September Morning, page 1
September Morning
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Publisher’s Note
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
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Copyright
This book contains views and language on nationality, sexual politics, ethnicity, and society which are a product of the time in which the book is set. The publisher does not endorse or support these views. They have been retained in order to preserve the integrity of the text.
Chapter One
Almost crushed by the crowds in the swelteringly hot stands, amid the noise and rapturous applause, Celia turned to her companion and hugged his arm. She knew that solemnity should be coupled with the excitement of the event she was witnessing but, outspoken as ever, she couldn’t resist whispering in his ear.
‘What a funny little man he is,’ she said with a giggle.
Franz Vogl glanced round, shushing her at once. Besotted as he was with Celia, he couldn’t let the slight to his hero pass. Handsome, fair-haired and typical of his race, Franz’s nature was as passionate as that of the Cornish girl he adored, but his national pride in the Fatherland and its leader was paramount.
‘You must be careful what you say, Celia. Would your English folk be so pleased to hear your King Edward described as a funny little man – especially as—’
Celia pulled a face as he paused abruptly, but she knew what he was thinking. European and American newspapers were rife with the stories and rumours that Fleet Street had had strict orders to suppress – that of the scandalous affair between the British king and an American divorcee.
But even if it had nothing to do with ordinary people, Celia was prepared to defend her king and his right to love. It was so very romantic – and any hot-blooded seventeen-year-old girl could hardly think otherwise. All the same…
‘Verzeihen Sie – I’m sorry. But I would never describe King Edward as funny, because he’s not. He’s very dashing and very royal. But your Mr Hitler. Well—’
She giggled again at the memory of the German Chancellor pronouncing the Games open with his rasping voice and sporting his weird little moustache. Try as she might, Celia was unable to distinguish him in her mind from Charlie Chaplin. She straightened her face at once as her mother nudged her, and whispered disapprovingly, ‘Behave yourself, Celia, and remember that we’re guests of Franz’s parents while we’re here.’
Celia nodded. It was pure luck that she was here at all. She had only been allowed to take her stepfather’s place at the Berlin Olympics because he was involved in an important legal case and had been obliged to stay behind in Cornwall while she and her mother travelled to Germany. Her sister had begged to be allowed to come as well, but they had only been offered two tickets, and Wenna had never been interested in sports anyway. Celia airily brushed aside the fact that it wasn’t so much the sports that excited her, as the thought of all those healthy, virile young men who would be panting around the tracks or leaping over the hurdles.
She felt a momentary pity for her young brother Oliver. He would have loved all this – but two seats meant two seats, and the moment of regret for him passed quickly.
Her mother was now deep in conversation with their German host, whose company imported White Rivers pottery, the business she owned and managed so successfully. Celia greatly admired her mother for her business skills, and also for having learned the German language so fluently and easily. She and Wenna had struggled with its vowels and complicated sentence structure at their Swiss finishing school.
Both girls adored their American mother, Skye, and the smile Celia gave her now was almost dazzling.
Skye caught her breath at the sight of that smile, marvelling as always how alike all the generations of women in their family were.
Skye’s uncle, the artist Albert Tremayne, had done a remarkable job of transferring their likenesses onto canvas. His paintings were now fetching handsome prices in Cornwall and beyond. Skye thought it a charming way for the heritage of the Tremayne beauty to be perpetuated. Especially in the case of her own mother’s portrait. The empathy between Albert Tremayne and his sister Primmy had been particularly strong.
But this was no time for reminiscing, Skye reminded herself. Today was a wonderful day, the first of August with Adolf Hitler opening the Olympic Games. If the great American athlete, Jesse Owens, lived up to expectations, then she could take an extra pride in one of her own countrymen winning a gold medal. She felt a thrill at the thought. It was many years since she had left America for Cornwall to try to find her roots, and stayed for a lifetime. But deep inside her there was still that tug of home and always would be.
Since she had read some of the American newspapers, she knew very well what the more lurid ones were saying about the new king and Mrs Simpson. Rumours all, according to her husband, which she shouldn’t pay any heed to.
‘Don’t believe any of it until or unless you hear it from reliable sources,’ Nick had advised her. ‘These scandal-rags will say anything to further their circulation.’
‘They can’t say just anything, Nick,’ she had replied uneasily. ‘You, of all people, should know the legalities of printing libellous material.’
‘And you, my love, know very well how a clever journalist can get around that little problem with carefully chosen words.’ Her luminous blue eyes seemed darker in contrast to her pale face, and her classically beautiful features were drawn and anxious. He had already guessed the reason why. ‘Darling, you really can’t take all this personally,’ he’d said quietly, ‘it has nothing to do with us.’
‘I know it,’ she had answered, forcing a laugh.
And of course it didn’t. They lived in the far west of Cornwall and events in London and the rest of the country had always seemed very removed from their own small world. So it was impossible for Skye to try to explain her feelings to Nick, her clever lawyer husband with the so-logical brain that didn’t allow for hunches and sixth senses. Nor could she really explain them to herself. It was crazy for a long-exiled American woman to feel this unnecessary defensiveness, almost bordering on guilt, for pity’s sake, on behalf of a slicker, more sophisticated and worldly American divorcee.
