As Rachel and Nick dragged the desk into his apartment, Rachel kept complaining about how heavy it was and how it wasn't worth as much as he had paid. He ignored her babbling and kept his mind on polishing the desk.
They set it down in the living room and they both sat down on the sofa. A few minutes later Rachel got up, stretched, and turned to Nick.
"Baby, I've gotta go. I have to wake up early tomorrow for work. I'll call you okay?"
She gave him a kiss on the cheek and walked out the door.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As Nick laid awake in bed, struggling to get some sleep, his mind drifted to
polishing the desk. He got out of bed and looked at the clock, which read
2:20 am, and got some polishing rags and polish. He began polishing the desk.
After doing the whole thing except the drawers, he took out the first drawer
and wiped it, put it back in and took out the second.
As he was polishing the hole where the second drawer went, his hand hit a little bump. It seemed like a latch of some sort. He pulled on it and part of the desk opened up. A small compartment about as big as a Bible. He peered inside and saw something white and shiny. He pulled everything out. There was an envelope, an old fashioned ink holder and a calligraphy pen. The paper was a pale shade of yellow. He opened the envelope, and inside were pieces of paper with the name 'Elizabeth Whitcomb' written at the tops with old fashioned ink and in cursive. There were a few blank pages, then one page in the middle caught his eye. There was writing on it all the way to the bottom, and he pulled it out and began reading.
The words in the letter were these -
Dearest,
October 13, 1863
Please forgive me for writing this, for I will never know you, therefore I will never see you, nor you will ever see me. I dream of you, even though I never knew you existed. Mother, father and Flossy all want me to marry. They have found one for me, and he is a wonderful man and publisher of a popular magazine in the city. I do not love him. Whenever I see him I feel as though I'm locked in chains, screaming at the top of my lungs in a crowded room and no one even looks up. It's a living hell. Please save me from my bondage. I beg of you to help me, although there is nothing you can do. Nothing at all. But please, do not forget me. Even though I will never know you, you will always be somewhere in my heart. Somewhere I never knew existed. And when you read this, please remember that I did exist somewhere in time, in someone's life and had a meaning somehow. Do not forget me.
Elizabeth Whitcomb
Nick put the letter on the desk and stared straight ahead.
"Holy shit..." he muttered.
Chapter 3
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