reynardo | Almost at 27,000 words, so I'm throwing another excerpt in.

Enid thought Robert had abandonned her and taken her ring. She even wrote to his sister to ask where he was - and got an incredibly curt and scornful reply. It's three years later, and they've run into each other, and then she discovers...

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The waiter came out with menus, and they ordered the simple lunches that the pub was famous for. Robert looked as if he was at last relaxing, but Enid fidgeted with her napkin for a minute before she finally turned to him.

"I owe you an apology. A large one."

"Oh?"

"You were almost right. I've been feeling like a juror who declares a defendant guilty of the most heinous crime, and then finding out after the execution that the main piece of evidence was planted." She took his hand and looked into his eyes. "I made a terrible mistake. I knew your nephew is Peter Caldwell, so I assumed your sister was Mrs Caldwell. And I wrote to Mrs Caldwell in Gosforth. But I wrote to Gosforth in Tyne and Wear. Somewhere out there, some poor lady in a little village near Newcastle is wondering who this brazen hussy is that wrote to her."

"You didn't!" Robert laughed long and loud. "And here was I wondering why my sister, who is the sweetest, loveliest person, had been so rude to you! She would have given you my address in a trice, told you all about the accident and invited you to stay, and instead you give this poor stranger in some little edge of the mining district the scare of her life. I have no doubt her Robert is her husband and she thought he'd been philandering with you."

"Most likely." Enid looked shy now, and was feeling like the biggest fool, but Robert tipped his finger under her chin and brought her eyes up to look directly at him.

"I accept your apology unreservedly, and more so because of that wonderful story. Some day we are going to have to travel to Gosforth near Newcastle, and track down this harridan that broke your heart and made you cry. And I also promise that I shall try so very very hard never to let you cry like that again."

"You're taking a liberty, Mr Reynolds." Enid tried very hard to sound stern, but the smile on her face and the softness of her voice betrayed her true feeling.

It was probably a very good thing that the waiter brought their lunches at that moment, as Robert probably would have taken a liberty, and a rather massive one, there and then. After all, open public displays of affection were not at all de riguere, even in fashionable pubs in the Fleet Street area. The moment passed, and they each turned to their meals with relish.

And no, I am not a symp. Honestly.