Page 3 of The Lost Heiress
“Wonderful,” Jacqueline said with a reassuring smile as she tucked the signed agreement into her notebook. “Now, on to more pleasant matters. Tell us a little about yourself,” Jacqueline prompted. “I saw on your résumé that you’re studying nursing at California State University, San Bernardino?”
“Yes,” Ana said. “I have one year left there.”
“Splendid,” Jacqueline said. “I hope you don’t mind me saying so, but you look so young. Hardly eighteen. You must have started your degree quite early.”
Ana cleared her throat. “Actually,” she said. “I’m twenty-three. I got a bit of a late start. My mother was sick, and I had to put off school to look after her.”
“My, I’m so sorry to hear that about your mother,” Jacqueline said.
“Thank you,” Ana said.
The waiter arrived then with Ana’s tea and set it down in front of her, and Ana took that moment to steal a glance across the table atRansom Towers, but he wasn’t looking at her. He was staring down at his watch, his brow furrowed, looking intensely displeased. Had she said something wrong already? Ana slid her sweaty palms against the thighs of her khaki skirt.
“And what are your hobbies?” Jacqueline asked.
“My hobbies?” Ana repeated, confused.
“Yes, what do you do for fun?”
“Oh, I, um, I read. And I love horseback riding.”
“Horseback riding—that’s perfect,” Jacqueline said, jotting something down in her notebook.
“Yes, my uncle owns a cattle ranch,” Ana said. “I grew up riding. Is that, um, relevant?”
Jacqueline laughed. “I’m sorry,” she said. “You must think my questions rather odd. I suppose I should explain myself. The position you applied for wascaretaker—and that’s true, to an extent, but it’s probably different than what you were expecting. You’ll really be more of a ...companion... for Ransom’s younger sister, Saoirse. She’s seventeen. As a companion, it would be helpful, I think, to have some common interests with her. And Saoirse, you see, loves horseback riding.”
“Oh,” Ana said. Saoirse Towers’s face flashed in her mind. Over the past few years, she’d seen Saoirse’s visage—heart-shaped face, steely gray eyes, and swollen lips—splashed across the covers of countless glossy gossip magazines, Saoirse smiling mischievously at the camera as she ducked into Lutèce, arm in arm with Eve Vanderbilt. Ana had read a story somewhere—she couldn’t remember where now—that once the maître d’ at a fancy restaurant had refused to seat Saoirse because she was wearing trousers, and without batting an eye, Saoirse had stripped out of her pants right then and there and marched to an open table in her heels and blazer, her long bare legs on display for all to see. The maître d’, red faced and dismayed, had simply handed her a menu and recited the daily specials.
But Ana couldn’t make any sense of it—that beautiful young girl she’d seen on the cover of magazines needed a caretaker? The thought seemed hard to square.
“And what ...care... does she need exactly?” Ana prompted.
“Are you familiar with long QT syndrome?” Jacqueline asked.
Ana shook her head.
“It’s a heart condition,” Jacqueline said. “Saoirse’s prone to fainting and seizures. She’s had to withdraw from school and social activities over the last year due to her condition, and she’s been confined to the house.”
“I’m so sorry,” Ana said. “I didn’t know—I hadn’t heard anything about that.”
“Yes, well.” Jacqueline tapped the nondisclosure agreement before her with the back of her pen and smiled. “Discretion is very important to us. We do our best to keep private matters private.”
“Of course,” Ana said.
“Anyway, with Saoirse’s condition, she needs constant supervision,” Jacqueline went on. “That’s why your medical training is of particular interest to us. I assume you know CPR?”
“Yes,” Ana said.
“Lovely,” Jacqueline said, making another note in her book. “But I’m afraid Saoirse’s isolation has made her quite miserable, and the caretakers that Mrs. Talbot has hired in the past haven’t been quite the right fit.”
“Mrs. Talbot?”
“The housekeeper,” Jacqueline said. “Ransom and I thought if we could find someone with the right medical background who was closer in age to Saoirse and shared some of her interests, things might go more smoothly.”
“I see,” Ana said. “So I wouldn’t be the first person to fill this position?”
“Not the first, no,” Jacqueline said. “Milk?”
