Answering the Call
Chapter One: Answering Charles
by One Day Greatness
Standard Disclaimer Applies
Note: This is my first attempt at a WCtH fanfic and I am a fairly new #Heartie. But I like fanfiction, LOVE writing exercises, and really, really love When Calls the Heart. I dashed this off after watched the Season Two Finale. I would say it's a good mix between the show and the message of Janette Oke's original series. Enjoy!
Elizabeth stared down at Charles in shock, hardly believing this could be happening to her, at this moment, with Jack due to arrive at any moment. Finally, with less grace than she would care to admit, she turned her back on him and took several quick strides to the other side of the room. "Charles," she said, not looking at him, "Charles, I thought we talked about this. I thought I told you...told you back in Hamilton...that this isn't something I want." She turned, feeling more composed, and saw him still on his knees, that hopeful look in his eyes as bright as ever. She swallowed.
"I told you I wasn't ready to give up yet. This is me, not giving up. This is me, hoping you will come to realize just how much I care for you. I love you, Elizabeth. I've loved you most of my life." His charming smile coupled with his cultured accent would be the stuff of many a girl's dreams...but he was not Elizabeth's dream. Especially not now. Not after all she and Jack went through, in the mine and in Hamilton. Elizabeth recognized what she wanted now, and as much as she cared for Charles, she knew the life he presented her would be far less satisfying than what she would face with Jack Thornton.
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Please, Charles, get up. And...and put the ring away."
Charles stared at her for several seconds before slowly coming to his feet, but he kept the ring box open and in his hand. "You don't have to answer right now, Elizabeth. You can take your time -"
She raised her hand to stop him and slowly shook her head. "Charles, you are one of my dearest friends. I care for you a great deal. But I don't need any time. I told you how I felt before. I told you I couldn't allow this...this behavior to continue." She felt the beginnings of a headache when he tilted his chin up, affecting a very stubborn expression she knew all too well from their years together as children. Charles, for all his good qualities, never learned much about being denied what he most wanted.
"Elizabeth, you know you don't belong here, in this kind of life. There is nothing about this place that could appeal to you, a woman of your upbringing and prospects, a woman with your great talents and God-given abilities. You are hiding yourself away here. And that Mountie...that Mountie might appeal to your sense of adventure now, but what about stability? What about prosperity? I've been with you since we were children. I know you," he stated with authority, "This life will not satisfy you in the long run."
This brazen, and somewhat condescending, speech raised her hackles and she felt her compassion for his situation begin to diminish. "You sound a great deal like my father," she said with a tilt of her chin. "In fact, you sound like a lot of people in my life have sounded when they told me that I can't do something. Who are you to tell me what my abilities are? Where my happiness will be found?" She shook her head and balled her hands into fists at her side. "And how could you claim to know me when all I've wanted, all I dreamed of since that childhood we supposedly shared, was to be a woman who made a difference in the lives of others? I'm doing that, Charles, here. In Hope Valley."
"You can teach anywhere," he said, interrupting her. "In the finest schools or, if you feel the need to continue helping the underprivileged, in charity schools. There are more places to teach than Hope Valley."
"It isn't just the teaching, Charles," she argued, eyes blazing. "It's the community. It's the lives I'm touching, every day, and the friends I have made. And it's real - not all the posturing and playacting of the social world you so want me to be a part of. People here live their faith and friendships, they don't just give lip service to God and then fill their days with gossip and meaningless activities." She glanced at the open door of the schoolhouse and the road beyond it, wondering where Jack could be yet relieved he had yet to arrive. "Charles, I have put my life in the hands of Someone Else."
He jerked backward, as if physically pushed. "You've agreed to marry the Mountie?"
She rolled her eyes. "His name is Jack Thornton, and no. I haven't agreed to marry him." She saw Charles relax even while his eyes narrowed in confusion. "I've given my life to God, my faith is in Him and whatever it is He calls me to do. All my life I've felt my heart guiding me, I've felt called to those things that have brought me here. Called to teaching, called to Hope Valley and the children here, and right now even the thought of leaving this place fills me with a feeling of complete wrongness. This is where I belong. And you, Charles...you don't."
He stared at her for several long moments and then looked down at the ring in his hands. "This is a no, then? I don't even merit an extra day or two for you to think on what I'm asking? What I'm offering?"
Elizabeth took a deep breath and tried to keep her tone matter-of-fact, not too friendly, not wanting to give him even one more iota of false hope. "This is a no. It is also a never. We may have grown up together, but I cannot see myself as your wife. You are one of my dearest friends, but that is all I have ever seen you as." She looked to the doorway again. "I wish I could spare you whatever pain you may be feeling, but I cannot consent to being your wife and I...I will have to reconsider our friendship if you continue on this way. I asked you in Hamilton, and now I am asking you here, please stop pursuing me."
He took a deep breath and released it in a bitter-sounding chuckle. "Elizabeth, you always surprise me." She looked back at him to see very real sadness in his eyes. "Would you at least consent to having dinner with me before I leave?"
The Elizabeth who existed even just days ago, before her long talk with Jack in the abandoned coal mine, would say yes to spare his feelings, to try to make him happy again. But this Elizabeth, this woman who knew her heart, shook her head resolutely. "I don't think so, Charles. I think it would be best if we did not see each other for a while. Now, if you don't mind, I have some things to finish here." She gestured to the doorway, she kept her spine straight, she made certain her determination to see him leave was in every line of her expression and form.
Charles followed her gesture, looked back once at her, then sighed. "Goodbye, Elizabeth Thatcher. I hope you're happy with your choices." The words sounded flat, but he left. She did not say another word, but watched him until he crossed the threshold of her school. At that moment, she allowed herself to inhale a shaky breath and drop onto the closest bench. She dropped her face into her hands and mourned the friendship she knew to be gone forever.