CHAPTER TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY – LAKESIDE ROMANCE

Perhaps it was the fugue of grief that had loosened her emotional guardrails during the night. Or maybe she simply lacked the strength to resurrect propriety's iron mantle just yet. But for the first time in weeks, Charlotte allowed herself to sink into the swirling turmoil of her feelings, letting them crest and roil without fighting the current. It was in this state of complete openness that the familiar creak of the tavern door sounded from across the room. Heart stuttering, Charlotte jolted upright as the tall, lanky form of Richard Griffith stepped across the threshold into the dusty shafts of dawn light. He paused upon seeing her disheveled form on the bench, surprise flickering over his austere features before being swiftly subsumed by a stormcloud of intensity that stole her breath. For an endless instant, the pair simply stared at each other in weighted silence, volumes of unspoken grievance and regret yawning in the void between them. "Charlotte," he finally rasped, the gr