trusted her, and she wasn’t afraid. She’d handled the grays expertly. “You asked about rentals,” he said.
“Yes,” she said, keeping her eyes on Panai, apparently sensing he was sizing her up, too. “I want to have my own transportation.”
There were rental places in town, but one couldn’t always be sure what one might get. He leaned against the stall, near Panai. “It looks like our families have plans for Sunday. If you’re available after church, I could bring a horse for you.”
Her eyes, now duller than vivid green or blue but filled with anticipation, stared into his own. “You’ve decided which one?”
He smiled. “I’ll surprise you.”
He’d already surprised her by being so cordial. Was it only because she was a guest at his home? Or because she wore an engagement ring? Maybe some woman should teach him a lesson, that he was just as susceptible to a woman’s charms as any other man.
Not more than ten minutes later, Jane thought she should be horsewhipped. The big question in her mind should not be what kind of man was Mak MacCauley, but what kind of woman was Jane Buckley.
Almost as soon as they were settled in the surrey, they waved good-bye again, and Uncle Russell drove them down the stone drive, Matilda spoke up in a concerned way. “What a bad time that child has had in such a short while. Losing her mother and having surgery on her leg.”
Pilar was sympathetic. “I asked Leia, and she said she doesn’t remember her leg getting hurt. She just knows she fell and twisted her knee and the doctors had to operate.”
“Rose told me,” Matilda said, “that Leia was on the horse with Maylea. As Maylea fell, she held onto Leia, protecting her the best she could, but Leia’s leg was twisted under her. Children’s bones are hard to break,” she said. “It’s the twisting that was harder to deal with than if there had been a clean break.”
Uncle Russell looked over his shoulder at them. “That was such a bad, bad time for Mak and Rose, but hardest for Mak. Rose had been through enough to know to turn to the Lord and others for comfort. Mak turned against God and became aloof from most others. For a while, they didn’t know if Leia’s leg would continue to grow the way it should.”
“Jane, did Mak talk to you about it?” Matilda said, her expression troubled.
“No,” Jane said.
“Like I said,” Russell tossed back, “he doesn’t open up to anyone about it.”
Jane felt like the dirt along the road they traveled and thought she deserved to be run over by the wheels of the surrey. She hadn’t had enough decency to remember to ask Mak about Leia’s leg.
She felt Matilda’s light pat on her hand, looked at it, and then smiled faintly at her aunt. Matilda must have thought the moisture in Jane’s eyes was about Leia’s plight. In a way, it was. But in another way, it was about her own plight. In the stables, she’d been thinking about horses and even entertained the idea of being able to appeal to Mak MacCauley.
What kind of hopeless creature was she?
Her other hand covered Matilda’s for a moment. Matilda loved her. But Matilda didn’t know how thoughtless she could be.
Did she?
If Uncle Russell preached about sins of omission, she’d probably shrivel up and sink into a hole somewhere.
❧
Sunday morning at church, Rose said Mak had taken Leia to her grandparents earlier. Pilar left with the Honeycutts. Rose, Matilda, and Uncle Russ rode into town to have lunch at a restaurant.
Jane ate a banana, changed into her riding clothes, and waited outside for Mak. “Why this one?” she said when he showed up with Cinnamon.
“After considering the pros and cons,” he said with a trace of humor, “it came down to color. Since you have chameleon eyes, I didn’t want to chance them turning white.”
He did have a quirky sense of humor. “So you want to see my eyes turn rusty-colored?”
“Look.” He rubbed his hand along the horse’s side. “She’s the color of your hair in the sun. A golden brown.” He gestured. “Shall we?”
She exhaled heavily. “I’m more than ready.”
“Fine. Since your first experience of riding on the beach a few weeks ago left a lot to be desired, I thought we might trot along a stretch of beach that’s about three miles long. How’s that?”
Sitting astride the horse she huffed. “Trot?”
“Yes.” His determined tone left no doubt he meant it. “You and the horse need to get to know each other. Isn’t that what you would tell a child you were teaching to ride?”
This was a test, she surmised. If she didn’t behave, he wouldn’t allow her to teach Leia. And every little girl should learn to ride properly. Her expression must have been one of acquiescence because he pulled on the reins to turn Big Brown, and they trotted off together.
As they rode through town, Jane looked at the restaurant windows. “Rose and Matilda are probably in one of those places having lunch.”
He looked over. “Mother really enjoys Matilda’s company.” He laughed. “But who doesn’t?”
Jane smiled at that. Matilda had a way of making everyone feel comfortable. As they rode out of town, she said what she’d planned to say for the past two days. “I wanted to ask about Leia’s leg. Does that have something to do with her not having learned to ride?”
“Partly,” he said, a furrow appearing between his brows. “Of course, she couldn’t for a long time after the surgery, and she didn’t want to be near a horse. Later, she seemed to have forgotten what happened, but she still has a fear. She wants to ride, begs me, but when I start to put her on a horse, that fear sets in. Then my apprehension surfaces, and horses sense that. She’s determined, in spite of the fear.” He took a deep breath and looked out over Big Brown’s head. “But so was Maylea.”
Jane closed her eyes against what he must be feeling.
“The doctors say the leg is healed but the right one is weaker than the left. As she grows, she will probably experience pain. Exercise should help the leg grow stronger. Horseback riding probably would.”
