The Thornton Trust
Chapter 10:
Plans and Dreams
Author's Note: This #WordNerd is back! Abrianna Aguilar, I hope you like my using you in the story! It's a thank you for spurring me on and being excited for my updates. Everyone has been so wonderful in wanting to read more of this story. I hope to update in my other stories soon. Until then, please let me know what you think of the complete chapter 10!
The Thornton's arrived home to a dimly lit house. Charlotte had sent the boys to bed as soon as they entered the house. She then went to hers and Tom's room and found her husband sound asleep in their bed. She smiled as she changed into her nightgown and slid under the covers beside her Tom.
"Charlotte! My girl!" Tom spoke in his sleep. "I love you, darling!" He wrapped his arm around her, pulling her closer into him. Tom did not wake up as he let his lips trace her cheek and found her mouth.
Charlotte welcomed her Tom's kiss and reciprocated it wholeheartedly. They were lost in each others arms and after several shared kisses, they drifted off to sleep. Tom held his Charlotte tightly as he breathed into the back of her neck. Charlotte smiled as she too drifted off to sleep.
Jack woke early in the morning a few days later. He smiled as his first thoughts were of Elizabeth. He remembered how she had held his hand practically through out the whole night of the dinner party. He sighed as he thought about planning to run into her later that day.
Jack was ready in record time as he waited for Tommy to finish his breakfast. He stepped outside to look down the street at the Thatcher manor, wondering what they did to get ready for their daily tasks. Elizabeth would come to the school to check out one of their books as it was Wednesday. He hadn't seen her since the dinner party. He couldn't wait for the reading hour at school. She loved listening to the librarian reading to the class and then having all the children pick a book for the week. He knew that Elizabeth would have her book read in a day or two, but would read it over and over to 'soak it in' as she had told him one day.
At length, Tommy came out and they walked to school, albeit a bit faster than Tommy would have liked. Jack pulled his little brother along, hoping to get a glance of Elizabeth through her front picture window.
Elizabeth did not disappoint, as Jack and Tommy were walking to school and he noticed that she was looking at him and smiling. Jack's heart soared as they caught each others eye. Elizabeth watched him pass and then quickly readied herself for her trip to the school library for the morning story.
The school was busier today than normal. All the children gathered at the library to wait for the librarian to open and let them in so they could hear the story for the week. Jack and Tommy had gathered in their classes and waited patiently as the Librarian came up to start her story. Jack looked around to see if he could see Elizabeth Thatcher, but she hadn't shown up yet. At length, Elizabeth's arrived and quickly saw Jack sitting with his class. She gave him a nod and quickly took her seat beside him. Jack couldn't contain the smile spreading across his face as he looked over at her. Elizabeth smiled in response. They sat quietly as the Librarian continued her story.
Tommy and his class were listening to a collection of short stories by Hans Christian Andersen. They laughed at the main character. Jack smiled as he checked on his little brother. Tommy caught Jack smiling at him and smiled back. Jack was proud of his little brother for paying attention to the story.
Jack and Elizabeth were enthralled with the story they were currently listening to which this week was, "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas".
Jack and Elizabeth sat as close to each other as possible. Their shoulders always touching. When the Librarian wasn't watching they would hold each others hand. Some of the kids started to snicker however, and Jack knew that they were caught. So he released Elizabeth's hand.
Elizabeth was sad that Jack released her hand, but understood why. After the story Jack and Elizabeth quickly found an aisle of books to look at for their weekly book choice.
The time for choosing a book was over. Jack and Elizabeth said their goodbyes at the library door. Jack's class started walking towards the classroom as he watched Elizabeth walk out the door and head towards the car that was waiting to pick her up from the library to take her to her next appointment of the day. Jack was sad that they had to wait till later that afternoon to see each other. But he hopes that his new book choice of "Treasure Island" by Robert Louis Stevenson would keep him entertained until after school.
The chauffeur took Elizabeth to her next appointment which was meeting her dad for lunch. She hoped that he did not have an ulterior motive, but she suspected that Charles would be joining them.
End of Preview
Charles stood just inside the restaurant and watched as Elizabeth exited the car. He saw her turn to her father and he nodded for her to go inside. As Elizabeth approached the restaurant, she was surprised to see that her father had left her there. Her father had left her! Elizabeth was seeing red, but she was in public and would dare not show her anger. She was a young lady and she would comport herself as one should. 'I will talk to you about this, father!' She fumed inwardly as she smiled at Charles. Apparently, there was to be a lunch date of sorts. She sighed as she took the arm that Charles had offered.
