JADE STAR by Catherine Coulter

‘Sarah is Sarah,’ Jules said. She raised her chin. ‘I shall be quite all right, thank you.’ You want to go, so go!

It was as if she’d spoken aloud. He merely nodded, turned on his heel, and strode from the beach.

He felt a great shudder go through his body.

I should paint a picture, Jules thought, and call it Family at the Breakfast Table with Prodigal Daughter. She nearly laughed aloud at the thought of Koli bringing in a fatted calf so everyone could rejoice over a feast at her return. Her father was sitting stiff and unyielding in his high-backed chair. Her mother was pulling apart a soft piece of bread, her thin fingers nervous and anxious. Sarah said not a word, merely toyed with the fresh papaya. Thomas, sensing the tension, kept his head down and wolfed his breakfast, as was his wont.

I don’t belong here. I don’t belong anywhere.

‘Today is Saturday,’ Etienne DuPres announced. ‘Will you be going to the plantation, Thomas?’

‘Yes, Father. John and I have some business to discuss.’

Jules saw Sarah’s head come up atThomas’ words, saw the desperate yearning in her eyes as she asked, ‘Will John come back with you for lunch?’

Thomas flashed a quick glance toward Juliana. ‘I imagine nothing could keep him away.’

‘John is going to marry our Sarah,’ Aurelia DuPres said in her thin, high voice. ‘Of course he will come.’

Etienne gazed a moment at his younger daughter. She looks like a wanton, he thought, just like her damned grandmother, even with her hair plastered against her head and tied securely.

‘Juliana,’ he said abruptly, shoving his chair back and rising, ‘you will come with me to my study. I wish to speak to you.’

Juliana escaped the house long before noon. She didn’t want to see John Bleecher. She

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didn’t want to see anyone. She kept to the back streets, but she saw many people she knew. The missionary contingent merely nodded to her and kept going. The natives were open, friendly, and glad to see that she was still alive. She knew she should visit Kanola’s husband and children, but she couldn’t bring herself to do so yet. The pain was too fresh. She walked south along Waine’e Street today, past the Episcopal cemetery She didn’t turn toward the ocean until she reached Shaw Street. It was narrow, and muddy after a brief morning rain. She lifted her skirts, kept her head down, and continued walking. Her mind kept returing to the conversation with her father that morning. Not really a conversation, she amended to herself silently. He had stood on high, like God, and made a pronouncement.

When she reached the beach ” she pulled off her shoes and stockings without hesitation, set them on a rock, and walked toward the water. Men were out on their canoes fishing, and two young children were playing in the waves. Naked-masted whalers were farther out in deep water. She walked farther down the beach, pausing every once in a while to examine an interesting shell that had been washed up. She didn’t pay any attention today to the birds, nor did she even

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spare more than a passing thought to the fish.

The hem of her skirt was soon soaked, but for the first time in her life she simply didn’t care. What else could her father do in any case?

She turned away from the water and walked bare-foot to Maluuluolele. She stared at the small island in the center of the pond. It was a tiny island, Mokuula. How many years had it been a home of Maui chiefs? She couldn’t remember. Even King Kamehameha III had received visitors here in the recent past, showing them the large burial chambers holding the ornate coffins of those long-dead chiefs.

‘Juliana.’ She froze in her tracks at the sound of John Bleecher’s voice.

She turned slowly to face him. ‘Hello, John. I thought you would still be at my father’s house.’

‘No, I left. I … I had to see you, talk to you.’

I will not hurt Sarah, nor will I hurt John, Jules swore to herself. ‘I will be leaving Maui soon.john.’

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