Toward the Sunrise by Elizabeth Camden Page A

trolley to the train station and then return to New York City this afternoon.They would have only a few more moments together before they both returned to their normal lives.
    The street corner was crowded, with a vendor selling pretzels and a boy hawking newspapers. A passel of school children had just been released for the day, and they scampered down the street in a flurry of boisterous voices.
    She reached inside her pocket for the tin of soap. After all the unique and wonderful gifts he’d given her over the years, a bar of soap seemed terribly humble, but she couldn’t bear the thought of Ashton disappearing into the vast city and forgetting their magical week together. In a goat barn, of all places.
    “Here,” she said, pressing the tin into his hands. “A bar of goat-milk soap to remember our time together.”
    His eyes softened. “I won’t need any help remembering, but thank you,” he said, his voice rough with tenderness. He tucked the tin inside his suit pocket then clasped both of her hands. “I hope you will continue to write. I can’t tell you how much your letters have always meant to me.”
    “I’ll write.” The trolley was already making its way down the street toward them.
    Ashton turned to face her, longing carved onto every line of his handsome face. “This is it, then.”
    “I know. I won’t ever forget you.”
    He pulled her into his arms and kissed her. Some of the schoolchildren hooted, but she didn’t care. This was probably the last time she would share a kiss with a man in her life, and she wanted to savor every second of it. She clung to him, trying to memorize the moment. She was going to have to live on this kiss for the rest of her life.
    The trolley stopped, and she heard the door open. Ashton looked down at her, love and wistfulness gleaming in his eyes. “I wish things had been different,” he said.
    She shook her head. “I don’t. Everything about these days together was perfect. Simply perfect.”
    He nodded. Then he boarded the trolley and headed out of her life forever.

9
    M AY 1898
    Ashton surveyed the array of goods mounded on the kitchen table, wondering how he was going to get them all inside the modest packing box.
    “What’s this?” his father asked, picking up a brown bottle and holding it to the window in a vain attempt to see inside.
    “It’s a blend of lemon and eucalyptus oil,” Ashton replied. “When dabbed on the wrists, it is supposed to act as an insect repellent.”
    “Clever.” His father replaced the bottle alongside the broad-brimmed hat and rain gear. Compared to the whimsical gifts Ashton had given Julia over the years, this final box was sadly pedestrian, filled with practical items a woman should have as she ventured out into a mountainside jungle. Julia’s last letter had said she’d accepted a position in Malaya, a British colony in the South China Sea. An Anglican mission group was establishing a number of medical clinics throughout the Malayan islands, and they were eager for Julia to join them. She would leave the week following graduation.
    She had invited him to her graduation, of course. She and her twenty-three classmates would accept their medical degrees in two weeks. Ashton would send a gift but could not bring himself to attend the ceremony.
    A clean break was best. He would probably dream and wonder about the adventures of Dr. Julia Broeder for the rest of his life, but it would be from a distance.
    “Use the mosquito netting to protect the eucalyptus oil,” his father suggested. “If this bottle breaks, she’ll have a stinky mess on her hands.”
    Ashton smiled as he folded the mosquito netting into thirds then rolled up the bottle of oil. His father could have no idea what stinky meant until he’d lived in a goat barn for a week. He used another swath of mosquito netting to line the bottom of the box and then began laying in the compass, the Bible written in three languages, and the broad-brimmed hat that could