"Elizabeth!" Charles greeted. "It is a pleasure to see you again." Charles smiled.
'I wish I could say the feeling was mutual.' Elizabeth thought inwardly. "Pleasure, Charles."
Elizabeth took Charles' arm as he escorted her inside to a table by a window. She was pleased to find that he, too liked to sit by the window, but she wished he was a different young man entirely.
"I'm glad you decided to meet me after all." Charles enthused.
"After all?" Elizabeth questioned him, slightly confused.
"Yes, your father sai9d that you were hesitant to meet me today." Charles replied.
"Hesitant?" Elizabeth paused thinking over the conversation she and her father had had in the car. "He did not mention my having lunch with you, we were just going to have a father daughter lunch." Elizabeth scowled.
Charles sighed resignedly. He figured that Mr. Thatcher had been up to something. Nonetheless, Charles was not swayed in doing everything he could to have a pleasant lunch with this lovely lady he secretly called 'Liz'.
Charles smiled pleasantly as Elizabeth stirred her cup of tea absentmindedly, lost in thought.
"Surely, your tea is stirred by now." Charles commented pleasantly.
"Excuse me?" Elizabeth looked up at Charles suddenly realizing that she had been stirring for a whole three minutes.
"It's all right." Charles waved his hand over to the waiter to come bring the check. "We can have lunch another time when you're actually interested in spending time with me. But for now, I'll leave you to your day and hope that lunch will happen in the near future." Charles bowed his head slightly as he stood up and left to retrieve his coat.
Elizabeth was relieved, however, she felt bad that she didn't seem too interested in having lunch with this young man who seemed to be very gentlemanly and very interested in her. She, however, was not one to lead anyone on when she was not interested. She looked out the window and waited a while before she decided to call the waiter over to have him call her father.
As the car parked, she walked up to the door. Their driver was waiting with the open door. Elizabeth slid into her father's car. The driver took off towards her dance lessons. She enjoyed these and her horse riding lessons. It was going to be a good day today and tomorrow, she was sure of it.
At the dance lesson, which was held at the instructors home, she waited for her partner. She was the most experienced and as such she was asked to dance with the newest student.
When the new student walked in, Elizabeth was stunned.
"Jack!" She gasped.
"Elizabeth?" Jack stopped in his tracks. "What are you doing here?"
"Where have you been?" Elizabeth asked as she thought about the several weeks that had passed since the library visit. "You stopped coming to the school. I didn't know where you were. What happened?"
"Elizabeth." Jack sighed. He didn't know how to explain what had happened. His father told him that the Thatcher's had refused them to see each other, but that was all his father would tell him.
Jack had been miserable the last several weeks, but had accepted that his father was doing what he thought would be best for all of them.
"Jack?" Elizabeth tapped her foot, placing her hands on her hips. "I'm waiting." She huffed.
"I can't say, Elizabeth." Jack offered, knowing the explanation would not satisfy her.
"Can't or won't?" Elizabeth asked, not believing for a moment that that was all there was to it.
The instructor interrupted their conversation. She pulled Elizabeth towards Jack and commanded that they take their dance positions.
"Elizabeth, please lets just get this over with." Jack stated, suddenly realizing that there were several better ways he could have expressed himself. "You know what I meant." He replied, trying to reel in his statement.
"Fine!" Elizabeth ignored him and placed her hand in his as the instructor encouraged them to stop wasting her time.
Jack led Elizabeth around the dance floor with ease. Elizabeth had been impressed the night of the dinner party that Jack danced even better than Charles. His dancing had vastly improved. She wondered what he had been up to since they hadn't seen each other in several weeks. She wanted to confront him about it, but Jack seemed to want to avoid the issue. She huffed as he continued to twirl her around the room, bringing her in close and then twirling her away from him, then bringing her close to his body. The music stopped, just as Jack dipped her backwards, his face mere inches from hers. Elizabeth exhaled sharply as Jack slowly lifted her back to a standing position.
"Jack!" She breathed, hardly believing that he just came so close to kissing her.
"Elizabeth, I..." Jack began, but was interrupted by Miss Abrianna Aguilar.
