title: An Epilogue for Eleanor
author:  Prudence Thayer 
description: Prudence Thayer was born in Chateauroux, France while her father was stationed there at Lyons Air Force Base. She received her Bachelor of Music Education from Mississippi University for Women, a Master of Religious Education from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and a Master of Divinity from Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio. Although no longer affiliated with a mainline denomination, she maintains an ordination through the Universal Life Church. She is a writer, a spiritual director, and a self-employed beauty consultant living in Cincinnati, Ohio.
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  “Touch me and tell me that  
  there is nothing at all left between us.”
  
  Eleanor held her fists tight against her skirt. “The pull of flesh is only a
  fleeting thing. Honor and trust and duty are the tenets that a sensible woman
  lives by.”
  
  “And you are sensible?”
  
  “Very.” The word was as forceful as she could make it, molded by her depth of
  fear.
  
  Unexpectedly, Cristo smiled and took three steps back. “Logic and reason run a
  poor second to the heat of passion. Should you relax your guard for a moment,
  the truth of all you deny might be a revelation to you.”
  
  Pursing her lips, she allowed him no leeway. “My life has changed completely
  since Paris, and I am a woman who learns well from her mistakes.”
  
  “Mistakes?” He echoed the word, turning it on his tongue as if trying to
  understand the very nature of its meaning before finding a retort. “I have
  relegated our night together to neither blunder nor error. Indeed, I might
  have chanced something entirely different.”
  
  
  One I