Dear Readers: As always, I like my vignettes to come full circle. You may recognize the first sentence of this chapter as the first sentence of Chapter 1.
Chapter 8-Home
The dirt made a thudding sound as it landed after being tossed by the men with shovels.
Shovelful after shovelful.
It wasn't the urgent sound of a shovel hurriedly moving dirt to shore up a bank against flooding waters.
And it wasn't the worried sound of a shovel digging in the dry ground in the desperate hope of finding a well of water to nourish fields and people.
And it definitely wasn't the sad sound of finality of a shovelful of dirt hitting wood in a church cemetery.
It was the hopeful joyous sound made when a town joined together to build a new schoolhouse.
The official letter had arrived last week informing the town that the province government had approved funds for building a new school. The government, in recognition that the town had purposely burned down a perfectly good building, had only provided a limited amount of money, not the entire amount the town had requested.
Not to be discouraged, the town realized that if the citizens volunteered their labor, there would be enough money for building supplies as well as enough to buy desks and a chalkboard.
And so, the town that had once joined together to burn down the old school, now joined together to build another one.
Elizabeth stood apart from the crowd of men shoveling dirt, pounding hammers, and cutting wood.
She looked over at them and smiled as she heard snippets of their conversations. Jack, who was holding up a wooden post as Michael hammered nails into it, was laughing with the other man as they talked about hunting and fishing and womenfolk. The barber and the blacksmith talked politics. The bartender and his favorite customers traded stories of life in the west, while Mr. MacIntre from the mercantile explained the newest merchandise he was ordering.
In Elizabeth's skirt pocket, were the two pieces of mail she had received just that morning.
The letter written in perfect penmanship was from a friend of hers, a fellow student from her days at teachers' college. The woman's school had recently received all new textbooks, and, hearing of Elizabeth's predicament, she was sending a crate of the used, but still useful, textbooks to Bear Creek.
The other envelope, the one with the Hamilton postmark, contained a letter from Elizabeth's parents. They had offered to provide rulers, paste, boxes of paper, and other supplies as a gift.
Elizabeth smiled when she thought of those items and also about Jack's gift. The large rug, his gift to Elizabeth, had arrived that morning at the train depot.
Elizabeth had already told the students about story time and how enjoyable it would be to lay on the soft rug and close their eyes, dreaming of faraway places, while she read to them from her favorite novels and story books. Aesop's Fables. Peter Pan. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Grimms' Fairy Tales.
Places so unlike Bear Creek that the children would scarcely be able to sleep at night without dreaming of talking creatures and magical spells.
The children were so eager for the experience that Jack hadn't waited for the new schoolhouse to be finished, and had already unrolled the rug at the Mercantile house for tomorrow's classes.
The building. The books. The chalkboard. The desks. Even the erasers. It was all being replaced.
Elizabeth, the unrestrainable optimist when it came to the subject of education, had never given up on teaching in Bear Creek. Despite the lack of students and a school when she had first arrived in the sickly town, she had never considered allowing a child to go without knowing how to read a good book.
Books were meant to be read. And she was meant to teach.
Now, even though she knew that she could teach anywhere, Elizabeth was tickled to be getting a schoolhouse.
Elizabeth waved to people from a distance as she saw them across the street. A few simply waved back, but most ran over to greet her with smiles on their faces, thinking of the excitement of the new school.
Mothers stopped by to tell Elizabeth how impressed they were with her teaching.
Or to complain about the amount of homework.
Or to thank her for the extra help she had given some of their sons and daughters.
Or to ask if science was really that important for a girl to know.
Mr. Durand, with his thick French accent, stopped by to apologize for his boys fighting in class so often. He told her that he hoped that she understood that the boys simply had a lot of energy.
Elizabeth, trying to decipher the man's unique pronunciation of English words, thought the man said that he and his wife loved their sons very much and were praying for them. However, she realized with a start that he could have said that he and his wife loved their sins very much and were paying for them. Gosh, I hope it was the former!
"Mrs. Thornton!", yelled Lisa Anne as she ran over to Elizabeth and snuggled against her. The little girl's mother quickly followed after her and tried to pry her daughter's tiny fingers off of Elizabeth's skirt.
