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“Are you out here on vacation, sir?” Boyd’s eyes were filled with the affection and respect that had marked their relationship in Japan, and Spencer shook his head and laughed openly.

“No, I’m not, and for chrissake, Webster, the name is Spencer, or have you forgotten?”

Boyd Webster blushed bright red, as he had always done, even in the heat of battle. It had won him a lot of nicknames from his CO. and now the two men laughed again. “I figured you might court-martial me if I said it.” Hiroko smiled, watching them, it reminded her of a happier time far, far from here, when she was at home, and not an unwelcome stranger.

“Believe it or not, I’m back in school again. I couldn’t figure out what else to do after the war. I just finished a year of law school.” He had managed to complete almost two years in one, and would be graduating from Stanford Law School the following summer.

“In the East?” Boyd figured that a man like Spencer Hill would go to a school like Yale or Harvard. He knew he had money, although he didn’t know how much. Spencer never talked about that kind of thing, but he had always had an aura of education and background, and they’d all heard rumors that he was from an important family in the East, not that he ever said it. He’d gone to college, they all knew, and he was an officer, but the rest of it was a mystery, and crawling through a mine field none of it had seemed important.

But Spencer was shaking his head, looking at his young friend, thinking how far this place was from the world he knew. It seemed light years from the sophistication of San Francisco. It was a little pocket of a life he never even thought of, a world of ranches and farms, and
people who worked the land. It was a hard life, and even at twenty-two, Boyd’s face seemed to show it. “No, I’m at Stanford. I stopped here on the way home, and I fell in love with it. I enrolled before I went back to New York. I figured that if I waited until after that, I’d never do it. I love it out here.” It seemed remarkable that Stanford was only three hours away, it might as well have been in another country. “I’ll be back in the fall. I promised my folks I’d go back East this summer. I only had a few weeks with them after I got out of the service, and then I started law school. It seems a little crazy at my age, but a lot of guys seem to have gotten slowed down by the war. Some of them are even older than I am. And you, Boyd? What are you up to?” Hiroko had sat down quietly and was listening to their conversation. She wondered how much Boyd would tell him about their hardships. He never complained, not to her, anyway, and these days she knew he hardly had anyone else to talk to. It had amazed them both when Tom had asked him to be best man at his wedding. No one else ever invited them, or even talked to them, and sometimes old Mr. Petersen even had to pump the gas himself, because someone would refuse to let Boyd help them.

“Things are okay. It was hard finding work, with everyone coming home at the same time. But we’re doing fine.” Hiroko watched him, her eyes giving away nothing as Spencer nodded.

“I’m glad.” He had worried about them both, and had reproached himself more than once for not staying in touch. He had cared about Boyd a great deal when he was one of his men, and he had worried about his marriage to Hiroko. It was good to know that things had worked out for them. There were others, he knew, who hadn’t fared as well, men who had become estranged from their families as a result of the war brides they
brought home, who had turned to drink, and even suicide, abandoning the women they had brought home to an unforgiving country. But they both looked well, and they were still together, that was something. “Do you ever come to San Francisco?”

Boyd smiled and shook his head. Life was hard enough where they were, and they wouldn’t have had the money for gas anyway, but he didn’t tell Spencer that. He was young and proud, and he knew they were going to make it.

“You ought to come and see me sometime. I’ve got one more year before I’m a lawyer. Hell of a thought, isn’t it?” They both laughed, but Boyd wasn’t surprised. The Captain had had an aura of success about him even then, he was well liked by everyone, enlisted men and officers. Boyd had always suspected he would be an important man one day, and being a lawyer seemed like only the first step on the ladder. Spencer looked around him, as Boyd smiled at him, and then their eyes met again. “What’s Tom’s bride like? She looks like a nice girl.”

