Read Online No Other Love by Isabel Morin - Free Book Online Page B

a desk a young man in eyeglasses, brown vest and matching coat frowned down at a sheaf of papers.
    For a moment, Rose was so terrified she could neither move nor speak. Then the clerk saw her and blushed furiously, standing up so quickly he upset a jar of pens. Somehow his nerves eased her own distress and she was able to approach his desk.
    “May I help you, miss?”
    “I've come to give Mr. Jonas Fletcher a message from Mrs. Fletcher.”
    “Of course. Yes. Do let me take it for you. I'll be sure it reaches him.”
    Rose had not foreseen even this simple obstacle. Quickly she recovered with a lie.
    “Oh no. Begging your pardon, Mrs. Fletcher said I must deliver it myself and wait for his reply.”
    The young man came around the desk.
    “Very well, I'll escort you to his offices.”
    Rose followed the clerk down the hallway, her heart hammering so loudly she feared he would hear it. Offices opened up on both sides, the low hum of voices emanating from inside. At the end of the passage they turned left into a room richly decorated in shades of blue and dark wood. On the walls hung maps of Boston, both older and more recent. The clerk gestured for her to sit.
    “Please, wait here. It won’t be long. Mr. Fletcher left half an hour ago for an appointment at Town Hall. He should be back shortly.”
    He hesitated, looking for all the world as if he longed to stay with her, before dropping a self-conscious bow and leaving.
    On the wall to her left was a door that she guessed led to Mr. Fletcher’s office. Surely a trip to Town Hall would require longer than half an hour, in which case she had time to search it.
    Entering his office was terribly risky, but if she wasted this opportunity she would never forgive herself. When the clerk's retreating footsteps had died away she went and pressed her ear to the door. All was silent. Nearly faint with anxiety, she opened the door and stepped inside.
    At one end of the large room sat a desk of heavy oak; on it were stacks of paper and what appeared to be ledgers. Tacked up on all four walls were maps detailing different sections of the railroad line. Scanning them quickly, Rose found one showing the most western part of Massachusetts. A thick black line traveled across the state from Boston, breaking right at the boundary of their farm.
    She could see that they would have to lay track in another section entirely now that they couldn't run it through their property. She couldn’t imagine how it was even possible to lay track through the those mountains, but these men seemed to think they could do it if only they had access through Aunt Olivia’s land.
    Going to the desk she paged through the ledgers but could make no sense of the figures. It would take much longer than she could spare to decipher them, so she quickly moved on.
    Opening a drawer, she flipped through the files until she came to one marked “Land Offers.” Inside were letters from landowners all along the route, some of them refusing to sell, others agreeing. She recognized a few names of farmers she'd met or heard mentioned, but there was nothing pertaining to their farm. Disappointed, she replaced the papers. Then her eyes fell on a file labeled “Harris.”
    With shaking hands and racing heart Rose opened the folder. Inside were copies of the letters Jonas Fletcher had sent to her aunt. Also enclosed were her aunt’s replies, including her response to the last offer made for the farm. In it she thanked Mr. Fletcher for his generous offer and said that neither she nor her brother wished to sell. On it Mr. Fletcher had written a note indicating that Mr. Byrne would handle the matter going forward.
    A hurried look through the rest of the papers revealed several letters from George Washington Whistler, the engineer responsible for finding a way over the mountains. Whistler mentioned the anticipated arrival of Luke Fletcher, noting that his expertise would be greatly appreciated on such a difficult endeavor.
    How