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the sadness in Isabella’s eyes. “He would have been proud of you today…you and Nicolae,” Katya reassured her friend.
    “I know. He was a good man and I miss him.” A flower gently fell from Isabella’s hair.
    “Let me fix it,” Katya said. Isabella picked it up and stretched out her arm to put the stray flower into Katya’s hand. As she did so, the top of her dress fell away and her shoulder was revealed. Katya’s expression darkened as she glanced at her friend’s shoulder. “It seems…” Katya paused. “It seems…to be healing well.” Isabella looked at Katya inquisitively. “Your shoulder,” Katya gestured.
    “Oh, yes, it does not look as bad now as it did. It will never heal completely. She has left me with a permanent scar.”
    Katya paused for a moment and then said, “In time you will forgive her.”
    Isabella’s eyes narrowed and dulled, her lips tightened into a scowl. Katya became almost frightened by the look of hatred that came across her friend’s face.
    “I will never forgive her,” Isabella said through clenched teeth. “She had everything I had always wanted and I never said a word. When I had something she wanted she tried maliciously to take it from me.”
    Katya was now sorry she had mentioned the scar and tried to change the subject.
    “Do you remember the day we found Nicolae?” Katya asked. Isabella’s smile gradually returned.
    “Yes, it must be at least ten years ago now.”
    “Has Nicolae told you yet?” Katya inquired.
    “Told me what?”
    “Oh, nothing, he will tell you himself in time…Isabella, you don’t still go up there, do you?”
    “Oh, no, Katya, don’t worry, of course not.”
    Katya’s husband poked his head round the door of the room and said, “Are you planning on missing your own wedding?”
    Katya looked at Isabella, caught hold of her hands and smiled. ”Forget about the years that have passed,” she said. “Look to the future. You have so much happiness ahead of you. You have to allow yourself to at least forget and be happy.”
    Isabella leaned forward, kissed Katya’s cheek and left to go to her wedding.
    During the ceremony Katya did not listen to her own advice and thought about the events that had shaped Isabella into the person Katya saw before her.
     
    Isabella had been born nineteen and a half years before her wedding day. Her mother had died in childbirth. Although her father was devastated by his wife’s death, he soon remarried and had another child with his second wife, Isabella’s half-sister , Natasha.
    Isabella did not have the happiest of childhoods. Her father could not bear to look at her because she reminded him of her mother, and he did not pay her much attention. On the other hand, he spoiled Natasha. Isabella’s stepmother encouraged this. Her stepmother also encouraged Isabella to visit her grandfather as much as possible.
    Isabella did not object to this, for she loved to visit her grandfather. Most of her happiest childhood memories included him. Isabella delighted in listening to the stories he told about fighting during the Crusades. Usually Isabella brought Katya with her to her grandfather’s house; he lived about a mile outside Isabella’s village and taught both girls how to read. They would walk to his house every day for a lesson.
    On one such day, a beautiful day in the middle of summer about ten years before the wedding, the two girls were nine years old and they were at Isabella’s grandfather’s house as usual. They were agitated and fidgety and could not concentrate because of the heat. Isabella’s grandfather was finally forced to tell them to go out and play because they certainly were not getting any reading done. The children went out and started to run about in the sun. Isabella’s grandfather always kept a watchful eye on them. He was never too far behind them, especially when they went into the forest.
    Katya and Isabella had decided to pick berries, but Isabella soon became weary