“She’s all right. She’s a friend of my sister’s.” And with that, they both laughed. Spencer had heard a lot about Ginny Webster. She was always sending Boyd photographs of herself in bathing suits, and asking him to find her soldiers to write to. She was just a teenager then, with the same bright red hair as her brother, and the same freckles, but a rather amazing body. “The Wyatts are good people. Tom’s going to be working on the ranch with Becky’s father.” To Boyd, it sounded like a gift from God, but he was embarrassed suddenly, thinking that it was a lot less glamorous than studying law at Stanford. But Spencer felt only respect for them as he looked around him in open admiration. The ranch looked comfortable and clean and prosperous and the guests talking
beneath the trees looked like decent, solid people. “Tad Wyatt’s a fine man. Tom is pretty lucky.”

“So are you.” Spencer said the words very softly, glancing at Hiroko and then at Boyd with warmth in his eyes and a touch of envy. There was no one he cared about, no one he loved or who loved him as Hiroko did her husband. He almost envied them that, except that he was in no hurry. There were plenty of women in his life, and he was having a good time. At twenty-seven he was in no hurry to settle down. There were other things he wanted to do first, like finish law school and go back to New York afterward. His father was a judge and had told him that the smartest thing he could do was become a lawyer. With a law degree, and the connections he would make at a school like Stanford, there was a good life in store for him. And with his looks and easy ways, a lot of doors were going to open to Spencer Hill. They always had, he led a charmed life, and wherever he went, people liked him. He had integrity and style, and he was smart as hell. It had saved his life more than once in the Pacific, and the lives of his men. Whatever he lacked in experience, he made up for with ingenuity and courage. “Should I be mingling with the guests?”

Boyd laughed. “Sure. Come on, I’ll introduce you to my sister.”

“Finally,” Spencer Hill teased. “Will I recognize her without a bathing suit on?” But as they walked slowly toward the rest of the guests, he saw instantly who she was, not only from the bright red hair so like Boyd’s, but from the body poured into the tight pink dress and matching jacket. The laughing girl, more than a little tipsy on wine, and still clinging to the wilting bouquet she’d caught from Becky, could only be Boyd’s sister, Ginny. Boyd introduced them, and Ginny blushed a bright pink that almost matched her dress, as Spencer
shook her hand and told her how brave her brother had been in the Pacific.

“He never told me how handsome you were, Captain.” She giggled and pressed close to him, smelling of cheap perfume and wine, as Boyd then introduced him to their father, but it was obvious from the disapproving look of the older man who shook Spencer’s hand that relations with his son were strained, and it was easy to figure out that it was because of Hiroko.

Spencer stood in their midst for a little while, reminiscing with Boyd and Tom, and then left them to help himself to a glass of the ranch wine. He chatted with a few of the guests, and then wandered off to stand alone beneath the trees for a time, feeling the peace of the countryside stir something in him that had long been forgotten. His life was so full of urban pursuits and his studies at Stanford that he seldom had time to drive out alone to a place like this. It was like a step back in time, the old people sitting beneath the trees at the tables with the white linen cloths fluttering gently in the breeze, and the children running and shouting in the distance. If he closed his eyes, he imagined that it could be in France, or almost in another century, the families and friends talking and laughing, and the hills stretching beyond them, as he stood beneath the enormous trees, and then suddenly he sensed that someone was watching him. He turned and saw a beautiful child staring at him, she was barefoot, and taller than most of the women there, but there was no doubt in his mind that she was still a little girl. A child with the body of a woman, and huge blue eyes that seemed to pierce to his very soul as she watched him. A long, graceful hand swept a mane of white-blond hair away from a face that startled him with its beauty. He stood without moving as their eyes met, and neither of them spoke as he looked at her, unable to tear his eyes
away from her. He had never seen anyone as beautiful, or as innocent, in her simple dress, her feet bare as she stood in the grass, and he longed to reach out and touch her.

“Hello.” He spoke first and she seemed afraid to answer. He wanted to smile at her, but he felt paralyzed by the effect of her eyes, they were a blue he couldn’t remember ever having seen before, the color of a lavender summer sky in early morning. “Are you having fun today?” It seemed a stupid thing to say, but he couldn’t tell her how lovely she was and it was all he wanted to do as she watched him. And then slowly, she smiled at him, walking carefully toward him like a young doe emerging from the forest. She was curious about who he was, he could see it in her eyes, and he was afraid he’d frighten her away if he moved any closer. He would have to let her come to him, and he wanted to hold out a hand to bring her nearer.

