Prologue

As weddings settings go, it could not have been much prettier. The small church was made of grey stone, its steeple nearly obscured by the falling snow. The tiny parking lot was filled to capacity with the excess vehicles overflowing in both directions down the adjoining road. As was the custom of this parish, the walkways were lined with luminaries, small paper bags, the sides of each one carefully cut out to form a design of a dove or a cross or other holiday symbol, and then filled with a small amount of sand to keep it in place. A votive candle had been placed in each bag, providing a lighted walkway as the candle light shone through the cut out design.

Inside the tiny building, every seat was filled, mostly by women and girls, as well as the immediate family members. The men accompanying these women, or in some cases, unaccompanied, lined the walls of the sanctuary from the back wall to near the communion rail. A casual observer, adept at identifying faces in a crowd might have recognized several notables from the manufacturing world, a few equally notable individuals from the learned societies of international fame, and quite possibly a face or two from the world of high fashion. As each was seated near the front those last two of the aforementioned had caused quite a murmur amongst the male guests.