Jane knew horses picked up on a rider’s emotions. Maybe she could help Leia overcome her fear. Mak’s was a fear of a different kind. Could anyone help him overcome his?
“In Texas, do you train your horses in the ocean?” he asked when they reached the beach.
“The horses I have for my classes have already been trained. I just need to train the child and horse to accept each other and teach the child how to get the horse to know and obey commands or movements.”
“Here,” he said, “a wild mustang or a belligerent horse receives a lot of his training in the ocean.”
She wouldn’t mind getting into the ocean in a bathing outfit, but in her riding clothes? “Is that what we’re going to do?”
“Yes. Let’s trot on down.”
If he hadn’t hesitated before saying that, she might have believed him. She shook her head, and he smiled.
“Okay, Mak. So I asked a stupid question. This might be another one. Why do you train them in the ocean?”
“Not stupid at all. We take them into the ocean because they can’t buck or kick while getting used to a rider and commands. That tames them. And too, it’s not a bad idea for a horse to learn how to swim.”
“Makes sense,” she said. She soon found herself enjoying the Sunday afternoon trot along a white sand beach with a clear blue sky overhead. A deep blue ocean stretched alongside the beach, its waves caressing the shore, reminiscent of the breeze causing the palm leaves to sway. She could understand how the early Hawaiians, who had no written language, would express themselves with swaying bodies and moving hands.
This was a perfect day. Come to think of it, she couldn’t think of a day in Hawaii that hadn’t been perfect. And Uncle Russell said he did not want anyone catering to him but for them to enjoy Hawaii. He was delighted when she told him that Mak was bringing a horse for her.
She hadn’t expected that he would ride with her. But again, she knew he valued his horses. He probably wanted to make sure she was right for Cinnamon instead of the other way around.
After a while, she laughed, and Mak glanced at her. “I just realized,” she said. “I’m not quiet very often. But not talking makes me think the island is speaking to me. There seems to be a voice in the light wind and the sound of water gently caressing the sand. And it smells so good. What is that scent?”
“Jasmine,” he said, and as they reached a rockier portion of the beach, he pointed out various foliage and called them by name. Some long stalks reminded her of the sugar cane fields they’d seen on Friday.
“Leia’s grandparents are the Honeycutts who own the sugar plantation?” she asked.
“No. Her grandparents are Ari and Eeva Tane. They work at the plantation. My wife worked in the office primarily as bookkeeper. Coming from Hawaiian and Tahitian background, she knew the language as well as English. I saw her and thought her very beautiful.” He paused. “Her parents warned her not to like me.”
Mak glanced at her and apparently knew she was about to question that.
“The difference was class,” he said. “They are workers. We are owners. They were afraid my friends would not accept Maylea.”
“But they did, I’m sure,” Jane said.
“If they had not, they would not be my friends.”
She liked his adamant attitude. Of course, she knew about class distinction. No matter how much you valued another person, color or money stood in the way of relationships many times. Dread struck her. “Do you think the Honeycutts might not be so accepting of Pilar when they discover her mother has fallen from her social standing?”
He shook his head. “No. She is American. She will be highly favored by them. And she is a friend of Brother Russell’s relatives. Here,” he said and grinned, “that is high society.”
That being settled, Jane stated the obvious. “But you married Maylea despite the objections.”
She watched his face. It seemed to relax with a memory that did not seem so painful this time. “At a king’s party, she and other young women performed the hula. Her brother is a well-known ukulele player. That was the night I knew I was in love with her. But at first, she was very self-conscious, shy around me. You see, a lot of Hawaiians have been clothed with material and stripped of confidence in their culture and beliefs. The effects of that remains for generations. I wanted to know her beyond the shyness. I knew she was intelligent and educated. There’s the class status, but that doesn’t matter to me. An employer should be shown respect from their workers and vice versa. But one is not more worthy than another.”
He looked over at her. “You apparently treat Pilar like family.”
Jane still found that difficult to explain. “She and her mother worked for us, and there’s a difference in roles. But here, we’re responsible for her and certainly treat her as family. Oh, did you know that the school is talking about teaching the hula?”
He nodded. “It’s language. The Hawaiians are starting to want some of their culture back, and the white man is starting to see it’s not some forbidden, sensuous dance.”
“But that’s what attracted you to your wife.”
“No,” he said. “It wasn’t just the hula. Other beautiful women were performing it, but I did not feel the same about them as I did about. . .Maylea.” He paused. “I don’t speak of her often. When I do, I usually refer to her as ‘my wife.’ ”
“I can understand that a little,” she said. “After Mama died, Dad didn’t talk to me about her until Matilda noticed and made him do it. Matilda and I could talk about her and cry together.” She shook her head. “But not Dad.”
Mak nodded, and she thought that must be something men had in common.
“Something you said at the stable,” he said, “remained in my mind. You said Panai might need a female friend. I took that rather personally.”
“I didn’t mean—”
“I hope you did.” He paused as if uncertain about what to say. “I could use a woman friend. One I can talk to about. . .Maylea as I just did. I can’t to Mother or Leia. . .to anyone. Everyone thinks I should be over it. But enough about me, Jane. Tell me about your fiancé. Quite rich, I assume,” he said with a smile, “being in oil.”