The perfume of love (rain-bi)

chapter 17

jenna discovered the Upstart Crow, a combination of bookshop and cafe, the day before joon's other guests were due to fly in.

it was part of a timbered shopping complex called the Wharf, on the opposite side of the street from the banyan tree and the Pioneer Inn. after browsing for some time and treating herself to a couple of paperbacks, she bought a cup of coffee and took it to one of the tables on the balcony outside the shop's doorway.

she was dipping into one of her new books when a familiar voice said, "aren't the books in your cabin the kind you enjoy?"

looking up into jung jihoon's dark brown eyes, she felt a strange leap of the heart.

"Oh.... hello."

they had been going ashore togother every morning since the first time, but had had little conversation, and he hadn't repeated the invitation to breakfast with him.

she surprised herself by smiling and saying, "have you time to join me for a coffee?"

for a moment or two he considered the suggestion. she wondered if she were going to be courteously snubbed.

then he nodded. "i have time."

she indicated the chair beside hers and rose to go into the shop. "you like your coffee black, without sugar, i believe?"

"yes..." he laid a restraining hand on her bare arm, "... but I'll get it." he glanced at her mug from which as yet she had taken only two sips of the very hot coffee.

"you haven't tried one of their cakes. they're good. I'm going to have one. shall i bring one for you?"

jenna didn't normally eat cake, but the ones on the coffee counter had looked as if they might be home-made, without too much sugar in them. she had no great liking for sweet things.

"thank you... but this isn't fair. i invited you to be my guest."

his fingers were still on her arm, holding her lightly yet making her intensely aware of the physical contact between them.

suddenly there was a glint of amusement in his eyes. "I'm a korean" he told her. "the fact that a korean woman was one of the prime movers of the equal rights movement should tell you something about the korean male's attitude to women."

waiting for him to return, jenna was conscious that the quality of her afternoon ashore had changed. her sister was resting in order to be fresh for a party to which she and joon had been invited and which might go on until sunrise. jenna had been rather pleased to come to Lahaina alone and visit the Baldwin House and the town's public library, neither of which were of interest to hana.

but now, the chance encounter with jung jihoon had introduced an element of tension... and, yes, excitement... into her solitary shore excursion. had she happened to run into any of the other officers she wouldn't have felt like this. none of them had the same effect on her as he did.

he returned with a mug of coffee and a plate with four small cakes on it.

"Chocolate chip cookies" he said, as he offered them to her.

"thank you." she took one. searching for something to say she caught sight of the name of the bookshop on the bag containing her paperbacks.

"what a strange name... the Upstart Crow and Company. i wonder why the shop is called that?"

"it's a reference to shakespears" he answered. "one of his fellow playwrights accused him of plagiarism and warned other writers of the day to beware of 'an Upstart Crow, beautiful with our feathers'. there are quite alot of Upstart Crow bookshops in Korea. I've been to branches in Busan and Seoul there's also one in Honolulu."

glad to be on safe ground, she said, "you asked if the books in my cabin weren't the kind i enjoy. the answer to that is that i enjoy almost anything. but i wanted to be able to identify all the flowers i see on my morning walks, and to know how leis are made. my sister gave me a lovely carnation lei the day i arrived. so i bought these two booklets."

she opened the paper bag and showed him the content.

as he flicked through the bages, she added, "the book i really coveted was the life of Princess Kaiulani. but it was quite expensive and also rather large and heavy and I'm trying to keep my luggage light."

jihoon glanced up. "that book is by Kristin Zambucka, isn't it?"

she nodded. the unusual name had imprinted itself on her memory. "you don't know her, do you?"

"No, but she's giving a lecture on Kalakaua, who was Hawaii's last king, at the Lahaina Arts Society tonight. I'm going to hear it. would you like to come along?"

jenna's face glowed. "I'd love to"

"she's an artist as well as a writer" he told her.

"i have a couple of portraits she did years ago, one of a Fijian chief and the other of an Aboriginal girl. Kristin Zambucka is one of the very few white woman to have lived with several tribes in the remote outback." he rose to his feet.

"i have a couple of things to do before the launch picks us up at half past five. see you later."

he disappeared down the short escalator which was a somewhat incongruous feature of the Wharf's architecture.

"I'm sorry you can't come to the party, but it's difficult to include you in everything" said hana, in her sister's cabin about an hour later.

"of course: i can understand that. anyway jihoon has invited me to go to a lecture with him."

"how very odd" said hana thoughtfully. "it's not like him to be friendly."

"he was friendly with those two American wives at Pineapple Hill the other night."

"yes, with middle-aged frumps and white-haired old ladies he's charming. but I've noticed that it's not only with me he puts on a frosty manner. he's exactly the same with everyone young and attractive. so why is he making an exception of you. i wonder? perhaps he thinks you're younger than you are. you don't look twenty. you could easily pass for seventeen."

"that's what he said when he asked me how old i was. perhaps what you call his frosty manner is something he's learned to adopt towards passengers who might be on the lookout for a shipboard romance. it's probably okay for the other officers to indulge in that sort of thing if they feel inclined, but not for the captain. he had to hold aloof."

"aloof is the operative uniform he's still a man, and he must have some kind of sex life. perhaps he has a Pacific-wide network of women waiting to welcome him in all the places the yacht has been visiting regularly. although i don't go for those big, brutal, macho types, there are alot of women who do."

"he's big, but i don't think you can call him brutal, hana. I'd say he was quite intellectual."

hana shrugged. "all right, maybe not brutal, but certainly macho. scratch him and under the surface you'll find all the enternched male attitudes." she glanced at her Cartier wristwatch.

"i must go and start dressing. what time are you going ashore?"

"at quarter to seven. as we'll miss dinner jihoon is arranging for us to have a cold supper later"

"you'll also miss seeing my new drop-dead gold outfit" said hana, with a pout.

"you'll be wearing it again, won't you?" asked jenna.

"Oh, yes, i shall have to... although there are women who never have to wear the same thing twice. imagine being able to do that! maybe some day i will" her sister said dreamily.

was that really the summit of hana's ambition? jenna wondered, as she waited on the lower deck for jihoon to appear.