Page 223 of The Sun Sister

‘There now, you climb in and get comfy while I get ready for bed.’

‘Okay, Kuyia. I like it much better down here,’ Stella pronounced from the centre of the big bed. ‘It’s warm and pretty.’

‘This is where I slept as a little girl,’ Cecily said as she got in next to her then switched off the light. Stella raised her arms for a hug. ‘Better?’ asked Cecily as she folded her arms around the child.

‘Better.’

‘Sleep well, my darling.’

‘Sleep well, Kuyia.’

The following morning, having set her alarm to make sure she was awake so that she could go back upstairs and dress Stella before Evelyn came in with the breakfast tray, Cecily arrived in the attic to find that Lankenua was burning up. She flew downstairs to the kitchen to find some cloths to wet and place on Lankenua’s forehead to cool her down.

‘Where on earth are you going and what are you doing with those, sweetheart?’ Dorothea asked as she passed her daughter in the hall.

‘My maid is sick, Mama – she’s had a cough since we left England and this morning she has a high fever. I need to get it down.’

‘Surely Mary or Evelyn can see to her, Cecily? It’s probably just a cold.’

‘Well, I’m hardly surprised she’s sick; it’s freezing upstairs in that attic.’

‘The other servants have never complained about it.’

‘The other servants haven’t just arrived from Africa, Mama. Please get someone to bring a bucket of coal up to the room and we’ll get a fire going in there.’

‘Will Yeyo be all right?’ Stella asked as Cecily wiped Lankenua’s sweating, shivering body with the cool cloths. Her cough was deep and rasping and she was muttering indecipherable words to herself.

‘Sure she will, honey. If she’s not better by this evening, I’ll call the doctor to come see her. Don’t worry,’ Cecily said as Stella sat on the windowsill looking out at the snow that was falling thickly outside. Cecily had wrapped the girl in one of her own woollen cardigans to keep her warm.

‘I hope so, Kuyia. I love her very much.’

‘So do I, darling. And I swear she’ll be better soon. When she is, maybe you’d like to go out shopping with me? We need to buy you some new winter clothes – oh, and of course, there’s the toyshop, and we could add in a trip in a horse-drawn carriage around Central Park...’

‘You mean, like Santa Claus’s sleigh pulled by reindeer?’ Stella’s face lit up. ‘At least there’s snow here for him to land on.’ She clapped her hands together excitedly as Cecily added more coal to the fire now burning in the small grate. ‘Only...’ – Stella counted slowly on her fingers – ‘five more nights until he’s here!’

‘Yes, that’s right,’ agreed Cecily, remembering how unhappy Bill had been with her for telling Stella the Santa Claus story.

‘It simply isn’t her culture, and now she’ll expect presents to arrive down the chimney for the rest of her childhood,’ he’d said.

‘And what’s wrong with that? Africans are allowed to believe in Jesus, aren’t they? And more and more of them do.’

‘Which I don’t approve of either,’ Bill had shot back. ‘Destroying indigenous cultures that have been in place for hundreds of years is wrong, Cecily. Can’t you see that?’

Of course she could, but as this year was the first one that Stella had really been able to understand the concept of Santa Claus, the excitement and anticipation on her face had been enough to wipe out any guilt. It was simply a fairy story like any other and she couldn’t see the harm in it. Besides, Bill was a long way away in Kenya...

‘Mama, I need you to call a doctor to come see Lankenua. I can’t get her fever down and I’m worried she has pneumonia,’ Cecily said that afternoon as she barged into the drawing room where Dorothea was taking tea with a friend.

‘Excuse me one moment, Maud,’ she said to the woman as she ushered Cecily out of the drawing room and into the entrance hall.

‘Can you give me the number and I’ll call him,’ Cecily urged her.

‘Honey, we don’t call doctors for the servants. If they’re sick, they can go to the free clinic and see someone there.’

‘Idocall doctors for my staff, Mama, especially given the fact I’ve brought Lankenua over here. She is my responsibility, can’t you see that?’

‘Please, Cecily, keep your voice down! Maud is a very rich widow who I’m trying to entice onto our Negro orphans committee.’

‘Well, Mama, you may very well have an orphan right under your own roof if we don’t call a doctor now!’