The Sea Star

by Nash, Jean

  I’ll apologize to Jay at dinner, she thought. And when she saw Mr. Addison, she’d apologize to him, too. She snuggled under the covers and contentedly closed her eyes. Her last conscious thought as she drifted off to sleep was: No matter how shabby the place looks, it feels absolutely heavenly to be home.

  A kiss awakened her two hours later. Susanna thought it was Jay, but when she opened her eyes, she saw her brother straighten up and smile down at her.

  “Dallas!” she cried, and stretched up to hug him. “I’m so happy to see you. I’ve missed you so much.”

  He was as handsome as ever, his brown eyes aglow, his hair curling boyishly on his brow.

  “Jesus, Sunny,” he said fervently, “I’ve missed you, too. When I found out you were home and I didn’t hear from you— You’re not still angry with me, are you?”

  “Dallas, no,” she said at once. “I’m never really deeply angry with you. Don’t you know that?”

  “I suppose so.” He laughed self-consciously, as if embarrassed by his unmanly display of emotion. “I just thought.... Well, I’m glad you’re home, that’s all.”

  Susanna rose and went to the vanity table, where she took the pins out of her hair and began to brush the tumbled masses. “How did you know I was home?”

  “Teddy Addison phoned me. We’ve become great friends, Sunny. He’s my kind of hotel man.”

  “Hmm,” she said noncommittally. “What have you been doing since I last saw you? Are you adapting to your new endeavor?”

  “Like a duck to water.” He grinned and took a seat on the rocker. “I think I’ve finally found my niche. Running a gambling house is far better than losing money at one.”

  Susanna sighed as she plied the hairbrush. “I’ll never understand gambling. I’ve never gotten anything I haven’t worked hard for, nor do I think I’d appreciate something that was simply handed to me.”

  “That’s because you’re a plodder,” he said, not unkindly, “and I’m a man of action. I’m going to get somewhere in life, Sunny, you’ll see. In fact, shortly after I invested in Peter’s Beach, I almost turned a tidy profit. Charley received an offer from someone—quite a bit more than it’s worth, he told me. I would have recouped my investment and made several thousand dollars profit, but the buyer withdrew the offer.”

  “When did this happen?” Susanna asked, immediately thinking of Jay.

  “Around the holidays, I think. What’s the matter? You have the most peculiar look on your face.”

  “Speaking of the holidays,” she said in an effort to prevent him from putting two and two together, “how did your New Year’s Eve ‘do’ fare? I wish I could have been there.”

  “It was splendid,” he said. “Although it did turn into quite a brawl.” He added quickly, “Nothing major, of course.”

  “Dallas,” she said, worried, “what if something serious had happened?”

  “We’ve never been in a scrape we couldn’t get out of.”

  Susanna wanted to say more, but she didn’t want to start a quarrel, not now when their reunion had been so sweet. “Will you dine with me tonight?” she asked instead. “I want to tell you all about New York.”

  “Naturally I’ll dine with you. Why do you think I’m here? How was the big city? You look very cosmopolitan in that chic dressing gown. I suppose I look like a hopeless hayseed to you.”

  “Hardly,” she laughed. “You’ve always been the fashion leader of Atlantic City, and you know it. Dallas, New York was electrifying! The stores, the people, the theaters. I saw more plays than I can recall. Jay took me backstage one night to meet William Gillette! I almost fainted from nervousness.”

  “Jay showed you a good time, did he?”

  “Oh, yes! And best of all....” She held up her left hand, on which the ruby and diamonds glowed. “He gave me a betrothal ring.”

  “A betrothal ring. My, my.” Dallas’s tone were sardonic. “And what did you give him, Sunny?”

  “Why, nothing,” she said, puzzled by that tone. “Oh, yes, wait. I did give him something, in a manner of speaking.” She explained about the embezzlement in Baltimore and her subsequent transfer of the Sea Star’s ownership. “It’s only a matter of form,” she hastened to say. “Jay assured me that the Sea Star will always belong to me.”

  “But it’s all in his name now,” Dallas said.

