The Sea Star (14 page)

     
During her stay in the city Susanna also met many New Yorkers, men as dynamic and as wealthy as Jay. She met, too, their wives, women who understood their husbands’ work and, if the need arose, could even take an active part in it. Perhaps Augusta was correct when she said Jay wanted a wife who shared his interests. Perhaps that was why he seemed so proud when he introduced Susanna to his colleagues and friends.

     
A week before Christmas, it occurred to Susanna that Jay hadn’t mentioned seeing his family. She said to him one evening when they were dining at Delmonico’s, “I’m looking forward to meeting your sisters. You did say they live in the city?”

     
“Morgan does, yes,” he said, enjoying his chicken á la Bodisco. “Cornelia lives in Albany. Her husband’s a state senator.”

     
“Oh.” Susanna had a feeling that she was prying. “You never told me that.” There was very little, in fact, that Jay had said about his family. Odd that she’d never realized it before now.

     
“Didn’t I?” Jay was genuinely surprised. “I thought I’d told you all about my sisters. I’m very proud of them, you know. They both married well. Morgan’s husband is the director of the North-Central Railroad, and they have four sons. Cornelia has two boys and a girl.”

     
“Are your sisters older than you or younger?”

     
“Younger, both of them.”

     
“How old are they? Are you close with them?” Now she knew she was prying, but she didn’t care. She loved Jay and hoped to marry him, yet she knew next to nothing about his personal life.

     
“Cornelia is thirty,” he told her. “Morgan is twenty-eight. Yes, we’re close, though I see less of Cornelia than I do of Morgan.”

     
“Will we spend Christmas with them?” Susanna hinted, not so subtly.

     
“Why, yes, if you like. This will be a rare treat for me. I hardly ever spend the holidays with my family. I’m usually tied up with one hotel or another. I’ll telephone Morgan tomorrow. I know she’ll be delighted to have us.”

     
And so it was settled, so easily, so naturally, that Susanna began to wonder if the doubts
Augusta
had raised about Jay were merely the foolish misapprehensions of an over-excitable parent. Of course Jay was going to marry her; he had asked her to meet his family. As far as Susanna was concerned, that was surely as binding as a formal proposal.

     
Jay’s sister Morgan and her family lived in a small enclave called
Gramercy
Park
, which reminded Susanna of a neat
London
square in Regency England. On closer inspection, though, the spot was uniquely
New York
. Stately houses, some with cast-iron grillwork, surrounded a private park. Inside the park, a water nymph fountain spouted water from two tiers. Gravel walks lined a large eclipse. Tall trees raised denuded branches high against a silver-gray sky. It was a serene oasis set in the midst of a helter-skelter city. Susanna was charmed beyond words by its beauty.

     
“I’d love to live in such a community,” she said to Jay on that snowy Christmas afternoon as he escorted her up the steps of the Harper house. “I’ve never seen anything more picturesque.”

     
He looked down at her rose-colored cheeks and bright eyes. Snowflakes nestled in the fringe of curls on her brow and on her dark lashes. In a halo of a white fur hat she looked liked a snow sprite. “I thought you said you could never live anywhere but Atlantic City.”

     
“Well, yes,” she admitted. “In the summertime. But I’d like to spend my winters in New York.”

     
He dropped a kiss on the tip of her icy cold nose. “I’ll see what I can do about that.”

     
He rang the doorbell. Presently, an elderly butler answered and ushered them into the house.

     
“Mr. Jay,” he said, “welcome, and happy Christmas.”

     
“Happy Christmas to you, Parks. It’s good to be back. Susanna, Parks has been with our family for aeons.”

     
That was easy to believe, for Parks looked well past seventy. When he took their wraps and the packages the coachman brought in, Susanna imagined she heard his bones creak.

     
“Where’s my brat?” Jay asked Parks.

     
The older man frowned disapprovingly. “
Miss Morgan
,” he emphasized, “is in the family parlor.”

     
Even as he spoke, a petite dark-haired figure, clad in holiday red, came bounding down the hall with the exuberance of a teen. “Jay!” she cried and flung herself into his arms.

     
Jay’s eyes were alight with undisguised pleasure. He held her at arm’s length to have a good look at her. “Get hold of yourself, madam,” he said with a laugh. “You’re the mother of four children. Conduct yourself accordingly.”

     
“Don’t be a stick,” Morgan said tartly. “Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve seen you? You ought to be ashamed of yourself, staying away all this time.” Then, to Susanna: “You must be Miss Sterling. Oh, you pretty creature!” She gave Susanna a hug and a resounding kiss, disconcerting her but at the same time pleasing her. “May I call you Susanna? Good! I knew you’d be beautiful. Jay loves beautiful things. Come along and meet my family.” She encircled Susanna’s waist with an arm. “They’re dying to meet you.”

     
Swept along by this whirlwind, any feelings of self-consciousness Susanna may have had were instantly dispelled. Morgan rattled on as they went down the hall. As Susanna looked at her piquant face, her vivid blue-gray eyes and perky mouth, she had the comfortable feeling that she’d known this ebullient chatterbox all her life.

     
“Here they are!” Morgan announced to her husband and sons as she entered the family parlor. “Daniel, boys, come say hello to Uncle Jay and Miss Sterling.”

