Sophie felt a little awkward being confined so tightly beside Quentin in the carriage, but she’d endure anything if she could win his agreement to transform the abandoned mill into a climate observatory.A deep, fragrant forest surrounded them on all sides. Most of this land had been cleared when the mill was in operation sixty years ago, but forest could overtake the land quickly. Brambles thwacked against the side of the carriage, and the scent of deep, loamy soil pervaded the air.“This is far enough,” Sophie said to Mr. Ratface, who drove the carriage. They had arrived at the promontory that jutted out toward the river, where the old mill once funneled tons of timber toward cities all over the world. Forest surrounded them on three sides, but straight ahead was a rambling old building that would have covered a city block had it been built in town. It was two stories tall, with a bank of large windows, mostly broken, running along the top floor.“I know it looks bad from the outside, but the building is structurally sound, and it’s ideally placed to take advantage of the river.”
