Page 252 of The Sun Sister
‘Have you met my momma, Bill?’ she asked him. ‘She’s real pretty and real clever and has a very important job, which is why she isn’t here right now,’ Rosa said as she painstakingly copied out some numbers, her pencil digging hard into the paper.
‘I have, as a matter of fact, young lady. I first met her when she was a tiny baby, didn’t I, Cecily?’
‘You did Bill, yes,’ confirmed Cecily.
‘She was born in Africa, you know,’ Rosa said.
‘I do know, because when she was younger, she used to live in my house. Inourhouse,’ Bill checked himself, glancing at Cecily.
‘Your house is in Africa?’
‘It is, yes.’
‘Do you get to see any lions?’
‘Oh, I do indeed, lots of them.’
‘Momma loves lions, doesn’t she, Granny?’
‘She does, yes.’
‘I’d like to see Africa one day.’
‘I’m sure you will, young lady.’
‘Now, Rosa, enough chatter, get on with your homework.’
Having wrangled two bedtime stories out of Cecily, then insisting Bill came to say goodnight and that he tell her a story about all the wild animals he’d seen in Africa, Rosa eventually went to sleep. Cecily poured herself a glass of wine – a habit she knew she should probably curb, but she looked forward to it, as it signalled the fact that Rosa was in bed asleep. She suggested to Bill that the two of them went upstairs to the living room.
‘How often is Stella home?’ Bill asked as he sat down in a chair by the fireplace.
‘Oh, it depends on her working week. She’s usually based in Baltimore, which is a three-hour train ride from here, so if she isn’t flying off somewhere, she’ll leave Sunday after supper and get home late on Friday evening.’
‘So she doesn’t see much of her daughter.’
‘No, sir, she doesn’t,’ sighed Cecily.
‘You really have rather been left to pick up the pieces, haven’t you?’
‘I’d hardly call Rosa a “piece”, Bill. To all intents and purposes, she is my grandchild, and I’m only doing what any grandmother would do under the circumstances.’
‘I can see that, but it could mean you being trapped in this situation for years to come. Surely you want something more?’
‘I would have thought thatyouof all people, Bill, have learnt, like I have, that life isn’t a question of what youwant. But yes, you’re right: lately I have felt a little trapped,’ she admitted.
‘It seems to me that you’ve sacrificed almost everything for Stella,’ Bill said quietly. ‘Your family, your home, money, your marriage even...and at present, any hope of a life of your own until Rosa has grown up.’
‘It was a sacrifice worth making,’ Cecily said defensively. ‘You do anything you can for those you love, Bill, but I guess you wouldn’t understand that.’
‘Please, Cecily, yet again, forgive me, I’ve no right to come back here and start telling you what to do with your life. And I...well, whatever has passed between us, I still care for you and I’d like to help if I can.’
‘That’s very kind of you, Bill, but I can’t see quite how you could.’
‘To start with, by giving you some funds so you can get some childcare support. Frankly, Cecily, you look utterly exhausted and in desperate need of a holiday.’
‘I sure haven’t had one of those in a long time,’ she agreed. ‘But I can’t take your money, Bill. It wouldn’t be right.’
‘Please remember, it was I that brought this situation to your door –ourdoor – in the first place. The very least I can now do is help out with the consequences of it. You are still my wife, after all, and as it happens, I have plenty of money to spare. Apart from the farm doing well, my older brother died last year and left me the family heap in England. I went to see it on my way to New York – it’s near that horrendously ugly hall where you met the original cad and bounder...what was his name?’
