I just hope she's not trying to crank herself up for a divorce or something, Eileen said to herself as she turned to other duties. They're always the most trouble, those wives who come out here to solve their problems.

Doreen Mason seemed not to have a care in the world, Eileen decided when she picked up the woman the next day and drove her back to the ranch. She explained her husband's absence by mentioning that he was a professor of psychology at a Los Angeles college and that he would hardly miss her for the two weeks, which came at the end of the term and would be primarily a season of test-giving and marking for him.

"He won't even know I'm gone," Doreen said. "Actually I'm sort of an advance party – a group of faculty wives have been looking for a nice ranch where we can go on a group excursion. You know, the sort of place where we can all get away from our husbands for a few days and let our hair down in privacy."

"There'll be plenty of privacy," Eileen assured her. "My theory is that you should give a guest as much leeway as she wants. If you want it that way, I'll make sure that no one will bother you."

Their conversation on the ride back to the ranch, a distance of some fifty miles, confirmed her initial friendly response to the new guest. Doreen Mason looked to be about thirty, as she had sounded over the phone, and was of medium height, though of a build verging toward plumpness. She was especially big in the breasts and Eileen had to suppress a smile at the thought of the woman riding a horse without a bra. She very obviously had not bothered to wear one on the plane and her big breasts jostled each other comfortably in the front of the expensively tailored silk shirt under her pantsuit. Her black hair and dark coloring meant that she would not be likely to become a sunburn victim, a relief, and also lent an aura of exotic interest to her plump cheeks and sparking brown eyes. Her regular features lit up with interest as they drove into the foothills in which the Bar T lay and Eileen saw that she was a very beautiful woman when sparked with curiosity or interest. By the time they turned in at the main gate of the ranch Eileen decided that she liked her new guest very much.