Chapter 9
"Is it true that you are courting the new Constable?"
Elizabeth was shocked at the brazen question but responded quickly "We haven't gone a date yet. It's too soon to call it courting."
Abigail chimed in before the woman could speak again. "Florence, why don't you let Ms. Thatcher introduce herself to the whole group. Questions regarding the school or her teaching can be asked at the end."
Florence didn't look appeased but went back to her seat nonetheless.
Abigail motioned for Elizabeth to step in front and addressed the group. "Attention everyone! I would like to introduce the new teacher! This is Ms. Elizabeth Thatcher. She's traveled all the way from Hamilton to be here with us." Abigail finished motioning for Elizabeth.
"Thank you, Abigail. Hello everyone! I'm very excited to meet all of your children and start the school year. I haven't had a chance to look at your materials yet, but I did bring a few of my favorite books from home to share with the children. I hope to take a few minutes with each child on the first day of school to get to know them a little bit. I know that every child learns differently and at their own pace, so it may take me a little while to figure out what works best for each one. Are there any questions?" Elizabeth asked and waited as the group looked around at each other. All of the sudden, every hand in the room went into the air. "Oh, well, it may be better for me to address each of your questions individually then…"
Elizabeth spent the next two hours meeting with every mother in the room. Everything that she said in reassurance to the women seemed to stress them further. She tried quoting Latin to show her knowledge and they thought she was a foreigner. She tried quoting Shakespeare and was informed that he would not be needed in the mine once the children turned sixteen. It was not going well.
After she spoke with each mother she stood up in front of the group. "Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me. I understand that this is a mining town and that most of your sons will end up there. But please be aware that I will treat all of my students the same in one way. I think everyone deserves the opportunity to discover their potential. If there is anything that I can do as their teacher to help them discover that, I will."
A few of the women stood and left at that point. Elizabeth knew that not everyone would be appreciative of her statement, but she wasn't going to hold a child back from learning just because they already had a job lined up in the mine. Elizabeth continued to address the remainder of the group. "I haven't met your children yet, but from the women I have met here, I can tell that this town is full of hard working people that only want the best for their families. Even if your children do take jobs in the mine, I still hope to be able to fill their minds with as much knowledge as I can before that happens. A mine worker could earn a promotion and end up in the office and need these skills. Or maybe one day, one of your children will grow up to own and manage their own mine. These skills can be used in the mine too. I promise."
Elizabeth finally started to see some appreciation on the faces of the women. She knew that there was nothing more she could say, so she decided to end the meeting there. "Thank you all so much for coming. I will be here the rest of the day going over the materials if you need anything." Elizabeth nodded to the women and made her way to the back of the room. Thankfully, all of the women made their way out of the Saloon rather than crowding her in the back. Elizabeth sat down at the desk and sighed. It was only lunch and she was exhausted. She heard footsteps and looked up to see Abigail approaching her.
"You must be starving. Can I fix you some lunch and bring it over to you?" Abigail asked.
"Oh, you don't need to do that!" Elizabeth replied.
"Nonsense. I know you don't have much food in your room yet. I'll make something for the Constable and bring that by as well." Abigail said with a nod and made her way to the door.
"Thank you, Abigail. You've been wonderful in just the short time we've been here." Elizabeth called towards the door.
Abigail gave a smile in return before leaving.
Elizabeth was so lost in the materials she was reading that she didn't even notice the front door of the Saloon opening.
"Would you like to join me for lunch, Ms. Thatcher?"
Elizabeth looked up quickly to find Jack standing in his Mountie uniform with a big tray of food and lemonade.
"Well that sounds lovely! Of course!" Elizabeth replied, getting up from the desk.
Jack set the tray on one of the tables before he spoke. "I was on my way to see if you had gotten lunch yet when I ran into Abigail walking down the street with all of this. She said she made lunch for both of us, so she went ahead and gave me all of it to save a trip. But it looks really good, so I might have to be persuaded to share…"
"Oh, really? And how might one persuade you?" Elizabeth asked, laughing.
Jack gave her a very serious look before pointing to his lips. "Well, a kiss would probably suffice."
Elizabeth laughed as she walked over to him. She leaned up on her toes and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.
"That will get you some lemonade, but you'll have to do better than that for this delicious looking sandwich…" Jack told her with a very serious expression on his face.
"I'm really not sure how you can stay so serious through all of this…" Elizabeth joked. She only got a blank expression in return so she leaned back up and gave him a long, sweet kiss. When she went to pull away he held his hand on the back of her neck and rubbed her nose with his before giving her a big smile.
"It was worth the struggle of keeping the serious expression for that…" Jack told her, still smiling.
Elizabeth smiled sheepishly as she sat down and started serving the food.
"Oh, don't tell me you've gotten shy all of the sudden" Jack teased.
Elizabeth chuckled as she replied "No, just not used to kissing you where someone could walk in and see us. I was already asked this morning if we were courting."
Jack looked surprised. "Well that was fast! We need to have a talk with the townspeople if they think chili counts as courting!"
Elizabeth laughed, seeing his point. "I think it's more of how comfortable we are with each other…"
"Ah, yes. Well, I don't think I could do a very good job of hiding that. How about this. Let's have our first official date tomorrow. I did my first patrol this morning and found a really nice spot by the lake where we can have a picnic. I'll arrange for food, so don't worry about anything. That will leave you all of Saturday and Sunday to focus on school starting next week. And maybe us having a date will let everyone know that I'm serious about you and that we have no intentions of setting a bad example for the children."
