Free Daughter of Light by V. C. Andrews Page B

someone with initiative, someone I don’t have to tellwhen something has to be done and, after a short period, what else has to be done. She’s got her work, and I have mine.”
    I looked around his office. There were plaques on the walls from the Quincy Chamber of Commerce and plaques congratulating the Dolan Plumbing Supply Company for years of service and exceptional sales. I also saw plaques from organizations showing appreciation for charitable contributions. A variety of framed pictures with Ken Dolan and who I imagined to be state and maybe federal dignitaries were there, along with a picture of who I assumed to be his son, Liam, and his daughter, Julia. There was a separate framed photograph of Julia in a graduation robe and another of her in what looked like a nurse’s uniform.
    “I don’t judge people on how young or old they are per se, but I do find that young people your age generally don’t know how to answer the phone properly,” Ken Dolan said. “Nor take a message correctly, when it comes to that. All of this texting and electronic media are damaging the basic but important communication we need, especially in a business that depends on customers feeling properly addressed.”
    “I suppose it’s how you’re brought up, too,” I said. “My mother set a good example for me when it came to people-to-people relations. I’m probably as frustrated by some of the careless and sloppy talk we get on the phone these days as you are. I’m not Miss Perfect, but I think I know when to put my own interest on hold and service the priorities of other people. It’s a matter of self-survival, anyway, isn’t it?”
    He stared at me a moment and then smiled. “Self-survival?”
    “I’ve had to fend for myself more than most lately, Mr. Dolan. You tend to grow up faster when that happens. My age and my appearance are somewhat deceptive, but then again, there will be women who come in here looking for this position who will be older and might even appear to be responsible and mature but who will be just as deceptive.”
    His mouth opened a little, and then he laughed, holding his smile. “I’m beginning to understand what my aunt saw.”
    I shrugged. “I won’t make any claims about myself. Your aunt would surely say the proof is in the pudding, anyway.”
    He nodded. “You read her right. I like it when I meet someone, young or old, who has some good perception.”
    “Survival,” I emphasized. “When you don’t have much of a safety net, you had better be right about people you meet the first time.”
    “You’re a very pretty girl, Lorelei. Do you see that as an advantage or a disadvantage?”
    “Depends. With men, it’s usually an advantage. Most women see me as a threat,” I said, and his eyes brightened.
    “You don’t sound conceited, but you don’t back away from a compliment, either.”
    I shrugged. “What is true is true, Mr. Dolan. Why put on false humility? Besides, I don’t want to tell you that you’re wrong the first time I’ve met you.”
    He laughed so hard I thought he would have a pain in his stomach. “Where do you come from again?”
    “I’m from California, but we lived in other places.”
    “And you have no family here or in Boston?”
    “I’m on my own, Mr. Dolan. I’m responsible for myself.”
    “What brought you here, I mean, this place in particular?”
    “It looked like a good place to start anew. I was tired of big-city commotion. I suppose I’m a little too old-fashioned for most of my contemporaries, but I want to have a solid beginning and be somewhere where people are more substantial. I know I can succeed here.”
    He nodded, his eyes warming with his appreciation of me. “I like your determination and confidence, Lorelei. Unlike most of the young people your age I have met, you seem quite centered, but what do you know about plumbing supplies? I like all of my employees, even those who do nothing but drive trucks, to know something about what we do