Chapter 2: Duty Calls
Many hours later, the train arrived at the end of the line, at Buckeystown. At that point Jack perked up, thinking he could make amends with Elizabeth by securing a carriage for the both of them from Buckeystown to Hope Valley. As the train slowed to a stop, Jack gathered his belongings and quickly stood up, eager to exit the train.
Before Jack could step into the aisle, though, he felt a tug on his sleeve. "Young man, would you be so kind as to fetch my bag for me?" asked a matronly lady who had been sitting behind Jack the whole trip. Jack smiled politely and replied, "Of course." Jack reached into the overhead compartment and placed the lady's suitcase in the aisle by her seat. "Oh, sir, could you help me with mine too," asked a young mother with two squirmy children who had been sitting on a bench seat across from Jack. Jack smiled solicitously and started to pull down those bags as well.
As Jack was retrieving the young mother's luggage, he bent over and glanced out the window to see if he could spot Elizabeth amidst the hundreds of passengers debarking from the train. Jack thought he noticed a slim young woman with auburn hair walking alongside the coach car. As Jack leaned over to get a closer look, one of the mother's children started screaming, "Where's my dolly? I can't find her!" Startled, Jack jumped up and banged his head on the under ceiling of the luggage compartment. "Owww…" Jack said out loud, feeling the bump on his head.
"Look under the child's seat," one of the other passengers called out helpfully, as the child's screams got louder. Jack got down on his knees but couldn't see anything at first. Then Jack reached into his knapsack by his side and pulled out a flashlight (being the ever prepared Mountie) and bent over again – this time Jack saw a glint of white and swept his arm under the seat, managing to pull out a baby doll wearing a white nightgown. "Here she is, safe and sound," Jack said soothingly as he handed the doll back to the crying child.
Jack started to rise and return to the aisle, but the mother grabbed his sleeve. "Wait – Geraldine needs to say thank you first. Geraldine, please say thank you to the nice man who found your doll." The little girl shook her head "no" as she cradled her baby doll. "Geraldine, mind your manners!" cried the mother, who let go of Jack's sleeve in order to wag her finger at her daughter. "It's no problem, Ma'am, I'm happy to help, but I need to be on my way now," Jack explained, as he managed to back out of the mother's seating area and return to the aisle.
By this time, however, all the other passengers in the car were also lined up in the aisle, waiting to exit the train. Jack, stuck in the middle, looked up and down the aisle to see if one end of the line was moving quicker than the other, but to no avail. As Jack impatiently waited his turn to debark, he bent over to look out the window again.
This time Jack definitely could see Elizabeth – she was over by a line of carriages talking to the driver of the carriage at the front of the line. Next to her was a porter holding her luggage, and two other men waiting to board the same carriage.
This sight raised Jack's hopes. "If I can just get off this train," Jack thought, "I can run over and be the fourth passenger in the same carriage that Elizabeth is taking."
Jack managed to weave his way to the train's exit area and was about to step down the stairs when he heard a familiar voice calling to him. "Sir . . . sir . . . you're a constable, right?" Jack turned around to see the train employee who had refused to let him into the First Class car.
Jack replied cautiously, "Yes, I am. But I'm not on duty right now – I need to catch a carriage to Hope Valley where I'm stationed."
The train employee scoffed and grabbed Jack's arm. "Constable, you need to come with me. We have a situation in the back coach car – two men are fighting over a piece of luggage that each man claims is his. We need your help. You said you were a constable - I assume you were telling the truth!"
Jack shook his head in exasperation. "Okay, I'll be right there," Jack acquiesced. Jack took one last look out into the train platform to see Elizabeth being helped into the carriage by one of the other male passengers, who was smiling at her admiringly. Jack gritted his teeth and thought, "Okay, I'll just have to catch up with Elizabeth when I get back to Hope Valley." Jack turned and dutifully followed the train employee to the back coach car.
A few yards away, Elizabeth, seated in the carriage that was to take her to Hope Valley, looked out the side window, trying to find Jack in the crowd. "Maybe Jack got off at one of the previous stops on Mountie business," Elizabeth wondered to herself. "Or maybe he already caught a carriage back to Hope Valley and didn't wait for me . . . ." Elizabeth speculated, annoyed.
Elizabeth sighed - she had been hoping to share a carriage with Jack back to Hope Valley. Elizabeth had missed sitting with Jack on the train. Elizabeth worried she should not have so thoroughly rebuffed Jack's effort to contact her on the train; she ended up spending most of the train ride bored and lonely. "I guess Jack and I will have to figure out our relationship back at Hope Valley," Elizabeth thought to herself.
Elizabeth felt a jerk as the carriage started to move forward. Elizabeth leaned her head out the carriage window one last time to look back at the train platform. Failing to see Jack in the crowds, Elizabeth pulled her head back inside the carriage window to face her fellow travelers. Elizabeth smiled politely at the other male passengers in the carriage, who were eagerly waiting to talk to her.
As the carriage moved away from the train station, Elizabeth wondered once again whether she should be moving on as well. "Have I misread my calling in Hope Valley? Am I meant to be someplace else . . . with someone else?" Elizabeth thought to herself. Elizabeth was willing to follow her heart . . . if she only knew where her heart wanted to go.