Chapter 4 – The Boots & the Scarf

As he rode into town, Jack recognized Elizabeth by her coat and the back of her hair. She was walking with a man in the other direction. The man was too tall to be Lee, and too well dressed to be any of the townsmen. For a moment, Jack was worried that it might be Charles back in town.

Just then Elizabeth slipped on a spot of ice. As she started to fall, the man reached out to steady her. Jack's momentary relief at seeing the man's profile, and realizing it wasn't Charles, didn't last when he saw Mr. Fenderson's hand go around Elizabeth's waist.

Jack felt a sudden stab of jealousy. Without meaning to, he held his breath waiting to see how long it would be before the man removed his hand. After what seemed like entirely too long a period of time, Mr. Fenderson removed his hand from Elizabeth's waist and offered her his arm, which she accepted.

Jack knew the ground could be icy, and he certainly didn't want Elizabeth to fall, but that didn't mean he had to like this situation.

After he had settled his horse and cleaned up, Jack went to the Café. Not seeing Elizabeth, he walked through into her parlor. She was reading so intently on the couch that she didn't notice him enter.

Jack leaned against the wall watching her.

"Ahem. By any chance, are you missing a Mountie?", he asked playfully.

His heart skipped a beat when he saw her joy as she looked up and realized he was back.

"Jack, you're home! I wasn't expecting you for another day!"

Once he held Elizabeth in his arms, he gave her a long lingering kiss.

"Mmmmm, I like your hello kisses", she said.

"I like your welcome home kisses. Did you miss me?"

"You know I did, Jack. Come on into the kitchen, let's get you something to eat and you can tell me all about your trip."

"First, you tell me how you're feeling. I was worried sick about you." He got a lump in his throat just thinking about how ill she had been.

"I feel so clumsy with my bandages", she said dolefully, as she held up her bandaged hands. "But I'm almost back to normal".

Jack took an assessing look at her.

"No more sweating? Confusion? Dizziness? Trouble breathing? Prickly feeling?"

Elizabeth smiled. "No, Jack. I am fine. Thanks to you and some anti-venom serum . . . . . Although, you did just describe how your kisses make me feel sometimes," she added playfully.

"Well, I think that I need to assess that for myself", he said with a grin as he moved closer to her.

He placed a hand on her cheek and gently held her face for a moment, gazing into her eyes. His eyes moved to her lips and he softly traced a finger along them.

"I missed you", he whispered before their lips touched.

"I missed you too", she whispered as she placed her arms around his neck, keeping him close as she returned his kiss.

"Thank you for saving my life. I owe you a few more kisses for that", Elizabeth told him sweetly between kisses.

Jack laughed. "My pleasure, and I'll be happy to collect those kisses."

Over dinner, Elizabeth told Jack about Anne and school.

"She's been a big help at the school, and it's made her even more eager to do well on the entrance examinations and go to Teacher College".

"I met her father, Pete Fenderson, before I left town. He's seems like a decent enough fellow. Have you seen much of him?" Jack asked, trying to keep any hint of jealousy out of his voice.

"Actually I have. I had dinner with him and Anne. He's very nice and he knows some people that I know from Hamilton. Isn't that incredible? What a small world."

Not small enough, Jack thought to himself. He liked as much distance between Hamilton and Hope Valley as possible.

Between Elizabeth's brief illness, the cold weather, and having been out of town for the trial, Jack was behind on his normal rounds, which meant he had a lot of catching up to do.

As Jack explained to Elizabeth, the shorter daylight hours meant he wouldn't be able to travel nearly as far as he had in the summer and fall. He would have to ride as much as possible one day, camp overnight, and return the next day, rather than do a roundtrip all in one day.

Elizabeth didn't like the idea of Jack sleeping out in cold, but, with a smile, he assured her that Mounties could handle the cold.

Jack tried to spend as much time with Elizabeth before he left again, but she was busy during the day with students, so that left only the evenings.

Jack realized that he had no reason to be jealous of Mr. Fenderson, but still, he didn't like the idea of Elizabeth walking on another man's arm. Well, there's an easy way to solve that problem, he thought as he entered the mercantile.

