Here is chapter ten.

Some of you might remember the dialogue I use out of first episode of season 1… All rights go to the Hallmark channel and all people associated with making this tv series possible…

I CAN'T WAIT FOR SEASON 5!

Chapter 10

Abigail was preparing dinner two days later when Elizabeth came down the stairs. "Elizabeth, your just in time for dinner. Would you please set the table for three?" She asked politely.

Elizabeth started to gather the utensils. "Remember when you told me that the first few days might be a bit bumpy." She turned around and looked at Abigail. "Well, you were right."

Abigail looked up and what she saw shocked her. "Oh, black and blue to it appears. What happened?"

"Some of the boys at school got into a tussle about the message on the wood. I stepped in and caught the worst of it."

"Never step in between two coal boys when their mixing things up. Well, unless you have a bucket of cold water to dump onto them."

Elizabeth laughed as she remembered Abigail dumping the water on Gabe and James. She turned back to her assigned task. "I need to get them interested in their lessons, but I have never been through anything like what they have before. I don't know how to help them."

Abigail looked up from the peas she was shelling. "When my Peter was little I was the only teacher he had. He was so bored with his lesson sometimes he would nod off like an old man in a rocker."

"So, what did you do?"

"Levity, I added a little levity to the learning."

"Levity." Elizabeth repeated. She was about to say more when a knock sounded on the door, interrupting her.

"Would you mind?" Abigail said, nodding in the direction of the door.

Elizabeth left what she was doing and went to the door. When she opened the door, a surprise awaited her. "You."

"You!" Jack replied, noticing her black eye. "Nice shiner."

"It's my first actually, but I think I earned it." She replied, clearly unhappy.

"Got those bags packed yet?" Jack asked as he came in the door.

"Why, got your fill of coal dust already?" She was about to say more when Abigail came over.

"Good evening Constable."

"Evening, Mrs. Stanton."

"We're glad you could make it on such short notice." Abigail replied politely.

"Well, to tell you the truth, I'm not too popular in town yet, so invitations aren't exactly poring in." Jack said as he placed his hat on the rack.

Abigail noticed the anger evident on Elizabeth's face, but she ignored it. "Well, we're very happy to have you. Aren't we, Elizabeth?"

Elizabeth, put on the spot, replied angrily. "Happy isn't the word for it."

Jack wanted out on the conversation, then he noticed the painting on the wall. He walked over to it.

"Do you like it?" Abigail asked.

"Very much, mam. The artist has a wonderful grasp of colour and composition."

"You know art, do you?" Elizabeth questioned.

"A little." He replied. "My mother taught me to appreciate different techniques in subjects."

"Is she an artist herself?"

"No. A teacher, a most honourable profession." He turned back to her painting. "In any event a very talented artist."

"Was" Abigail paused as Jack turned to her. "My late husband, God rest his soul." She walked back to the stove to serve up dinner.

Jack looked back at the painting. "Noah Stanton." He whispered. "What can you tell me about the girl that was riding that black, wild horse that nearly ran me over?"

Abigail looked at him. "The girl is Josephine Blackwell. Josie for short. Her mother, Georgia, passed away from blood poisoning three days before the mine explosion claimed her father as well. Only six months before, her little brother drowned in a mountain lake before anyone could save him and Josie watched it happen. She leapt in and dragged him to the river bank, but he was already gone."

"Does she have any other living relatives?"

"Not that I know of. Her parents never really spoke about their relatives, Georgia just stayed by herself and I never had anything to do with her father. Today was the first time I have seen Josie since the first of the miners were buried. Her horse was playing up and I went over to her. When I spoke her name and she turned around I could see the fear and pain in her eyes. I was actually a little scared of what I saw in her face. I have never seen a person like that before. She was always a shy child, but with her brother dying, her parents blaming her for it, and then both her parents dying as well, I'm afraid that she has totally gone back into her shell. I would go and see her, but in her state, I'm not sure how she would react."

Jack nodded his head as he took in the information Abigail had given him. "I'll keep an eye out for her on my rounds. If she doesn't have any family and if no one wants to take her in, she may have to be sent to an orphanage."

