Star by Danielle Steel

There was none of the obvious showiness of what she knew that went with Western ways, everything about her was quiet and discreet and very subtle. And, like Crystal, she was solitary and very lonely. She still had no friends among Boyd’s relatives,she understood fully now how deeply they resented her, and she suspected that it would never be any different. She was all the more grateful for Crystal’s companionship, and the two women became fast friends, as Hiroko waited for her baby.
    And when school began, Crystal often went to visit her, sitting for long hours by the fire, doing her homework. She hated to go home anymore. Her mother was always with Becky anyway, and her grandmother was always scolding her. The only one who ever had a kind word for her was her father, and he had been ill again. Crystal confessed to Hiroko after Thanksgiving how worried she was about him. He looked tired and pale and he coughed all the time. It terrified her. The man who had seemed invincible to her all her life was suddenly failing. He had had pneumonia again, and he hadn’t ridden out in weeks. It made Crystal want to cling to him. She knew that if she ever lost him, her life would be over. He was her cohort, her ally, her staunch defender, the others were all too quick to turn on her, to blame her for petty things, and to berate her for everything she wasn’t. She didn’t want to do the things Becky did. She didn’t want to sit in her kitchen all day, drinking coffee and making cookies, she didn’t want to gossip with the other women, or marry a man like Tom and have his babies. Tom Parker had grown fat in less than two years, and he always reeked of beer, except on the weekends, when he stank of whiskey.
    Crystal knew she wasn’t like the rest of them. Instinctively, she had always sensed that she was different, and she knew that her father knew it too. And Hiroko. She had long since confessed to the gentle Japanese girl that she sometimes dreamed about being in the movies. But there was no way she could leave her father now. She wouldn’t have left him for anything. But one day …maybe one day … the dream of Hollywood never died in her … nor did her dreams of Spencer. But she never confessed her feelings about him to Hiroko and Boyd, although she told them everything else. They were her only friends, and she rode over to see them often. Hiroko was the only woman friend she’d ever had, and Crystal had long since come to love her. Hiroko offered her the encouragement and warmth she found nowhere else, except with her father.
    She confessed her fears to her that she’d never escape the valley, that none of her dreams would come true. But she loved the valley too. Her feelings for it were intricately woven in with her love for her father. She loved the land, and the trees, the roll of the hills, and the mountains beyond them. She even loved the smell of it, especially in spring when everything was fresh and new, and the rains had turned everything bright emerald. Living there forever wouldn’t be the worst fate imaginable, even if it meant giving up her dreams of being in the movies. She just didn’t want to marry a man like Tom Parker. The mere thought of it made her shudder.
    “Is he unkind to your sister?” Hiroko was curious about the others sometimes. To Hiroko, they were all strangers, even her husband’s sister, who had gotten married, finally, just in time to have her baby.
    “I think he’s mean to her when he drinks. Not that she’d tell me. A few weeks ago, she had a black eye. She said she fell over the high chair. I think she told Mama the truth though.” The two women still shut Crystal out. Everyone did. She was dangerously beautiful and it threatened all the women who knew her, except this one, who looked so different. They were an odd pair, the one tall and thin, the other tiny, the one with shining black hair, the other with her long mane like a palomino’s. The one culture so free and so bountiful