"Sorry", the woman apologized as Elizabeth looked down at her skirt and saw smeared chocolate fingerprints.
"It's okay", Elizabeth said as the woman took a melting bar of chocolate from Lisa Anne's hands and expressed gratitude for Elizabeth's gentle nature with the little girl who adored the town's newest teacher.
Elizabeth, with her belly now swollen so that there was no doubt she was expecting, stood in the fresh air. Enjoying the warmth of the sunlight and the warmth of the townspeople.
Children ran around the work-site. Yelling and playing hopscotch and other games in the street, while the women carried baskets full of muffins and jam. Sandwiches for the workers. Pitchers of lemonade or water.
"This is getting to be a habit", Jack said with a grin as he approached Elizabeth. "Building you a schoolhouse. Am I going to have to do this in every town we move to?"
Elizabeth chuckled. "It's a good thing I'm not a princess after all, or then you'd have to build me a castle in each town."
"I'd make it with a big moat all around it. So I could keep you all to myself", Jack said with a grin before he took a gulp of water from his canteen.
"Have I told you lately that I love you?" Elizabeth asked tenderly as she watched Jack wipe the sweat from his brow.
The way she looked at him made Jack feel like she just may worship him.
"Yes. But you can do it again", he replied with a grin as he moved in for a kiss.
Jack looked down at his hands and took off his gloves when Elizabeth offered him a sandwich from one of the many plates which now lined the table made of a board of wood stretched across sawhorses.
They weren't winter gloves, but thick leather gloves. The type worn for working. When he rode his horse, Jack almost always wore gloves. It was the practical thing to do to keep his hands from getting blisters or rein burn.
He probably would have worn them anyway while working on the school. But he was humored by Elizabeth's absolute insistence that he wear them.
"I don't want you getting any splinters or calluses", she had told him as they had left the house with his tools and her basket that morning.
"Elizabeth, my hands are used to hard labor. It's not that big a deal."
"Your hands may very well be the first hands to ever touch our child. Especially if the doctor is out of town and you deliver this baby. And I want our baby to feel your strong masculine hands without them having any calluses or blisters.
"The baby is not coming for months."
"Then you have months to keep your hands in perfect condition. Nice and soft."
"How am I suppose to keep my hands nice and soft for the next three and half months?" Jack asked skeptically.
"By wearing your gloves", Elizabeth instructed him as if it were the obvious answer.
I suppose they'll keep my hands soft, Jack thought as he now looked at the fine stitching of the gloves. Our baby should have soft hands holding him . . . or her.
Hours later, a dirty and exhausted Jack gathered his tools and his wife and headed down the street.
When he stopped walking on the sidewalk outside their home, he smiled at Elizabeth and motioned towards the large plate glass window. "We'll have to change that soon."
"Not just yet. I love looking at it", Elizabeth said with a grin as she paused to admire the artistic work which one her older students had completed a few weeks earlier.
The large painted green letters of "MacIntre's Mercantile" had been scraped off the glass and replaced with bright blue letters. The words, painted in letters twelve inches high, clearly spelled out the purposes of the building.
"Schoolhouse & Thornton Home"
Elizabeth watched as Jack chuckled and put the key into the front door, unlocking it, and then swinging it open. The movement of the door caused the jingling of the bell over it to greet them. The friendly musical welcome was almost drowned out by the sound of Rip giving a welcome bark and Comet walking over to the couple and purring to be picked up by Jack.
Thirty minutes later, the couple ignored the pot of water as it came to a rolling boil on the cast iron stove. The tea bags lay forgotten on the kitchen counter next to the ceramic mugs as Elizabeth, her back pressed against the kitchen wall, unbuttoned Jack's shirt.
"I want you desperately", he whispered hoarsely in her ear as she ran her fingers through his hair and moved her mouth along his neck.
Jack hurriedly untucked Elizabeth's blouse. His fingers fumbled slightly with her undergarment until he found what he was searching for; her soft bare skin.
"I am so glad you don't wear a corset any more", he said with a sigh as he kissed her neck and moved his hands farther up her body.