  “Yes. But that’s only so he can use it as collateral for a loan he needs to pay off the debts.”

  “I see.” Dallas rose, went to the fireplace and poked up the fire. “When his debts are paid off, Jay will return part ownership of the Sea Star to you. Is that right?”

  “Well...we didn’t talk about that part of it. We’ll probably be married by then, so what difference does it make?”

  “What difference, indeed.”

  “Dallas, what’s wrong?” Something was obviously gnawing at him.

  Dallas noticed her worried look, and his expression changed, brightened. “Not a thing, Sunny. Where’s Mama, by the way? I stopped in her room earlier, but she wasn’t there.”

  “Oh, good heavens!” Susanna exclaimed. “I completely forgot about her.”

  “What do you mean? Did you abandon her in New York?”

  “That’s very amusing,” she said dryly. “Mother is in New York, but I didn’t abandon her. She got married.”

  “Married?” Dallas was stunned. “To whom?”

  “To Ford Weston.”

  He was silent a moment, apparently attempting to assimilate the startling news. Then: “That was rather sudden, wasn’t it?

  “I was as surprised as you are,” Susanna said. “I couldn’t imagine why she did it—until Jay suggested that she married him for his money.”

  “That’s a vile thing to say!” Dallas flared. “If he says it to me, I’ll knock his block off.”

  “Dallas, what other reason could she have for marrying him?”

  “Maybe she loves him,” he snapped. “Did that ever occur to Mr. Casanova Grainger?”

  “Why do you call him that?” she demanded angrily.

  “Because that’s what he is, Sunny, a promiscuous rakehell who uses women like other people use handkerchiefs. He has a goddamned lot of nerve pronouncing judgment on my mother’s motives. What does he know of love? He’s probably never truly loved a woman in his life.”

  “That’s not true!” she cried. But Morgan’s words suddenly sprang to her mind. A different beauty on his arm every night. And he was thirty-six years old. Why had he never married? “Jay loves me,” she insisted. “He’s going to marry me.”

  “When hell freezes over he’ll marry you!”

  A knock at the door silenced them both. Susanna glared at Dallas, breathing hard. Furiously she blamed her mother for this quarrel. If she hadn’t mentioned her name, none of this would have happened.

  “Who’s there?” she called curtly.

  “Susanna, it’s Jay. Are you ready for dinner?”

  “Dallas,” she whispered fiercely, “don’t you dare say a word to him. If you so much as—”

  Dallas shot her a scornful look, went to the door and opened it. “Why, Mr. Grainger,” he said mockingly, “how nice to see you. Sunny’s not quite ready yet.”

  Jay looked past him into the room. “Susanna, is everything all right?”

  She looked like a Valkyrie. She was clutching the hairbrush as if it were a spear. Her hair curled wildly about a white, warrior-maiden face. “Yes,” she said, forcing a smile. “Everything’s fine, Jay. I’ll be ready soon. Why don’t you wait for us downstairs?”

  He didn’t move. Susanna knew he sensed something was wrong. Jay could read her so easily. That bothered her sometimes. It especially bothered her now.

  “Very well,” he said. “Your brother will be dining with us?”

  “Yes.” Dallas’s tone was belligerent. “Do you have any objections?”

  Jay barely glanced at him. “No. Why should I? Susanna, I’ve ordered dinner to be sent up to my suite at the Brighton
.”

  She rose irritably and tossed the hairbrush on the vanity table. “Jay, why did you do that without consulting me? I’m too tired to go out. Besides, you’ve probably ordered for two, and I want to have dinner with Dallas.”

  “It will be a simple matter changing the order to three,” he said evenly. “But if you want to dine here, that’s fine. I’ll wait for you in the restaurant.”

  He turned to go.

  “Jay, wait!” She didn’t want Dallas and him dining together. She was afraid of what Dallas would do or say. “Jay, I’m worn out from the trip. I’ll just have something sent up here. Would you mind very much eating alone?”

  “No, I don’t mind.” But she saw that he did. “I’ll say goodbye to you now, then. I’m leaving early tomorrow morning for Baltimore.”

