ed him. He hadn&#8217;t expected to find the same little girl, nor had he expected the severe woman who&#8217;d stood before him with a pinched expression on her face, her hair, dark not the flaming red he remembered, pulled back into some awful bun, dressed in a shapeless suit that was as revealing as a burlap sack. He smiled to himself. At least she was still short.</p>
<p class="excerpttext">Yet, he didn&#8217;t understand her mother&#8217;s need for subterfuge. If Charlotte were receiving threatening no