"A fellow stopped by while you were gone. He asked for you. I told him my wife was out delivering wine. I asked if I could help him. No, he said, he was only an old friend. There was no car in the driveway. So, he must have been either a hiker or had taken the bus into town and walked from there. When he headed back down the winery road, I noticed that he walked with a cane. I should have asked if he needed a ride to town, but I was in the midst of sorting advance orders for our forthcoming new labels."

For years, Susanna dreamed that Ted would return, but she never betrayed this to her husband. Glen had become so much a part of her life that leaving him for Ted would be unthinkable. Nevertheless, it was unlike Glen not to ask a visitor who walked with a cane if he needed a ride. “How long ago?”, she remembered asking.

“A few hours ago.”

Susanna got back in the van and drove down the county road that led from the winery to the town. She knew the bus schedule because visitors sometimes came that way. If she got there in time, she could catch it before it left.