When Love Comes My Way by Copeland Lori

Author:Copeland, Lori [Copeland, Lori]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780736942850
Publisher: Harvest House Publishers
Published: 2012-06-01T04:00:00+00:00

16

Jake walked into the office late in the afternoon, stomping snow off his boots and heading straight for the stove to thaw out. He noticed that André was deeply engrossed in a wire he was reading.

“What has you so preoccupied?”

“We just received another telegraph from Monsieur Talbot Wellington-Kent.”

Jake shrugged out of his coat and hung it on the peg. “Oh?”

“He is worried sick about his fiancée, Jake. He is trying to get here, but the weather has brought train travel to a halt. I am afraid he is thinking the worst.”

Reaching for his coffee cup, Jake walked back to the stove, parroting his usual answer when the subject of Tess Wakefield was brought up. “We’ve told him everything we know. The rivers are frozen solid. It would be a miracle if any bodies were found now. When the weather clears, he can come and confirm Miss Yardley’s identity.”

The Frenchman shook his head. “You can see why he is upset. Miss Wakefield has not contacted him since she left Philadelphia. Talbot says here that her engagement ring alone was worth more than ten thousand dollars.” André laid the telegraph aside thoughtfully. “I sympathize with the poor man.”

Jake walked to the window to stare out at the falling snow. Tess wasn’t wearing a ring, nor had she been the day André fished her out of the water. He’d checked—but the ring could have slipped off during the accident. He frowned as his conscience pricked. What if he was mistaken and the schoolteacher was in fact Fedelia Yardley?

A sick feeling formed in the pit of his stomach. If he was mistaken, he was deliberately driving her away—not to mention he was getting mighty attracted to the woman, whoever she was. He shook his head to clear his brain.

The woman in that schoolhouse had tenacity. He had watched her struggle to perform a job he suspected she wasn’t trained to do without a word of complaint. Her predecessors had been in his office every hour on the hour demanding to be replaced, but this woman, facing an overwhelming task, was quietly gritting her way through it.

When we find out her true identity, let her be Fedelia Yardley.

Jake could deal with falling in love with a stranger, but not Wakefield’s granddaughter. And yet, in his heart, he knew who she was.

Tess had adjusted to living among one hundred and twenty-five rough, barely civilized woodsmen, and only rarely did she show signs of losing her sunny disposition. Her aristocratic behavior and refined breeding were making gentlemen out of the burly lumberjacks, an enviable accomplishment for anyone.

The crew had even ceased their constant harping about her not allowing them to smoke in the bunkhouse. They good-naturedly bowed to her wishes and had taken their pipes and tobacco outdoors.

He was beginning to be deeply ashamed for what he was putting her through. That feeling had grown ever since the afternoon she helped him take care of Frank Kellier’s leg. Though her face was pale and her hands shook, she had worked beside him even when grown men hadn’t been able to render assistance.

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