"Well, you two certainly do not need the dancing lessons which your parents are paying me for, but please remember that you need to denote proper decorum. You are after all only teenagers, for pity's sake." Miss Aguilar stated, albeit a bit breathless herself.
Jack blushed fiercely as he released his hold on Elizabeth's waist. Elizabeth's own blush deepened as he continued to gaze into her eyes. Jack was trying to think of something to say that would not insert his foot into his mouth, yet again. He needed to explain. He glanced at the instructor and then looked down at his feet.
'I don't know what to say to her. All I know is that she is mad at me for not seeing her these passed several weeks. I didn't have a choice. My father had taken us out of the school and my mother has been teaching us at home.' Jack sighed audibly, as he looked up into Elizabeth's face. 'She is hurt. I am the cause of that, but I cannot tell her why.' Jack reached for her hand and brought it to his lips.
Elizabeth caught her breath at his sudden move. She smiled at him, but was a bit miffed that he seemed to think that simply kissing her hand would be enough to explain what had happened between them.
"What happened, Jack? Please talk to me!" She implored, pulling her hand from his grasp.
"Come here. Sit down." Jack motioned for her to sit with him.
"I guess a break is in order." Miss Aguilar expressed, taking her leave to give the young couple a chance to chat. "My, my, I need to get some air." The instructor explained, unbeknownst to her students who seemed to be completely unaware of her presence.
"Your father came to meet my father for lunch as planned the week after your dinner party." Jack began.
"But I thought you were coming to our house again." Elizabeth trailed off as she saw the expression cross Jack's face. She waited patiently.
"That was the plan, until our father's had a discussion. My father let Mr. Thatcher do all the talking. My father had suspected his response to our evening together." Jack clenched his jaw and plunged forward. "Your father had thanked me for my helping you and Charles, but then told my father that he no longer wished for us to see each other." Jack paused, gauging Elizabeth's reaction to this news.
"My father?" Elizabeth exhaled. "I don't understand. My parents have always praised the Mounties and invited them to dinners and parties. Why is he forbidding us to see each other?" Elizabeth spoke more to herself than to Jack.
"I think you know, Elizabeth." Jack took her hand in his. "Your father can see how much we like each other. He is trying to stop this from becoming something more, Elizabeth." Jack replied.
"We are teenagers. We are too young to become something more, aren't we?" Elizabeth inquired, diverting her eyes.
"Romeo and Juliet were around our age." Jack began.
"Look what happened to them!" Elizabeth countered. "I can't believe that my father would keep us from hanging out and still push me towards Charles." Elizabeth sighed heavily.
"Charles? Really?" Jack scoffed. "That's why I can't see you?" Jack clenched his jaw. "I suppose it makes sense. I mean, your father was grateful for my help, but he seemed standoffish when my father had asked if I could see you that afternoon." Jack trailed off as he looked into Elizabeth's eyes.
"You asked to see me? My father never mentioned it. I was wondering if I had done something wrong. I mean, we were at school that Wednesday afternoon and then the following weekend, he told me that you had canceled our dinner plans." Elizabeth breathed, thinking over the last several miserable weeks.
"Believe me, I would never cancel plans with you, Elizabeth." Jack enthused, reaching for her hand. "I'm sorry we haven't been able to see each other. My mother and father decided to take us out of school. My mother has been homeschooling us since." Jack explained resting his hand on top of hers.
"Did you move as well? I haven't seen you when I walk by your house either." Elizabeth questioned.
"Oh, we have been visiting our uncle. We just got back, actually. My mother sent us with schoolwork to do when we weren't doing chores on our uncle's farm." Jack explained as he noticed her features were saddened. "I'm so sorry, Elizabeth!"
His hand was still resting on hers. She didn't want this afternoon to end. She was relieved that it wasn't something that she had done to keep them apart. On the other hand, she was furious with her father's narrow-mindedness. Elizabeth could never fathom her father's distaste for families in 'lower social standing' than them. She thought it was preposterous.
"Elizabeth?" Jack questioned, trying to get her to look at him. "What is it?" Jack squeezed her hand.
"I don't understand why my plans and dreams are so different from my parents'. I hope to be a teacher some day and marry for love. They on the other hand, want me to join a cotillion and then marry their choice whether I love him or not. I'm only 14, and they seem to want to marry me off already. They are keeping us apart and pushing me towards Charles." Elizabeth rambled as Jack listened.