  “Baltimore? But why? The bank gave you the loan.”

  “I think it will show good faith if I see my creditors right away and let them know they’re going to be paid.”

  “Oh,” she said. “Well, if you’re leaving tomorrow, I’ll dine with you tonight. I’ll just be a moment.”

  “Susanna, don’t change your plans on my account. I should have realized you’d want to spend time with your brother. I don’t want to intrude. I’ll write you from New York.”

  “When will you be coming back to Atlantic City?” she asked, deflated.

  “Not until the spring,” he said, “when construction on my hotel here resumes.”

  He was angry. She could see it in his eyes and in the hard compressed line of his mouth. She wanted to insist he stay for dinner, to apologize for her abrupt behavior, but Dallas was watching her, and in her mind his cold words echoed: When hell freezes over he’ll marry you.

  “Won’t I see you before then?” she asked tensely.

  “I’m not sure.” He seemed impatient to leave. “I’ll keep in touch with you, of course. And, Susanna....” He was looking at her as if at a stranger. “Teddy Addison will be staying on to help you manage the hotel. If any dispute should arise, such as did earlier today, I’d prefer it if you defer to his judgment.”

  “His judgment? What are you saying, Jay? The Sea Star is mine.”

  He said nothing. He didn’t have to. Susanna could guess what he was thinking. With growing horror she realized that the Sea Star was no longer hers. The Sea Star now belonged to Jay alone.

  Twelve

  Fool, fool, fool! Susanna berated herself after Jay left for Baltimore. Of her own volition, without duress of any kind, she had allowed the Sea Star’s ownership to pass out of her hands. Not only that, but she had alienated the man she loved. Susanna now realized that she had hurt Jay when she said she didn’t want to dine with him. That was the reason he had spoken so coldly to her. That was the reason he had put distance between them.

  Dallas thought otherwise. On the day Jay left, he told Susanna, “He got what he wanted from you. Don’t expect him to come back.”

  “You’re wrong,” she said calmly, while her mind spun with turmoil. “Jay had to go to Baltimore. He has responsibilities, you know.”

  “Oh, that’s right. I had forgotten. He’s probably racing up and down the Eastern Seaboard trying to raise more money. A man who’s richer than Croesus would have to borrow money. It’s not possible that he has hundreds of thousands of dollars, perhaps millions, in his bank account.”

  “Dallas, I told you all his available cash is tied up in his new hotel.”

  “So you did. Does that make it true?”

  “It is true!”

  “You’ve seen the last of him, Sunny.”

  “That’s what you think,” she said fiercely. But she was beginning to think the same thing.

  As if losing the Sea Star—and Jay, too—weren’t enough to demoralize her, Susanna was summoned on the fifteenth of January to attend an emergency meeting of the Hotel Owners Association, specifically to be censured for lowering the room rates.

  “Are they joking?” Teddy Addison asked when she told him.

  “I wish they were,” Susanna said. “The Association can be severe when one of its members disobeys the rules.”

  “What nonsense,” he dismissed them. “Look here, Miss Sterling, I’ll go to the meeting with you. I lowered the room rates. I ought to be the one who defends the action.”

  Susanna looked at him from a new perspective and with a growing respect. Not only did he have the courage to stand up to the irate innkeepers, he’d also had the tact not to mention that she no longer owned the Sea Star.

  The meeting, or rather, the witch burning, was worse than Susanna expected. Proprietors from every hotel on the island gathered in the largest public room of the United States Hotel. The frescoed ceiling, marble pillars, tessellated floor, and gilt-trimmed velvet chairs were opulent. The mood of the occupants was venomous.

  Not a man present greeted Susanna, though most of them had known her all her life. Without hearing her out, they had already found her guilty. All that was needed now was for sentence to be pronounced.

  As Susanna walked through the hostile crowd behind Teddy, who firmly shouldered a path for her, she raised her chin defiantly and straightened her spine. She had done nothing wrong. If the members of the Association were so foolish as to maintain their summer rates during their least-active season, then they deserved the empty guest rooms with which they’d been cursed throughout the winter.