Abigail nodded. "Dinner is ready." She said as she placed it into the table.


Josie ate the last of the hen slowly, savouring every little bit of meat. When all of the flesh had been eaten, she licked the last little bit of meat off the bones and put them into the pot to make bone broth.

As she cleaned up and prepared to boil the bones, she remembered the funeral for her father was tomorrow. As the memories came back, she almost dropped the plate she was carrying. She placed it onto the table with the open map that was still sitting there. She decided that she would go looking for what the map led to tomorrow, after the funeral, so it would take her mind off things.

As Josie stirred the boiling bone broth, Lassie came over to her and whimpered. Josie knelt down by her collie. "Oh, Lassie I have to eat too, I can't eat your food darling. When spring comes, we will have more to eat." She got up and turned back to the pot.

Lassie walked over to the coat rack and pulled off Luke's overcoat, then she laid down on it. Josie turned around at the noise. "He isn't coming home Lassie." Lassie laid her head down on her paws and went to sleep.

Josie knew that she should take Lassie with her to the funeral. Next to Josie, Luke was Lassie's favourite person to be with and Lassie had changed since he had passed on. Lassie used to go with Josie every day to take Luke his lunch. Josie smiled as she remembered Lassie playing with Luke. Tomorrow was going to be hard on both of them.

What surprises awaited her there?


"So, Constable, why the Mounties?" Abigail asked when they had finished dinner.

"Yes, Constable, please tell us why someone like yourself would choose such an honourable profession." Elizabeth said smartly.

Abigail butted in. "And while we're at it, how did you come to be in Coal Valley?"

Jack turned to Elizabeth. "Why don't you answer that question?"

Abigail looked at Elizabeth, puzzled. "I'm sure I wouldn't know." She replied.

Jack looked back at Abigail. "In that case then, just lucky I guess, but as to being a Mountie, that is in my blood. My father made a career out of being a peace officer and my mother told me "Never let a day go by without serving someone else."

Abigail nodded. "My son Peter considered joining the Royal North West Mounted Police, but his father convinced him that coal mining was also a noble profession."

"It is, one of the noblest." He paused. "I'm so sorry for your loss. I can't imagine how hard it must have been, having them both going to that mine every day."

"Well, most days I didn't think about it, you know. I just went about my business and I pretended I didn't know what they were doing or how far into that mountain they really were, and then their shift would end and in they'd come, sometimes laughing, sometimes grouching, always covered in that coal dust."

"Did they ever talk about the danger?"

"He didn't need to. It's an unspoken contract that every miner makes with himself and his family."

Jack waited a little bit then asked his next question. "Mrs. Stanton, can you tell me about the day of the explosion?"

Elizabeth interrupted the conversation. "I sure Mrs. Stanton doesn't want to discuss that subject right now."

"It's okay, Elizabeth, I don't mind." Abigail paused as the memories of that terrible day flooded her mind. "I remember everything. I was teaching the children in the church that day. The explosion was so loud that it shattered nearly all the windows in the town and shook the whole building. We thought it was an earthquake. Then it dawned on the children and I what had happened. No one said anything. They didn't need to. All we could think to do was run. There are no words to describe…" She waited and then continued. "What we felt in our hearts. But they never came home." She went into silence and a sort of trance, then she jumped up and began to clean the table before Jack and Elizabeth could see her tears.

When Jack left the house that night Elizabeth walked him out. "Thank you so much for coming Constable." She said, closing the door. "Was it really necessary to make her relive the worst day of her life?"

Jack snapped back. "I'm inquisitive. I gather information. It's part of who I am."

"It's insensitive, but apparently that it part of who you are too."

"You won't need to deal with me for much longer. I have put in a transfer request and I hope for a speedy answer."

Elizabeth was delighted. "Good, because this town has no need for a second-rate Mountie who runs from a challenge."

"I hardly think this town a challenge!"

"Really" Elizabeth walked down the stairs. "It seems to me that a town whose mine blows up and whose church burns to the ground would warrant investigation." She turned and went back inside the house, still angry.