Page 51 of The Sun Sister

Perhaps she lies there and counts his dollars in the bank,she thought cruelly.

Following behind Priscilla was their middle sister Mamie. At twenty-one, she was only thirteen months younger than Cecily. She’d always had a flat chest and boyish proportions, but seven months of pregnancy had transformed her. The blue satin dress subtly emphasised her newly full breasts and the gentle swell of soon-to-be-born baby.

‘Hello, darling.’ Mamie kissed her on both cheeks. ‘You’re looking quite wonderful, especially given the circumstances.’

Cecily wasn’t sure whether this was actually a compliment or an insult.

‘Isn’t she, Hunter?’ Mamie turned to her husband, who, unlike Robert, towered above them all.

‘She’s looking just swell,’ Hunter agreed as he wrapped his arms around Cecily and gave her a hug that felt more like a football tackle.

Cecily liked Hunter enormously – in fact, when Mamie had first brought him home last year, she’d developed rather a crush on him. Fair-haired and hazel-eyed, with a perfect set of white teeth, he’d gotten a summa cum laude from Yale and followed his father into the family’s bank. Hunter was clever and personable and at least he worked for a living, although Mamie said that he did seem to spend an awful lot of time taking lunch at the Union Club with his clients. Cecily hoped she was sitting next to him tonight at dinner; she could pick his brains on the effect that Herr Hitler’s annexing of the Sudetenland was having on the American economy.

‘Ladies and gentlemen, would you kindly take your seats for dinner,’ came a booming voice from somewhere at the front of the ballroom.

‘Just in time, Papa,’ Cecily said as Walter Huntley-Morgan II strode towards the table.

‘I got caught in the lobby by Jeremiah Swift – possibly the most boring man in Manhattan.’ Walter smiled at Cecily affably. ‘Now, where am I sitting?’ he asked no one in particular.

‘On the other side, next to Edith Wilberforce,’ Cecily told him.

‘Who is possibly the most boring woman in Manhattan. Hey ho, your mother insists she likes her. You’re looking quite delightful, by the way,’ he added with an affectionate glance at his eldest daughter. ‘Brave of you to come, Cecily, and I like bravery.’

Cecily gave him a wan smile as he left her side to move across to his designated seat. For an older man, she thought he was still very attractive – only a hint of grey in his blond hair and the vaguest outline of a paunch indicated the passing of the years. The Huntley-Morgans were known as a ‘handsome’ family, even if Cecily did feel that she rather let the side down. With Priscilla’s blonde, blue-eyed looks mirroring their father’s and Mamie having taken after their mother, sometimes she felt like a changeling with her unruly mass of mid-brown curls, eyes that moved between pale blue on a good day and grey on a bad and a smattering of freckles across her nose, which multiplied in the sunlight. At just over five feet tall, with a slender frame that Cecily thought bordered on scrawny, she often felt dwarfed by her poised and statuesque sisters.

‘Have you seen Kiki, Cecily?’ Dorothea asked her as she took her place three seats away from her daughter.

‘Not since she went off to the restroom, Mama,’ Cecily replied and as the shrimp appetiser was served, the place set especially for Kiki remained vacant.

Just what I needed – an empty seat beside me...

Hunter leant over and whispered to her. ‘If she hasn’t turned up in the next ten minutes, I’ll shuffle along.’

‘Thank you,’ Cecily said, taking a gulp of the wine that one of the waiters had just poured and knowing it was going to be a very long night.

After Kiki had failed to show up an hour later, her place setting was removed and Hunter moved next to her. They had a lengthy chat about the situation in Europe; Hunter didn’t believe there would be war, due to the British prime minister’s agreement with Hitler earlier in the year.

‘But then again, Mister Hitler is unpredictable, which is making the markets volatile again, just when they’d started to settle. Of course’ – Hunter bent towards her – ‘there are a number I know who are rubbing their hands with glee at the thought of a war in Europe.’

‘Really?’ Cecily frowned. ‘Why would they be doing that?’

‘Wars require guns and munitions and America sure is good at making those. Especially when we aren’t directly involved in the military confrontation.’

‘Are you certain America won’t get involved?’

‘Pretty much. Even Mister Hitler wouldn’t dare to think about annexing the United States of America.’

‘It’s hard to believe that any human being could actuallywantwar.’

‘Wars make people – and therefore countries – richer, Cecily. Look at America after the Great War – a whole new raft of billionaires was created. It’s all a cycle. To put it crudely, what goes up must come down, and vice versa.’

‘Isn’t that rather depressing?’

‘I guess, although I hope it’s possible that human beings learn from their mistakes and move forwards. Yet here we are with Europe on the brink of war. Well now,’ Hunter sighed, ‘one must always have faith in human nature, and maybe,’ he added as the band struck up and people began to move towards the dance floor, ‘New Year’s Eve is the one night we should forget our cares and celebrate. Dance with me?’ He stood up and offered Cecily his hand.

‘I’d love to,’ she smiled.

Ten minutes later, Cecily was back in her chair at the deserted table. Everyone else was dancing with their partners and to make matters worse, Cecily had seen the shimmer of a stunning silver dress, complete with a pair of long shapely legs, flash past her on the arm of her former fiancé.