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.

The ceremony was simple, not exactly the wishes of the mother of the bride, but precisely as the bride herself had dreamed of it for many years. Three attendants on either side of the aisle, the men in formal white tie and tails, the women in dark green dresses with a red sash, appropriate to the season. The sanctuary was filled with hundreds and hundreds of fresh cut flowers, some strewn randomly through the aisles and pews, but all giving off an enticing aroma.

Following the events of the evening, the newlyweds were flown by private aircraft to San Juan to enable them to join an extended cruise of the southern Caribbean.