After every arrangement was finally settled, Sebastian picked up the small urn, far heavier than he had imagined, and drove alone back to Linnea's hometown.
It was a little town tucked into the water country, all bluestone lanes, white walls and black-tiled roofs, small bridges arching over slow streams. It was where she had grown up, the home that had lived in her dreams.
Honoring her last wishes, he did not tell her parents, did not disturb a single neighbor. He came as a stranger passing through, a lone traveler cradling that urn through long, hushed alleys until he reached the clear little river just beyond the edge of town.
It was dusk. The last light of the sun gilded the surface of the water in warm, broken strands of gold. A few children, just out of school, were chasing each ot