     
They were a handsome family—the father slim and blond with a dashing mustache, and the boys, ranging in age from ten to five, all smaller editions of their beautiful mother.

     
The boys attacked their uncle like happy monkeys, wrapping themselves about his arms and legs, digging into his pockets for goodies, against the futile admonitions of their father. But when their mother said, “Boys!” they came to attention at once.

     
“Mind your manners,” Morgan said. “Say how-do-you-do to Miss Sterling.”

     
In perfect formation, from the eldest to the youngest, each child greeted Susanna, bent over her hand, and kissed it in the French manner. Delighted, Susanna looked wistfully at Jay and wished that she had such lovable young sons.

     
“Sit down,” Morgan said. “Have you two had breakfast?”

     
“Hours ago,” Jay said, joining Susanna on the settee.

     
The boys arranged themselves at Jay’s feet and at his side. He was looking at all of them with pride and affection. Susanna was glad he liked children. She wanted five or six at least, four boys like these angels, and one or two girls.

     
“What have you brought us, Uncle Jay?” asked Harry, the youngest, perching precariously on the arm of the settee.

     
Jay took him on his lap and chucked him under the chin. “You’ll have to wait until after dinner to find out, Sir Snoop. You know the rules.”

     
“Pooh to the rules!” the child said sassily. Then, catching sight of his father’s stern look, he leaned over to Susanna and said with a cherubic smile, “You’re excruciatingly beautiful, Miss Sterling. Are you Uncle Jay’s wife?”

     
Susanna laughed, enchanted with him, and wished she could answer in the affirmative. “No, I’m not, Harry.”

     
“Well, you ought to be,” he said. “I’ll wager you’d let me open my present now.”

     
“That will do, Harry,” said his father. “Get down from your uncle’s lap, if you please. You’re wrinkling his trousers.”

     
“Let him stay,” Jay said, holding on to the boy. “I so rarely get to see these scamps.”

     
“Whose fault is that?” Morgan asked pointedly.

     
“Don’t bicker,” Daniel said to her. “That’s Cornelia’s province.” He turned to Susanna. “There’s nothing my sister-in-law Cornelia loves more than a quarrel. Even Jay, who has the patience of Job, finds her difficult to tolerate at times. Cornelia can rouse him to anger faster than anyone I know.”

     
Susanna thought suddenly of
Dallas
. She thought, too, of something
Augusta
had said to her.
Only those who love each other can hurt each other so deeply
. “I think it’s natural for brothers and sisters to quarrel,” she said to Daniel. But she really didn’t think that at all.

     
“Susanna,” Morgan said brightly, “Jay told me that you manage your hotel all by yourself. How admirable!”

     
Susanna gave her a grateful smile. It was obvious that Morgan had sensed something was troubling Susanna, and in a tactful way, she was trying to lift her spirits.

     
“You’re very kind to think me admirable,” Susanna said, “but I’m only doing what I love. I don’t know what I’d do with myself if it weren’t for the Sea Star.”

     
“The Sea Star. What a lovely name!”

     
“My grandfather chose it. He had a bit of whimsy about him.”

     
Jay gave her hand a brief squeeze. “You’ve inherited it, I think,” he said affectionately.

     
She returned his smile warmly. Jay seemed different in the company of his family, more relaxed and spontaneous, much less reserved. Coming to New York, Susanna reflected, was surely the wisest decision she had ever made.

     
Morgan asked Jay when Ford and Augusta would be arriving.

     
“Their plans changed,” he said. “They’re spending the holidays at Ford’s hunting lodge in
Newburgh
.”

     
Cornelia and her family arrived just then. Resplendent in jade silk and a matching plumed hat, she swept into the room in a flurry of cold sable and a redolent cloud of expensive perfume.

     
“What a trip!” she exclaimed, sinking down on a chair with the sinuous grace of an ancient Egyptian queen, which she resembled. “There’s nothing I dislike more than traveling during the holidays.”

     
“And a happy Christmas to you, too, Cornelia,” Jay said ironically.

 
    
He rose, went over to her, and bent to kiss her. She absently patted his cheek.

     
“Happy Christmas, all. I’m sorry I was rude.” She sounded anything but sorry. “But it really is too much, packing for days, then enduring hours on that drafty train. I don’t know why I do it.”

     
“You do it because you love us,” Morgan said to her sister, her tone as ironic as Jay’s. She greeted Cornelia with a kiss, then everyone greeted everyone, except Susanna, who sat alone on the settee feeling like Gulliver in the land of the Houyhnhnms.

     
“Susanna!” It was Jay who finally remembered her. “Come meet Cornelia and her family.”

     
He presented Susanna as if she, not his sister, were a queen worthy of homage. The children, twin boys and a girl, greeted her shyly. Senator Guy Prescott, a weary-looking man with the sadly apologetic eyes of a bloodhound, jerked her hand up and down as if it were a pump handle. Cornelia extended a regal hand, perhaps expecting Susanna to kiss the imperial seal.

     
“How do you do, Miss Sterling?” she said indifferently, then turned to her sister. “Morgan, I hope dinner’s ready. I’m hungry as a bear. I haven’t had a bite since early this morning.”

     
Later, as the family dined on a holiday goose with all the trimmings, Susanna thought sourly,
And what did you bite this morning, Mrs. Prescott? Your husband? One of your children? A venomous serpent?