Cutting Loose. Susan Andersen

pays my tuition.”

      “And I get financial aid,” Jane volunteered. Not that her parents had bothered to arrange it. If her second-grade teacher hadn’t submitted the original scholarship application Jane would still be attending public school. Nowadays she filled in the annual paperwork herself, so all her folks had to do was sign it.

      “I’m just a regular student,” Ava admitted. “I don’t do anything special for tuition and Jane and Poppy are better at school than I am.” She smiled, punching dimples deep in each cheek. “Especially Jane.”

      Warmth flushed Jane’s cheeks, ran sweetly through her veins. “Ava’s special in other ways, though.”

      “I find it lovely to see such a close friendship between girls,” Miss Wolcott said. “You’re quite a sisterhood.”

      Jane savored the word as the black-clad woman entered the room, rolling a cart that bore an elegant tea service. Miss Wolcott indicated the rectangular packages lying across the girls’ plates as her servant settled the silver teapot in front of her. “I got you a small token of my appreciation. Please open them while I pour.”

      Jane carefully untied silver ribbon and peeled gold-and-silver paper from her package while Poppy ripped hers off with abandon and Ava unwrapped hers with a just-right show of attention that she’d no doubt learned in one of the Miss Manners classes she was always attending.

      Jane smiled to herself. Maybe it truly wasn’t easy being a rich girl. Heaven knew Av told them so often enough.

      Nestled in the paper was a deep-green leather-bound book with her name engraved in gold on the front cover. Poppy’s, she saw, was red, while Ava’s was a rich blue. Wondering how the older woman had known green was her favorite color, she opened hers, but the gilt-edged pages within were blank. She glanced at Miss Wolcott.

      “I’ve kept a diary since I was your age,” the white-haired woman said in her deep basso voice. “And finding you all such interesting young women, I thought you might enjoy keeping one, as well. I find it a great place to share my secrets.”

      “Awesome,” said Poppy.

      Ava’s face lit up. “What a great idea.”

      Looking from Miss Wolcott to the friends she’d known since the fourth grade, Jane thought of all the impressions and feelings that were constantly crowding her mind. Things weren’t always great at home, but she didn’t really like to talk about it-not even to her two best friends. Sometimes especially not to them. Poppy had great parents, so while she could and did sympathize with the way Jane’s folks were constantly slamming in and out of her house, she didn’t truly understand how shaky that could make the ground feel under a girl’s feet. And although Ava’s own home life was far from ideal, at least her parents weren’t a couple of actors who lived for the drama of constant exits and entrances.

      But the idea of writing down how she felt really appealed to her. She smiled.

      “Maybe we could call them the Sisterhood Diaries.”

       CHAPTER ONE

       I am so never wearing a thong again. Poppy swears they’re comfortable-which probably should’ve been my first clue.

       “O MIGAWD , J ANE ,” Ava screeched. “Oh, my, gawd. It’s official!”

      Jane pulled the phone away from her ear. Her friend’s voice had gone so high she was surprised the leashed dachshund sniffing the light standard down on First Avenue didn’t start barking. But she clapped the receiver back to her ear as excitement danced a fast jitterbug in her stomach. “Probate finally closed, then?”

      “Yes, two minutes ago!” Ava laughed like an escapee from a lunatic asylum. “The Wolcott mansion is officially ours. Can you believe it? I sure miss Miss Agnes, but this is just too thrilling. Omigawd, I can barely breathe, I’m so excited. I have to call Poppy and tell her the news, too.” She laughed again. “We’ve gotta celebrate! Do you mind coming to West Seattle?”

      “Lemme see.” Stretching the telephone cord as far as it would reach, she stepped out of her cramped sixth-floor office at the Seattle Metropolitan Museum to peer through the director’s open door two doors down. The coveted corner office showcased a panoramic view from Magnolia Bluff to Mount Rainier, with the Olympic Mountains rising dramatically across Elliott Bay and Puget Sound. Not that she could see more than a fraction of it from her angle, but she wasn’t trying to scope out the scenery, anyway. Traffic flow was her objective. “No, that oughtta work. The freeway looks pretty clear your way.”

      “Good. Let’s meet at the Matador in an hour. Overpriced drinks are on me.”

      She found herself grinning as she changed into her walking shoes and threw her heels into her tote in preparation to leaving. Swinging her butt to the happy dance song playing in her head, she freshened her lipstick, tossed the tube back in her purse and stuffed it into the tote as well.

      “You look jazzed.”

      Jane let out a scream. “Good God!” She slapped a hand to her racing heart and whirled to face the man in her doorway.

      “Sorry.” Gordon Ives, her fellow junior curator, stepped into the room. “Didn’t mean to startle you. What was the little dance for?”

      Ordinarily she wouldn’t consider telling him. She had a strict policy of keeping her private business out of the office that had worked well for her over the course of her career and saw no reason to change it now.

      And yet…

      Part of the inheritance was going to impact the museum, so it wasn’t as if he wouldn’t soon find out anyhow. And the plain truth was, she was excited. “I’m getting the Wolcott collections.”

      He stared at her, his pale blue eyes incredulous. “As in Agnes Bell Wolcott’s collections? The Agnes Wolcott, who traveled the world wearing trousers when her generation’s women stayed at home to raise the kids and didn’t dream of stepping outside the house attired in less than dresses, gloves and hats?”

      “Yeah. She didn’t wear only trousers, though. She wore her share of dresses and gowns, as well.”

      “I’ve heard about her collections forever. But I thought she died.”

      “She did, last March.” And grief stabbed deep for the second time today at the reminder. There was an unoccupied space in her soul that Miss Agnes used to fill and she had to draw a steadying breath. Then, perhaps because she was still off balance, she heard herself admitting, “She left them to me and two of my friends.” Along with the mansion, but Gordon didn’t need to know that as well.

      “You’re kidding me! Why would she do that?”

      “Because we were friends. More than that, actually-Poppy and Ava and I were probably the closest thing Miss Wolcott had to family.” Their original visit eighteen years ago had led to monthly teas and a friendship that had deepened as the fascinating, wonderful old lady took a hands-on personal interest in their lives and accomplishments, treating the three of them as if they were somehow equally as fascinating. She’d always gone the extra mile for them, making a fuss over their accomplishments in a way no one else had ever done-well, at least in her and Ava’s lives. Like the celebratory dinner she’d thrown at Canlis the evening Jane had landed her job here.

      She rubbed a hand over her mouth to disguise its sudden tremble-then sternly pulled herself together again. This wasn’t the place or person in front of whom she wanted to indulge her emotions. “Anyhow,” she said briskly, “I’ll only be around in the mornings for the next two months. A couple of the collections are being donated to the museum and Marjorie’s letting me work afternoons at the Wolcott mansion to catalog them.”

      “The director knew about this?”

      “Yes.”

      “I’m surprised no one else here heard, then.”

      She looked at him in surprise. “Why