Chapter 21 – I DON'T CARE

No one said anything.

The room was quiet except for the ticking of the small clock on the desk.

Tick.

Tick.

Tick.

To Elizabeth's ears, the sound seemed as loud as the largest bell in the clocktower at Canada's parliament buildings in Ottawa, Ontario.

Jack was quiet for two reasons. One, he knew that speaking to Elizabeth when she was surrounded by people could be confusing and make her nervous. Two, he was stunned by what Hazel had said.

Elizabeth had likewise been rendered speechless by Hazel's declaration that she had seen the transparent ghost of her own husband on the night of his death fifty years ago.

No one had said anything since Hazel's statement.

The four individuals simply sat in silence.

Hazel stared at Elizabeth. Wondering if the young Thornton couple had loved each other as much as she hoped.

Jack stared at Jasper. Wondering who he really was.

Jasper stared at Elizabeth. Wondering if she could handle what his wife had said.

No one stared at Jack. Only Elizabeth could see him and she was staring at Hazel. Wondering why she had come to her home this evening.

It was finally Hazel who spoke again.

"My husband Stan never said goodbye to me," she offered. "He would always say, 'I'll see you soon for another kiss.' Even when he went away that one summer to work in a factory, he didn't say goodbye. I asked him once why he didn't say it, and his answer was so matter-of-fact, it was as if it was an obvious truth to him. He wasn't even trying to be romantic; he was just stating what he considered to be an undeniable fact. He said that he never said goodbye to me because it seemed too final a thing to say, and it wasn't even correct. He said that there would always be another kiss for us."

Elizabeth let the words sink in. She couldn't help but think of her own love with Jack.

Before she could respond, Hazel began talking again.

"On our wedding night, I told Stan that if I could live a thousand lives, I wouldn't want to if he wasn't with me. I promised to be his forever. I understand that you and your Jack made similar vows to each other. You apparently told some of your friends that on the night of your engagement, you had told Jack that you would wait an eternity for him. And in your vows, you said it again, and that you were giving him your soul. He vowed to be yours forever."

"Oh, yes, I did some research into you," Hazel explained when Elizabeth gave her a look of scrutiny.

"Would you like some more tea?" Elizabeth said abruptly. "If not, I hope you don't mind if I ask you to take your leave now. I'm afraid that I'm rather tired."

Elizabeth stood up without waiting for an answer.

"What are you doing?!" a startled Jack exclaimed but Elizabeth ignored him.

The Purdues looked equally startled by Elizabeth's response to their story.

"Excuse me?" Hazel inquired.

"I said I'm tired. I had a long day of teaching and I really should finish grading papers. Please let yourselves out while I clean up," she said dismissively.

"Don't you want to hear the rest?" Hazel asked in bewilderment.

"No. No, I don't," Elizabeth said tersely. "I most definitely do not."

"YES, WE DO!" Jack protested as he followed Elizabeth who had picked up the dishes and was carrying them to the kitchen area. "What has gotten into you?!"

Elizabeth, her eyes devoid of any warmth, kept her mouth set in a hard line.

The fine china saucers clinked as she dropped them too harshly on the counter; she didn't care that she had probably chipped one or two of them.

She turned back to the Purdues who had stood up and were now standing awkwardly in the center of the main room.

"Don't let them leave!" Jack demanded.

"Thank you for bringing the bread and entertaining me with your little piece of fiction. You're quite the storyteller," Elizabeth said coldly.

"Fiction?"

"I should have you edit my stories. Maybe I would get published then," Elizabeth sarcastically told the other woman.

"Elizabeth –"

"Enough!"

Elizabeth silenced Hazel with the one word.

"Mrs. Thornton, we meant no harm," Jasper Purdue explained. He put his arm around his wife's shoulders. For a man who was six foot three inches in height, he was surprisingly gentle.

"You can leave now. Have a nice evening."

"But -"

"I don't care what you intended by coming here tonight, but please leave." Elizabeth cut off Mr. Purdue with her firmness.

"I care! I care!" Jack yelled.