He, too, was getting more upset with the whole situation. He waited for her to finish her rant.
"Wait!" Elizabeth stopped herself. "How did you come to get the same dance lessons from Miss Abrianna Aguilar? She is a very sought after instructor and I was told that many who try to get into her class, are waitlisted." Elizabeth questioned.
"My father helped her with something a few years back and she always wanted to repay him." Jack paused. "When she learned that I was wanting to learn how to dance, she offered to teach me free of charge." Jack blushed.
"Why would you want to learn how to dance?" Elizabeth was curious to know.
"Well, I, uh..." Jack stammered. "I hoped that the next time we had dinner, that I would be able to sweep you off your feet and impress your parents." Jack blushed.
"Jack Thornton!" Elizabeth smiled and pressed her free hand over his which was still on top of hers. "You swept me off my feet the moment we met! I..." Elizabeth began.
Jack took this opportunity to pull her closer to him. He closed his eyes too soon and ended up kissing Elizabeth on the nose. He leaned back and looked down at her. Elizabeth was blushing as he collected his thoughts.
"I'm sorry, Elizabeth. I guess I'm just a bit nervous." Jack laughed off the situation.
"Jack." Elizabeth breathed.
This time, Jack pulled her to him, his hand resting on her lower back as he brought her in closer. He lifted her chin with his free hand and slowly pressed his lips to hers, closing his eyes as she returned his kiss.
They were teens, which to most this would seem a bit too forward in proper society. However that may be, neither Jack nor Elizabeth cared in the least as they continued reciprocating each others kisses. Jack was the first to break the kiss. Elizabeth took a calming breath as she looked into Jack's hazel eyes.
"I'm sorry, Elizabeth." Jack fumbled. "I suppose that was too forward of me." Jack apologized. "I have been wanting to kiss you since we met. Hearing that I swept you off your feet at first meeting, I just had to take the chance." Jack shuffled his feet as he glanced back at her.
"Jack! Are you really sorry?" Elizabeth asked, feeling a bit hurt that he would apologize for kissing her. A kiss that she had been dreaming about since that first day several weeks ago.
"No, not really." Jack admitted. He caressed her shoulder, sliding his hand down to rest his hand on hers.
"I'm glad!" Elizabeth breathed. "This is going to be difficult, isn't it?" She sighed as she thought about the coming weeks.
"We can get through it together!" Jack enthused as he squeezed her hand.
Miss Abrianna Aguilar came back into the room, hoping that the two young people were done with their conversation.
"Now, we have time to try one more dance before you have to go home, young man." She approached Jack.
"Yes, Miss." Jack responded.
"Now, take her hand and place your hand on her waist. Yes, that's right." Miss Abrianna Aguilar instructed. "I don't know why I bother. You two are naturals." She laughed as she took her seat by the victrola as she started the music.
Jack and Elizabeth swayed to the music and quickly picked up the steps of the waltz. Elizabeth felt the happiest she had ever been in Jack's arms. She hated that their time was coming to an end. Jack relished the fact that he could hold Elizabeth in his arms that he wished he could stop time.
At half passed five o'clock, Jack bowed towards Elizabeth, kissing her hand. The instructor gave them a moment to say their goodbyes.
"I look forward to our next dance lesson, Elizabeth." Jack stated boldly, pulling her into his embrace.
"Not as much as I, I am sure." Elizabeth blushed.
Jack leaned in and pressed his lips to hers. Elizabeth kissed him back.
As Jack left the instructor's house, he thought about the kiss he left on Elizabeth's lips. 'I hope to leave many kisses on your lips in the weeks to come, Miss Thatcher. You have captured my heart and I pray that this is only the beginning.' Jack thought inwardly as he made his way to his home.
Elizabeth waited at the instructor's house until her father's car came to pick her up. Once she was in the car, she sighed about the kisses that she and Jack shared. 'Surely, they were not going to share Romeo and Juliet's fate. That was a play. This was real life.' Elizabeth leaned her head against the head rest and closed her eyes.
"How was your dance lesson, Miss Thatcher?" The driver inquired.
"It was wonderful!" Elizabeth replied dreamily.
Author's Note: So? What do you think about that, dear readers? The next installment will deal with more of Tom's investigation regarding the questionable Constable Clive Houston.