Free Beyond All Dreams by Elizabeth Camden

references, Sarah was unable to land another professional position and finally settled for a job cleaning shrimp. And the congressman she was caught kissing? He was now the governor of Montana.
    Anna took another step back from Mr. Callahan. She didn’t have the luxury to spend time admiring rare manuscripts or indulge in a friendship with a member of Congress.
    â€œI’d better get back to the map room,” she said hastily.
    â€œPlease, stay and look at the Magna Carta with me,” Mr. Callahan pressed. “I can see by that hungry glint in your eye that you’re salivating over the prospect.”
    Mr. Ferris wrinkled his nose as if he smelled something foul. What he smelled was a librarian skating on thin ice. Any implication of a flirtation between her and Mr. Callahan was ridiculous. They were as different as chalk and cheese, but she still couldn’t risk a hint of impropriety.
    â€œI’ll have the taxation schedules for mollusks completed for you by tomorrow morning,” she said, turning to leave.
    She had no intention of following in Sarah Starling’s footsteps.

    It didn’t take long for Mr. Ferris to come slinking into the map room later that day. Anna was standing over a stack of nautical maps that contained the fishing territories of New England.
    â€œI gather you are quite friendly with the congressman from Maine,” Mr. Ferris said.
    â€œMr. Spofford assigned me to be Mr. Callahan’s research assistant for a spell. I hope you don’t mind?”
    â€œI do, actually.”
    She dropped her map and put her hands on her hips. “If you have any smutty accusations about my behavior, I’d like to hear them.” There was a time when she’d allowed people to bully her, but those days were over.
    â€œIt seems you are performing research for him that falls outside your duties as a map librarian,” he pointed out. “I find that odd.”
    â€œI am perfectly capable of researching general information requests, and Mr. Spofford has asked me to do so. Most of the generalists are over at the new building, getting ready for the move.”
    Mr. Ferris cleared his throat delicately. “I also thought you’d like to know that others noticed your tête-à-tête with Mr. Callahan in the reading room earlier today. I’m sure you don’t need to be reminded how that appears to outsiders.”
    â€œCorrect. You don’t need to remind me.”
    He retreated after that, leaving Anna feeling annoyed as she paged through the maps, looking for historic taxation boundaries in the fishing beds.
    Her annoyance didn’t last long. It was too easy to become engrossed as she searched the oversized maps of the estuary bays along the rugged New England coastline. Home to some of themost important shipping channels in the nation, the coastline had been well documented over the years, and she carefully peeled back each map, the paper warping and crinkling as she flipped to one portraying Narragansett Bay.
    Her heart squeezed. It was a map drawn by her father.
    In the course of her work, she often stumbled across maps her father had made, and the bittersweet rush was always the same. She smiled as she traced the coastline, noting the pale-blue hash marks that indicated brackish water. In her mind’s eye she could see the thick brush of sea grass and smell the salty air.
    Nevertheless, this map didn’t contain the information she needed, and she stood to grasp one side of the oversized map and peeled it to the side, the paper rustling loudly in the silence of the map room.
    â€œNice seeing you again, Papa,” she whispered.
    It was hard to concentrate after seeing that map. She didn’t want to provoke Lieutenant Rowland’s ire, but neither was she going to ignore the inaccuracies in the navy’s report about the Culpeper . Her father had been trying to tell her something in his final letter, but for the life of her,