Except, of course, that her countrywoman was no ordinary woman. She moved in high places – the very highest. And if all these foreign newspapers were shrieking out the truth, she could be the catalyst for the unthinkable to happen: for causing the King of England to abdicate, and possibly even to bring down the monarchy. Such a shameful eventuality would touch every one of them.
At that moment Skye had felt the American newspaper taken out of her numb hands. She had smiled briefly at Nick, knowing she was seeing what wasn’t there – might never be there. That was the Cornish part of her, her legacy, and she told herself severely that such problems were for others to solve.
‘Don’t they look simply marvellous?’ Skye heard her elder daughter say, and she forced her thoughts back to the present and the parade of athletes through the vast Berlin Olympic stadium.
At seventeen Celia was boy-mad, Skye thought, and it was a relief to her that Franz was such a steady and upright young man. He had strong opinions of his own too, which wasn’t such a bad thing and might curb her headstrong daughter.
While they were in Berlin, she and Celia were guests of his parents. The very middle-class Vogl family lived in a mansion situated in a cool shady avenue of old buildings that exemplified the very best of European architecture. Skye counted herself fortunate to have such good European connections, both in business and socially.
Skye saw her daughter lean towards Franz and his blue eyes lit up at the sight of her. His blondness was in sharp contrast to Celia’s glossy black hair. She felt a momentary frisson of unease at the way the girl smiled so teasingly into his eyes. At times, Celia’s nature was too tempestuous and passionate for her own good. Everything had to happen at once for her.
Skye smiled faintly. Celia was certainly her mother’s daughter in that respect. It could take no longer than a locked glance between two people for them to fall in love. She didn’t want that to happen to Celia yet. She had her whole life in front of her, and the opportunities for women were so much wider now. But tempting though it was, Skye knew she must not indulge her own dreams through her daughters.
Instead, she too concentrated on the fine parade of athletes and the seemingly endless preliminaries before the Games could officially begin. This was the spectacle they had come here for, as well as making a tour of the factories using Killigrew Clay and the shops selling White Rivers pottery. She felt a glow of pleasure at her own success – as important to her as anything these athletes would accomplish.
* * *
In just over two weeks all the ballyhoo was over. Tears had been shed for the losers and plaudits given to the winners. Jesse Owens was the undoubted hero of the Games with a clutch of gold medals, but to Skye’s disgust – and the fury of the American press – Adolf Hitler had refused to shake hands with him because he was black. It said much about Hitler, in Skye’s opinion, but because of her obligations to her German hosts, she wisely kept those opinions to herself.
By the time they were well on their way home, Celia was declaring dramatically that she had fallen madly in love with Franz. She was trying to persuade her mother to invite him to Cornwall during early December, when she would be back from Switzerland to share in her belated November birthday celebrations.
It had already been arranged that Celia would return to finishing school next month for the winter term, even though her course was officially over. She had obtained a post as the school’s art class assistant, to keep Wenna company for her last year, and to keep an eye on her – or so she said. According to Wenna, it was more likely to enable Celia to keep her eyes on the young French and German buckos who flocked to the area for the skiing every winter. It was so unlike Wenna to criticise anything Celia did that Skye was perfectly sure it was true. Celia was the one who needed watching, if anyone did.
‘You will ask Franz to visit us, won’t you, Mom?’ Celia begged, as they finally reached the end of their voyage back to Cornwall.
Ahead of them they could see the twin castles on the headlands of Pendennis and Mawes, as the welcome outline of Falmouth harbour came into view from the prow of their ship.
‘We’ll see, honey.’
‘Oh, you always say that! Why can’t you just say yes? It would return Herr Vogl’s hospitality to invite Franz. We could invite his parents too,’ Celia added as an afterthought. ‘I’m sure they would like to see the pottery, and the Killigrew Clay works.’
Skye laughed. ‘You’re so transparent, Celia. I’m quite sure that’s not the only reason you want to invite the entire Vogl family.’
‘Of course it’s not. I’ve already said so,’ Celia replied candidly. ‘Oh, please, Mom. Say, yes, so I can write straight back to Franz and invite them.’
‘You’ve only just said goodbye to him, Celia.’
‘I know,’ she said, suddenly miserable. ‘But it already seems like years ago. The minute he’d gone I missed him. You wouldn’t understand…’
Celia felt Skye’s arm round her shoulders, and her mother gave her a squeeze.
‘Believe me, I do understand, my love,’ she said softly.
Skye gazed at the familiar shape of the harbour and the many ships that jostled in its deep waters, but in her mind’s eye she was seeing herself on another ship in another time approaching this very harbour. A time when she too had fallen recklessly in love with a man she had only known for the duration of the ship’s voyage. A man who had been engaged to someone else at the time, but whose love for Skye Tremayne had been too strong to deny. A man called Philip Norwood who had swept Skye off her feet and had eventually married her and fathered her children.
