And then he had become ill. No one, at first, had been willing to admit what it was that was striking him down, robbing him of flesh and color and vitality. But she had known from the start. She had watched her handsome, strong, vital, beloved John begin to die. And something in her had started to die too.

All her dreams became focused on one single impossible goal. She wanted to be the one to nurse him out of this life, the one to love him over into the kingdom of love so that there would be no darkness for him between the two moments. The dream had seemed even more impossible when he had left for Italy in the hope of some miracle cure. She had expected never to see him again.

But he had come home. She had gone with her mama and papa to call on him. She preferred not to think about her first sight of him. Death hovered over him, very close. But her dream had lurched painfully into focus again.

She had found a way to be alone with him for a few minutes just two days later and she had asked him to marry her. He had protested, of course. For the first time he had spoken the truth to her.

"I am dying, Adèle," he had said gently. "I do not have long left. I have nothing to give you, dear."

Somehow-she was not normally a bold woman-she had persuaded him that indeed he did. That he had the power to enable her to be with him all the time, making him more comfortable.

"I cannot stay close to you if I am not married to you, John," she had said. She had taken both his thin hands in hers and had kissed them repeatedly. She had not known quite where her boldness had come from. "I can think of no greater happiness than being close to you."

And so he had married her just one week later. He had decided on some impulse to bring her here, to his home in Wales, for their wedding trip. Everyone had thought him mad. It was such a long distance over roads that were notoriously rough. But she had not tried to argue with him. She had known it was a dying man's wish-to die in the place he considered the loveliest in the world. In the place that had the loveliest name she knew-Cartref. Home.