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The questions bounced around in my head like pingpong balls. Questioning my own weaknesses when it came to people made me think about Corbette. He hadn't called rue since our private celebration. He didn't even call to see how I was the day after. Every day after school, I expected to see him, but he never came over from Sweet William. Had he taken advantage of me? Maybe I was a fool. It made me think that I should not agree to anything too quickly, even a supposed golden opportunity.

Before she retired for the evening,

Grandmother Hudson stopped at my room. I was working on math and didn't even hear her knock and then open the door.

"Rain," she said and I turned.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I was struggli

ng with a problem."

"So am I," she said. "I was disappointed in you at dinnen Mr. MacWaine was doing me a great favor by attending your play and auditioning you for his school. It's no exaggeration to say that there are probably thousands of young people who would love to have this chance presented to them. You've never seemed ungrateful before, but tonight..."

"I appreciate it. I'm just...I'd like to talk to Mama about it, first. Please," I begged.

"I see. Yes, I suppose that would be right," she admitted. "After all, the woman was a mother to you all your life. All right, call her immediately and discuss it with her."

"I've been calling, but there's no answer," I said. "I'm starting to worry. She might have gone back to help my stepfather, who was arrested for armed robbery."

"Arrested?" She thought for a moment. "All right. Give me the phone number and the address and I'll see to it that your mama is contacted tomorrow, wherever she is."

"You will?"

"I said I would. When I decide to do something, I do it. I don't waste time wondering should I or shouldn't I? What if this, what if that? I do what has to be done," she assured me.

I wrote down the number and the address with Aunt Sylvia's name.

"Fine. Go back to your homework problem:' she said, "and solve it."

I watched her leave and then I smiled and shook my head. There were flashes of Victoria in her, but not as much of my mother. What, I wondered, had I inherited from her?

At school the next day, I was surprised to see Corbette and some of his friends watching me riding in equestrian class. They had come over from Sweet William and were all standing by the fence. When I made a circle, I rode closer and then stopped.

"Hi," I said. "What are you doing here?"

"We had a break between classes and I thought we'd come over to see how you ride. You sit in that saddle a lot better now," he said and his friends all laughed. What was so funny?

"Practice," I said, "pays."

"Is that an invitation?" he asked and again, the clump of boys beside him roared.

"What's wrong with you?" I asked.. He seemed so different. "You never called me."

"I've been busy." He smiled at his buddies who all wore sly smiles and who all watched my reactions. "Teddy here is not as busy, however."

"I'm free tonight," the tall, brown-haired boy said.

"I imagine you're free every night," I told him and his friends laughed, some pounding him on the back. "Very funny," he cried, reddening.

"What happened to George Gibbs?" I asked Corbette. He shrugged.

"He went on and married someone else. Now he's stuck in a marriage and has more diapers to change," he quipped. They were all flashing their smiles.

"At least he has a family," I said sharply, "and a reason to get up in the morning. Why do you?" I shot at him and turned the horse.

I didn't look back. I went into a gallop and despite my teacher's admonitions, jumped a gate to catch up with my class. He bawled me out for it afterward, but I barely heard him. I was so angry, I could hear only a buzz of rage in my ears. The first thing I did when I saw Audrey afterward was tell her she had been right about Corbette.

"Boys," she said with an ugly grimace as if they were some sort of disease that infected girls. "I'm not getting married. I'm going to be a career woman."