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Prologue

1292

Florence, Italy

The poet pushed back from the table and looked out theat his beloved city Though her architecture and streets called to hiht had been extinguished, not just from the city, but from the world

“Quomodo sedet sola civitas plena populo! Facta est quasi vidua doentium”

His eyes scanned the Lamentation he’d quoted only moments previous The words of the prophet Jeremiah oefully inadequate

“Beatrice,” he whispered, his heart seizing in his chest Even noo years after her death, he had difficulty writing about his loss

She would re, forever noble, forever his blessedness, and not all the poetry in the world could express his devotion to her But for the sake of her memory and their love, he would try

Chapter One

June 2011

Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania

Professor Gabriel Emerson stood in the doorway of his study, hands in his pockets, gazing on his ith no little heat His tall, athletic fored features and sapphire eyes

He’d met her when she was seventeen (ten years his junior) and fallen in love with her They’d been separated by tient lifestyle

Yet Heaven sraduate student in Toronto six years later and they’d rekindled their affection,a year and a half after that Ale he loved her even more than before He envied the very air she breathed

He’d waited long enough for what he was about to do It was possible she’d need to be seduced, but Gabriel prided himself in his expertise at seduction

The strains of Bruce Cockburn’s song “Mango” floated in the air, casting his memory back to their trip to Belize before they were married They’dthe beach

Julia sat at a desk, oblivious to theon her laptop, surrounded by books, file folders, and two boxes of papers Gabriel had dutifully carried from the downstairs of what had been his parents’ house

They’d been resident in Selinsgrove a week—a respite froe, Massachusetts Gabriel was a professor at Boston University while Julia had just finished her first year of a PhD at Harvard, under the supervision of a brilliant scholar, fore because their home in Harvard Square was in upheaval, as an addition to the house was under construction

The Clark house in Selinsgrove had been renovated to accord with Gabriel’s exacting standards prior to their arrival Much of the furniture left behind by Richard, Gabriel’s adoptive father, had been placed in storage

Julia had chosen new furniture and curtains and persuaded Gabriel to help her paint the walls Whereas his aesthetic ran to dark wood and rich, brown leather, Julia preferred the light colors of a seaside cottage, ashed walls and furniture, accented with various shades of Santorini blue