Chapter 10
Tears spilled down Elizabeth's cheeks, cool against the warm flush of anger that had filled them moments before. She couldn't even look at her parents and older sister right now, not after what they had said. Not after what they had done. How could Viola be so hateful? Elizabeth had never been very close to her, but they were sisters. That had to stand for something.
Stealing a quick glance at Viola through tear-filled eyelashes, Elizabeth was shocked that Viola was showing no signs of remorse. The woman sat at the table, smoothing the folds of her dark green dress as the snow blew past the window. Elizabeth wanted nothing more than to walk up and slap the smug expression off of her face, but she knew that wouldn't solve anything. If they were to be estranged, then so be it. She still had another sister – Julie.
Poor sweet Julie. She didn't deserve any of this. Elizabeth knew how much her father valued good standing in society. Being an upstanding businessman, he undoubtedly viewed his family as an extension of himself. However, threatening to send Julie to a convent away from her husband and child - it was simply unforgivable.
Blinking her tears away, Elizabeth turned to Jack and sank into the warmth of his embrace. She knew that he had hoped for a close relationship with her family. When Mother had arrived and they had grown closer through the shared story of her past, it gave Elizabeth hope. Now she wasn't sure.
Elizabeth leaned into Jack, her tears staining his coat. Resting her hand on the soft buckskin, she inhaled the scent of saddle soap, hay, and ash. The smell was so comforting, so soothing that she almost forgot about Julie.
It echoed in her mind - the door slamming shut as a flash of mauve cotton shirts and auburn curls vanished behind it. But she was missing something. Pulling away from Jack's embrace, she reached for the coat rack and gasped.
Julie's white knit shawl still hung next to the door. Julie would freeze out there!
Jack reached out to touch her cheek, turning her face towards his. "Do you want me to go after Julie? The snow is starting to come down pretty hard out there, and I don't want her to get lost."
"No." Elizabeth sniffled and brushed her tears away as she slipped her arms through the sleeves of her coat. "Thank you, but I can do this. You need to stay here, in case anyone in town needs help."
"Beth," Grace reached out to place a hand on her daughter's shoulder. "Don't be angry. The convent was merely a thought of your father's and mine. We were terribly upset when Julie ran away a year ago. Our hope in sending her there was to give her a safe place to sort out her feelings before she did something she would regret. Please believe me when I say that I would never follow through with those plans now."
Elizabeth faced her mother, a tender smile on her lips. "I know."
Grace removed her blue woolen cap, handing it to Elizabeth. "Take this to Julie. She'll need it."
"I will." Elizabeth tightly buttoned her coat and slipped the matching gloves on her hands. She hugged her mother and glanced at her father and older sister before stepping towards the door.
"I won't be long." she kissed Jack on his cheek, holding the shawl and hat close to her chest, and then opened the door.
Elizabeth pushed forward through the blinding flakes that whipped around her. She could barely see where she was going and hoped that her sister wasn't too far away. Julie couldn't have made too much progress. Traces of her footprints were still visible in the snow.
"Julie!" she cupped her hands around her mouth. A short distance off the main path, her sister's scarlet tresses blew in the fierce wind. What was she doing? She'd get her self lost if she kept walking in that direction!
Elizabeth ran through the thick evergreen forest. Her skirt rustled in the wind and the building snow brushed against her ankles, icy fingers enveloping her toes through thin leather boots.
"Julie!"
Julie turned. "Elizabeth," she blinked against the wind. "What are you doing out here?"
"You forgot your shawl." Elizabeth closed the distance between them, shuddering as a gust of wind blew snow into her eyes. She wrapped the delicate knit shawl around Julie's quivering shoulders and placed the hat on her snow-covered head.
"Thank you." Julie wrapped the ends of the shawl around her fingers. "Father and Viola aren't coming, are they?"
"No." Elizabeth pulled her sister close. "They stayed back at the café with Mother. I just wanted to make sure you were alright."
"How can I possibly be alright?" Julie threw her hands up in the air and then clutched at her shawl when a gust of wind almost blew it away. "You heard what Father and Viola said. They want to send me off to a convent and take my baby away from me." Tears pooled in her eyes and she fell back into her sister's arms.
Elizabeth stroked Julie's hair, shivering as the snow collected around her ankles. She was losing the feeling in her feet. She tried wiggling her toes, but the movement was only met with pain – the first sign of frostbite.