  The first order of business was called. It came as no surprise to Susanna to hear her name whispered loudly about the room, like the collective hiss of a hundred serpents.

  At the podium, Hiram Potter, president of the Hotel Owners Association, rapped his gavel and gave Susanna, in the front row, an accusing look. She returned his gaze, undaunted. She was too much her father’s daughter to be intimidated by this pompous old windbag.

  “Miss Sterling,” he began, “it has come to our attention that the Sea Star is offering reduced room rates in direct violation of the agreement which was adhered to by your father and his father before him.”

  Susanna started to rise, but Teddy beat her to it.

  “Mr. Potter,” he said, “I’m Theodore Addison. I wish to be recognized.”

  “I don’t know you, sir,” Potter said. “What is your business here?”

  “I manage the Sea Star. I speak in behalf of the hotel’s new owner, Jay Grainger.”

  A loud murmuring sprang up among the members. Potter rapped his gavel. “I wasn’t aware that the Sea Star’s ownership had changed hands,” he said coolly. “Miss Sterling, your failure to notify us of the change is another infraction of the rules.”

  Susanna leaped to her feet. “Mr. Potter,” she said strongly, “I intended to tell you of the new owner at the next scheduled meeting. As to your charge about the room rates—”

  Teddy put a hand on her arm, intending to take up the gauntlet, but Susanna shook him off. She and only she would speak for her beloved Sea Star.

  “That gentlemen’s agreement,” she continued caustically, “is exactly what it implies: No women need be heard. I never voted for it, nor am I allowed to vote for any proposal put forth. That being the case, I don’t know why I should abide by it. And if you don’t like it, Mr. Potter, you can accept my resignation, which I now tender to you with the greatest pleasure.”

  She turned and stalked out of the room, Teddy close on her heels. Out in the lobby, he exclaimed, “Bravo, Miss Sterling! You trounced those old fogies more soundly than Grant did Lee.”

  Susanna slowed her step. She’d resigned from an organization that had been co-founded by her grandfather more than fifty years ago. “I may have won the battle, Mr. Addison,” she said glumly, “but I lost the war.”

  “That may be so,” he said, escorting her to the door, “but it was a glorious battle. When I tell Jay what you’ve done, he’ll be no end of proud of you.”

  Jay was proud of her, and he told her so in a letter two weeks later. He wrote that he wished he’d been at the meeting to see her put those despotic dragons
in their place. His letter, though laudatory, was disappointing to Susanna. Not once did he mention that he loved her and was eager to marry her. With a heavy heart, Susanna wondered if he still did.

  As the months passed, Jay wrote to her regularly, but his letters told only of his activities with his hotels or of current events in New York City. Susanna, hurt and bewildered by this telling lack of affection, adopted the same tone in her letters to him. She wrote him about the grand opening of the Atlantic City Library, the institution of the Press Club, the gas company’s new plant on Florida Avenue, when what she really wanted to say was, “I love you, I miss you desperately. Aren’t you ever coming back to me?”

  Susanna’s worries about Jay were somewhat allayed by the Sea Star’s astonishing recovery. With the infusion of Jay’s money, the hotel began flourishing as it had in its greatest heyday. When Teddy took a week’s holiday, Susanna placed advertisements in sixty newspapers as far west as St. Louis and as far north as Montreal.

  “Spend two salubrious weeks in Atlantic City this winter,” the advertisements read. “At the Sea Star Hotel, guests are treated like cherished family members. Medically supervised meals are as tasty as they are healthful. Daily promenades to the nearby Atlantic Ocean stimulate an invigorating blood flow and fill the lungs with iodine-rich air, the elixir of life.”

  Reservations poured into the Sea Star. Susanna was busier that winter than she’d ever been before. She should have been ecstatic. The hotel’s income far exceeded any she had ever enjoyed, even during the most profitable of summers. Her personal income was several hundred dollars a week, every week without fail. She was getting along well with Teddy—they were now on a first-name basis—he was great friends with Dallas, and, despite what Jay had said about deferring to Teddy’s judgment, it seemed Teddy bent over backward to defer to hers.