Before he left on his next trip, Jack showed Elizabeth a Sears, Roebuck, and Co. catalog he borrowed from the mercantile, and insisted that she pick out a good pair of boots. Despite her protests that her boots were fine, she relented and finally chose a pair of sturdy practical boots.

"But Jack, they're so . . . . ugly", she said.

Jack raised his eyebrows as he looked at her. "I don't care if they are ugly. Your current pair of boots may be pretty but they are totally useless for actually walking in the snow and ice. I don't want you slipping and falling."

"Fine. Jack. I'll wear them. But what made you think I needed new boots?"

Jack didn't say anything and pretended to be busy filling out the order form. The last thing he wanted to do was act like a jealous suitor.

Over the next few weeks, Jack was gone for two days at a time. When he returned, much to his chagrin, he often found Elizabeth in the company of Mr. Fenderson.

Elizabeth told Jack that Pete Fenderson had so many interesting stories about places he had been; she was thinking of having him talk to the students.

"He's traveled to so many places, he can talk to the students about the vast differences in Canada . . . and he can talk about business ventures . . . and we can use math to calculate distances . . . and he gave me some extra maps he had. . . "

Jack was starting to feel unsettled as many of their conversations seemed to revolve around Pete Fenderson. Jack realized that his own daily rounds may not make for exciting stories, so he found himself, more and more, trying to embellish the details when he described them to Elizabeth.

Each evening when he left her, he told himself that he was being foolish; he didn't need to compete with Fenderson. And yet, when he would see Mr. Fenderson with his expensive clothes and air of sophistication, he'd get the self-doubting feeling again.

Doesn't that man have any work to do!, he thought when he saw Mr. Fenderson sitting at the Café with Elizabeth.

"Jack", Elizabeth's eyes lit up when she saw him enter.

"Hello, Constable, good to have you back in town. Well, I'll be off. Good talking to you again, Elizabeth." Mr. Fenderson shook Jack's hand before putting on his coat, and offering Jack his chair.

"Having tea with another man? Should I be jealous?" Jack said good- naturedly as he sat down.

"Don't be silly. Why would I want a railroad executive when I can have a handsome Mountie?" she replied with a smile.

Whenever she smiled at him, Jack felt better. She loves me. There's nothing to worry about, he thought as they enjoyed a meal.

Later, while he was picking up supplies at the mercantile, Jack noticed a pretty blue scarf for sale at the counter.

"I just got two of those in yesterday. Miss Thatcher was admiring them this morning. They are very nice, aren't they?" Mr. Yost remarked as he saw Jack fingering the soft scarf.

Jack looked at the price tag. With a hint of embarrassment, he realized that there was no way he could buy Elizabeth everything she was used to owning.

The next evening, Jack headed to the mercantile, intent on buying the scarf for Elizabeth after all. He pushed aside thoughts of insecurities. He knew he didn't need to buy her presents but he hadn't been spending a lot of time with her. If he couldn't shower her with attention like Pete Fenderson seemed to be doing, at least he could shower her with a gift or two. He told himself that this was his way of reminding her how special she was to him.

"Mr. Yost, I'm looking for the blue scarf you had for sale yesterday."

"I sold it this morning to Mr. Fenderson."

"Mr. Fenderson?"

""I thought it might be for his daughter, but he said it was for a lady friend. My clerk must have sold the other one when I was out of the store. Sorry about that, Constable. Do you want me to order one for you?"

"No, that's okay." Jack responded. Who was the lady friend?, he wondered, suddenly a little more insecure about his relationship with Elizabeth. It'd better not be for Elizabeth.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth was admiring the feel and look of her new blue scarf as she stared at her reflection in the mirror.

Elizabeth knew that as much as she loved Hope Valley, she also loved certain aspects of her Hamilton life, including owning some expensive beautiful things. If Jack insists on me wearing ugly boots, he can't complain if I want to wear something this pretty around my neck!

She already had several scarfs, but this one was so nice, she just couldn't say no to it.