"Julie." Elizabeth stepped back. "We need to get to my house before…" Her heart raced as she looked bask the way she came.
Her footprints, they were gone.
"Elizabeth?" Julie's eyes grew wide. "You don't think we're lost, do you? Why, the path is right here." Turning, she came face to face with a large tree.
She buried her head in her shaking hands. "Oh no."
"It will be alright, Julie." Elizabeth winced as the icy wind stung her face. The wind – it was coming from the north. She knew where to go.
Reaching out, she took Julie's hand and pulled her downwind. "The road is this way. I am certain of it."
After several minutes of walking, they were no closer to finding the road than they had been before. Elizabeth surveyed the landscape for a sign of anything that was familiar, but only saw trees and snow. The wind must have switched somehow, and she winced as the pain in her toes worsened. If she was developing frostbite, what was Julie going through? They both needed to find shelter, and soon.
Lifting a hand to her brow, Elizabeth squinted through the blinding snow. The wind calmed for a moment and in the distance she spotted a small dark cabin.
"This way!" she limped as fast as she could towards the dark shadow aheadof them.
Julie trudged alongside her sister. "Elizabeth, my toes…"
"F-f-frostbite." Elizabeth pushed on, her head bowed against the wind. She wrapped her hand tight around her sister's, her fingers growing numb. Just when her feet began to give way underneath her, her hand brushed against a rough wooden door. Finally! They were here!
Hands shaking, she knocked, and when there was no response, she carefully pushed it open. Inside, the cabin was cold and dark, although warmer than outside. In one corner a small potbelly stove and a pile of firewood beckoned her.
"H-hey, I recognize this place. It's where the Tolliver gang took us two years ago." Julie rubbed her hands together. "Can you start a fire?"
Elizabeth cupped her hands over her mouth and breathed into them. She knelt in a pile of ashes and picked up two pieces of wood. "I can try."
Shoving the logs into the stove, she picked up the matchbox on the floor. Opening it, she found… nothing.
It was empty.
Frantically she searched the floor, the inside of the stove, trying to find a match. Just one match, was that too much to ask for?
Julie raised her brows as she shivered in a chair. She wrapped the thin blanket around her shoulders and watched her sister. "What's wrong?"
"I can't find any matches!" Elizabeth sat on the floor and pressed two fingers to the throbbing vein in her forehead. "This cabin has obviously been abandoned for a while, and the last person here used them all up."
"Well, that wasn't very nice." Julie put her hands on her hips.
"I don't think the last occupant of this cabin was too concerned about being polite." Elizabeth shook her head. How were they going to stay warm without a fire?
Julie offered a weak chuckle while Elizabeth stuck her hands under her arms. "Well, at least it's warmer in here than it is outside, right?"
"Yes, you're right." Elizabeth sat on the edge of a bed on the other side of the cabin and removed her boots. Pulling her left foot to rest on her right knee, she leaned over and began to breathe onto her foot, cupping her hands to focus the warm air. Julie watched her sister in amazement and then attempted the same.
Elizabeth laughed at her sister's futile attempt to lean over her bulging belly. After putting her own shoes back on, she removed Julie's to warm her feet. She winced in pain at first, but then sighed as the feeling returned to her toes.
"Thank you," Julie wiggled her toes as Elizabeth slipped the shoes back on her feet.
"I don't think we can make it back to Hope Valley." Elizabeth shook her head, pulling aside the tattered curtain that hung on the window over the bed. "I know I can't make a fire, but perhaps we can find a way to stay warm enough in here until the storm lets up."
"Or until Jack comes looking for us." Julie shrugged her shoulders.
Elizabeth lay down on the bed and motioned for Julie to lay next to her. "Let's rest for a little while."
Julie eased herself onto the bed. "Ooh, just like when we were little girls and used to have slumber parties, all snuggled up in bed, giggling and whispering with Vi - " she stopped, the corners of her mouth falling at the memory of her sister's harsh words.
"Shhh," Elizabeth wrapped the blanket around them, her hands resting on Julie's expanded belly.
The baby.
She couldn't let her sister and the precious life she carried freeze out here with only a shawl and a threadbare cotton blanket while they waited for the storm to end. Without hesitation, Elizabeth began to unbutton her warm wool coat.
"Here." She removed it. "You need this more than I do."