Elizabeth was falling hard for this man already. He knew just what she was concerned about it, sometimes even before she did. "Thank you, Jack. That sounds wonderful."
"How did the rest of the meeting go?"
"Well, I ended up talking to the mothers individually. The children are basically all on different levels, so the first few weeks are going to be hard as I figure out what works best for the majority of the group. Some of the mothers seem concerned about my teaching style since I've never worked in this type of setting. None of the schools I attended had all of the students together. Mine were broken up into grade levels." Elizabeth explained.
"Mine were the same way. But that's probably the case for a lot of teachers. You'll figure this out Elizabeth. I know you will."
"Thank you for your confidence in me, Jack! How was your first patrol? Excited about life in Coal Valley?" Elizabeth joked.
"I don't know that I would call it excitement, but definitely interesting. I rode past some of the old mine shafts. I may look into the collapse that I was telling you about. It appears that it was only investigated by the Mining Company. I would feel better with an investigation by an organization that doesn't profit from the outcome." Jack told her, looking thoughtful.
"And how will the Mining Company feel about this?" Elizabeth asked, suddenly feeling nervous for the Mountie.
"Well, I'm sure they won't like it, but this wasn't a small accident. If there had just been some bumps and bruises I wouldn't bother. But I just can't ignore the death of forty-five men." Jack explained.
This was the first time that Elizabeth truly considered what she was getting herself into. She had never thought of dating a Mountie before. This man could be hurt or killed in the line of duty at any time.
"Elizabeth, are you okay?" Jack asked quietly.
"Yes. I guess I just never thought of the danger associated with your job before. I know that's silly and again shows the differences in our upbringing, but I didn't think about the possibility of losing you when this all started." Elizabeth told him.
Jack nodded silently before taking her hands in his on top of the small table. "I'm not going to lie to you. This is not always a safe job. I'm going to end up in situations that I have no control over. But I can promise you that I have never before been more motivated to return home each night than I am now, knowing that you are there waiting for me."
Elizabeth felt a small tear fall down her cheek and looked up when Jack dropped her hands and stood up.
"How about we finish lunch over at the jail. It's a little more private over there." Jack asked.
"I like that idea!" Elizabeth replied, standing.
Jack and Elizabeth finished their lunch at the small café table in the living area of the jail. Elizabeth started to clean up when Jack stopped her.
"You've had a much harder morning than I have. Sit and rest for a few minutes." Jack motioned for her to sit on the loveseat and finished cleaning up their lunch before sitting down beside her and wrapping his arm around her shoulders.
"Being in a relationship with a Mountie isn't easy. They told us in training that 'If a Mountie needed a wife, we would have assigned you one.' But I also know men that have made it work. They have married and had children. Just know that it takes a lot more work than a typical relationship. If you don't want that, I completely understand. But I really hope that you are at least willing to try."
Elizabeth looked up to find tears in Jack's eyes. He was willing to let her walk away if that was what she truly wanted. Elizabeth wiped the tear from his cheek and tilted his head towards hers with her hand.
"I've never been one to take the easy route, so why start now?" Elizabeth replied.
Jack smiled and kissed her. This time, her tongue reached out for his first and he gladly accepted. Jack rest his hand on her hip and pulled her as close as she could get on the small loveseat. She ran her hand down from his cheek to his chest, running her hand across his uniform jacket. She felt him shudder and moved her hand up to his shoulder to brace herself against him. They had cuddled in the bed on the train, but this was the first time she had touched him while they were kissing. She had no idea how different it would feel.
Jack pulled back from her lips and kissed her cheek, slowly moving his lips down to her neck. Elizabeth cupped the back of his neck with her hand, keeping his lips on her neck. Jack moved his hand from her hip and wrapped it around her back, pulling her chest flush against his. Elizabeth tucked her legs under her and leaned into him completely. Elizabeth pulled his lips back up to hers and sighed as he easily gave in. Jack shifted slightly and slid down into the loveseat so that she was almost on top of him, giving her control of the situation. She continued kissing him, their tongues dueling until she felt his hand shift on her back and knew they had to stop.
Elizabeth pulled away from his lips and rest her head on his chest. Jack was breathing heavily and she enjoyed seeing the effect she had on him. Jack ran his fingers along her spine gently as they both caught their breath. Once she felt as close to normal as she could in this position, Elizabeth pushed herself off of his chest and into a sitting position when he moved his legs from the other side of the loveseat. When she finally looked over at him, Jack was smiling at her so brightly she couldn't help but smile back.
"How about we just do that date tonight so I don't have to wait until tomorrow?" Jack asked.
Elizabeth laughed and smacked his shoulder. "I don't think so, Constable. Anticipation is half of the fun! Plus, I really need to get back to my reading material." Elizabeth stood and gave Jack a quick kiss before making her way to the door. "Shall we attempt to make dinner here tonight?"
"Sure" Jack replied, still smiling. "I'll pick up some groceries from the Mercantile.
Elizabeth smiled in response before heading back to the Saloon. She was going to have a very hard time concentrating after that kind of lunch…
A/N: Sorry I took so long to update! I got a sinus infection that was apparently trying to kill me :( Thank you so much for all of the reviews! What did you guys think of the Wedding on the show? And already renewed for Season 6! This is a really good week for us Hearties! As always, Read and Review please!