“Are you a friend of Tom’s?” Her voice was deep and smooth, and as silky as the pale blond hair that seemed to beg him to touch it. But he had to maintain some sense of normalcy. She was only a child, and he was surprised by what he was feeling. There was none of the obvious sex about her that there was about Ginny Webster in her tight pink dress, instead she was all delicate sensuality, like a fragrant flower growing wild on a mountain hilltop.

“We were in the army together in Japan.”

She nodded, as though it didn’t surprise her. She knew she’d never seen him before. In truth, she had never seen anyone like him. There was a polish to the man and a quiet sophistication that fascinated her. Everything about him was immaculate and expensive, from the perfectly cut blazer to the impeccable white pants, the bright silk tie, and the elegant hands. But more than that, she was fascinated by his eyes. There was something about him that drew her to him like a magnet.

“Do you know Boyd Webster?” She docked her head to one side in curiosity, her hair cascading freely over her shoulder. “He was in Japan with Tom too.”

He nodded, riveted to her, wondering who she was, as though it mattered. “I knew them both.” He didn’t tell her he had been their CO. It was unimportant. “And Hiroko too. Do you know her?”

She shook her head slowly. “No one’s allowed to talk to her.”

He nodded, sad for them, but not surprised. It was what he had feared for them from the first and now this startling creature had confirmed it. “That’s too bad. She’s a nice girl. I was at their wedding.” It was hard finding things to say to her, because she was so young, and because he felt everything in him constrict with longing as he looked at her, and then he wondered if he was crazy. She was a child, he told himself, or a very young girl anyway. She couldn’t have been more than fourteen or fifteen, and yet everything about her made him feel breathless.

“Are you from San Francisco?” He had to be. People in the valley didn’t look like him, and she couldn’t imagine being from anywhere farther than San Francisco.

“I am now. Actually, I’m from New York. But I’m going to school here.” He smiled at the words, and she laughed openly, a clear sound like a mountain stream, as she came a little closer. The other children were still playing in the distance, and they didn’t seem to have missed her.

“What kind of school?” Her eyes were bright and alive, and he sensed that hidden beneath the shyness was mischief.

“Law school.”

“That must be hard.”

“It is. But it’s interesting, and I like it. What do you
do?” It was a foolish question and he knew it. What could she do at her age, other than go to school and play with her friends in the valley.

“I go to school.” She pulled a long blade of grass from where she stood and played with it.

“Do you like it?”

“Sometimes.”

“That sounds about right.” He smiled at her again and wondered what her name was. Probably Sally or Jane or Mary. People didn’t have unusual names here. And then, as though it would matter to her, he introduced himself, and she nodded, still watching him with cautious fascination.

“I’m Crystal Wyatt.” The name seemed perfect for her.

“Are you related to the bride?”

“She’s my sister.”

He wondered that Tom hadn’t waited for her instead, but perhaps people here didn’t realize how incredibly beautiful she was, although it was hard to imagine that they didn’t.

“It’s a beautiful ranch. It must be a nice place to live.”

She smiled then, more openly than before, as though anxious to share a secret. “It’s prettier back in the hills, there’s a river you can’t see from here. My dad and I ride up into the mountains together sometimes. It’s beautiful back there. Do you ride?” She was curious about him, almost as curious as he was about her, as he listened to her.

“Not very well. But I like it. Maybe I’ll come back some day and you and your dad can show me.” She nodded, as though she liked the idea, and then someone called her. She ignored it at first, and then turned, and was sorry she had. It was her brother. Spencer felt his heart sink. They had finally missed her. “It was nice talking to you.” He knew that in a moment she would leave
him, and he wished he could reach out and touch her for just an instant. He was afraid he would never see her again, and he wanted to make time stand still so he would always remember that moment, beneath the trees … before she grew up … before she went away … before life could change her.

“Crystal!” There were several voices raised in chorus now. And there was no ignoring them. She shouted to them that she would be there in a minute.