When Elizabeth arched her back, allowing him even more access to her body, Jack made a throaty sound of pleasure and pushed against her soft feminine form. He took her mouth in his again.
She loved the warm moist taste of him.
Keeping his mouth on hers, Jack blindly grabbed one of her thighs and raised it up against his hips, where she wrapped it around his waist.
Soon realizing that the wall and the audience of Rip and Comet didn't provide the most ideal location, a heavily breathing Elizabeth broke away and took Jack's hand in hers. Without a word, she began leading him out of the kitchen. She hated that his lips were off of her even for the few seconds it would take to walk from the hard kitchen wall to the bed's soft mattress.
As Elizabeth approached the bed, her outstretched arm leading Jack, she felt him stop in the doorway. His body refused to enter the bedroom. When she looked over her shoulder, Jack pulled his hand out of hers.
"I can't do this", he said abruptly.
"Do what?" a perplexed Elizabeth asked in confusion.
"This!" he said as he motioned to himself, then to her, and then to the bed. "I can't do this."
"Why not?" she asked in astonishment.
"I'm just not in the mood", he said with a shrug.
"Jack, you're always in the mood. What's going on?" Elizabeth asked with a laugh.
"Nothing. I just remembered that I have some work to work on."
"Some work to work on?" Elizabeth asked skeptically.
"Yep"
"You are turning me down because you have some work to work on?" she said as she raised her eyebrows in disbelief and watched him button up his shirt.
"Yeah. I should get going."
"Where?!" she exclaimed in bewilderment.
"To the Mountie office. To do my work."
Jack paused for a moment and looked at his wife and then at the bed as if trying to decide what to do.
"Okay. So, I'm going to go now. To work", he said as if trying to convince himself that he was making the right choice.
"The only thing you need to work on is our dialogue", Elizabeth said humorously.
"What?"
"Our dialogue. Talk to me. We haven't been intimate in over a week. You've been tired. You thought you were getting a cold. Then you said you pulled your back. You had a headache one night. You spent one night taking care of your horse because you thought that he had colic . . . which he didn't. What's going on?"
"Nothing. It's just been a long week. Why don't we do this another time?" Jack said as he tucked his shirt back into his pants and quickly reached for his shoes.
When Elizabeth stood there flabbergasted at the turn of events, Jack looked down at his shoes, brushing imaginary dust from them. "I may be a few hours. Don't bother waiting up".
"Jack, I am your wife. Young, fairly attractive, glowing with pregnancy. Meanwhile, my hormones are so out of whack that I want to have sex with you every time I see you. You're going to have to do better than 'I have some work to work on'", she told him firmly.
"Jack", she said sternly when he didn't reply.
Her tone made him feel like a student being reprimanded for cheating on a test.
Jack let out a deep sigh and avoided looking at Elizabeth when he finally responded.
"It's Bunny."
"Bunny?" Elizabeth asked in bewilderment. "The ghost?! Jack, I told you I don't believe in her anymore. I promise."
"I know. I don't either. But still –" Jack's voice trailed off as he tried to think of something rational to say.
"We didn't let our parents, our former relationships and friendships, our jobs, or our social upbringings ruin our relationship. And now, you're actually telling me that a ghost that neither one of us believes in is keeping us apart", Elizabeth said in surprise.
"Yeah, . . . well there's something I haven't told you yet."
"What are you talking about?" Elizabeth furrowed her brows as she looked at Jack. "What haven't you told me?"
"Remember the night you had the cramps and we felt the baby move for the first time?"
"You felt the baby move. I didn't feel it until two days later", Elizabeth reminded him.
"Okay. Whatever. The point is that night something kind of weird happened."
Ten minutes later, the couple was still in the bedroom. But still not touching.
Jack sat on the edge of the bed while Elizabeth stood in the doorway staring at him and refusing to let him leave.
"So, let me get this straight. You think you saw a ghost that you told me didn't exist so now we can't have sex?"
Jack nodded feebly.
"I am so confused. Why can't we have sex because you think you saw a ghost?"
"Isn't it obvious?!" Jack said as he looked at her in bewilderment.