Elizabeth determinedly moved to the door and put her hand on the knob. She fully intended to have the now unwanted guests out of her home in mere seconds, but Jack reached out his own hand and kept her from opening the door.

"Don't let them leave! Are you crazy?! We need to know what happened!"

Elizabeth took a deep sigh to calm her emotions and contemplated what to do.

Her curious mind was telling her to let the couple continue their story.

Her heart was telling her to shove them outside and lock the door behind them.

"Please, Elizabeth. We need to know what happened. I don't know why you're upset but I'm asking you to please let us hear what happened next," Jack desperately told her. "Please."

Elizabeth turned to the couple still standing uncomfortably by her couch. "Please have a seat. I just have to go upstairs for a moment," she announced brusquely.

Without waiting for a response or even looking at Jack, Elizabeth hurried across the room. Her long dress made a swishing sound as she ignored her guests and quickly climbed the stairs.

Elizabeth closed the bedroom door behind them, and whirled around to stare at Jack.

"She's playing with me! She's mocking me!"

"What are you talking about?" a confused Jack asked.

Elizabeth paced across the bedroom floor. "She knows how devastated I was after your accident. She knows I would do anything to have you back. So she and Jasper made up this fantasy of their life!"

Jack gave her an incredulous look. "Why would they do that?"

"I don't care why! I will not allow them in this house to ridicule us! To ridicule our love!"

"That's not what they're doing!"

"Yes they are. You can't see it, but they are having fun at my expense. Making up that story about Hazel's love while knowing how desperately I missed you after your accident."

Jack disagreeably crinkled his brow at her. "I think you're wrong. How would she know about the shimmering? And being transparent? And my mind being foggy after the accident – just like she said Stan's was?"

Elizabeth fumbled for answers. "I don't know. I don't know. But it can't be. She can't have gone through the same thing as us."

"You know what she's saying! She's saying that Stan and Jasper are one and the same! That Stan found a way to come back to her."

"It can't be!"

"Why not? WHY NOT?"

Elizabeth's eyes welled up with tears as her resolve to be strong broke.

"Because – because she's giving me hope," she sobbed. "With her story, she's giving me hope that we can be together again. And what if it's not true? What if she's just some crazy woman with a vivid imagination and her husband is going along with it?"

"Why would they do that?!"

"I don't know!" Elizabeth wailed. "Maybe they're cruel!"

"You know they aren't. They are a nice couple."

"But it can't be true. Because if they found a way to be together, it should be possible for us. And what if we can't do it? What if we can't do it?" Elizabeth sobbed as she thought of going through another heartbreak. "What if we believe them and we hope and then we can't do it?"

Jack wrapped his arms around Elizabeth. "We have to find out."

Elizabeth pulled back slightly. "Do the math. She told me to do the math. I figured it out. She married Stan when she was eighteen, has been married to Jasper for fifty years, and she's sixty-eight years old. She was telling me that she married Jasper at eighteen. That Stan and Jasper are the same person."

Elizabeth wiped her eyes and spoke again. "Do you think it's possible?"

Jack nodded. "I do."

"But her story's not the same as ours. She saw him right away. It took us weeks before I could hear and see you," Elizabeth argued.

Jack paused for only a second before the answer came to him.

"She was asleep when she first heard him," he said eagerly. "It's easier when it's casual and not forced. We learned that. And he got to her before she knew he had died. With us, I was in such a confused fog and I found myself at the hospital looking at the other Mounties and wondering what had happened. You were so far away. By the time I figured out how to get to you, you had already been told that I was gone. I tried to talk to you. I begged you to hear me. I screamed at you. But you were so upset. Your grief was so strong, it kept you from knowing I was there. All you knew was sadness. It blocked out me. It wasn't until we relaxed and were past the initial pain and confusion that you could see and hear me. They didn't have that. Because she hadn't been told he was dead when he appeared to her."

"You think she's telling the truth?"

Jack nodded. "I believe Stan found a way to get back to her."

"I do too," Elizabeth admitted.

"We just have to find out how," Jack said urgently as he took ahold of Elizabeth's hand and they hurriedly moved towards the door. "So I can get back to you the same way!"

UP NEXT: CHAPTER 22

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