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enthusiastic, but she knew there would never be the money to spare to do a third of the things Peggy envisioned. It was impossible for her to understand the woman’s bubbling contentment.
    It was equally difficult for Diana to understand her female classmates in school. Their preoccupation with pop stars and pimply faced boys and titillating gossip seemed silly. As always, Diana excelled in her schoolwork and was a favorite of the teachers. The combination of shining black hair, brilliant blue eyes, and a slim and increasingly shapely figure made her even more popular with the boys. Diana was more comfortable with them, having been raised in an almostsolely male environment, but they seemed very juvenile much of the time.
    Her attitude toward Holt Mallory didn’t change. She continued to regard him as her enemy. And she waged open warfare whenever she could, trying to undermine his steadily growing influence on the Major. Antagonistic, Diana took every opportunity to issue orders to him, assuming on her position as the boss’s daughter. She sought to constantly remind Holt that he was only hired help, paid to do the Major’s bidding— and hers. Whenever he was around the stable, Diana never saddled her own horse, but demanded that he do it. She used any means she could to get at him, secretly hoping she would push him to the point of quitting.
    Guy was still her puppydog, trailing after her whenever he could. It didn’t seem to matter how Diana treated him. He was grateful for any scrap of attention from her. And Diana gave him just enough to be certain the wedge between Guy and Holt remained firmly in place. If he liked her, he couldn’t like the man who was his father.

Chapter II
    At the beginning of the summer that would bring her seventeenth birthday, Diana had her first intimation of what it was like to have a crush on someone. A new man had been hired, skilled in horse showmanship, to train the Major’s
prize
Arabians. His name was Curly Lathrop.
    Tall and muscular with curling dark hair and flashing brown eyes, he had an easy charm and a ready smile. To Diana he was a Greek god come to life. A boss’s daughter was never ignored, but she set out to make Curly Lathrop regard her as much more than that. She flirted with him, and he flirted back, but always with an indulgent air, as if he thought of her as a mere child. It frustrated her that he wouldn’t see her as the woman she felt she was.
    Her birthday came on a hot day late in July. It was little different from others she had celebrated. Sophie had dutifully baked her favorite cake and decorated it for the evening meal. Guy had painstakingly made her a hand-tooled leather key case with her initials on it.
    Peggy had stopped by in the afternoon to give her a present of a silk scarf and to relay the news that she was expecting their first child. And Diana listened to the plans Peggy had for the spare bedroom. The money it had taken two years to save to remodel and modernize the kitchen was now being set aside forbaby things, doctor bills, and the hospital costs that would come. Diana voiced the expected congratulations, but wondered to herself why Alan and Peggy hadn’t waited a few more years before starting a family. She didn’t see how they could afford one yet.
    At dinner that evening, the Major presented her with the usual lavish assortment of birthday gifts. Diana wore her newest party dress for the occasion and exclaimed over the presents with the right degree of happiness. With just the two of them at the table, ignoring Sophie, who merely occupied a chair, Diana wasn’t in a party mood.
    Afterward, she wandered onto the front porch and leaned against the railing to gaze at the stars overhead, taking care not to let a wood splinter catch on the white eyelet lace of her dress. Diana fingered the buttons down the front and wished Curly was standing with her.
    Her gaze swung wistfully to his quarters. No light shone in the unit he occupied, but his