Chapter Five
How things can change so quickly in summer. One day there are cool breezes, the next it’s scorching hot. Then there are torrential rains and humid days when you can hardly breathe. It was on one of those soggy damp ones that Bella was in the inn’s cellar cleaning the mess that had accumulated there over the years. With Henri gone she had to stay busy to keep the tears away and the heaviness in her heart from making her numb. Henri had never let her clean the cellar—insisting that it wasn’t necessary. But to Bella, leaving this place unexplored and untidy was like refusing to wash a single arm or leg. It was leaving things undone, and his judgment of the matter never suited her. Now that he was gone, she supposed that he wouldn’t mind what she did with her days. They hadn’t ha
