The Sea Star Read Online Free PDF

like the feared “country bumpkin,” he drew both her and Dallas into the conversation, asking their opinions, describing the things he had seen and done so vividly that Susanna could actually envision them. By the time dinner was over, Susanna, who had never once left the state of New Jersey , felt as erudite and as worldly as he.
          “Which reminds me,” he said as he concluded a fascinating tale of a recent trip to Spain , “I found this in a shop in Barcelona .” He took a slim wrapped package from his inside coat pocket and handed it to Susanna. “I’ve been saving it for a special occasion such as this one. Please accept this, Miss Sterling, as a token of our newly formed partnership.”
          Susanna took the package uncertainly and unwrapped it to reveal an exquisite ivory fan with silk tassels. The ivory was worked into a spray of narcissi interspersed with foreign words.
          “Mr. Grainger,” she said, stunned, “I can’t accept—”
          “I insist, Miss Sterling.”
          “But I couldn’t.”
          “You don’t like it, is that it?”
          “No, it’s beautiful! It’s...well, it wouldn’t be proper.”
          “Nonsense,” he said. “If you were a man and I gave you a cigar case to celebrate our partnership, would you consider that improper?”
          “No, but...”
          “It’s settled, then. Please accept the fan in the spirit in which it was given. I was told that it once belonged to Queen Isabella the First, but the party from whom I purchased it was unable to produce a provenance. Whatever its origin, it’s an interesting piece. The motto says, ‘The truth is best perceived through the discerning eyes of love.’”
          “Sunny, accept it,” Dallas urged, calculating the fan’s worth, which, provenance or no, was obviously great. “To refuse such a gracious gesture would be the height of bad manners.”
          Susanna looked at the fan, then she looked up at Jay with a sudden self-conscious blush.
          “Good Lord!” Dallas exclaimed. “Look at her. She looks as regally beautiful as a Spanish princess. Don’t you agree, Mr. Grainger?”
          “Hardly, Sterling .” Jay’s expression was droll. “I met several ladies of royal lineage while I was in Madrid , and your sister doesn’t resemble any of them in the least. What she does remind me of,” he added pensively, admiring her petal-smooth skin and the charming glow of her cheeks, “is one of those creamy narcissi depicted on the fan.”
          “Do you really think so?” Dallas was dubious. “But the narcissus is such a plain flower.”
          “I once read,” Susanna said softly, her eyes on the fan, “that the narcissus was named for a handsome young man who was so entranced with his own beauty....”
          “Yes, go on, Miss Sterling,” Jay prompted. “He was so entranced...?”
          “That the gods,” she said, raising her gaze to his, “turned him into a flower.”
          “You’re quite right,” he said with a curious searching smile. “What an extraordinary bit of lore for someone from Atlantic City to know.”
          His approval pleased her, but she was not unaware of the ambiguity of his statement. “ Atlantic City ,” she said pointedly, “is not the intellectual backwater you seem to think it is, Mr. Grainger.”
          He stared at her, then laughed, caught off guard by her response. “My apologies. That’s precisely what I was thinking. I’m afraid New Yorkers tend to dismiss the cultural significance of any other city.”
          The waiter started to clear the table. Jay persisted, “Miss Sterling, you will accept the fan? In spite of my bad manners.”
          Susanna smiled—a genuine smile—for the first time that night. How different he was from the insensitive ogre she had imagined him to be. Her mind was awhirl with the pleasurable