"Nooooo", Elizabeth responded, dragging the word out as if she were talking to a child.
"Because she might be watching!", Jack exclaimed as he moved his head, nervously looking around the room.
Elizabeth bit her lip to keep from smiling. "Aaah, okay. Now it's making more sense. You're worried that a ghost, that may or may not exist, will watch us being intimate. So you've been avoiding you and me being "us" for more than a week.
Jack looked sheepish.
"And how long did you think you would avoid 'us'"? Elizabeth asked.
Jack frowned. "I hadn't thought that far in advance."
"Considering that we're stationed here for another 10 months, maybe you should have thought of that", Elizabeth said in exasperation.
"It's been hard to think!" Jack said defensively. "Between a ghost, and wanting you. And not having you. It's been a really tough week and a half!"
Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "We are two rational people. There are no such things as ghosts."
"Guardian angel", Jack spoke up as he looked at Elizabeth.
"What?"
"I prefer the term guardian angel."
"Whatever. It doesn't matter. She won't watch us having sex ", Elizabeth said as it were an obvious fact.
"Why not?"
"First of all, even if she does exist, and I'm not saying she does. But even if she does, I don't think she's interested in that. Her forte is helping pregnant women with their pregnancies, not . . . not that other stuff. Second, she's not generally here when you're here. She usually visited me when I was alone. When you're here, she trusts you to protect me."
"She was here when I was here that night. When you had your cramps!"
"If she was, and that's a big if. Then it was just to check on me because you had seemed so worried earlier . . . . .
And third, we would know if she were here."
"How?"
"We would smell the lavender."
"I guess you're right", Jack said, as he suddenly felt hopeful. "We would smell the lavender!"
"And we don't smell it now, do we?"
"No, we don't", Jack said happily. "I don't smell any lavender! Do you?"
"No, I don't. Now I'm going to finish getting undressed and climb into that bed. Are you going to join me?"
'Do you really want to have sex with me every time you see me?" Jack asked in astonishment as he watched her unbuttoning her blouse.
"Yes!" Elizabeth exclaimed as she picked up a pillow and threw it at him. "Now get into bed and ravish me."
The rain pelted against the window pane as the flash of lightning and sound of thunder woke up Elizabeth from her sleep.
As she stirred on her side, Jack reached his arm across her bare body, putting a hand on her plump belly.
"I've got you", he told her as he snuggled closer to her, pressing his naked muscular torso against her curved back.
"I know", she said quietly with a smile. "I love you too."
"Are you sleeping?" she asked a few minutes later as the thunder got louder and more frequent, causing her body to jump in surprise each time she heard it.
"Nah. It's too hard to fall back asleep with the storm. You?"
"I can't sleep either. I keep thinking about what it's going to be like. When we have a baby", Elizabeth answered as she placed her hand on top of Jack's and then intertwined their fingers.
"I expect it won't be much different."
"How can you say that?" Elizabeth asked in surprise.
"Life with you is already more interesting and incredible than I ever could have imagined. I expect it will remain that way", Jack answered honestly and with a chuckle.
"It's a good thing we're married to each other because I was thinking the same thing", Elizabeth said with a grin as she turned her body onto her other side to look at Jack. Their faces just inches apart.
Even in the dark, they could see how much they loved each other.
Although it was scientifically and rationally impossible for the baby to know what was going on outside the womb, it seemed to give a little kick of happy acknowledgement the moment Elizabeth's and Jack's lips touched.
Of course, that could have just been a coincidence.
You decide.
The End of Vignette Nine
Dear Readers, Another Vignette has come to an end. Thanks for reading and reviewing. I hope you enjoyed reading my story as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Check out Vignette 10 - Snowfall (It's just one chapter) and then Vignette 11 - Wishes and the Necessary Vessel.
Also, please check out my other story, Reversal of Fortune under the name woolenslipper for a different take on our favorite couple.
Lavender is in full bloom right now, at least on the East Coast of the United States. So, if you happen to smell the lingering scent of lavender, a guardian angel might just be near. Or maybe it's just the plant. :)
P.S. I love reading your reviews!
