Page 76 of The Sun Sister

Two hours after they had left, the Bugatti pulled into the drive of a U-shaped single-storey house, featuring similar oversized roofs to the others she had noticed on her way. She presumed it must be to keep the sun out of the rooms, but as she stepped out of the car, Cecily gave a small shiver in the biting wind. Dark green bushes bordered the lawn and Cecily saw an antelope was nibbling the grass; it glanced up at her with its large brown eyes, then calmly returned to its grazing.

‘Hello, darling, you made it!’

Cecily turned to see Alice approaching her, wearing an oversized cotton shirt and a pair of khaki culottes.

‘Oh yes, hi, I mean, hello, Alice. Forgive me, I was transfixed by the view. It’s...spectacular,’ said Cecily as she gazed down across the verdant valley, at the bottom of which ran a river.

‘It is quite extraordinary, isn’t it? When one sees it every day, one tends to ignore it.’

‘Last time I was in Europe with my parents, we travelled from London up to the Scottish Highlands for a few days. It reminds me a little of there,’ Cecily said as she realised that her hostess had a strange-looking creature nestled contentedly in her neck. It was small and furry with a long pointed nose and round ears, and reminded Cecily of a misshapen kitten.

‘What is that?’ she asked Alice as she followed her towards the house, trailing a number of dogs in her wake.

‘It’s a mongoose, only a few days old. I found it abandoned under a bush in the garden. I haven’t named it, of course, because if I do, I’ll just have to adopt it, then I’ll become fond of it and it’ll have to sleep with me every night. Which would make the dogs jealous, and...Maybe you would like it?’

Alice grabbed the mongoose from her shoulder and placed it wriggling into Cecily’s hands. ‘They make very good pets and are awfully good at killing vermin.’

‘I’ve never had a pet, Alice, and as I’m only staying for a short time, it wouldn’t be right to take it on.’

‘Pity. Then I’ll just have to release it back into the wild and it’ll surely get eaten. They’re great protectors, because they’re impervious to snake venom. I found a cobra in my bedroom once and dear little Bertie, whom I’d had for years, jumped off the bed and killed it for me. Keep him for a bit and see how you bond before deciding,’ she said as she led Cecily onto a wide terrace where a number of people were already sitting drinking tea at a long table.

‘I...okay,’ said Cecily, trying to control the creature, which seemed to be desperate to climb over her shoulder and out of her grasp. ‘I forgot to say that my godmother couldn’t make it today. She sends her apologies. She was feeling unwell.’

‘Aleeki called me earlier,’ Alice said breezily. ‘All the more champagne for us, eh? Let’s break it open,’ she announced to the assembled group as she indicated the baskets Makena was carrying behind them. ‘This is...’ She gestured airily towards Cecily.

‘Cecily Huntley-Morgan.’

As Cecily struggled to keep hold of the mongoose and greet the assembled party, she was at least relieved to see a couple of young faces sitting at the table.

‘Give me that pesky creature.’ Alice plucked it from her and tucked it into her shoulder, where it curled up contentedly and closed its tiny pink eyes. ‘Go sit over there by Katherine.’

Cecily sat down, feeling slightly breathless and extremely dishevelled. She was also desperate to ask where the bathroom was after her long journey, but felt too shy to do so.

‘Hello there, I’m Katherine Stewart,’ said the young woman next to her, with looks that her mother would have called ‘homely’. She was on the plump side, but no less attractive for it in Cecily’s opinion, with her striking titian-coloured hair curled prettily round a pale-skinned face and a pair of bright eyes as blue as the sapphire sky above them.

‘And I’m Cecily Huntley-Morgan. Pleased to make your acquaintance.’

‘Have you just arrived?’ Katherine asked her in a soft British accent.

‘Not just, no – I arrived a couple of days ago by air. It sure was a long journey and I’m still suffering from it.’

‘Tea or champagne?’ Katherine smiled at her, as Alice’s equivalent of Aleeki offered the choice of both. Unlike the ever-pristine Aleeki, the man wore a crumpled white robe sporting several obvious stains, and a battered red fez.

‘Most definitely tea, thank you.’

‘Good choice. Even though I was originally brought up in the Valley, I can still hardly believe the way everyone drinks in the afternoon. And the morning,’ Katherine said, lowering her voice.

Cecily didn’t know the woman well enough to comment, but she gave Katherine a quiet nod. ‘Tea is certainly enough for me at this time of the day.’

‘So, Cecily, where are you staying?’

‘With my godmother, who has a house by Lake Naivasha. It’s beautiful, but far hotter than here.’

‘Well, we’re another thousand feet above sea level and we often have to light a fire in the evening. Perhaps that’s why so many of the original settlers chose this area – its climate reminded them of England and home.’

‘I said to Alice that it reminded me of the Scottish Highlands, especially with those purple mountains in the background.’

‘Gosh, my father is Scottish and I went to boarding school just outside a place called Aberdeen,’ Katherine smiled, ‘which is where the Highlands begin.’