Now the eldest of those children was declaring herself in love with a virtual stranger too. Skye gave a small shiver in the cool evening air. History had a habit of repeating itself, and the endless cycle seemed more pronounced in the long history of the Tremayne family than in any other. Or so it had always seemed to Skye, although she had no doubt that other families would say the same thing of themselves.
‘Mom, are you all right?’ she heard Celia say.
‘Of course I am, and if it will keep you happy, then, of course, we’ll invite the Vogls—’
Her reward was a cry of sheer delight. The next minute she was hugged tightly by her effusive and beautiful daughter.
Anyway, the German family might not come, Skye thought privately. Why would they want to leave their home at Christmastime to stay with virtual strangers? By then, four months from now, Celia’s butterfly passion for Franz would probably have waned. At seventeen it happened, and absence didn’t always make the heart grow fonder.
‘Do you see them?’ Celia was saying excitedly, craning her neck to catch the first glimpse of the rest of her family. It was barely dusk and the dockside was filled with motor cars and larger vehicles awaiting the disembarkation of the passengers.
‘Not yet—’ Skye began, and then her heart jolted as she saw the tall figure of Nick Pengelly on the quayside, with two excited young people jumping up and down beside him. Wenna, at sixteen, was not yet too grown up to smother all her excitement, and the finishing shool had done nothing to change that. Skye hoped it never would. While Oliver, at thirteen, would be blatantly expecting presents.
‘There’s Daddy,’ Celia screeched.
‘Yes,’ Skye said softly. ‘I see him.’
There was no way her daughter could guess how her heart raced at the sight of Nick, or that Celia could comprehend that love became more constant when you were nearing your middle years. The young believed that love was invented solely for them, but the feelings in Skye Pengelly’s heart for the man who had become her second husband, were as achingly longing as when Nick had been her clandestine lover for a few brief hours of stolen bliss.
He and the children caught sight of her and Celia then. They began waving madly, and Skye’s wanton feelings momentarily vanished, but she knew they would return, and a shudder of warm anticipation ran through her veins. Once the family reunion was complete, all the talking was done and the excitement had died down a little, she and Nick would be alone at last, with the whole night ahead of them to spend in each others’ arms.
* * *
‘The Games apart, the visit was a success?’ Nick asked her a long while later, when they lay, replete and fulfilled, their bodies as intertwined as if they shared the same skin.
‘It was wonderful,’ Skye told him. ‘But I wish you could have been there, Nick. The showrooms are so elegant, and our goods are displayed with such importance.’
‘Why wouldn’t they be? White Rivers is really on the map now, darling, and the shops here are flourishing.’
Skye loved the way he was so pleased for her success. Many men wouldn’t be, she thought fleetingly. Many men would resent having a businesswoman for a wife. But there weren’t many men like Nick. There was no one like Nick…
She held him more tightly for a moment, knowing how lucky she was to have found such love twice in a lifetime. But at his words, the second most important thing in her life took prominence, and her enthusiasm bubbled over in the soft warm darkness.
‘But it’s nothing like the huge department stores and showrooms they have there in Germany. I can’t wait to see Lily and show her some of the brochures I’ve brought back. They’re so keen on advertising. They send out brochures to their regular clients – and they also have them available for indulgent papas to send out to prospective wedding guests. Isn’t that a marvellous idea? Imagine all those new brides receiving a complete set of White Rivers pottery to begin their married life with.’
Nick laughed. Her enthusiasm was having a different effect on him.
‘I don’t know about new brides. I would rather concentrate on the one I’ve got in my arms.’
‘Hardly a new bride,’ she murmured, feeling his mouth seeking hers, and thrilling to the fact that he could be so readily aroused again, even after ten years of marriage.
‘But every bit as desirable,’ Nick told her, and as he matched the deed to the words, she gave up thinking at all.
* * *
The following day while Celia was busily regaling her brother and sister about the delights of her stay in Germany, and no doubt giving away a few secrets to Wenna about the attentions of the lovely Franz Vogl, Skye made a telephone call to her cousin Lily in Truro.
‘You’re back!’ Lily squealed unnecessarily. ‘How was it, Skye? Was it marvellous, or were you a bit scared? Right in the heart of the enemy and all that.’
‘Lily, stop it,’ Skye said, laughing. ‘All that was a long time ago. They’re not our enemies any more. They’re our best customers, don’t forget.’
‘Oh, I know. There are still plenty of folk who can’t forget, though, and David’s not so tolerant with all the rumours he gets to hear. Still, as you say, we need them.’
‘How is David?’ Skye said swiftly. ‘And I’m longing to see my nephews. I thought of coming to visit this afternoon.’
‘Good. David’s fine apart from his arthritis, and the twins are driving me mad as usual, so it’ll be lovely to have some adult conversation,’ Lily added cheerfully.
