The metaphor was not expected, but it served to replay the conversation with Susanna that was continually on her mind. "There is," Susanna said, "on the scarred face of the the man I am sure is Theodore Sinclair Treharne -- a look I saw on the faces of the men in my family who returned from World War II -- as if something of their lives was left behind on one battlefield after another. In the photograph, Ted is sitting on a memory scarred Normandy beach, looking out to an empty sea."
Looking out the window of the coaches cottage, Caydance was alone. The buses that took Griff and his team to Diablo Mountain had departed. This morning, she was thankful that he had choosen Huygens over a coaching job that would have taken him to a place where she would not be comfortable. There were no such choices in wartime.
When Caydance asked if the exchanged friendship rings signified an engagement, Susanna had replied that Ted knew that the odds he would return were not good. “And, neither of us thought that we had known each other long enough. He envisioned teaching art history in the future. I was the oldest in my family. I was learning the ropes so that eventually I could assume the management of the winery, and winemaking was a core part of my vision for my life. I did not see myself as a professor's wife; Ted did not see himself as a winemaker. But we were falling deeply in love."