"But you'll freeze!" Julie sat up and pushed the coat back into her sister's hands.
"I insist." She pulled herself up and wrapped the coat around Julie's shoulders, fastening the top button. "Besides, I can use the blanket and lie next to you on the bed. We can keep each other warm while we wait for the storm to pass."
Julie nodded, pushing her arms through the sleeves. "Thank you, so much, for everything. I don't know what I'd do without you."
Elizabeth embraced Julie and could feel the baby stir as her sister's belly pressed against her own. "You're welcome. Now, let's try to get some rest while we wait."
Julie nodded and they both reclined, holding each other in an attempt to preserve what little warmth their bodies possessed.
Elizabeth watched as Julie drifted off into a peaceful slumber. It was hard for her to believe that this was still the same little sister who had begged her to stay awake every night to keep an eye out for monsters.
Outside, the wind continued to howl, the walls of the old cabin creaking and moaning against the barrage that attacked them. Elizabeth shivered and huddled closer to her sister. She listened for the sound of hooves or Jack's voice and pulled the blanket tighter around her shoulders. He had to realize soon that she and Julie were lost, and then he would ride out to find them. Hopefully…
Fighting the fatigue that gripped her with its icy fingers, she closed her eyes, just for a moment, to rest them. Suddenly she heard the crack of a branch, and her eyelids snapped open. She sat up, expecting a sign of Jack, Tom, or anyone from town.
Nothing.
She settled back down close to her sister, her gloved fingers balled in a fist close to her heart, toes curled tightly in her boots, and knees pulled up to her chest. Reaching for her sister's warm body, she placed a tender kiss on her forehead before her breathing slowed and her eyelids fluttered shut.
Back at the café, William Thatcher sat at the small table in the quiet cafe while he waited for Elizabeth and Julie to return. Jack stood by the window, holding the curtain aside as the blizzard intensified.
"I never meant to cause any pain. I only want what's best for both of them." Mr. Thatcher swirled the dregs in his teacup.
Grace put a hand on his shoulder. "William, I told them about James."
His grip tightened and he closed his eyes, a vein throbbing near his temple. It had been over twenty years since he had heard that name. He didn't even realize that his wife still thought of the man after all this time. Perhaps it was the experience mirrored in the lives of their daughters that had brought the painful memories back to the surface.
Viola turned away from the window, looking in shock at her parents. "Who's James?"
Grace took a sip of chamomile tea and set it on the table.
William took Grace's hand. "James was a sailor that your mother was engaged to when she was eighteen years old, before our courtship and marriage. She met him while visiting her cousin in Plymouth and he died in a hurricane a few months later."
"I love your father very much, Viola," Grace exhaled, "but he was not my first love. In fact, I still correspond with James's sister on occasion. She and I became close friends after her brother's passing."
Viola opened her mouth to reply, and then closed it when William shook his head. He placed a comforting hand on the small of his wife's back.
"None of us is perfect. We all have our faults. What's important is that we forgive each other." Grace laid her napkin next to the teacup in front of her. "I think it's time that I refrain from my hypocritical behavior and let our daughters chose the men they love."
She stretched out her hand towards Jack and he responded by placing his hand in hers.
"If the Thorntons make them happy, and I know they do, then I believe we should give them our blessing."
"But..." Viola jaw hung slack. Her shoulders sagged and she exhaled. She opened her mouth but didn't get a chance to speak.
A gust of wind blew into the café through the open door and Tom crossed the threshold with Charlotte close behind. He set Grace Thatcher's snow-covered suitcase on the floor and removed his Stetson, a cascade of white flakes tumbling to the worn wooden floor.
"Good afternoon." Charlotte removed her hat and hung it on the coat rack behind her. "You must be Lizzy's father. I can tell. She has your eyes." She extended her hand to William. "I'm Charlotte Thornton, Jack and Tom's mother. I hope you don't mind, I went with Tom to help pack up some of your wife's things before he brought them into town."
"A pleasure to meet you." he stood and shook her hand as the door shut behind them.
Something wasn't right.
"Where are Julie and Elizabeth?"
"I thought they were here with you," Tom looked at his brother and his in-laws.
Jack froze, his eyes wide. After a moment he spoke, his voice barely above a whisper. "There's only one path to the row houses from town, and if you haven't seen them…"
He knew it meant only one thing.
They were lost.