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Lost in a winter city, a carpenter’s dog is rescued by a circus clown who sees in her the makings of a performer.
On New Year's Eve, a married woman asks her lover to prove whether his promises can survive a choice with real consequences.
An aging servant’s daily walk with his mistress prompts a question about thirty-five years of loyalty—and an answer neither has voiced.
When distant Corsica appears across the evening sea, an old traveler recalls a noblewoman who gave up society for lasting love.
A kindhearted coachman adopts an unwanted dog, but her devotion and unruly habits bring him to an impossible choice.
At a Norman farm, a baron explains why the tenant who serves him faithfully also makes him feel like a forgiven culprit.
A fallen log prompts an old bachelor to explain how one dangerous evening ended a close friendship and settled his view of marriage.
During the siege of Paris, two old fishing companions cross the French lines for one peaceful morning beside the Seine.
To keep a promise, a Klondike traveler carries a friend's heavy bag through storms, rapids, and a mountain pass.
A teenage mail carrier stops at a dance and finds that his horse and mailbag have vanished.
A poor market worker supports an older woman from the family he once served.
An elderly freed man keeps trying to reach the family that enslaved him decades earlier.
A young emissary enters hostile Florence with a plea that could alter a kingdom's fate.
A banished young Sienese entrusts his sister to the rival who toppled their family.
A king's cruel rhyme inspires his sister to prove a missing lady's fidelity.
A Polish exile in Naples finds love while carrying papers that could imperil an empire.
Two old friends keep a twenty-year appointment, but the lives they built have carried them to opposite sides of the law.
A young man sends a street boy to plead his case to the woman who has forbidden him to write or speak to her.
A detective recognizes an old friend as a murderer, but an unpaid debt makes arrest more complicated than duty should allow.
A talkative sheepherder takes a job on a lonely Texas ranch where a notorious train robber may be hiding nearby.
A grieving morgue-ship attendant recovers a scientist who has floated frozen through space for three centuries—and may hold the key to a war.
21 stories
