Page 215 of The Sun Sister
Jock Broughton was arrested three weeks later for the murder of Joss Erroll. The scandal made headlines across the world, with even Dorothea calling her for an update.
‘So you knew this Joss personally?’ Dorothea said breathlessly.
‘Yes, he’s...he was Bill’s close friend. He, Diana and Jock came to stay with us for a weekend in December.’
‘Oh my!’ There was an enthralled silence. ‘So you actually met Diana? Is she as beautiful as she looks in the papers?’
‘She is very attractive, yes.’
‘Do you think Sir Jock shot him?’
‘Mama, I don’t know, but Joss and Diana did nothing to hide their affair in front of him.’
‘I can’t believe you’ve had them to stay under your roof...’
Cecily had to smile, because her mother sounded positively star-struck, however gruesome the situation.
‘Were they in love as the papers say?’ Dorothea asked.
‘Oh yes.’Or in lust, Cecily thought. ‘Anyway, I have to go,’ she said, hearing Stella’s complaints that it was time for a bottle. ‘Love to everyone.’
‘Wait, is that a baby I can hear in the background?’
‘Yes, it’s Stella, my maid’s daughter. She’s awful cute, Mama.’
‘Well, if this war ever ends, I’ll be straight out on that boat to see you, honey. Kenya sounds like such an interesting place.’
‘Oh, it is certainly interesting,’ Cecily said. ‘Bye, Mama.’
News of the war, which had dominated conversations for so long, had been temporarily cast aside in favour of the juicy gossip surrounding the murder investigation. Although Cecily was happily occupied with Stella, her heart ached for her husband who was spending all his time in Nairobi, not only helping to take on Joss’s old job, but also sorting out his friend’s personal affairs.
Katherine telephoned Paradise Farm regularly. She was spending most of her time with Alice at Wanjohi Farm, doing what she could to ease Alice’s grief over Joss.
‘I’m worried for her,’ Katherine had confided to Cecily. ‘Her father recently died too, and she is absolutely destroyed by Joss’s murder...She’s not well, Cecily, I don’t know what to do.’
Jock Broughton’s trial finally opened at Nairobi’s Central Court at the end of May.
‘Honestly, it’s like an audience come to see a show, darling,’ Bill sighed when he called after the end of the first day. ‘All of Happy Valley is here, dressed in their best, of course, and there are reporters from all over the world too. At least Diana’s done her bit by hiring her poor husband a gifted barrister. Mind you, she arrived at court this morning dressed in black and ready to play the widow. I hate to speak ill of anyone, but it’s almost as if she’s enjoying the attention.’
Quelle surprise, thought Cecily.
‘Come up to town if you want, but it is a rather lurid spectacle, especially with the war still on.’
‘I think I’ll stay right here,’ Cecily said, knowing how disappointed her mother would be that she was missing one of the most sensational murder trials of modern times. She was far more interested in watching Stella – now almost six months old – as she grew. The scrawny baby had developed into a chubby and adorable little thing, whose every move delighted Cecily. Stella was fully alert now, and Cecily would lay her on a blanket in the garden under the shade of a fever tree and watch as her huge eyes – so like her mother’s – followed the scudding clouds overhead and the birds singing happily from the branches above her. Wolfie adored her and would lie outside the nursery door at night.
‘You do seem to spend an awful lot of time minding Stella,’ Katherine – who was due to give birth any day now and had made an increasingly rare visit – commented as Stella sat on Cecily’s knee on their veranda.
‘Lankenua is so busy with the house, someone has to care for her. And she’s too heavy to be carried around in a papoose,’ Cecily replied quickly.
Katherine eyed her. ‘Stella doesn’t sound like a very Maasai name, does it?’
‘Actually, her name is Njala, which means star; isn’t that beautiful? Stella is simply the Latin word for it,’ Cecily lied easily.
‘Just take care you don’t become too fond of her and end up looking after her all the time. Otherwise, you’re just swapping one job for another, aren’t you?’
‘Oh, I don’t mind at all. It’s better than scrubbing floors, after all,’ Cecily smiled.
‘So, the jury has finally gone away to deliberate on the verdict,’ Bill said to his wife on the telephone two months later. ‘To be honest, I’m at the point where I don’t much care one way or the other. The whole thing has become a circus and I’ll be very relieved when it’s over.’
