Showing The Promised Land 1912 by Cindy Bouchard

In 1912, the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway is only two years from completion in British Columbia. The tracks from Prince Rupert will reach Hazelton by August and the tracks from the east have crossed into British Columbia. Thousands of settlers have arrived from all over the world to the new towns that lay along the gleaming rails.
This is the era of growth and prosperity in the Promised Land and land speculating is the order of the day. Many fortunes are made, lost and regained. Everyone has a ‘lot’ on their minds.
Technological advances abound as innovations in travel and communication are made both at home and overseas.
Luxury Liners sail the Seven Seas in opulent elegance and swift surety. In every free country, mankind has conquered the land, the sea and even the skies. These are the good years. The era of the Grand Hostess. Canada’s own Camelot.
The Grand Trunk Pacific has commissioned Francis Rattenbury to build a string of four Grand Hotels all along the remainder of the line. The Jasper Mountain Inn, Chateau Miette, Chateau Mount Robson, and Grand Trunk Pacific Inn and Steamship Terminal will be magnificent castles in the wilderness, whose beauty will only be exceeded by the splendor of their surroundings.
Prince Rupert waits in an optimistic fever for the fulfillment of the railroad’s promises and basks in the devoted care of its greatest advocate, Charles Mellville Hays.
South and Central Fort George ready themselves for their greatest boom years as they wait for the tracks to reach Tete Jaune Cache and for the sternwheelers Operator and Conveyor to be rebuilt for work on the Upper Fraser, thus bringing thousands of workers into the district.
And tiny Hazelton is torn between the old ways and the new, as the three Hazeltons battle to see which one will survive the coming days of change.
However, a tragedy is about to strike thousands of miles away in the Atlantic Ocean. An event that will mark the end of the age of innocence and optimism. As a devastated British Columbia, together with the rest of the world, struggles with grief, the aftermath of the tragedy will leave Prince Rupert orphaned and forever cripple the Grand Trunk Pacific. Now bereft of its brilliant leader, the railway resolutely continues across the province as its costs pile higher and higher and its promises become harder and harder to keep.
In 1912 Canada must persevere through many disasters, both natural and man-made, and there are troubling signs of an economy that has inexorably begun to slump towards a depression.

Jeff Hamilton must choose between his friendship with Miss Lily and the moral code that he has lived by all of his life. To save himself, he knows he must walk away from her, much as he walked away from Jessica Sterling Wheeler. However, Jeff wonders if he can’t somehow find a way to save both himself and Miss Lily, while also fulfilling his dreams.

Natalie Sterling, now the mother of twins, Daniel and Diana, has a wonderful marriage with her loving husband Jonathan. Together they work on their common goals and their personal dreams. Natalie wants to sell real estate and Jonathan wants to fly.

Heather Sinclair is expecting her first child and has grown to love the life that she and Dustin have built together on their Hazelton farm. Her only concerns are for her brothers, for Jeff has yet to forgive her for marrying Dustin, and Billy has fallen madly in love with a woman who Heather considers is his worst possible choice.

Torn between family loyalty and the secret knowledge of his heart, Billy Hamilton travels from Hazelton to Prince Rupert, where he and Jonathan will become fast friends, as well as true brothers. Together they will share moments of grief, but also times of wonder at the vast possibilities of the future.
The family has planned a reunion in Hazelton that August: the same month that the first passenger train will run from Prince Rupert and many secrets and revelations will be revealed.