Star by Danielle Steel Read Free Book Online Page B

festive anyway. Ginny Webster was godmother, and Tom asked Boyd to be his godfather, which was a sensitive subject with the Wyatts. Hiroko was still as shunned as she had been the year before. Crystal was her only friend now and even she didn't know that Hiroko was pregnant. And the local doctor had refused to take care of her. His own son had died in Japan, and he told her bluntly that he wouldn't help bring her child into the world. Boyd had had to take her to San Francisco to find a doctor, and he couldn't afford to take her there often. Dr. Yoshikawa was a gentle, kind man. He had been born in San Diego and lived in San Francisco all his life, but he had still been interned with the rest of his people after Pearl Harbor. For four years he had cared for them in the camp, giving them what little help he could with the limited supplies at hand. It had been a time of anguish and frustration for him, but he had earned the respect and devotion of the people he had cared for and lived with. Hiroko had heard about him from the only Japanese woman she knew in San Francisco, and she had gone to him trembling, after the embarrassment of being turned away by the doctor everyone thought so well of in the valley. Boyd had stood beside her as Dr. Yoshikawa examined her, and he assured them both that everything seemed to be normal. Only he knew how difficult it was for her, being in a strange land with people who hated her because of the color of her skin, the slant of her eyes, and the fact that she'd been born in Kyoto.
    You should have a nice healthy baby in March, Mr. Webster, he told Boyd, and then smiled at Hiroko. He spoke to her in Japanese, and Boyd could see her relax as the doctor spoke to her. It was as though for these few moments she had come home, and she could trust him. He told her to rest every afternoon, and to eat well, and recommended a diet of all her favorite Japanese foods, which made her giggle.
    And Boyd was helping her prepare one of them when Crystal knocked on the door the day after they'd been to the doctor in San Francisco. She had dropped in from time to time, just to say hello and chat for a little while, ever since Becky's wedding. No one knew that she came, and Boyd was wise enough not to divulge the secret.
    Hi, there, anyone home? She had left one of her father's horses tethered outside, and she walked in cautiously, her hair piled high on her head, under a cowboy hat, and she was wearing blue jeans. She was even prettier than she had been the year before, and even more womanly now, but there was still an aura of innocence about her. And she seemed totally unaware of her looks, which only helped to enhance her beauty. She was wearing one of Tad's old shirts, and as she dropped her hat on a chair and wiped her brow, her mane of platinum hair cascaded past her shoulders.
    Hello, Crystal. Boyd wiped his hands on a kitchen towel, and Hiroko smiled and offered her some of the sashimi they'd been preparing. Have you had lunch? It was Saturday and she was free from school. Her father was resting, and she had nothing to do that day. She had already stopped by to visit Becky and little Willie, as they called him. He was a fat, healthy little boy, and he was already smiling.
    What is that? Crystal looked down at the raw fish in fascination.
    Sashimi, Hiroko answered with a shy smile. She was always stunned by Crystal's fair hair and big blue eyes, and wished that if she could be born again, she could look just like her. Hiroko had dreamed more than once of having her eyes fixed Western style, but they couldn't afford it, and Boyd would have killed her for even thinking of it. He loved her just as she was with all her delicate Japanese beauty.
    Hiroko was only three years older than Crystal, but there was a seriousness to her which had deepened in the loneliness of her time in the valley. Would you like to try some sashimi, Crystal-saw? Her English had improved over the past year. She read aloud to Boyd at night,